A CELL PHONE BASED SOLUTION FOR MICROFINANCE MANAGEMENT
Microfinance has been established as a means to fuel rural economies across the world. Microfinance has been largely managed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that employ manual processes convenient to them to accomplish the data interaction tasks involved. Such manual mode of operation constrains Microfinance institutions to operate over relatively small geographical areas.In the current manual processes, customer service agents, who interact with Microfinance customers on a continual basis, need to visit the offices of the Microfinance institution frequently. They need to collect lists of self-help groups that they have to meet with along with the details of the savings or loan accounts of each group. They also need to visit their office to deposit the daily activity report and money collections. Thus a significant portion of their time is spent in administrative work at the office; time that could be otherwise utilized for increased interaction with customers if alternative means were available to receive the necessary information. Even those Microfinance institutions that maintain computer records need to enter the daily collection statistics while simultaneously reconciling payments received.Computerization of the processes is often expensive and not feasible because of the lack of computing resources, inadequate skills to operate computers and above all lack of data communication facilities in most rural locations. Cell phone usage however is on the rise in rural areas particularly in developing countries. Further, customer service agents employed by the Microfinance Institutions are likely to be more familiar with a cell phone than a computer key board, making cell phones a good choice for data interaction.We have built a cell phone based solution that provides a low cost mechanism to computerize Microfinance processes using mobile technology. This solution is currently undergoing field trials in South India with a Microfinance organization. Here, the cell phone itself operates as an on-line / off-line terminal. This device (Cell phone, Wireless PDA) connects to a low cost central server computer running on softwarecomponents like Linux. The solution developed uses an easy to reconfigure framework that renders quick redeployment after making changes to the application software to suite local business and government rules. Also with very little effort the application can be made available in local languages.This solution provides functionality to register new self-help groups and individual members of these groups. The solution schedules activities of the customer service agents who therefore do not need to visit their offices anymore for collecting records and updating information. A program on the agents mobile phone connects to the central computer server through the internet, via appropriate facility provided by the mobile service provider. All records are maintained on the central server. Only details required by the agent for immediate action are downloaded to the mobile phone. Thus when the agent visits a remote village, which does not have mobile phone connectivity, all data required is ready at hand. Action taken by the agent is entered into the mobile phone. In addition, the agent also enters details of repayments collected. When the agent returns to an area where mobile connectivity is available, the agent once again connects to the central system and the data entered by the agent is uploaded to the central system. If any customer is in default of payment, this information is automatically made available to the agents supervisor for necessary action. The next set of cases, that the agent should act on are then automatically downloaded to the agents phone. At the end of the day, the agent visits a designated bank branch and deposits the money collected during the day. At the central location, this action gets automatically reconciled.The impact of this solution is that the customer service agent can spend more time on servicing customers in remote, far-flung villages. Thus technology is used to release agents from administrative activities so that they can concentrate on their objective of creating and supporting self-help groups that operate in supporting agricultural economies. The technology is easy to adapt, uses phone devices that require very little training to use and sits on mobile connectivity, which is spreading rapidly across the globe, thus making itappropriate and practical in a rural environment.
Microfinance Mobile IT Solution Field force automation Field collection automation Cell phone based collection
S.S.SUNDARARAJAN Vivek Mannige B.Tech
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY IIT, Kanpur, AccelTree Software private Limited, 305 Pride Kumar Senate, 3rd Floor, Senapati Bapat R
国际会议
北京
英文
586-591
2005-10-14（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）