Background
CARD Myanmar CO. LTD., serving 19,000 customers across 18 branches, went live on the Musoni cloud banking system in June 2020, in the middle of COVID-19 imposed restrictions. The project was managed by the ThitsaWorks team, Musoni’s Myanmar partner. CMCL have now been using the system for three months, and so we touched base with their resident microfinance expert Bengie Buenviaje, to find out how things were going. Excitingly, they have already achieved real impact. Learn more below.
What problems were CMCL facing before Musoni?
Before moving to Musoni, CMCL faced a number of challenges related to their core banking system. Each day, one staff member per branch needed to travel to their Admin Office in order to submit that day’s transaction report. Hours that could have been spent on operational priorities like recruiting new clients and managing loans, were instead being spent on travel. This hampered efficiency and productivity. Not having a centralised database meant that data was entered manually in multiple places by multiple teams – this meant that it took a long time for transaction errors to be resolved. It also meant that Head Office staff were spending too much time on data entry work.
How did Musoni help resolve these problems?
As soon as CMCL went live on Musoni they started seeing real impact – in particular time savings and cost reductions. The traditional way of submitting transaction documents was successfully shifted to digital, with real time simultaneous transactions in all branches. Operational work shifted from complex processes to simple ones. As a result, CMCL was able to reduce operational costs and quickly resolve transaction errors.
Crucially in the time of COVID-19, having a cloud banking system meant that CMCL were able to minimize the health risks for staff: there was no longer any need to transport documents between branches, leading to safer processes and faster turn-around times for their customers. With all staff currently working from home, having a cloud system also ensured that work remained relatively undisrupted.
This is just the start of CMCL’s digitalisation journey. The improvements in efficiency have made it possible for the CARD team to step back and focus again on adding new products and services for their end customers the moment the COVID-19 restrictions are eased.
What are CMCL’s top features in Musoni?
- Real Time and Easy Access – all data entered into the system can be viewed in real time by members of the branch and management teams. This has made it easier to monitor staff performance and led to improved portfolio quality.
- Advanced Technology – Musoni’s advanced features have laid the foundation for CMCL to effectively start its digitalisation journey. Without Musoni we would have struggled to go digital while adhering to the standards of the regulators and continuing to serve our most rural clients
- Responsive and friendly technical support – Musoni’s technical support team is commendable for being very responsive to all our queries
What is next in CMCL’s digitalisation journey?
Over the coming months (COVID-19 restrictions not withstanding), CMCL aim to launch the Musoni Digital Field Application to all of their staff. This will digitalise the remaining paper processes and further improve efficiency. CMCL are also leveraging Musoni’s integration with the Mojaloop payment switch and starting to explore switching from cash payments to digital ones.
Any final thoughts?
CMCL would like to recommend Musoni because of its advanced technological functions that simplify operational processes and expedite transactions, resulting in a more efficient and productive service delivery to our clients.