Everyone knows that operating costs inside MFIs are the main factor of high interest rates for customers...
So we all seek a definitive solution to tackle this problem. At first we said "hey, you need a Core Banking System (CBS) and it will reduce the costs and secure your operations. Sure. It did have an effect. Most of the times. But operating expenses are still high ...
Now the new consensus is on Mobile Banking. Sure, giving the opportunity to loan officers and/or customers to input directly their operations in the system will help. But to what extent ?
In western large companies, we now realize after 40 years of IT spending that we are ceiling. More technologies, more systems that help us do more or faster of the same thing just don't help.
So what to do ?
Instead of "big bang improvement", there is an old philosophy of "continuous improvement" going back : the lean management. Popularized by Toyota, it just says one thing : trust your employees to improve their own processes. What we do inside these MFIs with IT has nothing to do with "what we, octopus, think you should adopt", but rather "what you guys, loan officers, accountants or cashier want to be improved, because of the waste in your operations you see everyday".
The way we deal with those MFIs (Oxus Development Network for instance) perfectly fits with our own process : be able to deliver a new, stable and improved software every month, as we can integrate any such demand very fast, and hence be able to check its effects on the field rapidly. And then turn the wheel again...
Do you know any other MFI applying for this lean philosophy ?
