Today, GSMA is releasing a new tool, the Mobile Money Operational Assessment. The Mobile Money Operational Assessment offers a quick diagnostic of the foundations (such as distribution, organisational structure and marketing) in a mobile money service, and is designed to identify barriers that might inhibit growth of their service, and provide recommendations and considerations for overcoming these. The assessment can be used for many purposes: existing providers can use the consideration for future business planning and implement changes to overcome barriers; new or start-up services can use it as a checklist for setting up a mobile money operation with strong foundations.
The Operational Assessment is an MS Excel spreadsheet, where providers can:
(1) Fill in transaction data, and
(2) Complete three questionnaires about the operation on Distribution, Organisational Structure and Operation, and Marketing.
The assessment aims to diagnose the operation against global best practices. In addition to the excel spreadsheet, there is an overview slide deck which provides further guidance on how to use the tool.
Operational Assessment structure
The current structure and scope of the Operational Assessment is based on foundational best practice captured through insights from working with growing and scaled mobile money deployments. This Assessment aims to be as generic and applicable as possible in multiple markets. It assumes that the regulatory environment in a market is enabling and that the operator is well-versed on their competitive landscape. The three questionnaires aim to compare your current practices against an agent-based closed-loop mobile money service, similar to the East African model.
In the quantitative assessment inputting data about customers, products and distribution network for 18 months will provide a quick overview on where your operation is, in terms of global averages. For a deeper assessment of your mobile money service, you can receive a customised benchmark report after participating in the annual Global Adoption Survey, which will be launched soon.
This is the first version of the toolkit, and it will continue to be updated based on industry feedback and development. If you have any comments or feedback on the Operational Assessment, please don’t hesitate to use the comment section below or email us at mmu@gsma.com.
Download the Mobile Money Operational Assessment (.xls) and the Overview presentation.