Become a Mifos Specialist

Currently there is no formal Mifos Specialist program or certification process.  Right now we are looking to provide MFIs with the contacts of local IT companies that could potentially provide Mifos support.  

Process

Train Yourself: Specialists should familiarize themselves with the Mifos product by reading the functional specifications and documentation located in Product and Support sections on mifos.org and on the wiki in MifosForge.  They should closely review the available tools and templates in our Deployment Toolkit. This is only a guide for best practices we've developed in our deployment methodology and should be used along with your existing project management approach. 

Participate: A critical success factor for Specialists in our ecosystem is their willingness to participate in our open source community - this means openly communicating help needed on our mailing lists, providing help to others, documenting user requirements and product issues/enhancements in our issue tracker, drafting documentation, providing best practices and lessons learned in a deployment project page, and sharing any contributions, translations, or enhancements back with the community. The quickest way to get help or find MFIs in need of service is being open and participatory across the community. 

Get Found: In our Community Directory, we list Specialists that are actively seeking to provide or providing Mifos services in their local region.  IT companies must have a proven track record deploying business applications, strong domain knowledge of the microfinance sector, disciplined project management skills, and social alignment with our vision of Three Billion Maries. To list your organization in the directory that is searchable by MFIs, please follow the following steps: 
  1. Join the community by creating a user account on mifos.org.
  2. Once your account is created, create a directory profile along with supporting information and submit it for approval.
  3. Directory profiles will be reviewed and approved by a member of the Mifos Initiative or additional information will be asked for if needed. 
Find MFIs: Local IT companies know the market and demand for technology amongst MFIs the best. Reach out to local microfinance associations or networks to build a pipeline of MFIs that could potentially use Mifos. Search the Community Directory to find other MFIs that are in need of support. Data sheets and other descriptive materials for the Mifos product can be found in the Product and Marketing Toolkit sections of mifos.org. Contact Us if you have further questions. 

 

What We're Looking For

These are the ideal criteria we look for in an organization seeking to become a Mifos Specialist.

Organization

Specialists interested in providing implementation and/or support services for on-site or cloud-based implementations of Mifos should possess strong project management and experience implementing server-based business systems.  Experience can be in any sector or vertical but knowledge and experience of microfinance and its business processes is preferred.

Solid Business Track Record (profitability, revenues, growth)

  • 5-7 years in business (ideal; we would settle for less)
  • Actual revenue with year-over-year growth in revenue (not sure about amount of revenue)
  • Profitable (the revenue needs to at least cover the cost of the full team and result in a profit)
  • Customer count and references – presumably, if they have been business 5 to 7 years, they should have 10 to 15 customers most of which should be references.

Current Business Plan

They should be able to articulate (written document or slide presentation) their business plan for the next 2 to 3 years.

  • Customer focus
  • Product focus
  • Revenue growth
  • Team and skills development

Experienced Management Team

They should have full team:

  • CEO / executive leader
  • Sales leader / sales person
  • Operations and accounting person
  • Technical staff
  • Code development
  • Server admin
  • Installation / configuration
  • Support

Ability to Scale

They should have the team cycles to handle new Mifos clients.

Solid Business Reputation

Positive References (provide 3 references from past work)

If they have been business 5 to 7 years, they should have 10 to 15 customers most of which should be references. We should be able to interview these references.

Commitment & Social Mission Alignment

  • Participation in community-driven model
  • Open to sharing knowledge, vigilance about documentation, high independence, sharing contributions with community, willingness to seek out solutions independently
  • Willingness to invest (financially, resources)      
  • Willingness to work within the Mifos Approach (sales, deployment, support approach)   
  • Willingness to be measured (audit, customer feedback)     
  • Interest in the social cause        
  • Ability to advance our the mission of Grameen Foundation and our shared vision of 3 Billion Maries

Experience

  • IT Strategy & Planning        
  • Program Management (project management and process re-engineering)   
  • Application Implementation Services (gap analysis, application configuration/customization, data migration, user acceptance testing, training, deployment )  
  • Reporting and Analytic Services (data analysis and mining, report writing )   
  • Impact Assessment (measurement and benchmarking)     
  • Development and Integration (ie. application development, Java experience, open source / application integration)   
  • Maintenance & Support (Infrastructure set up, IT support)    
     

Additional Details on Personnel

  • Strong sales and marketing (abilities in consultative selling, generation of leads)  
  • Strong consultants (abilities in project management, client management, process consultation-with domain expertise in banking/fin services)   
  • Strong developers (abilities in customization, integration, application development (java), open source experience)  
  • Strong management (abilities in planning, operations, client management)    
  • Strong support (abilities in problem resolution, IT support, customer satisfaction )