Hello all, I'm glad to see this active and open discussion taking place amongst our community. Amit - thank you for being so quick, passionate, and forthcoming in your response to Anand. It's exciting to see the feedback from others on Mifos and look forward to seeing more responses come in so we can continue to better our software to meet your needs.
I lead up marketing and community efforts for the Mifos Initiative so wanted to respond with some input on strengths and weakness of our software: Clarifying on previous points: >> Deployment cost is high. [EC] Deployment costs of any technology solution are high. Mifos as a centralized thin-client solution is lower in cost that the typical client-server based systems. While a database and application server must be installed at the head office level, at each branch office only a PC with an internet browser is needed - no other software. With other non-centralized systems, the personnel, software, hardware costs are quite high when having to install the MIS software at each new branch. >> ZERO in accounting, you must keep another application for accounting.Means >> double labour.Its acts only a database. [EC] While Mifos has no built-in accounting, it captures and exports all of the necessary GL transaction data for your chart of accounts. This data can then easily be imported into your separate accounting package through a script, meaning there is no double labor involved. By design, we chose not to integrate a built-in accounting package given the regional variances and needs for accounting packages. Once again Mifos focuses on being the best for MIS - you should choose an accounting package that will best handle your needs for taxation, etc. Our customers around the world have integrated with various packages such as Pastel, Dolphin, Tally, etc. This is an area that we do recognize is of great concern and we're building out our repository of scripts and documentation to help others integrate with their packages. Visit - http://www.mifos.org/knowledge/support/deploying-mifos/accounting to learn more. >> Mifos is in developing stage It is not fully functional application. [EC] Mifos is fully functional and ready for productions. In India alone, it's being used as the heart of day to day operations of three MFIs including Grameen Koota serving more than 300,000 clients. As an open source solution, our product is constantly in development - always evolving and improving in quality and robustness. Mifos is not as feature-rich as other MIS solutions - we designed Mifos to be purpose-built for microfinance, as opposed to a repurposed core banking solution. We aim to keep the application simple and focused on the core operational, financial, and management needs of the MFI and will continue to grow our functionality to meet those needs. Mifos will never itself be a cash management, accounting system, etc. - it's an open source MIS platform that integrates with the other systems across the MFI. Weaknesses * Mifos ships with a low # of standard reports out of the box - we're working on a more expansive set of standard reports but are building out a growing community report repository which now has over 28 reports for you to download, modify, and customize to your needs - http://www.mifos.org/knowledge/reporting/report-repository. Integration with JasperServer offers Mifos users a full business intelligence platform in which to deliver reporting across all departments across their business. * Installation and configuration process is detailed and requires some level of technical skill * Full integration with mobile payment networks (for our upcoming release, phase 1 of this functionality is being built and piloted) * Late fees/penalties are not calculated automatically in Mifos but we can provide scripts and other tools to help work around this. * Since we're aiming to be best in breed for MIS and portfolio management and reporting - we lack built in cash management, treasury, and more core-banking type features. * Lack of built in accounting (see above) Strengths * Mifos is guided and lead by the Grameen Foundation, not just another software vendor, we're a global non-profit organization committed to a social mission to enable MFIs to use technologically strategically to accelerate their growth and impact * Mifos is part of a complete technology management solution. We believe that technology alone is not enough and focus on a thorough and complete deployment methodology with training and business process optimization to ensure that the staff and processes across the organization are aligned with the technology. Visit to learn more about our methodology: http://www.mifos.org/knowledge/support/deploying-mifos * Centralized, web-based thin client technology - no need for manual consolidation of distributed databases etc - only an internet-connected PC with web browser needed at each branch. * High ease of use - browser-based user interface that is very familiar * Centralized real-time reporting and access to your data from any location * Flexibility - ability to define and configure new products from the UI * Open and Community-Driven Technology ~No vendor lock-in - freedom to engage local resources to modify and maintain your instance of the software ~Worldwide community extending platform through widespread innovation and providing global peer support and knowledge sharing ~Extensibility to integrate other systems like accounting and business intelligence platforms. ~No license fee - making it cost-effective option ~Modern technology stack built on Java and MySQL and other open source libraries. Thanks, Ed Cable From: AMIT JAIN [mailto:amitjain....@gmail.com] Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2010 4:47 AM To: A good place to start for users or folks new to Mifos. Subject: Re: [Mifos-users] [New user] Merits/De merits of Mifos Dear Anand If your office`s computer management is based on Server Client model means LAN, then you can enjoy the Mifos on all clients as same as other web application. There is major difference between oracle and mysql please go through the google search (its techinical and detailed) Mr Naganand is also in a mifos users list please contact accordingly. I hope all doubts are cleared. Regards On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 5:35 PM, Anand sampathkumar <an.1...@gmail.com> wrote: Hi amit, Thanks for the prompt response! I have some more doubts. * Mifos has a web interface which implies it is can be accessed via Internet and not necessarily a access through a single computer? * In what security is better in Oracle compared to MySQL? I will look into the Open source accounting packages and If I find anything helpful, I will post it here. Also, you have e-mail id of whom to contact in grameenkoota? I checked their website. It has only i...@grameenkoota.org which they may not respond.. I would like to hear about reviews from other user in the community! Eagerly waiting for it Regards, Anand ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Planet: dedicated and managed hosting, cloud storage, colocation Stay online with enterprise data centers and the best network in the business Choose flexible plans and management services without long-term contracts Personal 24x7 support from experience hosting pros just a phone call away. http://p.sf.net/sfu/theplanet-com _______________________________________________ Mifos-users mailing list Mifos-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mifos-users -- AMIT JAIN | E.D | Digamber Finance (Chota Loan Bade Sapne) | +919414041821 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Planet: dedicated and managed hosting, cloud storage, colocation Stay online with enterprise data centers and the best network in the business Choose flexible plans and management services without long-term contracts Personal 24x7 support from experience hosting pros just a phone call away. http://p.sf.net/sfu/theplanet-com _______________________________________________ Mifos-users mailing list Mifos-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mifos-users
