Digitizing SOIL’s Sanitation Service
Photo: Vic Hinterlang
SOIL began using TaroWork’s digital tools last year to collect payments, manage customer accounts, conduct research, and test marketing strategies. The data that we’ve since collected is already helping us to optimize our logistics and make refinements to EkoLakay, like rolling out a mobile payment collection service.
Last month, SOIL Systems Director Erica Lloyd and Marketing and Sales Advisor Shannon Smith joined a webinar for TaroWorks to discuss how SOIL has digitized EkoLakay’s sales and operational activities to refine and scale up our ecological sanitation service.
We’re excited to share what we’ve learned and how we’re growing – and this webinar offered us the opportunity to do just that! If you weren’t able to tune in live, you can watch the video of SOIL’s presentation below. To read a recap of the webinar, visit TaroWorks’ website here.
Did you watch the webinar? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!
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Rex Cowan
October 7, 2017 (4:09 pm)
A few comments: a) great presentation, but for occasional audio feedback. This may seem minor but, you want watchers to concentrate on the information being conveyed. As such I believe it would be worth the effort to edit this out; 2) VERY impressive how technology is being used by SOIL. Clearly, this will help in taking SOIL to the next level in terms of expanding its service and customer satisfaction; 3) I understand the practicality/need of operating in Creole, however, presentations of this nature (intended for a wider audience) would benefit greatly if translations of Creole terms were to be shown; 4) as a lawyer, one of my concerns relating to licensing of the EKOLAY concept outside of Haiti has been lack of direct control over sanitation/safety standards on a daily basis by SOIL. It now occurs to me that, with this new digital information handling, SOIL has something it can license/market to similar efforts. This would leave liability for direct control over sanitation/safety standards where it belongs (i.e.: with the local provider of the service outside of Haiti); 5)as we are all aware, mobile phones, mobile banking and mobile payments are the wave of the future in third world situations. Instead of devoting SOIL resources to this, it might be a ‘win, win’ to explore networking with Haiti’s mobile provider(s) to promote mobile phone use, particularly in the banking/payments process; 6) barcode tracking of ‘bins’ (in this case, harvesting bins) is already done by one or more companies in the citrus business. No need to re-invent the wheel here. One of the companies who already engages in this type of tracking might well be amenable to consulting with SOIL as a community service project or otherwise;
SOIL
October 16, 2017 (7:49 pm)
Thanks for the comment and your support for the work that we’re doing, Rex! We’re sorry there was some feedback in the recording and hope it wasn’t too disruptive for you! Your comment about Creole translations is helpful – thank you.
We’re committed to open source sanitation solutions, so we’re currently not working towards licensing EkoLakay, but those insights are spot on. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog on our work for formalize a Sanitation Safety Plan (SSP) for EkoLakay alongside Haitian government institutions and the WHO.
We are lucky to work with Digicel, a telecommunications company and mobile phone provider in Haiti, who at is actively working to support the transition to MonCash for mobile cash payments. We’re working directly with EkoLakay customers to support this transition, though we are grateful for the countrywide effort to facilitate expanding the use of mobile payment technologies.
We will check out the barcode tracking work that’s already being done. We appreciate you passing that along!
Rex Cowan
October 7, 2017 (4:12 pm)
The company I have referred to in my comment above is Prologix. You can enter it on Google. I believe their site is Prologix.com.
Rex Cowan
October 7, 2017 (4:13 pm)
PrologixUSA.com :-)