Programme 3

2020 – 2022

Digital Field Application Rollout

Paperless field operations delivered across 28 institutions in four regions

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Organisation
VisionFund International
Role
Global Director of Digitization, Programme Lead
Scope
28 MFIs across Africa, Asia, Latin America & Europe
  • 28MFIs
  • EliminatedPaper Forms
  • ImprovedData Accuracy
  • ReducedFraud

Overview

Across VisionFund's 28 institutions, loan officers operated with paper forms, legacy tools and manual processes. I led delivery of a unified Digital Field Application, a single offline capable tool for all field operations, from requirements through wave rollout and handover.

The Problem

Field data capture was on paper, error rates were high, fraud was difficult to detect, and each institution had a different legacy configuration. Delivery had to succeed in low connectivity conditions without disrupting daily lending operations.

My Role & Delivery Leadership

Delivery lead accountable end to end. Owned the requirements baseline, rollout wave plan and readiness criteria, managed the vendor development cadence, coordinated UAT with institutional users, and controlled device provisioning, training and hypercare across all 28 institutions.

Delivery Approach

Phased rollout delivery with iterative release increments

Requirements and Readiness

Field workflow analysis with loan officers, connectivity and device readiness assessment per institution

→ Requirements baseline, readiness scorecard

Release Planning

Backlog prioritised into increments, rollout waves sequenced by institution readiness

→ Product backlog, wave rollout plan

Iterative Build

Sprint cadence with vendor development team, demo and feedback loop with pilot institutions

→ Sprint increments, pilot feedback log

Pilot and UAT

Controlled pilot in selected institutions, acceptance criteria signed by institutional users

→ UAT sign-off, pilot evaluation report

Wave Deployment

Device provisioning, training and change management per wave with hypercare support

→ Deployment reports, training records

Handover

Support model transition to in-country IT, adoption tracking and closure

→ Support handover, adoption dashboard

Key Challenges & Solutions

Speed against accuracy under field pressure

Acceptance criteria set explicit transaction time and error thresholds, tested with loan officers in UAT before any wave was approved for rollout.

Fragmented legacy landscape across 28 institutions

Scope held to a configurable standard build, with local variation managed through change control instead of bespoke development per institution.

Resistance from field staff

Institutional users involved from requirements onward and a structured change and training plan run in every rollout wave.

Operating in low connectivity conditions

Offline synchronisation treated as a top rated risk in the register, with defined mitigation, owner and pilot verification before scale up.

Outcomes & Impact

  • Paper forms fully eliminated: All field data capture moved to digital across all 28 institutions.

  • Faster loan processing: Digital onboarding reduced processing time and improved client experience.

  • Improved data accuracy: Real time validation reduced errors reaching core banking.

  • Increased clients per officer: Faster workflows enabled larger client portfolios per day.

  • Reduced fraud and field errors: GPS tagging and audit trails made field activity verifiable.

  • Reduced operational costs: Elimination of paper and reconciliation effort drove cost savings.

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