SUCCESS STORY – ACCESS MICROFINANCE HOLDING AG

AccessHolding Relies on Qlik for Transparent Financial Management

Data-Driven Control of Loans, Risks, and Growth Potential

„Informatec provided us with extremely flexible and customer-oriented support – especially in the area of licensing – and laid the foundation for the successful use of Qlik as a management tool in our banks with a perfectly tailored framework agreement.“

Christoph Ziegler, Head of Technology at Access Microfinance Holding AG 

The customer

Access Microfinance Holding AG (AccessHolding) is an internationally active financial holding company headquartered in Berlin, with investments in microfinance banks across several African countries, including Liberia, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zambia, and Rwanda. The group employs over 3,300 people in total. The company manages total assets of approximately 231 million euros and serves nearly one million active clients – 54 percent of whom are women, 12 percent located in rural areas, and 26 percent young customers.

Solution Overview

Initial Situation

Since its founding, the organization has aimed to provide disadvantaged populations with access to essential financial services – particularly in regions where traditional banks are often absent. With a broad range of microloans, savings products, and advisory services, AccessHolding supports small entrepreneurs in unlocking their economic potential.

The microfinance sector in these markets faces significant fluctuations – especially due to volatile export markets and currency risks. To operate successfully in this environment, a precise, up-to-date understanding of business data is essential. “Reliable, comprehensive, and quickly accessible data analyses are indispensable for targeted management of lending, risk control, and identifying growth opportunities,” confirms Christoph Ziegler, Head of Technology at Access Microfinance Holding AG.

Until now, analyses were mostly conducted using reporting functions of the proprietary core banking system and Excel – a method increasingly reaching its limits. Consolidating transaction, contract, and log data from various sources like the core banking system and different mobile banking solutions was labor-intensive and prone to errors. Additionally, there was a lack of functionalities for in-depth analyses, flexible evaluations (“slice and dice”), and meaningful visualization of complex relationships.

Solution

Convincing Performance and Licensing Terms

AccessHolding became aware of Qlik through industry forums. The analytics solution impressed them with its flexibility and user-friendliness. „But there was another decisive factor for us,” adds Christoph Ziegler. “As a network of small microfinance banks, we don’t have the financial resources of traditional banks. It was therefore crucial for us to find a solution with a suitable licensing model. Qlik’s elite partner Informatec provided excellent advice and developed a group contract that offers conditions tailored to our needs.“

Solution Implementation: Technically Simple – Culturally Challenging

Technically, the implementation was straightforward – the actual BI solution accounted for only about 30 percent of the total complexity. The biggest challenges lay in data preparation and the underlying processes. The project also took longer than expected, mainly because interest in data on the business side was initially low, recalls Christoph Ziegler: „Data analytics was often perceived purely as an IT issue. Our task was to clearly demonstrate the added value of a solution like Qlik Analytics as a decision-making and management tool.“

A joint workshop with IT and business departments finally brought the breakthrough. Concrete use cases and the ease of use were presented. “We literally saw jaws drop and eyes open wide,” Ziegler reports. “’What? We have this kind of data?’ was one of the most common reactions.”

Another success factor was the clear role distribution across the five banks:

• a C-level business partner acting as sponsor and BI ambassador, who clearly communicates the benefits of the analyses – from abstract concept to concrete application,

• a responsible person from business management who decides which dashboards from the Berlin headquarters are adopted or locally adapted,
  
• a contact person from IT for the technical implementation.

Areas of Application and Benefits

Decentralized BI Usage in Central Departments Across All Bank Locations

The BI solution is used in central departments of the banks, including executive management as well as sales, service & support, and IT. Between 8 and 19 employees per bank work with the system, processing data volumes ranging from 50 GB to several hundred GB depending on the location. Each bank manages its data in a decentralized manner, with selected data transmitted to the head office in Berlin.

Qlik Analytics is used for various purposes, including:

• Vintage analyses of loans
  
• Support in defining scoring parameters
  
• Geographic distribution of customers
  
• Identification and analysis of risk factors

Users can make adjustments themselves, with analysis users typically receiving support from the IT department. Further development is carried out internally.

Informatec continuously supports Access Microfinance with the deployment of new licenses.

Qlik in Cloud and On-Premises: Centralized Management with the iVIEW Library

Additionally, a Data Automation Framework module from Informatec is used: “We have the unique situation that some banks operate Qlik on-premises due to local data protection regulations, while others plan a mid-term migration to the cloud, and we in Berlin already use Qlik in the cloud. The iVIEW Library helps us efficiently manage this hybrid Qlik architecture.”

The iVIEW Library functions as a central directory for all Qlik content – regardless of whether applications run on-premises or in the cloud. This allows content to be managed, maintained, and delivered consistently across the entire organization. When content is migrated between on-premises and cloud environments, the iVIEW Library supports the process with automated tools for conversion and integration. This saves time and reduces sources of errors.

Future

With Qlik Analytics and the iVIEW Library, AccessHolding has a powerful foundation to enable its banks to manage lending, risk management, and growth opportunities in a data-driven way. The next step now focuses on building the necessary BI and data literacy to ensure that the banks can sustainably integrate Qlik into their daily workflows.

„With iVIEW Library, we efficiently and centrally manage our hybrid Qlik architecture—consisting of on-premises installations and cloud usage.“

Christoph Ziegler, Head of Technology at Access Microfinance Holding AG

Summary