All Blog Posts (11)

About the Hapinoy Program - a project of Microventures, Inc., a Social Business Enterprise. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VokgAtxefao Continue

In mobile money, we spend a lot of time talking about innovative ways to deliver financial services to the unbanked poor in spite of their income, geographic and trust barriers to banking. The story is familiar to most of us by now: someone in a remote or underdeveloped area can’t get to a bank branch or ATM, but does have multiple airtime dealers and other retailers within a few minutes from their home. A mobile operator comes along and uses these locations to deliver financial services - anyth… Continue

Filipinos are all freedom fighters, President Corazon Aquino leads us to win that fight. She continued this fight even after her presidency, guarding us from those who will abuse authority and suppress democracy. Thank you Pres. "Cory" Aquino! You will be a national hero to me. God bless your soul and may you rest in peace. Continue

Technology is nothing without change management. This is a theme one can pick up from any article aimed at the information technology space. How does it apply to Microfinance? The basic argument to be made is that MFIs lack flexibility in terms of the processes that they have identified after many years of working with clients. This however, can overlook the fact that MFIs are ultimately very flexible, if the person working on the implementation can find a way to work within the Customer Method… Continue

Here's the link to our first MFI video. SMART efforts in the microfinance industry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I30fclyKdQc For comments and suggestions, please email or contact me directly. Continue

"Whats the best MIS for a microfinance institution?" This question was posted on microLINKS, the knowledge-sharing family of applications and tools supported by USAID to improve the impact of microenterprise programs and activities. Barry Lenon, Financial Services Team Leader of the USAID Microenterprise Development Office shared some key points to consider when selecting an MIS.

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Continuation... STEP 5: OFF-SHORE DATA CENTER VS LOCAL DATA CENTER The hosting service is big industry today with a large number of hosting service providers to choose from. There are numerous hosting services that have data centers in the US and other far away countries. There are a few that have data centers here in the Philippines. There are large off-shore hosting services that are apparently less costly (du… Continue

by Sumit Bagchi, PinoyME continuation... STEP 3: DISTRIBUTED SERVER VS CENTRAL SERVER If the decision is to BUY (or even if the decision is to MAKE!), the next decision point is a bit more technical. Software vendors normally offer one of two technology-platforms, a) the Distributed Server system, where a server (with the microfinance application and database) is installed and operates i… Continue

by Sumit Bagchi, PinoyME Technology offers various options. In order to make a considered decision, MFIs must evaluate different technology options in terms of costs vs. benefits, before selecting one over the others. MFI, especially those that are just beginning to get into… Continue

From March to May 2008, PinoyME in partnership with Grameen Foundation USA conducted a series of Regional Consultations on MIS. Four consultations were conducted, one each in Central Luzon (Tarlac), Bicol (Legazpi), Visayas (Cebu) and Mindanao (Davao). To start the discussion, MFIs were asked to share their MIS experience and challenges. After which, the MIS Automation Guide (MIS Menu) was presented, together with the IT Service Models and MIS Implementation Process. Based, on these consultatio… Continue

September 2008 Dear Friends and Partners, Greetings from the PinoyME Knowledge Management Working Group! Several months ago, PinoyME visited the different regions within the country for a series of consultations to discuss how microfinance institutions (MFIs) could address their management information systems (MIS) concerns. We are pleased to inform you of the following initiatives which have resulted from our discussions: (1) The first version of the MIS Automation Guide has been released.… Continue