Qlik > Case Studies > Empowering Female Entrepreneurs—and Our Non-Profit—Through Greater Analytics

Empowering Female Entrepreneurs—and Our Non-Profit—Through Greater Analytics

Customer Company Size

SME

Region

America

Country

Guatemala

Product

QlikView
Qlik Sense

Tech Stack

Data Analytics
Data Visualization
Cloud-based Data Management

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Productivity Improvements
Customer Satisfaction

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Applicable Industries

Education
Finance & Insurance

Applicable Functions

Business Operation
Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Real-Time Location System (RTLS)

Services

Data Science Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Namaste Direct is a non-profit organization that offers financial literacy and mentoring to low-income female-owned businesses in Guatemala. Since its founding in 2004, Namaste Direct has supported more than 4,000 women through the Namaste Business Development Program. Their mission is to teach business owners how to effectively use the money they receive from a loan and to efficiently handle their income so they don’t need to depend on loans anymore. They share best practices that have proven effective over the years, such as separating business income from household finances, and various saving strategies. The organization currently provides assistance to almost 400 clients.

The Challenge

Namaste Direct, a non-profit organization, was struggling with data management. They were dealing with mountains of paper records and had to manually transfer data into Excel spreadsheets for analysis. This process was time-consuming and prone to errors. When they received large requests with strict deadlines, such as pulling data on 50 clients’ businesses for a report due the next day, it was stressful and challenging. They needed a data analytics platform that could streamline their operations and provide clear, actionable data quickly and accurately.

The Solution

Namaste Direct implemented QlikView and Qlik Sense, data analytics platforms that streamlined their operations. They took care to establish the right criteria and formalize their internal data requirements as well as those for their donors. Once they had those sorted, the team created their dashboards in QlikView. By 2014, QlikView was officially in place, providing new visibility into their clients’ reality and the status of their loans. Later, they expanded their use of Qlik to include the enterprise version of Qlik Sense, which gave them the power to enable data-inspired change. QlikView is used for internal operational tasks and Qlik Sense is used to create visually appealing reports for donors.

Operational Impact

QlikView and Qlik Sense have provided Namaste Direct with tools that allow them to sort information in any number of ways, including how clients allocate funds, the average profit based on the type of business, the average age of the business, and much more. They can see everything from big-picture statistics to individual snapshots of a client and her business—all at a glance.
The multi-layered visibility helps Namaste Direct better serve their clients. They can examine how each woman handles her loan payments, the individual impact of their financial education and advisory programs, and whether someone is a strong candidate for another loan or education cycle. Based on this data, they can make modifications to their plans and programs.
QlikView also reveals which clients are doing extremely well and what factors differentiate their success, versus other people who may be struggling. These insights benefit both their clients and their employees.

Quantitative Benefit

Creating a report in Qlik now takes just half an hour, compared to up to three days before the implementation of Qlik.
Namaste Direct has secured additional grants due to the QlikView reports they submit at the end of loan cycles.