Ollie Janders

Specialist Spotlight – Sol Develo

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This regular blog series will shine the light on some of our top Specialists. Not only do we want to recognize them for their accomplishments, we want others to learn from the approach they’ve taken to promote and implement Mifos.

Mifos Specialists are one of the most crucial links in our community – they are the driving force that is promoting and supporting Mifos worldwide.  Aside from championing our product and bringing the Mifos technology to new markets, they act as the fundamental bridge feeding in MFI requirements to be developed by the community. Specialists don’t stop there as many are also developing and localizing the product to fit their local market.  For all these reasons, COSM is focusing it energy on making these Specialists successful – they are the primary channel to market, the eyes and ears on the ground, and the entrepreneurial force that will help us sustainably scale.

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Ollie Janders

Remixing Microfinance with the Client at the Center

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From the onset, a fundamental part of our product vision for Mifos X has been to be a flexible platform agnostic of any one microfinance methodology. During the Mifos Summit (more takeaways to come in a future post), a key finding that emerged was the centrality of the relationship with the client in both the data model and the platform architecture.  Regardless of whatever methodology supported, relationships can be defined between the client and whatever account, entity, or structure you would like.

Gripped by a comment made by Rupal Patel on the importance of client data during our Setting the Mifos X vision, Craig came up with a quick sketch that is a good first pass at our vision for Mifos X.  Client Data is at the center and the various flows of money or information that are coming in and out of the platform are clearly visualized.

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Gleb

Remixing Microfinance – Reflecting on our Vision

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This past week there was a virtual conference led by CGAP and Microsave on Client Insights as well as blog post from Ignacio Mas on remixing microfinance. Both these topics on focusin on client data and looking at way to create hybrid models of delivering financial services were a good follow-on to our vision session at the Mifos Summit.  It got me reflecting on our product vision that was beginning to emerge at the summit. Technology often constrains what an MFI should do rather than enable it. We aim to make Mifos X a flexible platform that puts no limits on how an MFI can design and deliver their financial services.

To learn more about product vision, read the full blog post.

Ollie Janders

Announcing the Esha K Release

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Development is underway on the final major functional release on the Mifos 2.0 codebase. Since this will be the last feature development before before we transition development over to Mifos X, we wanted this to be a big release that closes many existing gaps. This is definitely the case as we’re tackling a number of areas across the product.

Esha – Our Inspirational Marie

This last major release is code-named Esha K in recognition of Esha Omar Athman, a borrower  at Fursa Leo in Mombasa, Kenya.  Esha has been a client at Fursa Leo since July 26, 2011.  In that time, she has taken out 3 business loans and has significantly expanded her business enabling her to uplift the living standards of her family through a new home, better meal, and sending her son to school.

Esha came to Fursa Leo, eight months pregnant seeking start-up capital for her failing ice cube business while her husband struggled to help them pay their bill and provide for their family.  Through Fursa Leo’s mandatory financial literacy program and graduation through three larger loan cycles, Esha has brought her humble ice cube business from failure to prosperity.

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Gleb

Announcing the Esha K Release

/in /by

Development is underway on the final major functional release on the Mifos 2.0 codebase. Since this will be the last feature development before before we transition development over to Mifos X, we wanted this to be a big release that closes many existing gaps. This is definitely the case as we’re tackling a number of areas across the product.

Read more

Gleb

Mifos 2.5 (Samiha J) Ships!

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Once again a special thank you to Jakub Slawínski, Lukasz Chudy and the entire SolDevelo team for developing and proceeding over Samiha J. Mifos 2.5 is another big release that brings a strong mix of functional improvements, technical enhancements, tools for getting data into Mifos, and integrations with other systems.  Continuing with our 2012 goal of making Mifos 2.0 a functionally complete group lending MIS before we transition development over to Mifos X, Mifos 2.5 smooths out some of the core areas of the product and fills some of the major outstanding gaps.

View the release notes for a full list of all issues resolved.

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Gleb

Announcing the Samiha J Release

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Our issue and feature planning is complete and we’re ready to announce our upcoming Mifos release targeted for shipping the first week of September.  This release will be code-named Samiha J. Samiha J will provide support for daily loan repayments, ability to bulk edit existing client data, import transactions via spreadsheet, a configurable chart of accounts, and additional REST APIs

Samiha is a borrower at Al Majmoua, one of our largest Mifos users serving more than 31,000 clients in Beirut, Lebanon.  Samiha has been a borrower since 2009, taking out loans to expand her 15-year Mouneh production (food preservation) business. By expanding her business, Samiha has drastically improved the quality of life for her family through these loans – funding her husband’s medical treatment, her daughter’s education, and serving her handicapped son’s needs.

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Muciojad

FINA and MFC launch Mifos in Laos

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fina_mfcAnother one of the markets where Mifos has gone untouched is Laos.  FINA in coordination with the Microfinance Center of Laos is setting out to change that.  As of the Mifos 2.3 release, the software has been fully translated into Lao by FinA and MFC. Localizing Mifos into Lao is only one of the barriers that must be overcome. Kakhaber and his team are working to address the gaps to support the various forms of microfinance practiced by the MFIs, village banks, projects, and associations throughout Lao.  FINA is strongly committed to providing this region access to open source software and open access to financing resources for the poor.

To promote Mifos and help MFIs learn about the services available to them, the Mifos Lao language website has been launched at http://lao.mifos.biz. The website was designed by FINA and translated into Lao by MFC. Please visit the Mifos Lao portal for a tailored experience to learn about how FINA can support your Mifos needs in Laos.

Gleb

Mifos X API – Call for Feedback

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We are embarking on an exciting time as we advance the next generation of the Mifos platform, Mifos X.

Keith and John Woodlock have released the first version and published and documented the full API.

We’re seeking the feedback and questions of any past, current, and interested developers or for anyone who has ever wanted to build anything on top of Mifos. As we build out the next generation Mifos platform, we’re designing it be easy to extend and we want to know if that’s true with what we’ve shipped so far.

This API will be the foundation of Mifos as an extensible platform that can easily be extended to support the delivery of financial services to the poor. We are hosting two meetings this week to discuss and gather feedback on the API and the vision for Mifos X.

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Ollie Janders

Quipu Technology leads first Mifos Deployment in Latin America

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Latin America is home to one of the most vibrant and mature microfinance sectors in the world. Many MFIs could benefit from our technology and we could learn from the many pioneering MFIs throughout the region. Unfortunately because of language barriers in both our documentation and virtual community collaboration, the Mifos presence in Latin America has been limited to date. That is beginning to change as Quipu Technology and other service providers expand throughout the region.

Quipu Technology recently went live with the first Mifos deployment in Latin America at Fundación Inversión y Cooperación.  Under the umbrella of “Qloud Inclusion” concept for an “Integral Vision of Microfinance for Social Inclusion”, Mr. Oswaldo Lechuga, General Manager of Quipu, is looking to expand across Peru and deliver technology and consulting services throughout Latin America – we’ll detail their plans in a future post with more on Quipu Technology. Oswaldo Lechuga and Milagros Mendoza recounted their experiences deploying Mifos at Fundación I y C in the questions below.

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