Gradatim Plans Microbanking Foray

Although the microfinance industry in India is large, it is facing a lot of challenges, in terms of customer outreach. The industry, is therefore, taking the help of technology to better serve its customers. Various software solution providers are coming up with innovative solutions, targeting the organised and unorganised sectors in the microfinance space. One such player, Gradatim has come up with Gradatim Microfinance, the first of its kind of solution in the business process utility segment.

Elaborating on the solution, K L Balakrishnana, director, Marketing, Gradatim says, “The technology penetration in the micro finance segment is very low. If other industries are taking the help of IT in order to run smoothly, why cant microfinance do the same? In order to function smoothly even in the remotest areas with very less IT infrastructure, the players in the micro finance industry can take the help of this solution to provide an entire range of service to their customers. This particular solution has been built upon a number of technologies to take care of all business applications, data capture, CRM, reporting, database integrity and document management.”

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This solution will help the micro finance institutions to operationalise their business goals while retaining control over the processes. The entire solution is based on an on demand hosted model, designed to deliver best service while reducing the cost of sales, underwriting, claims administration, collections and payments. The company has already started discussions with service providers like Sify and system integrators to provide internet facilities to Gradatim customers. The company will also use the data centre of the service providers, in order to protect the data of its customers.

Gradatim has already started approaching some of the microfinance institutions in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for this solution. The company is planning to target customers with a better presence and a good source of funding from the agencies. The company will charge its customers on the basis of transactions. Elaborating on the preliminary challenges faced by the company, Balakrishnan opines, “There is a lot of resistance from the big as well as small players to adopt technology and it is very difficult to educate them about the solutions. Cost and pricing are also major barriers for us while approaching this community."

Gradatim is now looking beyond the microfinance industry and targeting the microbanking and micro insurance verticals to extend its SOA based solutions in India. The company is already providing electronic litigations and close book services to its customers abroad. As large banks are now entering the microbanking segment, Gradatim is targeting these banks in order to expand its footprints.