Pioneering Innovations in Microfinance: Part 1

Equitas Microfinance has been formed for the purpose of extending micro credit to people who are otherwise unable to access finance from the mainstream banking channels. The objective of the company is to make available finance at reasonable cost and in a transparent manner to such customers and aim to achieve acceptable returns on investment so that we can continuously attract mainstream capital and human resources to better serve the chosen client segments. The company has been floated by P N Vasudevan jointly with Mr. M Anandan and Mr. V P Nandakumar. Vasudevan comes with substantial experience in the NBFC business having been Vice President in Cholamandalam Investment & Finance Co Ltd, Chennai handling their retail business division comprising of vehicle finance with operations.

Following the technical pursuit, the founders are leaving no stone unturned to technologically innovate to mitigate all the risk involved in the daily operations of MFI. This is the first most important Innovation to track real-time data. In days, to come I firmly believe, many of the MFIs will implement such kind of tracking system.

about SMS based Meeting tracker solution…another FIRST in the Industry

EQUITAS has successfully launched the SMS based tracking software, which helps the Relationship officer to keep track of his/her daily Centre meetings. The System which is a first such innovative tracking software to be launched, works like this:

1. The central server picks up data every day of which center meetings are to be conducted by each Relationship Officer for that day. The details of such meetings are sent by SMS to the concerned R.O in the beginning of the day.
2. As soon as the R.O completes one meeting, she sends an SMS in a template format to the central server. This contains details such as the start and end time of the meeting, number of customers attended and amount collected.

3. The computer automatically updates these information and generates report on the collection efficiencies. A screen at H.O displaying these reports through suitable colour combination supports visual control of all centre meetings across the country.
4. If the RO fails to send this SMS within 10 minutes of the meeting end time, the system generates an auto-reminder and an SMS is sent to the Branch Manager. If within a further 20 minutes, there is still no confirmation SMS received from the R.O, then the system generates another auto-reminder and sends an SMS to the Head of Operations at H.O for him to check the status.

5. This ensures that at Equitas, at the Head Office, we would have access to real time information with a gap of just 10 minutes between the actual physical cash collection at any center across the country and the central computer having the information. This helps track collection efficiencies as well as focus on any problems within minutes. Also a disciplined and closely monitored system reduces the possibilities of fraud and any untoward happenings are brought to light in minutes enabling quick resolution.

Process Cycle