Mifos Initiative

Mifos Initiative
Founded October 2011
Type 501(c)(3)
Focus Microfinance
Financial inclusion
Location
Origins Grameen Foundation
Products Mifos 2.x legacy MIS
Mifos X
Mifos X mobile client
Community App, web UI for Mifos X platofrm
Key people
 Ed Cable
(Community Leader)
Website mifos.org

The Mifos Initiative is a U.S.-based non-profit that exists to support and collectively lead the open source Mifos X project. Founded in October 2011, the organization encompasses a community of financial service providers, technology specialists, financial services experts and open source developers working together to grow the Mifos X open source platform for financial services. Its goal is to speed the elimination of poverty by enabling financial service providers to more effectively and efficiently deliver responsible financial services to the world's 2.5 billion poor and unbanked.

History

Initiated by Grameen Foundation

Development of the software began as an initiative of the Grameen Foundation in 2004. At the Grameen Foundation, James Dailey and Tapan Parikh realized that the software being used by most microfinance institutions (MFIs) was outdated, expensive or otherwise fell short.[1] James and Tapan brainstormed something new: an open-source software that launched as Mifos in 2006. The name "Mifos" originally came from an acronym "MIcro Finance Open Source", but is now used as the brand, rather than an acronym. Mifos existed within Grameen Foundation until 2011, when it was decided that Mifos would split off to be an independent, open-source entity.

Transitioned to its own community

On June 1, 2011, Grameen Foundation announced that it would be ending its direct involvement with the Mifos Initiative and transitioning the project to its own organization, the Mifos Initiative, which now controls the Mifos and MIfos X projects.[2][3]

Community

Mifos Initiative community group photo during October 2012 summit in Bangalore

The MifosX community includes developers, implementers, and users from various countries who collaborate through mailing lists, IRC, and annual conferences.

Involvement

Every year, MifosX developers and users from around the world gather to help shape the vision for MifosX. The summit is open to the public and has conferences, exhibitions and other audience-oriented events. The 2012 summit was held in Bangalore and in 2013 it was held at Jaipur in the month of October. Held in Kuampala, Uganda, the 2014 Summit was a four-day event with a large focus on hands-on training for partners and users, collaborative tech sessions for contributors, & educational sessions led by external experts from the fin-tech & financial inclusion sector. It was Mifos' third annual summit, and aimed to expand and grow in the East African community.

MifosX has also participated in several other independent events. In 2013, Mifos has participated in Google Summer of Code.[4] as well as Random Hacks of Kindness during RHoK Global December 2012.[5] Moreover, Mifos has been part of . Mifos has also been a part of the FinDEVr San Francisco 2014 event, acting as a sponsor. One of Mifos' members, James Dailey (board member and Chief Innovation Officer), took the stage to discuss the reinvention of banking. On the first of November, Mifos Initiative also took part in the Global Islamic Microfinance Forum, held in Dubai, UAE.

People

The Mifos Initiative Board of Directors

  • Paul Maritz (Chairman of the Board and CEO of Pivotal)
  • Zaheda Bhorat
  • James Dailey
  • Suresh Krishna (managing director of Grameen Financial Services Private Ltd)
  • Dave Neary
  • Craig Chelius
  • Edward Cable

Management Team

  • Craig Chelius - Executive Director
  • Edward Cable - Director of Community Programs
  • Vishwas Babu - Chief Community Engineer
  • Binny Gopinath - Global Project Manager
  • Dayna Harp - Director of Strategic Initiatives

Advisors

Mifos has a team of business and technical advisors which are called upon for visionary thinking, critical insight, and industry expertise. These include Steve Thomson (Financial Services Advisor), Bryan Barnett (Business Advisor), and Brian Behlendorf (Technical Advisor).

Customers (Financial Institutions)

India

  • Grameen Koota (with approx 450,000 members)
  • Nirantara
  • Adhikar
  • KNAB finance (www.knabfinance.com)

Qualifications and prizes

  • Mifos earns high ratings on CGAP Software Listings [6]
  • Mifos won a Duke's Choice Award in 2009 for "Java Technology for the Open Source Community" [7]
  • Mifos participated in the Google Summer Of Code 2009,[8] 2010,[9] 2013, 2014 and 2016.

Partnerships

  • IBM Partners With Grameen Foundation to Expand Its Open Source Microfinance Banking Platform and Help Eradicate Poverty[10]
  • Grameen Foundation and ThoughtWorks Partner to Extend Microfinance Technology Platform to Global Communities[11]
  • Grameen Microfinance Open Source - Corporate Citizenship Report 2007 says Cisco will help make Mifos software easier to deploy and scale it to serve more institutions and clients[12]
  • Grameen Foundation and SunGard Join Forces to Support Technology Advancement in Microfinance[13]

References

  1. ↑ Microfinance: Why Open Source Means Bigger Impact
  2. ↑ Grameen Foundation to Transition Mifos to Community-Led Effort
  3. ↑ MIFOS.org
  4. ↑ "GSoC 2013 - COSM". Google.
  5. ↑ "Financial data integrating using sms communications". Random Hacks of Kindness.
  6. ↑ "Press Release on CGAP listing Mifos".
  7. ↑ "Java Duke's Choice Award 2009".
  8. ↑ "Open Source at Google, Blog entry about Mifos".
  9. ↑ "Mifos news about GSoC 2010 participants".
  10. ↑ "IBM Press Release on Mifos".
  11. ↑ "ThoughtWorks and Mifos".
  12. ↑ "Cisco Foundation on Mifos".
  13. ↑ "SunGard and MIFOS".
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