04.12.2012 User Meetup

Agenda

Before each meeting we'll post a proposed agenda. You can add any item you would like to cover to the agenda by emailing the user list or editing this wiki page.

Session	Description	Presenter	Time
Introduction	We will also have an introduction of everyone on the call so the community can get more personally connected.	Ed Cable	5 min
Demo/Tutorial	Each meeting, we'll do a demo of a feature or a tutorial of how to do a certain task within Mifos or how to use a tool or resource in the online community infrastructure.		10 minutes
User Show and Tell	On a regular basis we want to have the opportunity for MFIs throughout the community to present their story or case study on how they're using Mifos. For this meeting, George Lteif from Al Majmoua will be sharing their experiences using Mifos.	George Lteif	10 minutes
Open Office Hours	This is the heart of the meeting - the time for users to ask any questions and connect with expert implementers and fellow users to discuss deploying Mifos, using Mifos, adopting technology, project management - any question you have.	Open	10 - 20 minutes
Product Feedback	Each meeting, we want users to voice their pains/challenges with Mifos and how we can make the product better. Any bugs you've found, feature requests you've had, ideas to make the product better should be shared at this time. This is the chance for our developers to directly hear from the mouth of the users how they use the product and what they need to use it more effectively. For this meeting we'll present results on the documentation survey and focus some discussion on how we can improve client protection mechanisms in Mifos.	Ed/Chetan	10 - 20 minutes

On the Call

George Lteif (Al Majmoua)
Jerico (Peru - foundation being served by Quipu)
Aliyu (Abuja, Nigeria - Handyx Infotech)
Shiva (Hugo Technologies, India)
Keith - (Developer, Ireland)
Kakha (FinA, Georgia
Ed (COSM, USA)

Notes

Live notes from http://sync.in/8Cax7c95qb.

Agenda

User Presentation from George Lteif of Al Majmoua in Lebanon.

Discussion on Improving Client Protection in Mifos

Presentation of Results of the Documentation Survey

Additional Details on Vinolia I

Feedback Discussion

Functional Specs for Transfer between loan and savings: http://mifosforge.jira.com/wiki/display/MIFOS/Transfer+from+Savings+account+for+loan+repayments+and+fee+payments
Value-based permissions: http://mifosforge.jira.com/wiki/display/MIFOS/Approve+loan+amounts+by+different+loan+amount+ranges
Spec for Term Deposits: http://mifosforge.jira.com/browse/MIFOS-5274

User Presentation - George Lteif - Al Majmoua

Slides: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw7BF1jCI8YAVU90U3RqV1R1Sms/edit?pli=1#

See the slides for full details, here are a few bullet points:

Why Mifos?

Old System - Poor synchronization & Slow reports

Mifos - Flexible user friendly

Users comfortable on system
Data entry staff lost in other systems
Worked on both msft and Linux
Integration with reporting

Implementing Mifos

Two to three months to shift all offices
Script to extract data from mifos to accounting

Challenges and lessons learned

Data quality didn't have full addresses because in old system didn't have that.
Reports - didn't have bi suite yet so had to create ten to fifteen custom reports
Take time to learn run systems in parallel for three to four months
Involve every individual not just an it project. Need buy in from ops, finance, loan analysts etc,

Benefits:

SMS to loan officers when payment data
Simplicity if structure of data
Find weak processes. Discovered higher client dropout rates
Integrate tech into most processes, mobile access, reports via email
SPM at client level

Working on for the Future

Paperless: mifos will help with integration
SPM surveys
Recent set of features developed by SolDevelo
- They were very flexible, straightforward and helpful - milestone releases for testing helped out.

Discussion on George's Al Majmoua Presentation

Shiva - found the same lessons both internally and externally - staff not ready to adopt the change
- Convincing end users was very tough because they're using the system - had to train them and make system more flexible to them
- Developed separate offline utility for loan officers - loan officers are used to system - carrying laptop in field, coming back to head office and importing data.
- Soon will be launching a video to share that.

Experiences from Aliyu in Nigeria

GL: How are you addressing this to get people involved? Project Managers trying to get everyone involved?

Shiva: management first not ready to adopt the change --> then convince middle management

Not sure why a lot of adoption in Nigeria

Deployed Mifos - have a small MF bank that he's testing it from - working perfectly well. some problems with reporting.

In terms of integration with Mifos and Peachtree - script that was looking for to export daily transactions for Peachtree - for synchronization between the two

Headache - trying to configure Mifos BI 1.3 - checking MFI progress report - get error about reports - rather than data.

Main mission - understand mifos well to deliver it around the area - can't afford bigger MF software and could take Mifos use it and give a majority of functionality to expand scope of their services

Mifos as a tool - has all the resources - people are important, documentation online.

Not interested in bigger orgs - smaller MFIs that need it.

Report - daily statement of account for each client is currently needed.

Ed: will share client account statement, connect with John, and update community on reporting improvements coming along.

Documentation Survey Takeaways

Full blog post to follow.
- Install process could be improved.
- Helpful to have documentation all in one consolidated place - not spread across multiple sources
- Both the functional specs and user manual could be more well-rounded and complete (answers in mid-range)
- Strong interest in videos to augment documentation
- Better explanation of how to update and access new features.
- Would like a personal point of contact for issue resolution - liasion concept for each region
- Will actively participate in providing feedback if directly contacted.
- Plans to Address:
  - Improve existing product installation documentation (more from a structure and layout perspective). Consolidate all documentation into a single and easy-to-access repository.
  - Create demo video/screencasts for product features in addition to existing documentation.
  - Start commuity liasion concept for each region - point person who can help be a direct face/name to help with issue resolution via mailing lists.

Product Feedback

Light discussion on functional specs for term deposits and savings/loan transfer