About the Event

The AITEC Banking & Mobile Money conference was held at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies which is 5 Kilometers from the Nairobi CBD. The event was themed “Finance SMEs – Fire Up The Economy”. More than 350 guests attended, five of whom were young entrepreneurs who were sponsored by iridium interactive.

Notable speakers and moderators includes Mr. Fred Matiangi, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary For Information, Communication and Technology; Mr. Sriram Bharatam, CEO iridium Interactive; Heshan Devani, Founder VenCap Kenya; Mr. Sean Moroney, Chairman AITEC Africa.

#AITECmobilemoney – Twitter Trendsetter

If you are a Twitter fan of Twitter, you are familiar with the word hashtag. In this event, iridium Interactive took full charge of this Twitter handle, broadcasting to the entire world. In time, other guests and partners at the event joined in and the debate went viral. In less than 48 hours, word of the event reached over 184,000 twitter accounts. Cumulatively, our social media experts estimated the aggregate reach to be almost 500,000. Our sister organization, Kuza Biashara, also contributed to event success. Through the use of its popular blog which enjoys broad readership and its Facebook Page which has over 109,000 Likes, Kuza Biashara brought an near-instant buzz to the event bringing it to the attention of over 25,000 SME owners who form part of its client-base.

Comprehensive Coverage

A dedicated team of video production expert was on the ground to provide comprehensive video coverage for the event. Working tirelessly and with minimal breaks, the talented team set their eyes set on one goal – capturing every moment of the event and presenting it out to the world in the most elaborate ways possible.

The event was a success, all thanks to you…

Thanks to everybody who made this event the success of which participants, sponsors and organizers alike can be proud. We look forward to making #AITECmobilemoney2015 trend…see you there.

This initiative is to identify Kenya’s fastest growing medium sized companies and showcase business excellence, highlight & celebrate the country’s most successful entrepreneurship stories, who have contributed to the wealth and jobs in the country. Beyond the Top 100 there is also another level, the Club 101. iridiumInteractive has been encouraging the members to push themselves to get into Club 101.

Partnering with KPMG Top 100 Survey for the second consecutive year, iridiumInteractive made a positive impact by contributing towards creating the digital assets, which is the online platform where prospective participants could learn about the survey and even fill in the survey and perform their financial calculations.

And as thought leaders, iridiumInteractive brought in the media buzz by leveraging the Social Media to promote an opportunity like this. This not only enhanced the reach to the prospects but also showed them how they can leverage this and go beyond. iridiumInteractive, when it first partnered with KPMG Top 100, brought in a spate of innovative ideas, which were very openly embraced by the Policy Team and the people behind KPMG.

As Sriram Bharatham, CEO and Founder, iridiumInteractive affirms “There is no other platform like KPMG Top 100 as of my knowledge right now in East Africa. And what really encouraged us and what we are seeing here is that as a team, collectively, all the partners are really driving at setting the bar higher. This is the 2nd consecutive year that we are part of it and we have already raised the bar. And we will continue doing this till there is a time we can see, there is a change coming in.”

Speaking on this occasion, Sriram(Sri) Bharatam, Iridium Interactive CEO and Founder said, “The best part about the TIBU solution is that it simplifies the delivery of health care services for patients and health workers alike and provides a cost-effective platform to reach every person requiring treatment across the country.”

TIBU is the only comprehensive disease tracking and health information system available globally. TIBU seamlessly integrates treatment and monitoring from patient to health facility to county and provincial health offices, and finally to Ministry of Health in Nairobi. This hybrid solution connects patients and providers through Android devices and Internet Cloud infrastructure and can successfully operate even in remote locations where there is no electricity and mobile signals.  TIBU’s real-time mapping, data analysis and reporting capabilities empower Ministry of Health staff at all levels to monitorand take immediate corrective actions, such as re-supplying warehouses when drug shortages arise or reallocating staff when patient demand increases.

In less than four months of national roll out across Kenya, TIBU captured electronic medical records for 75% of all Kenya’s TB patients and has reimbursed over US$300,000 (approx. Ksh. 28 million) to patients through more than 146,000 mobile payments via M-PESA. Android tablets are used to access electronic health records and to deliver short training videos developed by Iridium interactive to Ministry staff on how to operate TIBU, how to use the tab device itself, and how to gain or update medical knowledge and skills.

With the financial support of USAID, theKenya Ministry of Health provided the policy and technical direction to Iridium Interactive to develop  TIBU,  a Comprehensive Solution for Healthcare Delivery in collaboration with its innovation partners, Safaricom and Tangazoletu.

TIBU provides real-time TB and Leprosy data into DHIS 2 or the District Health Information System, Kenya’s National Health Data System and has done so by connecting information systems used by other MOH units or projects. Thus, the TIBU platform has the potential to expand into other disease verticals in Kenya, such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria, or be scaled geographically across Africa.

The 2013 Google Innovation Awards Winners were announced at the “Connected Kenya 2013” ICT event held at the SarovaWhite Sands, Mombasa on May 27-30, 2013. The Connected Kenya Summit is the brainchild of the Kenya ICT Board in consultation with industry players and key government decision-makers. The Summit provides a platform for collaboration, capacity-building and priority sharing between government and the IT sector to link and accelerate implementation of government IT projects to world class standards. The Connected Kenya Summit has been successfully held since 2009.  The theme for the 2013 Connected Kenya Summit was “The County Citizen. Served“

‘Connected Kenya‘ Summit , a landmark event on Kenya’s educational horizon celebrates Kenyans who have developed ICT Solutions that drive economic growth and social development in Kenya’s “Vision 2030” . iridiumInteractive stole the limelight by bagging one of the Nation’s top innovation awards. These awards were jointly given by the Kenya ICT Board and the Kenya Vision 2030. All the applicants to the awards were required to be registered as a business in Kenya and it was mandatory to have had their products in the Kenyan Market for at least six months. There were 400 applications for various categories from all over the country . The competition was tough and the applications were reviewed by a high ranking team of independent judges, who represented the ICT private sector, academia, public sector and civil society.

iridiumInteractive won the award in the most hotly contested category of the “Best Innovation in the Education and Training Sector”. Sriram Bharatham, CEO and Founder accepted the award. Speaking on this occasion, Sriram Bharatam (Sri) said, “This recognition is a testimony that we are in the right direction and is a great motivator to the 50+ team members at iridiumInteractive across 20 locations in Kenya, to now scale this idea and reach out to transform as many Kenyan small business owners as possible.”

An enriching experience for the team, a giant leap forward towards reaching their goal.

Ethan Hunt is all geared to make the fourth installment of the Mission Impossible project possible.  Come December, he will do whatever it takes to clear his government’s name associated with the demolition of Kremlin by rogue elements.

At iridium Interactive, we have our own set of mission accomplishers. Of course, minus the enigmatic presence of Tom Cruise, but possessing the same obsession to find the solution to the task presented to them.
So, unlike earlier huddles, this huddle was special as various teams from iridium chose to interact with each other as to how they went about accomplishing their missions. Some of them worked with the top-tier clients, while others provided solutions to SMEs. But they soon found that the path chosen to derive at a solution to the problems was common.

Four teams got to explain how they managed to come up with simple solutions to seemingly huge problems. Technical jargon was discarded and all teams chose a creative way to explain their process, so that everyone could understand what was being spoken about and even come up with queries.

One of the teams chose to explain their process through a 10-minute skit while another team chose the story-telling format. Two other teams used presentations to explain their processes. This simple effort threw open a new world to most employees who were suddenly aware of what the other teams were involved in and how they managed to come up with ways to solve a problem. There was lots of enthusiasm as interesting facts were revealed and relevant data was presented by all participating teams.

Irrespective of what process one handled, there was a curiosity to know what iridium Interactive was doing and how various teams worked parallel to each other. Almost an hour and half was spent tackling questions ranging from specific process related queries to general philosophy of the company.

Of course, there was much more happening, but as time was a constraint, these were saved for the next huddle.

The evening came to an end with CEO Sriram Bharatam telling how at iridium Interactive technology was not ‘the’ solution to a problem. He laced his speech with interesting anecdotes and stories to tell the team why it was important to understand a problem and look at finding a solution, rather than getting stressed over which method to use.

Keep it simple, keep it practical and enjoy the experience, he reiterated.

The three-day meet kicked of with the teams getting acquainted with each other, as many had not had an opportunity to meet. Each successive member of the team nick-named the earlier one and repeated the name until the last member repeated the names and nicknames of the entire team!

Sriram welcomed the team with a refresher on why we exist and the company’s mission and vision.

The three teams—Kuza Biashara Content (KBC) (including website & production), Kuza Biashara SME (KBS) & Project Management Office (PMO) soon went into a workshop mode where they discussed the plans, mode of execution and the resources required. The KBS team in particular, discussed strategies for an increase in closed sales of Zidisha accounts and presented ways of achieving the targets.

An interactive session with a 4-member team from Safaricom saw the Zidisha sales team sorting out operational issues. The Safaricom team reiterated its stance to work with and support the KBS team in its work.

The 3-day meet was not all work, as the team took time out to play games that help team building. A mouth-watering cake cut by the recently wedded chief of sales from Safaricom & his wife marked Sriram’s 40^th birthday too!Day three concluded with all the three teams making presentations on the way forward.

Before the teams parted ways, the iridium Interactive and KuzaBiashara Kenyan team was thoroughly energized. Everyone had understood the company’s vision & had created new bonds.  It is this bond that will now take on the Kenyan SME market by storm. And grow in numbers.

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SANGEETHA DEVI DUNDOO (Hindu )

A quirk of fate made Sriram Bharatham and Bharathi trade their lucrative jobs for social entrepreneurship.

The office space in iridium Interactive is cluttered and spacious, all at once. We walk through a maze of cubicles where employees are busy at their workstations and then walk through a long pathway with plenty of natural light streaming in through the huge glass panes. On a row of bamboo modas, a long winding sheet of paper rests bearing a long list of names. “We celebrated the company’s eleventh anniversary recently and this list has the names of each and every one who worked with us in all these years,” says Sriram Bharatam, the CEO, as he greets us.

The spacious walkway is where ‘Iridium’ites have their morning huddle and the creative and logic teams come together to share ideas. Sriram Bharatam is an engineer who went on to studyinternational business, pursued higher education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, returned to India to join Hewlett-Packard JV, New Delhi, working in the strategy and consulting practice. He swiftly rose among the ranks when in his 20s and then, by a quirk of fate, turned a social entrepreneur with Cause an Effect (CnE) and Iridium Interactive. Giving him company is his wife Bharathi, a chartered accountant, who never got to do accounting but revels in the social pursuits of Cause an Effect.

Ripple effect

The devastating cyclone that hit Orissa in 1999 triggered the change for Sriram and Bharathi. “We were both in New Delhi a year after our wedding. Sriram was pretty much a jetsetter. He lost his passport and we came to Hyderabad to get a duplicate passport,” Bharathi rewinds. The news of the cyclone made them want to do their bit. “We walked into a cyber cafe and created a portal for Cause an Effect and helped in raising funds for victims through Prime Minister and Chief Minister relief funds,” says Sriram. Within days, they had gunny bags full of cheques. They raised nearly 1.5 million dollars as contribution from 18 million people. “We felt responsible and accountable. We channelised the cheques to the respective relief funds,” adds Bharathi.

The effort that went towards building a global community of 18 million in just 45 days through CnE won Sriram the Kauffman Community Award for social entrepreneurship in 2004. The cushy, high paying job in New Delhi soon became a thing of the past. Sriram and Bharathi stayed put in Hyderabad and spearheaded Cause an Effect, which became a non-for-profit organisation with a focus on sustainable livelihoods, women, health, childcare, disability and much more.

Within no time, iridium Interactive was also born. While iridium became a commercial enterprise, CnE thrived on social entrepreneurship. “During the tsunami, we understood that more funds were flowing in than manpower. People needed temporary livelihood measures than anything else. We produced seven movies on topics such as mushroom cultivation, vermi compost, how to repair mechanised boats, kitchen farming, etc in four languages and shared them with our partner NGOs including NASSCOM Foundation, who in turn trained people in their centres. Around 1500 to 2000 volunteers were trained in each module; they in turn spread the message among people affected by tsunami,” says Bharathi.

From a one-room office to an enterprise that now meets requirements of more than 2000 clients within Hyderabad alone, iridium has come a long way. Even within the commercial setup, Sriram and Bharathi have donned their Good Samaritan hats. One of the many things that Iridium is credited for is the process of making websites ‘accessible’. Accessibility refers to developing websites that can be navigated by differently-abled users. What’s more? The company has employed visually challenged software developers. “It’s high time companies look beyond employing differently-abled people merely as telephone operators. Some of the people trained by us in mainstream work are now well placed in larger companies and the NASSCOM inclusion team, where there is more scope to grow,” says Sriram. In fact, Iridium is now in the process of creating voice-enabled websites to make the Net accessible to the hearing impaired.

SWOT, modules and mobile streaming

Sriram recently spent a few weeks in East Africa, testing new modules. He lets us in on what’s brewing: “We are working towards capacity building exercises for micro and small entrepreneurs. A company that has just two people also has needs policies, regulations, HR, accounting, finance management, etc but doesn’t know how to handle diverse portfolios. These are companies that aren’t able to make steady progress and reach out to new clients. We faced these problems when we started off and know what it takes. Ideally we shouldn’t have taken this long to reach where we are today.”

Sriram’s team has created ‘How to…’ modules that help small and micro entrepreneurs. Modules such as how to evaluate balance sheets and how to review a company through SWOT analysis will be soon streamed through mobile phones. “We did pilot projects in East Africa involving five countries and more than 200 clients,” informs Sriram. If logistics are worked out, expect similar modules to be introduced in India as well.

Their office is a mix of professionals with different core strengths. “We don’t strictly go by qualification. We look for people who are passionate about their work and those who can look beyond mere technology,” echo Bharathi and Sriram. And those passionate about doing out-of-the-box work have been knocking at their doors, even from premier institutes. “Right now, we have a few interns from IIT Guwahati,” smiles Sriram.

He hastens to add, “But now and then we are faced with the situation where candidates are compelled to move out because their parents want to see them placed in larger companies with fatter paycheques. Though the candidates themselves are very happy with their work, parental pressure takes a toll. Culturally, in India we are conditioned to believe that it is rude to say NO to our elders.”

Sriram and Bharathi know firsthand about parental perceptions. “Even today, our respective parents feel we should have done what our peers did — be ‘well settled’ in the US. For us, that seems like the worst thing. We’d rather work here and create opportunities for others than run away to the United States,” smiles Sriram.

As Published in Hindu

Just a few days old at iridium (Delhi office), I was put in the team to work on this project. We were given a flat 15 days to get the new design and the entire back-end implemented, but kudos to our technical team (also consisting of new joinees) for getting the portal up and running. This year we also ensured active customer support (making sure that we answer each and every query) and extended it to social media (via Facebook); additionally we also used the fan page to generate buzz.

The project received a tremendous response of 40,000 business plans got submitted on the website.

The project exposed me to the absolute vastness in terms of budget, impact, brand awareness and connect and the impact such an activity could have. There was a lot of cross functional synergy required, a lot of fire-fighting (at times), a lot of unlearning and learning and hard work and all of this was worth when our team got the chance to attend the Grand Finale and to watch the participants we have interacted with/supported/helped deliver those business plan presentations. It was like reliving the entire 4-5 months of working on the project.

And then came the big one, the announcement of the Grand Finale winner! It was a great feeling for us to have helped someone to win a brand new WagonR and Rs 10 Lakhs.

In the photograph, this is our team with Ms. Aparna Bhatnagar (winner of the WagonR Think Big Challenge).

Not to forget we (our team) got a chance to meet Madhavan (aka Manu of Tanu weds Manu) and we even got a photograph clicked with him ☺

Overall it’s been a kick ass experience and we are already looking forward to its next edition.

Sometimes I wonder if I could ever get to work. Books seem to haunt me through whatever course I take up. For many, ‘work’ would be an ideal break from studies. Internship, thankfully, is the much needed ‘syllabus’ in an academic curriculum, something that would enrich me with experience. It comes as true test of application. And I always believed in the ‘Head & Heart’ policy – if you ever want to make it big, keep both of them in the thick of things.

I needed a tick mark against a mandatory internship if I ever wanted to have my report-card in hand. I had constant nightmares of joining a random company and coming out with zero learning. And so did 13 others coming from schools like IIT-Delhi, IIT- Guwahati, University of Hyderabad, NIT-Jalandhar. The dreams are high.

Chapter One -

On a new day, I checked my mail as a part of my routine. Internship call letter – iridium Interactive was the subject line. Delighted to take up the opportunity, I rushed myself to meet the people there. Oh what contrast a second of goodness can do!

What your academic record is – doesn’t really matter. We need the passion and the commitment to work on our projects was the belief at iridium. I took it up as a challenge – the learning path unravelled in front of me. And I began to walk.

Chapter Two-

At iridium, there is something different to do every day. I began to wrap up my day’s work when my colleagues Ravi and Sujana gathered me along with a few others in office for a surprise. I was then asked to pick a paper (like a celebrity picking the winner at a lottery!) Written on it was the name of someone I barely knew (OK! I didn’t know who it was! Or Secret Santa?)

Ravi then dropped the bomb – “Guys! We are gathered here to welcome new ‘joinees’. It is iridium’s tradition to make them feel a part of the family and get to know all of us in the shortest span of time. Let’s celebrate this evening with a few fun activities. Written on the piece of paper you picked is a name of your friend, your colleague. Get to know about him. You’ll be given 10 minutes to gather as much information as you can. And the tricky part is – you need to give a picture about him, in a constructive, funny way, to all of us here. Go!”

I haven’t seen any chaos as big as this! It was communication as its best. Oh, the delight in the hustle and bustle of introductions, bumping in to the wrong person! (I was supposed to meet the one whose name I had on my piece of paper). I finally found the man. And then the following conversation/questions/interview ensued.

Tell me about you.

What are your hobbies?

Where did you study?

Tell me your most peculiar habit.

What is favourite movie?

Who are your best friends?

Do you have a girl friend?

Exhaustive! There were other people finding information from/about others. For some, it was a barter system.

The gathering defined what a stock-market would look like! At the end of it, those 10 minutes, I had a little summary of the discussions I had.”Time up. Time to present”, Ravi shouted.

I stepped up to introduce the-name-on-the-piece-of-paper. I managed to bring in humour (although I wasn’t convinced). But people around me were generous enough to sport a smile. And the applause for a few words was amusing! Ravi took some beating – he was targeted for a few pranks while Sailesh quietly sent remarks from the back of the huddle. (Oh btw – Huddle is a favourite word at iridium. It not only brings all of them together but also solves issues and that is exactly what keeps iridium going.)

More introductions followed. The Associates took their time off from their everyday schedule to be a part of this gathering. There were laughs and gags. And half-dances. What followed was a hog-fest! The cake-cutting session was sowed the seed of togetherness. The half hour of performances bound us together.

And there was sharing of food! That explains it all.

Chapter Three-

I learnt quite a bit thus far. My eyes were wide open.

The I is us Interns and we are thankful to be here in-term.

…………

And now I eagerly wait to write the rest of the chapters.

On March 14 this year the birth anniversary of iridium was celebrated with much fanfare at the office. A list of over 600 employees past and  present was displayed in the main hall and cake cutting was followed by experience sharing by Ms Bharathi Bharatam, who along with Sriram Bharatam has been with the company as the founding team right from the beginning. This is an especially proud day for us and we would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been associated with iridium through these years. Here’s hoping that we will remain associated and continue to scale the heights of success for the years to come!

Mr Vinod cutting the 11th anniversary cake

The list of employees who helped make iridium the name it is today