Mobile Technologies — Scale and Impact

Harshad Kalantri
Nov 8 · 3 min read
The world is changing.

Scale, Impact and NGOs / NPOs

Scale and impact are two important factors to determine the success of any organization. For commercial organizations, scale and impact are tangibly quantified in terms of profitability and market share, ultimately translating into value creation for shareholders. In the case of non-profits, be they government or non-government organizations, quantifying the scale and impact of their initiatives is in terms of achievement of social welfare outcomes.

Scale, Impact and Digital Technologies

Ironically, two of the defining characteristics of digital technologies is their scalability and their potential for impacting the user base. Often quoted examples of scalability include the engagement and reach of social networking platforms wherein a small team builds a product accessed by millions, in some cases even billions of users.

However, characterizing the resulting impact is often a tenuous exercise and is at best subjective. For instance, Facebook is known to be put to both beneficial and damaging uses.

Given the desire of NGOs / NPOs to achieve scale and deliver impact, it is essential for these organizations to critically evaluate their use of digital technologies. Mobile phones are the most universal platforms amongst digital technologies, particularly in their presence by rural and semi-urban communities which are usually the beneficiaries of projects by NGOs / NPOs.

Hence, due attention must be paid to the integration of mobile phones into the design of interventions by NGOs / NPOs.

Customizing solutions for maximum impact

When analyzing the scope for integrating mobile phone-based solutions into their interventions, NGOs / NPOs must aim for customization. Since it can be safely assumed that most NGOs / NPOs have clearly defined goals and audience, it should be able to construct detailed end-user profiles with the particular validation on their access to and use of mobile phones.

For instance, an organization serving traditional farmers could study aspects such as the types of phones the farmers own, the extent to which they arcane numbers despite being illiterate, whether the farmers can be trained to access incoming voice messages, etc.

In case the planned intervention requires the beneficiaries to use unfamiliar features of the phone, the organization must consider the extent to which they can be trained. All these inputs will inform the solution design, which must be customized to the usage behaviour of the beneficiaries.

For instance, Vidiyal, an NGO based in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, designed a feature phone-based solution involving voicemail for use by illiterate women goat herders. To learn more about Vidiyal’s solution, click here to read an interview with the organization’s founder, Mr K Kamaraj.

Conclusion

Most people in both urban and rural areas are familiar with mobile phones. NGOs and NPOs need to understand the basic functionalities and user-end details to validate and develop technology that can impact their lives. Solutions to be incorporated based on their resources and ease of use rather than bringing unfamiliar technology with any objective focus.

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Harshad Kalantri

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Impacting Social Good and Technology

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