Shilpa Sayura (Sea of Knowledge), is a local language digital learning system based on National Curriculum of Sri Lanka. Targeting remote, rural students to improve self learning capacity to prepare for national examinations, utilizing rural telecenters, project was initiated by e-fusion pvt ltd with a grant of Rs 5 mil (50,000$US) received from ICTA under e Sri Lanka Project.
Absence of competent teachers and adequate facilities handicap rural students in 80% of the Sri Lankas population. Now over 500 telecentres at rural outskirts provide a new window of opportunity. Shilpa Sayura enables students to interact with ICT to study 8 subjects digitally at tele centers and develop their knowledge to prepare for national examinations.
The project initiated in 2006 and pilot tested in 26 telecentres (branded as Nanasala).
The problem:
Having a success story of a very compelling pilot, the project struggles at scaling up. Every telecentre operator of over 500 telecentres in Sri Lanka needs to have Shilpa Sayura installed in their telecentre. But, e-Fusion acknowledges it is not feasible at this present state.
• It needs technological improvements to ensure trouble free smooth run.
• Also needs technical capacity building at the telecentre operators to assist the users.
• Need to improve help-desk capacity to accept escalating demands
All these needs significant capital investments. They recognize it is not reasonable to tax the government to support further. Thus eyes at the CSR goodwill of the corporate partners.
In the mean time they plot the plans for an appropriate business model.
Shilpa Sayura had been the Winner of i4D award at e India 2007 and Stockholm Challange GKP Award at Gk3, Malysia, 2007.
Listen to the UNESCO interview with founder>
http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/media/page.cgi?g=Detailed/102.hctml;d=1
Monday 31 March 2008
Friday 28 March 2008
EasySeva - ‘Franchise in a box’
Emergence of corporate sector models in the donor dominated telecentre eco-system is becoming a trend. They begin telecentres with economic sustainability as the primary goal, thus demand for essential entrepreneurial elements from the inception. They aim to penetrate to the bottom of the pyramid communities, thus create services recognizing double bottom lines of Social Goals and Economic Goals.
Easy-seva is an interesting corporate entry into Sri Lanka’s fast expanding telecentre landscape. Synergy Strategies Group (SSG), US based small company, won the bid of USAID’s Last Mile Initiative to set up EasySeva. Each EasySeva centre is owned by an entrepreneur who is part of a franchise. In return for franchise fees, the franchise provides bulk purchasing, training, technical and marketing support. The franchise also provides entrepreneurs access to micro-finance and leasing services through Sri Lankan financial institutions.
In order to offer a compelling business opportunity to entrepreneurs, SSG has partnered with a rich set of Sri Lankan companies, including Dialog Telekom, Qualcomm, National Development Bank, Lanka Orix (LOLC) and Microsoft. Together, these alliance partners have contributed funding, technology and know-how to the project. The project team has designed the 25 EasySeva centres as a test case to prove that it is possible to provide high quality ICT-enabled services to rural communities on a profitable basis. The company launched the first three centres in May 2007, and is on track to open all 25 centres. Early indications suggest that demand for EasySeva services is high.
Uniqueness in the package (franchise-in-a-box):
The EasySeva franchise-in-a-box includes a standard equipment package that each franchisee is required to acquire as part of the franchise agreement. The package consists of four reconditioned PCs with a licensed suite of MS Office, a printer-copier-fax, broadband connection, and 1-2 VoIP phones. The PCs and printers are supported by a reliable Sri Lankan vendor under a one-year service agreement. The PCs are configured with WiFi cards, thus eliminating the need for cabling. EasySeva also installs a local content package, which includes a variety of training and informational materials in Singhalese and Tamil.
The equipment and content package is supported by a micro-loan and leasing arrangement through LOLC (leasing company). Each EasySeva franchisee finances the equipment purchased through a 30 month lease with LOLC. In addition, most franchisees also take out a small working capital loan to cover start-up and initial costs. Because SSG negotiated bulk rates, franchisees are able to obtain better financing terms and credit approval much more quickly than if they had to apply for financing independently.
The business philosophy:
Though this initiative was funded by the USAID LMI (Last Mile Initiative), from the outset, SSG sought to use a radically different strategy. Rather than working as a traditional development project, the company saw the fund as an opportunity to demonstrate the efficacy of a BoP (Bottom of the pyramid) ICT business model. Accordingly, SSG proposed to use the build-out of the centres as a proof-of-concept for a ‘bankable’ business model that could be rolled out across the island. To be bankable, the project had to demonstrate a significant economic opportunity for private investors
The vision of the company is to attract private investment to finance the opening of 400-500 centres in Sri Lanka over the next 3-4 years, and an additional 1,000 centres in other markets in South Asia. In doing so, the company believes it can offer a significant ‘double-bottom line’ return on investment. On the economic side, the company’s financial models suggest that the franchise will achieve strong financial returns by offering a mixture of services: voice, internet, training, financial and health, all of which offer revenue opportunities for both the franchise and the individual entrepreneur. In turn, the centres should have substantial positive impacts in rural communities by giving BoP customers access to quality services for the very first time.
Easy-seva is an interesting corporate entry into Sri Lanka’s fast expanding telecentre landscape. Synergy Strategies Group (SSG), US based small company, won the bid of USAID’s Last Mile Initiative to set up EasySeva. Each EasySeva centre is owned by an entrepreneur who is part of a franchise. In return for franchise fees, the franchise provides bulk purchasing, training, technical and marketing support. The franchise also provides entrepreneurs access to micro-finance and leasing services through Sri Lankan financial institutions.
In order to offer a compelling business opportunity to entrepreneurs, SSG has partnered with a rich set of Sri Lankan companies, including Dialog Telekom, Qualcomm, National Development Bank, Lanka Orix (LOLC) and Microsoft. Together, these alliance partners have contributed funding, technology and know-how to the project. The project team has designed the 25 EasySeva centres as a test case to prove that it is possible to provide high quality ICT-enabled services to rural communities on a profitable basis. The company launched the first three centres in May 2007, and is on track to open all 25 centres. Early indications suggest that demand for EasySeva services is high.
Uniqueness in the package (franchise-in-a-box):
The EasySeva franchise-in-a-box includes a standard equipment package that each franchisee is required to acquire as part of the franchise agreement. The package consists of four reconditioned PCs with a licensed suite of MS Office, a printer-copier-fax, broadband connection, and 1-2 VoIP phones. The PCs and printers are supported by a reliable Sri Lankan vendor under a one-year service agreement. The PCs are configured with WiFi cards, thus eliminating the need for cabling. EasySeva also installs a local content package, which includes a variety of training and informational materials in Singhalese and Tamil.
The equipment and content package is supported by a micro-loan and leasing arrangement through LOLC (leasing company). Each EasySeva franchisee finances the equipment purchased through a 30 month lease with LOLC. In addition, most franchisees also take out a small working capital loan to cover start-up and initial costs. Because SSG negotiated bulk rates, franchisees are able to obtain better financing terms and credit approval much more quickly than if they had to apply for financing independently.
The business philosophy:
Though this initiative was funded by the USAID LMI (Last Mile Initiative), from the outset, SSG sought to use a radically different strategy. Rather than working as a traditional development project, the company saw the fund as an opportunity to demonstrate the efficacy of a BoP (Bottom of the pyramid) ICT business model. Accordingly, SSG proposed to use the build-out of the centres as a proof-of-concept for a ‘bankable’ business model that could be rolled out across the island. To be bankable, the project had to demonstrate a significant economic opportunity for private investors
The vision of the company is to attract private investment to finance the opening of 400-500 centres in Sri Lanka over the next 3-4 years, and an additional 1,000 centres in other markets in South Asia. In doing so, the company believes it can offer a significant ‘double-bottom line’ return on investment. On the economic side, the company’s financial models suggest that the franchise will achieve strong financial returns by offering a mixture of services: voice, internet, training, financial and health, all of which offer revenue opportunities for both the franchise and the individual entrepreneur. In turn, the centres should have substantial positive impacts in rural communities by giving BoP customers access to quality services for the very first time.
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