Mifos® Cloud Launches in India

Cloud computing offers new advantages to reach more of the world’s poor through scaling and increasing transparency of microfinance institutions

November 17, 2010 - Grameen Foundation today announced, at the Microfinance Leadership Summit on Technology [1], the launch of Mifos® Cloud [2] in India. Mifos Cloud is a hosted management information service delivered for a subscription fee to emerging poverty-focused microfinance institutions (MFIs) seeking to maximize sustainable growth. The cloud-based service supports more transparent business and social performance reporting and more secure data management, which can improve institutions’ ability to attract capital and resources.

Mifos Cloud offers an easy-to-use software service that is robust enough to meet the demands of fast-growing MFIs, while offering them a flexible system they won’t outgrow — unlike traditional on-premise systems. 

Tech-savvy businesses are increasingly turning to cloud computing for affordable enterprise-level information technology because it lowers the cost of IT, outsources maintenance hassles and ensures the best technical expertise. Mifos Cloud is managed through Amazon’s world-class hosting facilities and provides commercial-level security, availability and disaster recovery.

Customers in India are already running their businesses on the Cloud platform. Rajiv Jain, Managing Director of Digamber Capfin Limited, a fast-emerging MFI serving the poor throughout Rajasthan said, “I’m confident that Grameen Foundation is delivering the next wave of technology for us to grow our outreach and impact to the poor.  At any moment, I can log into Mifos Cloud and know how we are performing financially, operationally, and socially.”

Key benefits of Mifos Cloud include:

• Greater Transparency – anytime, anywhere access for MFI staff and outside stakeholders ensures greater control.
• Deeper Social Alignment – tracking poverty levels of clients through Progress out Poverty Index™ (PPI), a leading social performance measurement tool.
• Better Decision Making – data analysis from multiple dimensions providing deep intelligence about an MFI’s business and clients.
• Greater Operational Efficiencies – flexible work management streamlines processes, from client surveying and bulk loan approval to new product roll outs.
• Rapid Response to Market Conditions – flexible product definition and connection to outside services enables proactive response to clients and competition.
• Cost-effective – a cloud-hosted option requires no up-front capital expenditure, and minimal IT overhead.

“India has continually been at the forefront of technological innovation for microfinance. Mifos Cloud is changing the way software solutions for MFIs will be managed and used,” said Matt Duncan, Director of Market Development for Grameen Foundation’s Technology for Microfinance Initiative. “Finally, MFIs can invest in affordable technology that immediately provides transparency in business and social outcomes with the flexibility to meet their ever-changing future.”

Mifos Cloud’s launch marks another breakthrough product in India by Grameen Foundation. With the recent establishment of Grameen Foundation India, a wholly-owned subsidiary to carry out non-financial activities, and through Grameen Capital India, a joint venture established two years ago to lead our financial activities in country, Grameen Foundation is committing more resources than ever to empowering the poor and poorest to transform their lives and those of their families.

The Grameen Foundation’s Seattle-based Technology Center is a leader in innovative technology solutions for the microfinance industry.  As part of its Technology for Microfinance initiative, it has developed Mifos, an award-winning software platform for microfinance. In India, Grameen Foundation works with local developers and other implementation partners to meet growing demand.

For more information please visit http://www.mifos.com [3]

About Grameen Foundation
Grameen Foundation, a global nonprofit organization, helps the world's poorest people lift themselves out of poverty by providing financing, technology support and management strategies to the local organizations that serve them. It also spearheads technology initiatives that create new microbusiness opportunities for the poor and improve the poor's access to health, agricultural and financial information and other services. Founded in 1997, Grameen Foundation has offices in Washington, DC; Seattle, WA; Colombia; Ghana; Hong Kong; the Philippines; and Uganda. Microfinance pioneer Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, is a founding member of its Board of Directors, and now serves as director emeritus. For more information, please visit www.grameenfoundation.org [4].