INTRODUCTION
FINCA Impact Finance is a network of 20 community-based microfinance institutions and banks that offers innovative, responsible and impactful financial services to low-income clients. With 30 years of experience and a mostly local staff of over 10,000, FINCA delivers a double bottom line of social impact and financial sustainability
Today, the breadth and reach of our responsible financial services continues to evolve to meet the changing needs of our customers. FINCA Impact Finance has gone beyond the traditional microfinance model by leveraging the power of new technologies and business practices, such as mobile and agent banking, to make banking more affordable and accessible.
FINCA is moving from a high-touch, high-cost traditional microfinance delivery model to a hybrid model that maintains responsible customer relationships while enhancing service and reach.
That transformation involves implementing credit scoring/analytics, digitization and mobile technologies to make our financial services more efficient and effective. We are re-engineering and streamlining our credit and customer service processes to lower costs and to make it easier for clients to do business with us. To ensure continuous improvement of our services, we are fostering a culture of innovation in which all employees are encouraged to lead change.
PROBLEM
Transforming FINCA Impact Finance also means changing our internal practices. That includes streamlining our learning management system (LMS). Prior to 2016, each of FIF’s subsidiaries maintained their own LMS and processes for eLearning delivery.
This created numerous inefficiencies and inconsistencies, resulting in a decision to consolidate all existing LMS platforms. One of the reasons to consolidate was the need for a centralized corporate L&D reporting.
Additionally, FIF established a common set of guidelines and processes for developing, delivering and administering eLearning and blended learning solutions across FIF’s global network. These guidelines have contributed to the establishment of quality standards for eLearning courses that use Moodle’s toolset and guarantee a better learner experience.
ACTION
FINCA identified the following key reasons for choosing Moodle as its global learning management system, which was internally branded as the FINCA Learning Zone:
• The majority of FIF’s LMS platforms are already Moodle-based;
• Given the social mission that behind FIF’s operations, we are attracted to Moodle’s community-based approach to providing a great open-source LMS; moreover, we want to become part of the Moodle community;
• A large number of institutions – including workplaces, schools and higher education institutions – are already using Moodle;
• Moodle is open source, allowing FIF to customize the platform and meet our specific requirements;
• Moodle is stable and has been among the most popular LMSs many years;
• Moodle is able to cover the majority of the 13 languages used in the FIF network;
• Affordability;
• FINCA is impressed by the fact that Moodle is a mission- and socially-driven organization. We feel that Moodle and FIF are like-minded; and
• Customization: Each FIF subsidiary is able to tailor to its specific needs and learn
RESULTS
A single Moodle platform known as the “FINCA Learning Zone” (FLZ) was launched to replace the multiple platforms existing across the FINCA network. The FLZ was created to host online learning content for the organization’s global network of 20 subsidiaries.
The FLZ is administered by the FINCA Development Academy (FDA), FIF’s global Learning and Development (L&D) arm.
Francisco Gutierrez, FINCA’s Global LMS Administrator, commented that Moodle perfectly satisfies the organization’s current needs to provide blended learning to our 10,000+ employees. “Users in all 20 subsidiaries have been using the system actively since the launch in 2016,” said Gutierrez.
“FIF has 10,000+ employees, out of which over 85% were active in our system during the last 12 months.”
“We have 720 courses in total [an average of 20 per subsidiary] and we have issued 26,827 completion certificates.”
MORE INFORMATION
FINCA Impact Finance provided the following handy tips for using Moodle:
• Management of user accounts can be very complex if you attempt to do it manually. In our case, we have saved a lot of time and effort by integrating our LMS with the Active Directory, the organisation’s centralised database used to grant employees’ access to corporate systems.
• Use the Moodle Mobile App. You can read another case study of FIFs use of the Moodle Mobile App on our website.
• You can find more information about FINCA, FIF, the countries where they operate in and the services they provide at www.fincaimpact.com
