Android and development 2

2.   Ruma’s “Market Intelligence” in Indonesia

Ruma is a social enterprise that empowers the poor using mobile phone technology. It started as a pilot project of Grameen Foundation and Qualcomm and has now metamorphosed into an enterprise serving millions of clients. Ruma has recruited and trained over 10,000 low-income entrepreneurs in Indonesia, of which 85% are women, to sell prepaid airtime, electricity and other value added services. Now, Android powered tablets are helping these low-income entrepreneurs act as conduits for gathering market intelligence across Indonesia.

The low-income household market is probably the most difficult market to obtain  information. Goods are sold through 2 million plus warungs (small shops), scattered throughout Indonesia. The distribution of the goods goes through multiple layers of distributors, making information gathering very expensive.

Through the mobile survey product built on the Android platform and administered on smartphones and tablets, consumer goods companies like Danone and Nestle contract Ruma to obtain rapid market information from the Ruma entrepreneur network. Over 70% of Ruma’s entrepreneurs were already selling basic consumer goods when they were recruited to the network. The existing network of thousands of shops and over one million end consumers can provide market research professionals with valuable insights.

Surveys with a broad sample with only a select number of questions can be administered in real time via SMS or through Telesurvey. Whereas an in-depth study of products through focus group discussions or a pilot of the product can be conducted using a customized data collection application.

Ruma believes that by providing companies with better access information to the low-income segment, companies can create products that address the segments true needs.

So why GF prefers Android to other operating systems?

·      Open source - GF can customize the phones for improved use of power and to make applications usable when the phones aren't connected to the network

·      Fastest growing OS - Phone prices are bound to drop

Why GF uses smartphones / tablets when feature phones are cheaper and more popular (especially in the underdeveloped world)?

·      Location data and photographs are possible with GPS & camera

·      Large data can be stored on external memory cards

·      Input and storage of data on the phones is possible even when the user is out of range of a cellular network. This information is uploaded once the user moves within range of the network

·      Improved analytics capabilities (with salesforce.com)

Android and development 1

Development organizations and aid agencies have been struggling for a while now to use technology to improve their efficiency and thereby create an improved impact on the recipients. It is a well documented and researched aspect of development.

Fortunately with mobile phones and their rapid scale to ubiquity, the lengthy pursuit of the development world seems to have met fruition. Currently, no other technology holds as much promise for the development sector as mobiles.

With an aim to empower people in the underdeveloped world and to deliver maximum bang for the buck, increasing number of device makers, cellular operators and development agencies are now coming together to deploy feature / smart phones with text information services and applications on health care, weather, crop pricing, agriculture practices, population studies etc. What really is hastening this process is the availability of a multitude of device and platform options.

Android is one such platform (operating system) that is opening a lot of avenues for data collection and field research management specifically targeted to the development sector. It is a Linux-based operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Google purchased it in 2005 and has since then led almost a movement towards creating a platform that’s free, open source and stable.

A few instances of successful implementations of technology especially Android in development sector:

1.   Grameen Foundation’s “Community Knowledge Workers” (CKW) in Uganda

400 CKWs in Uganda are using Android phones loaded with an open-source data-collection application that feeds data into salesforce. These phones are powered by batteries that can be recharged via electricity, solar and bicycle. GF offers farmers loans to buy an Android phone loaded with information about when and how to plant crops, care for farm animals and find markets for products.

Those farmers (CKWs) then serve as experts in their villages. Other people turn to them with questions about crops or farm animals, and the knowledge workers find answers in information loaded on the phones. The knowledge workers also gather information about the farmers they talk to.

The workers have interacted with over 25,000 households so far. 75 percent of farmers say they find the information offered by the knowledge workers to be very useful, and 80 percent said they acted on information they received at least once. Information from CKWs have helped them in timing their planting activities based on weather information, asking for better prices from traders, going to markets where they can get better prices and providing better care for their livestock.

The CKWs must buy the phones and charging stations. They can pay them off monthly, a process that takes about two years. They get paid for their work and can earn up to $25 a month.

GF is hoping to make the project self-sustaining and has partnered with other agencies that see value in the network of CKWs. The World Bank, Heifer International and others are now paying GF for data that CKWs collect by conducting surveys with villagers.