Ziqitza, an ambulance company, uses its existing call centers to collect poverty data from customers. Other companies without call centers can use SMS surveys for efficient data collection. Juhudi Kilimo, a company providing loans to farmers, conducts SMS surveys through the Echomobile platform and the Progress Out of Poverty Index to learn more about clients. Juhudi field officers also use tablets to collect customer data during farm visits.

1. CASE STUDY
PART 3
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2. Because Ziqitza
customers frequently call
them for ambulance
services, the company has
an existing infrastructure
of call centers in place. It
made the most sense for
them to leverage the
existing call center
technology to collect
poverty-related data.
2Image Credit: Noun Project, Alex Sheyn. All use, reproduction and distribution of this work is subject to a CC-BY-NC-ND license.

3. However, for other
enterprises, without
such data collection
capacities, tools
that use mobile
phones— such as
SMS surveys —
offer significant
opportunities for
streamlined data
collection.
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4. For example Juhudi
Kilimo, another
company in Acumen’s
portfolio, provides loans
to farmers in Kenya that
can be used to purchase
specific agricultural
assets, such as cows or
tractors. They have also
been at the forefront of
adopting this kind of
Lean Data approach.
4
Image Credit: Juhudi Kilimo. All use, reproduction and distribution of this work is subject to a CC-BY-NC-ND license.

5. Juhudi is deploying
SMS surveys using
the Echomobile
platform to learn
more about its
clients; together
Acumen and Juhudi
piloted conducting
the Progress Out of
Poverty Index
surveys via SMS.
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6. 6All use, reproduction and distribution of this work is subject to a CC-BY-NC-ND license.
In addition the company
equips its field officers with
tablets to collect customer data
while visiting farmer groups,
mapping data to individual
farmer records to help the
company track metrics such as
which groups are repaying
more consistently, how many
women they reach versus men,
what kinds of assets men
versus women end up
purchasing, the client dropout
rate, and even children’s school
attendance.

7. 7
As these mobile tools
proliferate and
become more robust,
the possibilities for
data collection in the
developing world
among bottom of the
pyramid customers
are expanding
exponentially.
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8. 8Image Credit: Center for Health Market Innovations. All use, reproduction and distribution of this work is subject to a CC-BY-NC-ND license.