generating income for telecentres: [bridging] e-commerce services to small and medium enterprises...
DESCRIPTION
Open Entry provides an e-commerce free platform to support small entrepreneurs in the community served by the telecentres. Starting is simple… just watch this webinar!TRANSCRIPT
Jimena Betancourt Coordinación TIS Talks [email protected] @jimebeta
1. 2.
3.
Building Knowledge
Finding Solutions and Partners
Planning and Managing for Innovation, Technology and Sustainability
THREE PHASES:
2. Finding Solutions and Partners for Technology, Innovation and Sustainability
• Identify partners to develop distribution channels of ICT products and services such as e-health, distance education, telecommunication solutions and many more • Identify system management solutions based on open
applications
• Identify solutions to lower hardware cost
• Identify partners to develop applications for greater impact in the communities served by telecentres
Goals:
Daniel Salcedo Founder OpenEntry
OpenEntry.com
Generating Income for Telecentres
By Enabling Them to Provide E-commerce Services to Local
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
by Daniel Salcedo, Founder & CEO, [email protected]
• Telecentres are a noble approach to democratizing the benefits of ICT
• Most struggle for sustainability precisely because they target users of limited means
• Key is offering services to local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that can afford to pay enough to subsidize usage by the rest of users
Telecentre Sustainability
Early Promise of E-commerce
• Poor people generally produce stuff to sell or work for somebody who does. More efficient markets help the poor as producers as well as consumers.
• Development experts in the 1990’s, “level the playing field for the little guy”
• Bill Gates – disintermediation will enable “friction free capitalism”
Everybody thought it was a technical challenge of getting SMEs online • Complicated - needed to know HTML or hire an
expert or buy software • Laborious – had to hand code every catalog page
instead of pulling from a database • Expensive – own domain and hosting, credit card
payment required • English required • Logistics of international payment and shipping
Even if a SME managed to build a beautiful catalog…
• Buyers couldn’t find it among the billions of websites on the Internet
• Even if they did, they wouldn’t trust it • So, besides the technical obstacles, the
main challenge of e-commerce is visibility, credibility, and trust
Recent Advances Change Everything • Proliferation of low cost devices (mobile
phones, netbooks, tablets) greatly expands the hardware choices for Internet access
• Internet costs continue to drop while its reach/speed increase. Corporations now offer powerful "cloud computing" services
• Social networking services enable millions to publish their information with images and demonstrate the power of trusted networks
OpenEntry is a Development Organization
• Mission – to help artisans and SMEs to benefit from e-commerce
• Support from World Bank, USAID, IDB, Rockefeller, Oracle, eBay, individuals, more
• Developed an e-commerce platform for artisans and SMEs worldwide
Free Catalogs in 44 Countries on Google Cloud Computing
• Gmail - account security • Docs/Drive – information storage • Picasa - image storage • Translate – instructions in 57 languages • Checkout - also PayPal, 2Checkout • Apps Engine - execute programs on
powerful/reliable Google severs • Android - offline mobile operation
Catalog Features • Build in one hour from any computer or
smart phone • Multi-lingual instructions and output • Personalize with own banner/logo, choice of
templates, fonts, colors • Enabled for credit cards or Request for Quote • Live User Support, chat from Nepal • FREE (100 products), $200/year for 1000
products and more catalog features
Example Catalogs
Selected from Implementations in 45 countries
OpenEntry.com/Catalog
Youtube video of creating a catalog
www.youtube.com/watch?v=170FwlhdInI&feature=player_embedded
(three minutes)
To build your own free catalog, go to Catalog.OpenEntry.com
However, even if a SME builds a beautiful catalog…
• Buyers can’t find it among the billions of websites on the Internet
• Even if they do, they won’t trust it • The main challenge of e-commerce is
visibility, credibility, and trust
OpenEntry Network Markets • Any high profile business network • Chamber of Commerce • Export Promotion Agency • Industry Association • Trade Show
• Aggregates the catalogs of all its members (large & small) into a network market
• Generating visibility, credibility, trust • Amazon.com EC2 Cloud Computing Facility enables
scaling for mainstream business networks
Example Network Markets
OpenEntry.com/Network+Market
Does it Work? http://goo.gl/EWd4b
Does it Work? http://goo.gl/EWd4b
20
UNDP Conclusions • The largest impact of implementing this “pro-poor”
e-commerce approach was on income and employment.
• Firms using it reported jobs directly attributable to on-line promotion . . . 3918 women
• A relatively inexperienced group of young IT professionals could, with the proper tools, create employment for themselves while providing e-commerce services to local SMEs.
Additional Considerations • Don’t need credit card payments – for every
$1 transacted online, $4 are influenced by the Internet
• Can start with local cash on delivery sales, 2CheckOut.com works everywhere
• Most international sales are B2B • Shipping easier now - consolidated shipments
can cut costs by 80%
• 100 million SMEs will need help moving online in next 10 years
• Women and youth entrepreneurs earn income building catalogs for local SMEs
• Modest marginal cost of including e-commerce in projects for youth, women, employment, trade
Potential Impact Huge Compared to Costs
Opportunity for Telecentres • Most SME owners are busy running their
businesses and often not proficient with computers
• OpenEntry enables telecentres to offer paid services such as training, catalog setup and maintenance, and banner/template design
• SMEs will also pay telecentres for the use of computers and digital cameras
Generating Income for Telecentres
By Enabling Them to Provide E-commerce Services to Local
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
by Daniel Salcedo, Founder & CEO, [email protected]
Thank You!