Star Contributor of the Month - Chetan Bekkinkeri
For the month of March 2012 and in honor of National Volunteer Week, we're recognizing Chetan Bekkinkeri who has been leading product management and requirements gathering for our community over the past several months. For the past couple years Chetan has been part of the SunGard team contributing to Mifos in various ways; when we asked him to step into the role as product management lead for the community he did so with great energy. Keep contributing so we can shine the spotlight on you!
Chetan has taken on his role in the community with great pride and commitment - he is always available to meet with a user and listen to their needs. Chetan is using his skills as a business analyst and his strong knowledge of the microfinance domain to serve as our critical bridge between users and developers. His ability to take complex and varied user needs and translate these into clear, concise, and consistant functional specifications for development is unmatched. Chetan is always ready to hear your product feedback and reminds you to review the specs he's been generating.
Read on for more about Chetan!
Chetan Bekkinkeri - Bangalore, India
Brief Bio (in the words of Chetan): Chetan Bekkinkeri works as a business analyst with the Microfinance team at SunGard Global Technology, India. He has been actively involved with the Mifos product development and support over the last 18 months by supporting key Mifos customers in India. Additionally ,Chetan has been leading the SunGard team efforts on the Data Migration Tool and other contributions to the Mifos product. Prior to joining to SunGard’s MF team, Chetan worked with a venture capital funded product development organization focusing his efforts on building a Microfinance and rural banking product platform for the India markets.
Relevant Skills: Microfinance/Banking Domain expertise, MySql
Chetan's Impact:
Discovering Mifos: I started working with Mifos as part of a community service program at SunGard Global Technology. SunGard was a strategic partner to Grameen Foundation for Mifos development and deployment. As part of the partnership agreement, SunGard had deployed 5 full time developers/testers/analysts towards the development of the Mifos product. I was a part of the 5 member team and was coordinating the various activities for Mifos as a SunGard program lead. I have continued to work on Mifos post the transition outside of Grameen Foundation as a SunGard Volunteer.
Contributions Made to Date: Data Migration Toolkit, Mifos deployments at Adhikar/Grameen Koota, Roadmap development for 2012, Functional Specs for Late Payment Fees, Transfer from Savings, and more.
Current Projects: Functional Specs for Term Deposits, Collateralized Loans, etc - general product management and user discovery.
Impact on the Poor: I hope that through Mifos, we can technologically enable at least 20 MFIs with a social mission
What’s Rewarding about Working on Mifos:
“The fact that a global team working on a noble cause collaborating seamlessly overcoming the timezone, language and cultural barriers.”
Fun Facts about Chetan
Favorite Food: Other the staple Indian food (Rice, roti, Dal etc), I like Mexican food, (love the burritos at Chipotle)
Favorite Open Source Project: Mifos is my first open source project contribution
If Chetan Could Travel to One Place in the World: Peru – Machu Picchu
You can find out more about Chetan on LinkedIn.
News Log
- Community Spotlight (12)
- ThoughtWorks HSP Team Invigorates Mifos X Community
- First Mifos Deployment in Latin America
- Hugo Technologies
- Outreach on the Ground - May 2012
- FINA and MFC launch Mifos in Laos
- SolDevelo
- Profamilia Goes Live with Mifos in Mozambique
- SolDevelo: Nimble Java Ninjas Fighting Poverty from Poland
- Conflux Mifos Roadshow
- Kongalend Deployment Kicks off in Namibia
- Mifos Specialist pushes forth in Mozambique
- Father and Daughter bring Mifos Technology to Senegal
- Company News (19)
- Global Launch of the Mifos Initiative - June 11 at Pivotal Labs
- Mifos at LinuxFest Northwest
- Mifos X on FLOSS Weekly
- Ready for New Heights at the FI2020 Global Forum
- Conservancy and COSM announce the Mifos Initiative
- 2013 Mifos Community Choice Awards - Honoring our Finest
- Take 3 = Triple the Impact
- Mifos Summit Day 2 Reflections
- 2013 Mifos Summit in Jaipur has Begun!
- How You Can Get Involved
- Remixing Microfinance
- OSCON's about to Kick Off!
- Mifos Transition Plan Finalized - Next Phase of Mifos Begins
- Grameen Foundation to Transition Mifos to Community-Led Effort
- Grameen Foundation Expanding Technology for Microfinance Initiative
- Scaling the Pyramid of IT Adoption
- Grameen Foundation and CGAP Host Tech Roundtable in Kenya - Advancing Back Office Systems for Microfinance
- Grameen Foundation and Microsoft Join Forces to Accelerate Impact of Technology for Microfinance
- Collectively Advancing Technology for the Industry with CGAP
- Mifos at ACCESS Microfinance India Summit
- Industry News (2)
- Open Source Community (36)
- A Light-hearted Look at our 2014 GSOC Interns
- Google Summer of Code 2014
- Meet the 2014 Google Summer of Code Class of Interns
- Volunteer with Mifos in 2014
- 2013 Mifos Summit Recap
- 2013 Mifos Graduating Class for Google Summer of Code
- 2013 Summit in Photos
- Optimizing UX for Mifos X
- A Team
- Google Summer of Code - We're Halfway Home
- Google Summer of Code 2013
- End Poverty. One Line of Code at a Time.
- Aligning Volunteer Passion with User Pain
- GSOC Mentor Summit 2010
- Building a Better Community Experience
- Enabling Social Change through Software Development
- Leila E Translations - The Final Push!
- User Meeting - a Big Success!
- Summer of Code 2010 - A Journey Well-Traveled
- Meet the 2010 Google Summer of Code Mifos Interns
- End Poverty. One Line of Code at a Time.
- Mifos FLOSS User Manual Sprint
- Uncovering the DNA of a Great Team
- Adam Feuer on the PayPal X Developer Network
- Mentors Meet in Mountain View, Manifest Mastery of Mentoring
- Widespread Reach of Open Source Community
- Building a Local Technology Ecosystem
- Product Announcements (22)
- COSM Ships Mifos X Platform 1.0
- mLite Demo on Mifos X
- Mifos 2.5 (Samiha J) Ships!
- Mifos 2.2.3 Released
- Mifos 2.4 is Live!
- Mifos X API
- Samiha J Release Announcement
- Mifos Android Client
- Mifos 2.6 - Esha K is Live
- Esha K Release Announcement
- Vinolia I Release Announcement
- Mifos X - The Next Generation
- Mifos 2.2.2 Ships
- Community Ships First Mifos Release Post-Transition
- Margaret H: Mifos 2.3 Ships!
- Margaret H Release Announced
- Mifos 2.1.6 Released & SolDevelo to Extend Mifos 2.2
- SunGard Releases Data Migration Toolkit
- Mifos 2.1.5 Released
- Mifos 2.0 and 2.1 - a Closer Look
- Mifos wants to Hear your Voice
- Mifos Earns High Ratings in CGAP Software Review
- Star Contributor (15)
- Technical Topics (1)