A Filipino graduate of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) business school recently found, however, not just one but 27 more ingenious applications for mobile commerce when he conducted a pilot study with a local non-government organization. Think micro-financing.

Currently as a development consultant on information and communications technology for AIM, 30-year old Edwin Soriano () has drawn up several business models to ride on existing mobile commerce innovations like Globe Telecom’s G-cash and Smart Communications’s Smart Money.

For the pilot study he conducted with the non-government organization Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (Card-NGO), Soriano experimented with his business concepts using

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G-cash. Card-NGO is currently one of the biggest non-government organizations involved in micro-financing in the Philippines.

For several weeks between February and April 2005, the pilot study had borrowers paying loans to CARD-NGO with G-cash. These borrowers previously paid in cash to collecting officers.

The study's objective was to encourage borrowers to use G-Cash in transactions with collection officers, who in turn would transmit the sums electronically to Card-NGO using G-cash.

According to Soriano, the pilot study proved that the use of mobile commerce services like G-cash improved collection efficiency and cut down risks like the loan officer being held up.

"In the pilot study, we have identified 27 areas of mobile commerce intervention for micro-financing. In short, these areas will use mobile commerce to make micro-financing efficient and profitable for organizations such as Card-NGO," Soriano said. These areas include mobile disbursement, remittance, and loans.

The young consultant admitted however that the study also found several difficulties in implementing mobile commerce for micro-financing in the Philippines.

Poor awareness in the general population and lack of infrastructure to support mobile commerce may hamper adoption of his innovative business models.

"There is still poor awareness in terms of people's attitude towards m-commerce. I found this out in a survey I conducted among 60 people, whom I asked about G-cash. A lot didn't understand it despite the advertisements on television and in billboards," Soriano said.

On the aspect of infrastructure, he stressed that it is still difficult to "cash-in and cash-out" using G-cash in the country. "But I think we should revisit the electronic loading phenomenon (electronic purchase of airtime) in the country because it worked, as people had accepted it as means to buy airtime electronically," he added.

Soriano believes that wider adoption of G-cash or Smart Money in the country is a "compelling business model."

Because of his work with Card-NGO, other organizations have expressed interest in trying out his business concepts, Soriano said.

He disclosed that Card-NGO and Globe Telecom agreed to work together to refine his business model for G-cash.

A copy of Soriano's concept and the pilot study results can be read at http://mobiletulay.blogspot.com.