As Kuza Biashara Founder & Chief Mentor, Mr Sriram Bharatam, shares in this interview with CNBC Africa’s Bonney Tunya, small business owners can effectively leverage on technology to Learn, Connect and Grow.

Some Quick Takeaways From This Video

• How young entrepreneurs can benefit from our recent partnership with AITEC-Africa
• Insights into Kuza Biashara training for small businesses
• Insights into Sri’s TED talk on “Why start-ups fail”
• Insights into the TIBU system done by Kuza Biashara’s sister companies to improve healthcare services to TB patients

This is definitely an interview worth watching…and as usual we’re counting on your to SHARE IT!

Aitec Africa has been focussed on ICT publishing, event management, professional development and training in Africa. AITEC has been a market-leader in terms of spreading knowledge on the Internet, computing and telecommunications across most of English-speaking Africa.

iridiumInteractive Limited is an Innovative Business Solutions company that helps some of the world’s leading brands solve their complex business problems. Iridium has success stories across various verticals ranging from Non-Profit, Education, Retail, Healthcare, Consulting, Manufacturing, Media, Entertainment and Government.  Iridium is uniquely positioned with varied experience and success stories and recognitions, both International and National.

African banks have a great challenge in overcoming their heritage of colonial banking, which was designed to cater primarily for government, corporate and high-worth individuals. The bottom part of the pyramid has been badly neglected. Now that the mobile operators are setting the pace in terms of providing low-cost banking services, banks are scrambling to catch up. This they can do not only through technological innovation, but also through a customer-oriented corporate culture and service innovation.

Entering its eighth year as the region’s leading banking forum, AITEC Banking & Mobile Money COMESA Conference 2014 is set to address the key issues faced by the region’s increasingly dynamic financial services sector. The 8th edition of AITEC Banking & Mobile Money COMESA Conference 2014,  slated to take place on the 10th & 11th of September, the event will draw over 350  Banking & Finance professionals from Banking / Mobile Banking industry from the COMESA region and a representation from the Industry & SME Sector .

The 2-day event will showcase

• 04 Indepth Workshops
  • Latest anti-money laundering threats and strategies
  • Achieving compliance with ISO27001
  • Securing data in on-premise and cloud infrastructure
  • Effective incident response and investigation

• Focused on 09 Topics
  • How can banks better support SMEs – and fire up the economy?
  • Innovation for inclusion,  Solutions for consumer services
  • Mapping low-income financial needs and services
  • Solutions for financial inclusion,  Security strategies & solutions
  • Core banking: Breaking the meld
  • Agent banking for financial inclusion
  • Regional payments integration

Which will be presented by

• 58 speakers
• delivering insightful keynotes, panel discussions and breakout sessions.

iridiumInteractive is the Digital Partner of AITEC Banking & Mobile Money COMESA Conference 2014.  Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Sean Moroney, AITEC Africa Chairman said “We are pleased to have signed up with iridiumInteractive as our Digital Media Partner for all our events.  It is through them that we will be reaching out to a wider audience plus provide interactive participation in the conference, both pre and post conference.”

Sriram Bharatham realized the need to have a community of entrepreneurs who could trust each other and serve as a sounding board for learning and growth. He wanted to create a group of likeminded entrepreneurs who would share common core values and work together towards nurturing and growing their career paths. As he says “ The chapter launch is one of the high points in my life”

Sriram Bharatam who pioneered EO East Africa Chapter in August 2013, as the Founding President of Entrepreneurs Organization East Africa received the Randi Caroll Award for the Best EO start up Chapter globally at Athens. The Global Leadership Conference was attended by 1,100 Entrepreneurial leaders from 46 countries. EO East Africa achieved a membership of over 45 in just one year.

Sriram Bharatham expresses his mission, his goal in establishing the EO Chapter “ We wish to create a positive learning environment and help local and regional entrepreneurs leverage the EO network. We are also pursuing opportunities in the form of local and regional learning events, which will serve as an opportunity to create once- in-a-lifetime experiences for our new and prospective members. As Chapter President, I want to set the right structure and culture, and nurture leaders who can sustain and grow our influence beyond East Africa. And as a task force member of EO’s Africa 750 initiative, I’m helping EO achieve 750 members by 2018 and roll out Africa as an independent region. As a chapter, we’re confident that we will play a major role in achieving these targets”

As a young organization, ALA was thrilled to have the ability to utilize Salesforce under the “Power of Us’, program run by the Salesforce Foundation. Unfortunately, ALA’s Salesforce implementation across differently, rapidly growing departments, were not coordinated as a result of which data became increasingly complicated and problems arose with data integrity and duplication due to data uploads with inconsistent review and clean up. Things got complicate further by the creation of two silos of data, -Salesforce and a password protected portal.

Iridium Interactive stepped in to optimize ALA’s ACN platform into a scalable, user-friendly one that allows its Staff, Students and Graduates to interact with one another, identify opportunities like internships, mentoring and job openings, and also support ALA’s graduates at university and throughout their careers.

Using the Salesforce platform , Iridium built a robust ACN portal with a fully personalized user experience for prospective students and applicants The portal consolidates all the information the potential students need in one place and displays necessary information to students at different points in the application process.

Sriram Bharatham,CEO and Founder of Iridium Interactive spoke about the challenge “ ALA teams were working in silos on various islands of systems. Data integrity and reliability was at high risk and as a result, the communication with ALA graduates were ad-hoc, intermittent and mainly via email, all this resulting to highly dissatisfied users. They made an excellent choice of working with Salesforce but the biggest challenge was that it needed to be tamed internally along with other islands of systems in place”

Sharmi Surianarain, Director of Lifelong Engagement, Africa Careers Network, ALA, appreciated Iridium’s role “ Iridium Interactive helped us to significantly streamline operational efficiency and simultaneously enabled the ACN team to provide imporved feedback, timely notifications, closely matching with opportunities stated with career interests etc.

The ability to process over 1000 applications, link with over 400 partner organizations and over 800 students in network, have greatly improved ALA’s customer service orientation, with Iridium’s infallible guidance

He launched Cause an Effect. It was all about providing relief to those affected by a calamity. He could muster support from 18 corporates. On the Web site, every time somebody clicked on ‘save a life,’ र 9 was credited (50 paise from each company) along with the person’s contribution to a relief fund.

Soon, it gathered momentum. He reached out to the media from a cubicle in a cybercafé. There was no stopping. By the fifth day, a group of kids from Austin, Texas, wrote asking where to send the $100 it had raised.

“We put this e-mail on the Web site — it had a viral effect. In 45 days, we raised र 7.5 crore from 18 million people. Over days, cheques in gunny bags were sent to the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister’s office towards helping the affected in Odisha,” says Sriram Bharatam, an engineer and the one who dreamt of the idea.

Orthodox family

This effort using the power of the Internet also helped build a global community of millions in no time, says Sriram. It brought him global recognition in the form of the Kauffman Community Award for social entrepreneurship in 2004.

Today Cause an Effect is a non-government organisation focused on sustainable livelihoods. It did its part in providing relief to those affected in India by the 2004 tsunami. The Nasscom Foundation uses its example for training people in alternate livelihoods.

“Sometimes it is important to believe in your dream and pursue it. Everybody is given a chance in life. Success weds those who identify it and pursue it,” says Sriram, a first-generation entrepreneur, who is now creating waves in faraway Kenya with his Internet and digital media projects.

Sriram comes from an orthodox family, where the appetite for risk taking was the least. He studied mechanical engineering and then software engineering. An MBA followed. A gold medallist throughout, he joined HCL-Hewlett-Packard, at that time his dream company. The offer was to sell computers.

“I said no and wanted to do software. They put me in HR,” says Sriram. Three months later, Sriram developed the first e-commerce solution for the company, as well as SAP. He was picked as an ‘intrapreneur’ (out of the 2,500 youngsters) and asked to work with GNIIT.

A stint at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, for an entrepreneurial programme called ‘Birthing of Giants,’ where they pick 60 entrepreneurs every year globally, gave the much-needed boost. These entrepreneurs have a story, are small, but have it in them to grow and make it big.

Cause an Effect has proved to be his turning point to as a social entrepreneur. He started iridium Interactive in 2000 with his chartered-accountant wife Bharathi. “We again started from the same cybercafé called Cyber Spice in Hyderabad. Took space and in fact partnered with him (the owner) to hire three cubicles. ITC was the first client, then came Escorts and Maruti, and it grew,” he says.

The focus was on solving business problems through digital media. “In 2001, I met Naresh Trehan, who was then with Escorts Hospital in New Delhi. He said 80 per cent of the time doctors spend on educating patients. We produced animation films on balloon angioplasty, created a Web site, wherein people could log on and get many simple solutions.” In the last decade, iridium Interactive has been working on several ideas, including a Web site for the blind, which has been recognised among the top 100 innovations by Nasscom. It employs 150 people in India, the US, Kenya and in a few countries in Europe.

Kenya experience

The desire to explore new avenues took Sriram to Kenya. It all started after his visit to East Africa with Nasscom in 2010. In Kenya, 80 per cent of transactions done are through Vodafone’s Safari.com. Further, 70 per cent of the 40 million citizens are connected through M-Pesa.

With high Internet and mobile penetration in Kenya, Sriram saw an opportunity to offer solutions to small and medium enterprises there. So he started Kuza Biashara, which in Swahili means ‘grow your business,’ in 2011. The Kenyan venture is self funded. It benefits about 15,000 small business owners.

Today, it has 55 Kenyans working and is present in 20 locations. The focus is on capacity building for small business owners. These people “don’t know what they don’t know.” For example, they don’t know how to hire employees, take a bank credit, network in conferences, or prepare a balance sheet.

“We have made short videos to educate these small businesses. More than 300 videos today offer a range of suggestions and solutions, at every step of growth. Our partnership with Safari.com is flowering with over 100 hits daily,” says Sriram. These efforts have brought Sriram and his company the Kenya Vision 2030 Innovation Award. The target is to connect a million small businesses by 2015. Pilot projects are underway in Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Ghana and Rwanda. “In the future, we want to replicate this in India, where we can make a much bigger impact,” says Sriram.

Passion, idea, place

What has it taken to traverse such a diverse path as an entrepreneur? The 40-year-old Sriram says it is all about passion, right idea and place. “In my case, I am driven by an urge to make a difference. Don’t start with money, it will come at the end of the day. To cut a tree in six hours, the wise man sharpens the axe for four hours and cuts in 10 minutes. What I am doing in Kenya is this,” he explains.

For an entrepreneur, thunderstorms keep coming. Money is always a challenge. “I never planned investment needs. I have also landed in trouble.” For example, he lost money and almost lost the company iridium Interactive in 2008-09. He had to let go 100 employees as customers defaulted on payment. iridium Interactive is one of the biggest companies in the digital space. He did not want to sell out, as it meant innovation had to be sacrificed. “I also do not believe in private equity as it means the same,” he says.

Cause an Effect was an impulsive, overnight effort. iridium Interactive is a reasoned, commercial enterprise, says Sriram, who now wants to build a sustainable model based on the Africa experience.

Source: The Hindu Business Line

It is difficult to imagine that more than 150,000 people are affected by TB in Kenya every year and it is one of the major causes of mortality in the country. Do you know that in 2010 alone there were about 10 million orphan children as a result of TB deaths among parents throughout the world? It is very difficult to treat a HIV person infected with TB, and what is worse is that they have the potential to infect 15 others.

The estimated number of people falling ill with tuberculosis every year is declining, though very slowly. That is good news, for it means that the disease is being contained. The introduction of the new digital programme called TIBU that will help in controlling TB and managing the data of patients affected by the disease and ensuring zero TB tolerance by the year 2015.

Dr Shahnaz Sharif, the Director of Public Health and Sanitation said TIBU was model that was specially created to ensure proper data management and monitoring of data of all the TB patients in the country. One of the essential features of the programme is that it not only keeps a track of the progress on the treatment of patients but it also keeps a track of patients who have defaulted in their treatment.

TIBU is a unique model that specifically takes care of the challenges of data management and ensures tracking and monitoring the data of all TB patients throughout the country and successfully keep track of their treatment progress. The system also provides incentives to the patients for ensuring that they complete the full course of treatment – Patient Support Allowance – which will be provided through M-Pesa.

The cost of the first phase has been estimated at about Sh. 43 million while the second phase that involves rolling out the programme throughout the country will cost about Sh.130 million. The TIBU integration platform is DISH2 system of social services delivery using mobile technology.

The best part about TIBU is that it simplifies the health delivery services and provides an equitable platform for tackling the disease. The TIBU Collaborative Programme is a revolution in Health Service Delivery and as they say, it is simple, efficient, and trustworthy.

The official mail on 24^th created the background by giving a gist of what we can expect—ethnic attire, activity, and fireworks. In the morning huddle that day, Sujana too explained as much. But, even she could not prepare us what was to follow on the 25th.  Many people turned up in their ethnic best, those who could not manage to do so made it a point to, at least, put on their best apparels. The whole office was in a festive mood. Every smiling face and a more enthusiastic body language gave away the whole story. Something special may happen.

By 4pm the terrace was decked up in garlands, and a small portion was soon transformed into a perfect place to do the puja. As soon as the clock struck five, the programmes began. The five tables at the terrace with white canvases, newspapers, scissors, and glue sticks on them were indicating the unfolding of some interesting activities. And the announcement came pretty soon– a collage competition was about to start. “Create a theme of your choice, and add a banner, if you wish”, was the basic direction. A few moments later the five teams were rigorously trying to pull out the best creative rabbit out of their hats.

Once the 15 minutes deadline was crossed, came the next part. The teams now needed to present their theme to the five judges, who too were selected from the participating teams. The teams showed off their creations one by one, while Team 1 stressed on female power, Team 2 displayed what brightness means, and created a montage of cityscapes and smiling faces. Awesome stuff guys! Teams 3 and 4 too were not far behind. They highlighted the festive season and the dazzling and glittering sides of Diwali, Dhanteras, and Laxmi Puja. Team 5 tried to create something different, and their canvas portrayed anti-corruption slogans.

The best part was there were less sound and more lights in this whole show. Though people lighted a few bombs, but they never got careless. The image of every employee lighting each other’s fire sticks, once again brought out the true spirit of Diwali. This is a time when we cross the mythological significance of the whole exercise, and imbue it with human relationships.

Amidst all this mirth, the expectation to know the name of the winner of the competition never diminished a bit. The small huddle surrounding Bharathi and Mr Vinod proved as much. While Team 3 came up trumps in the competition, Team 4 got the judge’s choice award. When Vinod Sir was handing over the bags full of goodies, they also symbolised the end of the eventful day. While leaving the office on that day, we also carried something more than the gifts. We carried the warmth of team spirit and the warmth of affection. We knew the candles of enthusiasm will keep burning in our heart for a long time.

iss Diwali mein hum Do Diye jyada jaalaye!!!

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Right from day one, the Interns were into serious business. Under the guidance of Technical Manager Sreekanth , Archie & Nishanth  they were divided into teams handling different projects which include an Accounting Software for SME’s, a video application, a CRM strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects,  a cab routing application to manage and get best routes for employees opting for cabs, a report builder application for generating different kind of  reports depending on the requirement among others. It dint take much time for them to get adapted to the working environment and following II’s routine and work ethics. They had their daily huddles, followed the project management tool and also were a part of the monthly huddle giving their share of the experiences they had.

Apart from serious work, they made their presence felt during the tea breaks to the entire office where each member of the intern gang made sure that every other intern get their share of BPL (Bump pe laath).The most funniest guy, Sailesh was also one of the lucky ones to get it from the Interns. We also had a couple of knowledge impart sessions where the interns did get a chance to educate us on adobe illustrator and desktop shortcuts and others. All of us had a great time having the interns around and would be definitely missing them in the days to come. Last but not the least they have gifted us with some reminiscing memories of the time spent in Iridium Interactive in the link below and also complimentary notes. Cheers to Iridium and good luck to the Interns!!!