Enterprising or Social-Enterprising ....which way to go?

At telecentre forum of eGov - India, 2006, the auditorium was very electric when 'sustainability' was taken to the discussion.

'We should build Sustainable telecentres..!'
'Many of the telecentres would be closed down when the donors disappear..!'

....

'Well...! Social Enterprising is the only answer to Sustainability problem..!!'

I thought every body would jump into the idea when I threw this to the audience. Instead, all the eyes went deep and dump...as if I was talking a foreign language.

Richard Fuchs was right - 'Social Enterprising' is not familiar to the majority.

But. why 'Social Enterprising'..?

'Enterprising' - prepares you for money making; only aiming to build Profits, at whatever the cost to the community or environment.

'Social Enterprising' - teachs you to make money, while being responsible to your Social and Environmental concerns.

So - a 'Socially Entrepreneurial' telecentre operator, will make profits, while serving the best interests of Community, keeping the moral / ethical fibre intact.

An 'Entrepreneurial' telecentre operator might end up - converting his / her telecentre into a cybercafe...!!

Action Research Plan - Sustainability 1st

Sustainability 1st is an Action Research, to be carried out by Visiting Fellow of telecentre.org (Dr Harsha Liyanage). Time line of the research begins from January 2007, and expected to be terminated by June, 2008. Research involves developing sound Social Enterprise case studies in the telecentre / ict4D landscape.

The findings will be presented at a Special Workshop Platfrom to be orgnized by telecentre.org at upcoming Global Knowlege Conference (GK3) in December, 2007 (http://www.globalknowledge.org/).

It is expected to constantly share the research findings with the Telecentre.org community; which may include telecentre operators, network managers, NGOs, Corporate and State stctor institutions, Academia and telecentre fans.

Sustainability 1st Blog Site works as a platform to serve this purpose. And monthly Sustainability 1st Newsletter would promote more participation.


Comments of the participants to the blog site would shape up the overall research thinking.




The key goal of the Action Research is to build up the momentum and formulate strategies and directions of the Telecentre Sustainability journey.

Is sustainability a Major problem..?

The question was raised at the opening session at Telecentre Leaders Forum held in Nov, 2006, at Benin, West Africa. Above picture illustrates the distribution pattern of the participants, as a way of reflecting their stand point. There were 80 participants.

Bitterness of Failure....!

During the early age of Sustainability journey, in mid 2006, Fusion (http://www.fusion.lk/) started experimenting on BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) as a new product to introduce at telecentres. The convincing factor was - had the BPO's being introduced at telecenters, it can bring dual benefits to the telecentres; a) it can be a micro-enterprise offered at telecentres to the local communities, b). telecentre operators can make substantial revenue by offering services as a middle man.

BPO being not familiar in Sri Lanka, this required a lot of experiments. To mitigate the risk Fusion partnered with a private sector partner (CSM Pvt Ltd. www.csmsrilanka.com), who had screened the BPO service providers and engaged with negotiations with them.

As a first step, Fusion had run a pilot test with 3 telecentres. Objectives of the pilot were;
to recognize the feasibility of BPO operations at telecentres,
to identify the business model.

First two months of the three month pilot generated very convincing results. With the help of CSM, Fusion could recognize the less sophisticated (low end) BPOs such as Web page translations, Excel sheet productions, Power Point productions etc. instead of more coplex BPO operations such as Call Centres, accounting systems. More importantly telecentre operators had embraced the BPO as a feasible product to serve their revenue ambition.


Yet, the third month was a nightmare. Telecentre operators suddenly realized, they were not receiving the regular responses that they used to get every morning from the BPO service provider. Fusion management learned the on-line communication lines to BPO service provider, becoming increasingly inaccessible. CSM Pvt Ltd, (the middle man company), nevertheless convinced Fusion, they are attending to the operational problems. Yet, in one morning, Fusion was shocked to learn from CSM, that the BPO Service Provider had disappeared into thin air.

Whole Sri Lanka, was too late to realize the country had been cheated by a notorious BPO operator.

It was a very painful month for the telecentre operators as well as Fusion. Only the consolation was, CSM provided assurance, that they would find another BPO service provider to continue the journey. And Fusion is still waiting with hopes.

The positive side of the experiment was, Fusion learned BPOs are feasible. Yet need to be more cautious at establishing business relations.