BIID Network is a pioneer in the adoption of e-health and e-agriculture services in Bangladesh. This webinar explains the different services and the necessary steps to develop the business model in the organization.

1. 1
Welcome to
TIS Talks
We believe that today’s ICT4D (information
and community technology for development)
environment presents us with trends and
opportunities with great potential to generate
game changing innovations to telecentres and
their growing number of users.
Join us and learn how!

2. 2
Host and Moderatos
Jimena Betancourt
TIS TALKS COORDINATOR
Jimena Betancourt is an international consultant
with more than 10 years of experience in social
innovation, strategy and management for
sustainable development enterprises and social
businesses in ICT4D. She has been involved with
the telecentre movement since 2009.
jbetancourt@telecentre.org
@jimebeta

3. 3
Md Shahid Uddin Akbar
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development
Making
Telecentres
Sustainable
Sharing
BIID
experiences
in
Bangladesh

4. Introduction of BIID
-­‐ BIID
is
a
private
sector
ini8a8ve
that
offers
a
range
of
services
aimed
at
development
and
promo8on
of
ICT
based
informa8on
and
services
market
in
Bangladesh.
-­‐ It’s
dis8nc8on
lies
in
clear
understanding
of
issues
&
opportuni8es
to
benefit
the
poor
with
the
use
of
ICTs.
-­‐ BIID
envisions
in
becoming
a
reliable
and
leading
enterprise
offering
strategic
planning,
implementa8on
assistance
and
consul8ng
services
to
public,
private
and
other
ini8a8ves
in
ICT
based
services
market
of
Bangladesh
and
in
other
developing
countries.

5. Ini%a%ves
and
Services
of
BIID
— Key Services
- Research and Consulting
- Service Development and Promotion
- HR capacity Building
— Major Initiatives
- Proliferation of commercially driven telecenter network
- Promoting e-Agriculture (Major economic activity)
- Facilitating ICT adoption in health, SMEs, Tourism
- Empowering citizens with use of ICTs
- Promoting innovations in use of ICTs for rural communities
- Offering voice based multi-service through Short Code16250

6. www.sme.com.bd
Proudly Bangladesh
Member
Bangladesh Telecentre Network (BTN)
BIID
Tanzania
Projects and Partners

7. Innovation
R&D
Piloting &
Demo Model
Strategic
Partnership
Connectivity
Readiness
(HR, Services)
Setting Goals and
objectives
Capacity
Building Regulatory
Framework
Awareness &
Advocacy
Scale up
(Replication)
Business
Model
BIID Phases, Issues and Outcomes
Commercialization as
Inclusive Model
Implementation and
Fine Tuning
Pilot & Pre-
Testing
QC &
Certification
Service
Branding

8. Understanding on Telecentres
— A
Telecenter
is
a
hub
/
shared
access
point
with
ICT
enabled
services
targeted
to
the
underserved
communi8es
in
rural
and
Peri-­‐urban
communi8es
as
a
mul8
service
delivery
plaJorm.
— The
model
developed
as
a
Inclusive
Business
Model
and
centre
owned
and
operated
by
a
local
entrepreneur
as
entrepreneurship
led
model,
will
be
operated
on
for-­‐profit
basis
with
social
benefits.
— Services
managed
&
Quality
ensured
by
BIID
and
offer
various
ICT
enabled
services
covering
agriculture,
health,
financial
services
and
others
under
standard
guidelines
&
training.
— The
model
will
include
value
added
services
like
Voice
and
SMS
based
services
with
strong
back
office
and
partnership
network

9. 
Telecentre
Reply from
Web / online
resources
Advisory
Panel
Experts
Help Desk
at BIID
Specialist
Extension
department
Service Provider
Rural users
Services
(Information and service)
Solution in ICT enabled
and traditional media
Telecentre/ BP /
Operator maintain
the contact and
communicate to
get the solution as
asked by the
customers
Content update
team will contact
with the sector
Specific focal point
to meet the query
and update content
Service delivered
by using Internet
/ mobile or any
other media
Experts
may
directly
contacted
Service Delivery
Flow of Telecentres

10. BIID
involvement
in
Telecentres
— Manage the Grameen Phone Community Information Centre (GP
CIC) network of 500 telecentres : Training, awareness building,
service offering and monitoring
— Developed framework of Union Information and Service Centres
(UISC) and offered training and e-services
— Assessed telecentres in Tanzania & recommended business
model
— Developed inclusive business model of telecentre titled Batighar
(Lighthouse) and rolled out in 20 locations as pre-commercial
— Innovate & offer service basket and branding (e-Krishok for
agriculture, e-Clinic for health, EPO for extension, MSME for
micro enterprises and Amar Hishab for Financial literacy
— Develop strategic partnership with relevant stakeholders

11. BIID Strategies for Telecnetre initiatives
— Serving the poor through profit in a sustainable way
— Targeting the BoP (Base of the Pyramid) communities
— Integrated approach and multi stakeholder partnership
— Balancing financial and social benefits
— Continuous innovation and demand based service
development under Bundling of Services strategy
where commercial and social (free) services offered
— Inclusive business model win-win proposition for BIID-
Local entrepreneur and target communities

12. Supportive policy and
commitment of the Govt.Connectivity
&Technology
Business
Plan
Services
Capacity
Awareness
Business model approach and need based services
Pillars
Structure of
Telecentre

13. Five Major Strands of Telecentres
Livelihood
• Livelihood Analysis (Social & Economic)
Services
Needs
• Responsive Service Development
Ownership
• Community Engagement / Partnership
Result
• Impact Assessment / Scaling up
Sustain
ability
• Inclusive Business Model

14. Few
snapshots
of
exis8ng
telecentres

15. Myth
vs
Reality
about
telecentres
Livelihood & ICT is a fancy combination and most hot
development agenda to solve all problems exists in
livelihood
ICT is only for the ‘elite’ communities, not for the ‘mass’
Services for the poor should be FREE and there is not
paying capacity of the poor
Telecentre is the major economic driver and ICT can
contribute to make the people efficient and system
transparent, which improve livelihood

16. Challenges faced to introduce Business Model
for telecentres
— Perception among the telecentre practitioners (Most
initiatives run under subsidized model with donor money)
— Market distortion at field level and dominance of FREE
services at the usage level
— Balancing profit vs social cause, specially at local level
— Lack of resources for innovation and model testing
— Low awareness among different stakeholders
— Conceptual limitations among the telentre practitioners
— Lack of availability of ‘success models’ to demo

17. Addressing the Challenges
— Setting the vision with right strategies
— Targeting the untapped BoP market for growth and
service packaging
— Integration of inclusiveness in the business model
— Positioning telecentres as a hub for social and
commercial services
— Resilience to survive the innovations and continuation
— Building partnerships among development agencies and
commercial organizations
— Combination of mobile and PC based services

18. Sustainability issue – The most debated
issue in telecentre movement
— Defining sustainability by the practitioners are not unique
and it has been framed as per the ‘requirement’ of the
donors, and biased.
— Most of the organizations (previous groups) now moving to
‘revenue’ or ‘cost recovery’ or ‘no profit’ model. And
again, its also due to the requirement of the donors.
— Ignoring the ground reality and long terms impact of
subsidized models had been promoted
— Entrepreneurship led model with inclusiveness emerged as
a solution to address the sustainability issue

19. Why business model is important?
— Due to lack of business model, most of the telecentres
disappear after the funding is over. All rosy picture
during project life and reverse when project ends.
— Without business model, scaling up or replication is
impossible
— Incentive is a Must to drive, grow and innovate for
initiatives at different level
— Free service cant ensure quality & accountability, and
people don’t value it
— The most killer thing in FREE service model is making
the beneficiaries Handicapped. It creates social
imbalance.

20. What is unique in Bangladesh?
— Both the models (Subsidy based and for profit) of
telecentres exists
— Entrepreneurship led model is growing fast
— Innovative services and availability of connectivity
— New initiatives are integrating Business Model
— Development agencies are also focusing of for-profit or
cost recovery / revenue models
— Available ‘success cases’ in entrepreneurship models
— Govt. is also promoting telecentre based initiatives and
e-Services
— Integration of mobile based services in Telecentres

21. Way forward
— Promoting sustainable telecentre model
— Sharing Bangladesh experiences with global
telecentre practitioners
— Facilitate intensive ‘action research’ and expert
support on developing business model centric
telecntre projects in developing countries
— Document and case studies on different success
models beyond Bangladesh
— Mobilize resources to support innovations

22. Addressing
the Base of
the
Pyramid
Benefitting
the target
group in a
sustainable
approach
Telecentres bring smiles for the poor

23. Thank You
For any further information, please email –
shahid.akbar@biid.org.bd

24. Next steps:
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2. Join us on Friday the 10th
Ecosystems of Parnerships for
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10:30am GMT