Octopus Microfinance Suite

In a recent post in Business & Economy (16 oct. 2008), Mohamad Yunus criticized the idea of creative capitalism promoted by Bill Gates, explaining that profit driven companies, even when throwing a fraction of their profits at social initiatives ... [More] , could never make the difference face to this new kind of social impact driven companies.Why? Because the two kinds follow opposite objectives: maximise profits under the constraint of social impact for the first and maximise social impact under the constraint of profits for the latter. In this category, companies like Grameen Bank are pressured to be extremely innovative compared to standard sponsorship like “one $ to poor children whenever you buy my products” initiatives... Those new companies are very few today, but we can imagine them. They will probably apply to themselves the principle of maximising social impact for their customers: employees would engage in a continuous learning process, thus increasing their individual’s standing.Octopus MicroFinance is one of these Social Business organizations. We are an Open Source platform for Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs). Our goal is to enable these organizations streamline their innovation towards lower operation costs and better service affordability. Our main constraints towards this goal is IT education, and this is why we organize Universities that gather MFIs and IT suppliers in order to create a more  convivial and efficient relationship than the ones in place in large Western MIS. Myth of the fixed requirements contract, long-cycle waterfall approaches or ultra-specialization have made our systems extremely resilient to change, which would be a fatal handicap for continuously improving companies like MFIs. In Octopus Universities, we teach and learn how to run MIS that welcome change in total security. There remain huge margins for lowering the operating costs, which are still 7 times higher for MFIs than for traditional banks. Innovation comes and will continue to come from developing countries, permanently. What is at stake for those innovators is not how to select the right MIS, but rather how to build the right team – made of employees and suppliers – able to run and change the MIS securely, day after day, as one’s organization grows and improves.This innovative and social positionning differentiates Octopus from all its competitors.   [Less]

In a recent post in Business & Economy (16 oct. 2008), Mohamad Yunus criticized the idea of creative capitalism promoted by Bill Gates, explaining that profit driven companies, even when throwing a fraction of their profits at social initiatives ... [More] , could never make the difference face to this new kind of social impact driven companies.Why? Because the two kinds follow opposite objectives: maximise profits under the constraint of social impact for the first and maximise social impact under the constraint of profits for the latter. In this category, companies like Grameen Bank are pressured to be extremely innovative compared to standard sponsorship like “one $ to poor children whenever you buy my products” initiatives... Those new companies are very few today, but we can imagine them. They will probably apply to themselves the principle of maximising social impact for their customers: employees would engage in a continuous learning & improvement process, thus increasing their individual’s standing.Octopus MicroFinance is one of these Social Business organizations. We are an Open Source platform for Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs). Our goal is to enable these organizations streamline their innovation towards lower operation costs and better service affordability. Our main constraints towards this goal is IT education, and this is why we organize Universities that gather MFIs and IT suppliers in order to create a more  convivial and efficient relationship than the ones in place in large Western MIS. Myth of the fixed requirements contract, long-cycle waterfall approaches or ultra-specialization have made our systems extremely resistant to change, which would be a fatal handicap for continuously improving companies like MFIs. In Octopus Universities, we teach and learn how to run MIS that welcome change in total security. The University is the entry point to join the Octopus Community, made of independant IT companies around the world. There remain huge margins for lowering the operating costs, which are still 7 times higher for MFIs than for traditional banks. Innovation comes and will continue to come from developing countries, permanently. What is at stake for those innovators is not how to select the right MIS, but rather how to build the right team – made of employees and suppliers – able to run and change the MIS securely, day after day, as one’s organization grows and improves.This innovative and social positionning differentiates Octopus from all its competitors.   [Less]

 In a recent post in Business & Economy (16 oct. 2008), Mohamad Yunus criticized the idea of creative capitalism promoted by Bill Gates, explaining that profit driven companies, even when throwing a fraction of their profits at social ... [More] initiatives, could never make the difference face to this new kind of social impact driven companies. Why? Because the two kinds follow opposite objectives: maximise profits under the constraint of social impact for the first and maximise social impact under the constraint of profits for the latter. In this category, companies like Grameen Bank are pressured to be extremely innovative compared to standard sponsorship like “one $ to poor children whenever you buy my products” initiatives... Those new companies are very few today, but we can imagine them. They will probably apply to themselves the principle of maximising social impact for their customers: employees would engage in a continuous learning process, thus increasing their individual’s standing. Octopus MicroFinance tries to be one of them. We are an Open Source platform for Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs). Our goal is to enable these organizations streamline their innovation towards lower operation costs and better service affordability. Our main constraints towards this goal is IT education, and this is why we organize Universities that gather MFIs and IT suppliers in order to create a more efficient relationship than the ones in place in large Western MIS. Fool contracts and long-cycle waterfall approaches have made our systems extremely resilient to change, which would be a fatal handicap for continuously improving companies like MFIs. There remain huge margins for lowering the operating costs, which are still 7 times higher for MFIs than for traditional banks. Innovation comes and will continue to come from developing countries, permanently. In Octopus Universities, we teach and learn how to run MIS that support fast change in total security.What is at stake is not how to select the right MIS, but rather how to build the right team – made of employees and suppliers – able to run and change the MIS securely, day after day, as one’s organization grows and improves.   [Less]

In a recent post in Business & Economy (16 oct. 2008), Mohamad Yunus criticized the idea of creative capitalism promoted by Bill Gates, explaining that profit driven companies, even when throwing a fraction of their profits at social initiatives ... [More] , could never make the difference face to this new kind of social impact driven companies.Why? Because the two kinds follow opposite objectives: maximise profits under the constraint of social impact for the first and maximise social impact under the constraint of profits for the latter. In this category, companies like Grameen Bank are pressured to be extremely innovative, far beyond standard sponsorship like “one $ to poor children for 100$ of my products” initiatives... Those new companies are very few today, but we can imagine them. They will probably apply to themselves the principle of maximising social impact for their customers: employees would engage in a continuous learning & improvement process, thus increasing their individual’s standing.Octopus MicroFinance is one of these Social Business organizations. We are an Open Source platform for Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs). Our goal is to enable these organizations streamline their innovation towards lower operation costs and better service affordability. Our main constraints towards this goal is IT education, and this is why we organize Universities that gather MFIs and IT suppliers in order to create a more  convivial and efficient relationship than the ones in place in large Western MIS. Myth of the fixed requirements contract, long-cycle waterfall approaches or ultra-specialization have made our systems extremely resistant to change, which would be a fatal handicap for continuously improving companies like MFIs. In Octopus Universities, we teach and learn how to run MIS that welcome change in total security. The University is the entry point to join the Octopus Community, made of independant IT companies around the world. There remain huge margins for lowering the operating costs, which are still 7 times higher for MFIs than for traditional banks. Innovation comes and will continue to come from developing countries, permanently. What is at stake for those innovators is not how to select the right MIS, but rather how to build the right team – made of employees and suppliers – able to run and change the MIS securely, day after day, as one’s organization grows and improves.This innovative and social positionning differentiates Octopus from all its competitors.   [Less]

In a recent post in Business & Economy (16 oct. 2008), Mohamad Yunus criticized the idea of creative capitalism promoted by Bill Gates, explaining that profit driven companies, even when throwing a fraction of their profits at social initiatives ... [More] , could never make the difference face to this new kind of social impact driven companies.Why? Because the two kinds follow opposite objectives: maximise profits under the constraint of social impact for the first and maximise social impact under the constraint of profits for the latter. In this category, companies like Grameen Bank are pressured to be extremely innovative, far beyond standard sponsorship like “one $ to poor children for 100$ of my products” initiatives... Those new companies are very few today, but we can imagine them. They will probably apply to themselves the principle of maximising social impact for their customers: employees would engage in a continuous learning & improvement process, thus increasing their individual’s standing.Octopus MicroFinance is one of these Social Business organizations. We are an Open Source platform for Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs). Our goal is to enable these organizations streamline their innovation towards lower operation costs and better service affordability. Our main constraints towards this goal is IT education, and this is why we organize Universities that gather MFIs and IT suppliers in order to create a more  convivial and efficient relationship than the ones in place in large Western MIS. Myth of the fixed requirements contract, long-cycle waterfall approaches or ultra-specialization have made our systems extremely resistant to change, which would be a fatal handicap for continuously improving companies like MFIs. In Octopus Universities, we teach and learn how to run MIS that welcome change in total security. The University is the entry point to join the Octopus Community, made of companies and individuals worldwide. There remain huge margins for lowering the operating costs, which are still 7 times higher for MFIs than for traditional banks. Innovation comes and will continue to come from developing countries, permanently. What is at stake is not how to propose a MIS for the MFIs, but allow MFIs to run their MIS by themsleves, hence promoting autonomy rather dependence.This innovative and social positionning differentiates Octopus from all its competitors.   [Less]

In a recent post in Business & Economy (16 oct. 2008), Mohamad Yunus criticized the idea of creative capitalism promoted by Bill Gates, explaining that profit driven companies, even when throwing a fraction of their profits at social initiatives ... [More] , could never make the difference face to this new kind of social impact driven companies.Why? Because the two kinds follow opposite objectives: maximise profits under the constraint of social impact for the first and maximise social impact under the constraint of profits for the latter. In this category, companies like Grameen Bank are pressured to be extremely innovative, far beyond standard sponsorship like “one $ to poor children for 100$ of my products” initiatives... Those new companies are very few today, but we can imagine them. They will probably apply to themselves the principle of maximising social impact for their customers: employees would engage in a continuous learning & improvement process, thus increasing their individual’s standing.Octopus MicroFinance is one of these Social Business organizations. We are an Open Source platform for Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs). Our goal is to enable these organizations streamline their innovation towards lower operation costs and better service affordability. Our main constraints towards this goal is IT education, and this is why we organize Universities that gather MFIs and IT suppliers in order to create a more  convivial and efficient relationship than the ones in place in large Western MIS. Myth of the fixed requirements contract, long-cycle waterfall approaches or ultra-specialization have made our systems extremely resistant to change, which would be a fatal handicap for continuously improving companies like MFIs. In Octopus Universities, we teach and learn how to run MIS that welcome change in total security. The University is the entry point to join the Octopus Community, made of companies and individuals worldwide. There remain huge margins for lowering the operating costs, which are still 7 times higher for MFIs than for traditional banks. Innovation comes and will continue to come from developing countries, permanently. What is at stake is not how to propose a MIS for the MFIs, but allow MFIs to run their MIS by themsleves, hence promoting autonomy rather dependence.This innovative and social positionning differentiates Octopus from all its competitors.   [Less]

In a recent post in Business & Economy (16 oct. 2008), Mohamad Yunus criticized the idea of creative capitalism promoted by Bill Gates, explaining that profit driven companies, even when throwing a fraction of their profits at social initiatives ... [More] , could never make the difference face to this new kind of social impact driven companies.Why? Because the two kinds follow opposite objectives: maximise profits under the constraint of social impact for the first and maximise social impact under the constraint of profits for the latter. In this category, companies like Grameen Bank are pressured to be extremely innovative, far beyond standard sponsorship like “one $ to poor children for 100$ of my products” initiatives... Those new companies are very few today, but we can imagine them. They will probably apply to themselves the principle of maximising social impact for their customers: employees would engage in a continuous learning & improvement process, thus increasing their individual’s standing.Octopus MicroFinance is one of these Social Business organizations. We are an Open Source platform for Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs). Our goal is to enable these organizations streamline their innovation towards lower operation costs and better service affordability. Our main constraints towards this goal is IT education, and this is why we organize Universities that gather MFIs and IT suppliers in order to create a more  convivial and efficient relationship than the ones in place in large Western MIS. Myth of the fixed requirements contract, long-cycle waterfall approaches or ultra-specialization have made our systems extremely resistant to change, which would be a fatal handicap for continuously improving companies like MFIs. In Octopus Universities, we teach and learn how to run MIS that welcome change in total security. The University is the entry point to join the Octopus Community, made of companies and individuals worldwide. There remain huge margins for lowering the operating costs, which are still 7 times higher for MFIs than for traditional banks. Innovation comes and will continue to come from developing countries, permanently. What is at stake is not how to propose a MIS for the MFIs, but allow MFIs to run their MIS by themsleves, hence promoting autonomy rather dependence.This innovative and social positionning differentiates Octopus from all its competitors.   [Less]

In a recent post in Business & Economy (16 oct. 2008), Mohamad Yunus criticized the idea of creative capitalism promoted by Bill Gates, explaining that profit driven companies, even when throwing a fraction of their profits at social initiatives ... [More] , could never make the difference face to this new kind of social impact driven companies. Why? Because the two kinds follow opposite objectives: maximise profits under the constraint of social impact for the first and maximise social impact under the constraint of profits for the latter. In this category, companies like Grameen Bank are pressured to be extremely innovative compared to standard sponsorship like “one $ to poor children whenever you buy my products” initiatives... Those new companies are very few today, but we can imagine them. They will probably apply to themselves the principle of maximising social impact for their customers: employees would engage in a continuous learning process, thus increasing their individual’s standing. Octopus MicroFinance tries to be one of them. We are an Open Source platform for Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs). Our goal is to enable these organizations streamline their innovation towards lower operation costs and better service affordability. Our main constraints towards this goal is IT education, and this is why we organize Universities that gather MFIs and IT suppliers in order to create a more efficient relationship than the ones in place in large Western MIS. Fool contracts and long-cycle waterfall approaches have made our systems extremely resilient to change, which would be a fatal handicap for continuously improving companies like MFIs. There remain huge margins for lowering the operating costs, which are still 7 times higher for MFIs than for traditional banks. Innovation comes and will continue to come from developing countries, permanently. In Octopus Universities, we teach and learn how to run MIS that support fast change in total security.What is at stake is not how to select the right MIS, but rather how to build the right team – made of employees and suppliers – able to run and change the MIS securely, day after day, as one’s organization grows and improves.   [Less]

Octopus was introduced last week during the Microfinance and New Technology summit organized by PlanetFinance in Dehli.        You can see the full presentation here, a summary from the session on MIS by Microfinance Insights here, and the global ... [More] outputs from the conference here.   Pierre Pezziardi, CEO of Octo technology and one of the instigators of the Octopus adventure, was panellist during the session entitled: “MIS – Critical Foundation for Growth” which was dedicated to understand why most MFIs are still struggling with MIS-related problems. The debate focused on who is responsible for this problems and how to choose the right MIS.  The position of Octopus regarding these issues has been defended with verve by Pierre. Our idea is that microfinance has now to stop thinking of the classic architecture of IT projects which pits client MFIs against MIS providers, considered as ordinary subcontractors. Our philosophy is to present Octopus as a process and not a product. Against the backdrop of the innovative environment of microfinance, a continuously adaptation of MIS is indispensable to meet the fast-evolving needs of MFIs. Don’t buy a program with a fixed list of features; they will be outdated before you have finished the installation! But work in close partnership with your MIS provider to build a team able to tackle with new needs of your MFIs. What is important when choosing your MIS is not so much its functionalities at a given time but its ability to evolve and streamline your growth!  In that logic, Octopus development is based on the agile methodologies, it consists in short release cycle (3 weeks) and relies on automated tests to avoid any regression.  Our new approach of MIS has questioned conceptions of lots of attendees at the conference and the numerous visitors of our booth reflected it. MFIs, ICT companies as well as potential investors showed their interest one after the other.  Thanks to these meetings with microfinance stake-holders, the concept of Octopus University has emerged again. This idea departs from the observation that one of the most important needs of microfinance in India is education, especially regarding IT sciences and MIS. The organisation of an Octopus University is the next step of deployment in India (a coming article will explain more deeply what an Octopus University exactly is) and the summit was the occasion to find our first trainees since a couple of IT companies expressed their interest in the concept.    We will provide news from the evolution of the project in India very soon...   [Less]

Octopus was introduced last week during the Microfinance and New Technology summit organized by PlanetFinance in Dehli.        You can see the full presentation here, a summary from the session on MIS by Microfinance Insights here, and the global ... [More] outputs from the conference here.   Pierre Pezziardi, CEO of Octo technology and one of the instigators of the Octopus adventure, was panellist during the session entitled: “MIS – Critical Foundation for Growth” which was dedicated to understand why most MFIs are still struggling with MIS-related problems. The debate focused on who is responsible for this problems and how to choose the right MIS.  The position of Octopus regarding these issues has been defended with verve by Pierre. Our idea is that microfinance has now to stop thinking of the classic architecture of IT projects which pits client MFIs against MIS providers, considered as ordinary subcontractors. Our philosophy is to present Octopus as a process and not a product. Against the backdrop of the innovative environment of microfinance, a continuously adaptation of MIS is indispensable to meet the fast-evolving needs of MFIs. Don’t buy a program with a fixed list of features; they will be outdated before you have finished the installation! But work in close partnership with your MIS provider to build a team able to tackle with new needs of your MFIs. What is important when choosing your MIS is not so much its functionalities at a given time but its ability to evolve and streamline your growth!  In that logic, Octopus development is based on the agile methodologies, it consists in short release cycle (3 weeks) and relies on automated tests to avoid any regression.  Our new approach of MIS has questioned conceptions of lots of attendees at the conference and the numerous visitors of our booth reflected it. MFIs, ICT companies as well as potential investors showed their interest one after the other.  Thanks to these meetings with microfinance stake-holders, the concept of Octopus University has emerged again. This idea departs from the observation that one of the most important needs of microfinance in India is education, especially regarding IT sciences and MIS. The organisation of an Octopus University is the next step of deployment in India (a coming article will explain more deeply what an Octopus University exactly is) and the summit was the occasion to find our first trainees since a couple of IT companies expressed their interest in the concept.    We will provide news from the evolution of the project in India very soon...   [Less]