Miss E .D .C

I just came across Paper.li , is this an awesome idea or what !!

Basically paper.li organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. Newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list or #tag.

A great way to stay on top of all that is shared by the people you follow – even if you are not connected 24/7

So A user can basically begin to publish in newspaper format
1.All their twitter links or
2.The twitter links of people on their twitter list or
3.All twitter links from a hash tag

Benefits
1.if you host events like i do you can basically create a giant newspaper of all thoughts and links from events
2.if you use twitter hash tags for discussions amongst users .. can u see the advantages of capturing all the that info in one place

and it alleviates the guilt of not blogging as much because you are always tweeting(well at least for me ) because all my link are in one place and i can put the link on my !!bingo

My favorite paper.li newspaper at the moment is The most influential people in tech Daily

Now they need to allow that newspaper to be converted to PDF…..*cough cough* feature request

For All Business Analyst the st and Developers who relate with the difficulties in getting that user requirements document locked down (Just for laughs)

image from the Modern Analyst website

I was at a clients on Friday evening whilst the Ghana Census staff came in to gather their data
I noted that the census staff asked a lot more questions than i thought necessary
E.g
How many people owned mobile phone’s in the house(i suppose this is for mobile penetration numbers)
What type of roofing agent was used for the house etc

Anyways i digress this brought on a discussion about data protection laws in Ghana and if any existed .I had no conclusive information so i deferred the discussion for another time ….

Fast Forward >> to Monday Morning
Question was still on my mind so I inquired of my facebook friends

Quick question does ghana have data protection laws in Ghana ? , i ask because i wonder how census data is going to be protected

… generating quite an interesting discussion on if data protection laws were important in the African context anyways i decided to actually find information on the subject.

After some digging (well googling actually) ..apparently the government(ministry of communication) is in consultation with stakeholders on Data protection [big smile on my face]

Accra, Aug 24, GNA – Government on Tuesday initiated stakeholder consultation for the passage of Data Protection Bill (DPB) and Electronic Communications Regulations Bill (ECRB) to serve as legal instruments for the safeguarding of personal data and privacy.

The Bill provides for the protection of privacy through the regulation of information processing relating to individuals including the method by which data is obtained, held, used or disclosed.

The stakeholder consultation which was to create a platform for operators to fine-tune the bill and make it relevant to Ghana’s environment, was attended by representatives from the Judiciary, security agencies, telecom operators, media practitioners, representatives from the National Communication Authority and financial institutions

So know we just need this consultation process to be completed quickly and a bill before parliament , that would bring a bigger smile to my face

ok now its time for lunch , catch you later

Series on Open Source Software for Business

Micro Finance Institutions

I have being working on encouraging many organizations to consider open source alternatives to a lot of the commercial products that are around at the moment.

Advantages of Open source vs. Commercial Product

-It’s simple: open source means that there are developers all over the world working to make this product better as opposed to commercial products who are worked on by relatively small team and all additional software features or update are based on their commercial viability

-Lastly it’s a far cheaper option; you don’t pay for the product itself you pay for the Implementation and customization only

Today I want to talk about Mifos and how rural banks and many micro finance institutions can this free open source software to administer and run their institutions .

Mifos is a management information system (MIS) featuring a user-friendly, web interface running on top of a robust MySQL database. Flexible to meet your unique operational needs and scalable for rapid growth, Mifos enables real-time access to data across your organization from any web browser.

Features include:

• client management,

• loan and savings portfolio management,

• transaction processing,

• Social and business reporting and analytics.

Advantage

Efficiency & Ease of Use- Speed up your client acquisition cycle, increase loan officer productivity, and manage your portfolio securely and effectively.

Growth & Scalability– Mifos is a centralized web-enabled solution built on top of a MySQL database. Its built-in scalability means you can rapidly open new branches and roll out new products and services; all supported by a modern architecture with the robust capacity to support up to 1 million clients.

Transparency & Insight– Through real-time access to your data and a powerful reporting engine, use effective business analytics and transparency to guide your strategy and satisfy external reporting requirements.

Security & Data Integrity– Client data is secure from corruption and fraud through in-depth audit trails tracking all changes, coupled with a granular role-based permission system.

Flexibility & Agility– Proactively respond to competition and changing client needs by rapidly creating new services through on-the-fly product definition.

Innovation & Evolution– Broaden your outreach and accelerate innovation by incorporating new front-end technologies and integrating with other systems and networks on top of Mifos’ common platform.

Intimacy & Outreach– Client management tools like surveys help you collect market knowledge and deliver value-added services. Let your field staff focus more on customers’ needs and less on data entry.

If you work for a Micro-finance institution and are interested in Mifos deployment … what are the next steps …

-Firstly you need to document your processes as a microfinance institution , e.g. what are the steps in loan processing , what are documents produced and who are the officers involved in this process .This can be done by management and in-house IT team or hire a professional Business analyst to facilitate the process

-Secondly you need to investigate Mifos and see if it aligns with your business needs, If you find that it mostly aligns and that little changes need to be made (i.e. not more that 50 % percent of the core Mifos system needs to be customized) then I recommend you talk a technical person like me who can work on customization and implementation. E.g. If in addition to having the system working in your offices you want your loan officers to able to register new customers and collects loan payments via their mobile phone

If a lot more than 50 % of features need to be customized it’s better to look at other micro-finance MIS solutions available

-Thirdly Implement the Solution: that means if you don’t already have computers you need to purchase a couple, if you don’t already have your computers networked have them networked so that Technical team can implement the system on your premises