SUMMARY. Very basic functionalities available Easy to use Good quality of support Users report that the product is reliable

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1 PRODUCT NAME CUBIS Version 8 VENDOR NAME Fern Software 2009 Review* September 2009 Previous Reviews 2005 SUMMARY Overall impression Entry-level solution suited for Credit Unions with individual loans Designed to work in centralized mode Mainly designed for small and medium institutions Vendor offers several products for different segments of the market, offering easy transition to their other products as the MFI grows (Cubis > M2 > Focus SQL > Abacus OneWorld) Pros Very basic functionalities available Easy to use Good quality of support Users report that the product is reliable Cons Accounts-centric Does not support group methodologies Limited to Anglo-Saxon standards (accounting standards, interface in English only) Limited to Anglo-Saxon accounting standards No integrated teller module Product modification not recorded Only available in English and no real multi-currency IT expertise required Very easy to manage Does not require internal IT CLIENTS Size ( clients) Small (less than 5,000) Medium (5,000-25,000) Medium-Large (25,000-50,000) with SQL version Large (more than 50,000) Other (specify) *Please consider the profile of a typical user when reading this review. Evaluations are conducted based on how well the product performs for the type of user indicated in the client profile section. 1

2 Type of institution User feedback (Sample of users) See User Surveys for detailed ratings Installation by region See RFI for installations by country Commercial Bank Microfinance Bank Community Bank Finance Companies Savings and Credit Associations Cooperatives and Credit Unions Non-profit Organizations Comments: 99% of the clients are Cooperatives and Credit Unions. Overall Rating (Excellent, Good, Average, or Poor) Name of User Good Anonymous Good Anonymous Excellent CSCU Total Number of Clients (MFI) 111 Europe and Central Asia 75 Sub Saharan Africa 30 East Asia and the Pacific 4 South Asia 0 Middle East and North Africa 0 Latin America and the Caribbean 2 RATINGS: * poor fair * good excellent Functionality Client: Only individuals client are handled, and only basic information is offered (name, address, phone, date of birth and pictures). CUBIS is very account-centric and creation of client is done through adding an account. Loans: Particularly based on individual lending methodology. Loans are tracked at different stages (application, approval, rejected, pending, and issue). Parameterizations of loan products do not handle payment frequency definition, penalties, grace period, VAT and donor fund. Arrears provisions are defined by weeks. Saving: Options for parameterization. No overdraft or group saving accounts. Saving needs to be improved. Possibile to track dormant accounts. Accounting: Transactions are automatically booked into GL. Export/import to or from external accounting packages such as Sage, QuickBooks or Pastel. All the users surveyed mentioned the use of additional software for accounting. Teller: no of separate tellers. Ease of Use * The software is easy to use. Keyboard shortcuts accelerate and facilitate data entry. The help is basic with no screens. All transactions are performed in real time (no end of day). Cubis is only available in English. Mandatory fields are not clearly indicated. All users surveyed rate this category as excellent. 2

3 Management Reporting Regulatory reporting is manual in this version but the vendor is working on additional functions for regulatory reporting. Possible to make analysis in Word or Excel but not possible to customize reports. All users surveyed rated the reporting as excellent, however, they all use additional software for reporting. Implementation/ Training/ Support * Training of users is part of the package. Two days for administrator training and one week for IT training. Fern s approach is to train the trainer in all countries. Four support centres located in Australia, Fiji, Kenya, and the UK. Support available in English and Spanish. Fern offers a guarantee period of 90 days from user acceptance certification. Users appreciate the quality of the support. Technical capabilities Uses FoxPro Database. Works as standalone as well as Client/Server. The system is essentially designed to work in centralized mode. Cubis does not track product parameterization. COST SUMMARY Range of user budgets (See User Surveys for detailed budget) Implementation (license, training, installation) budget: min $2,300 max $39,800 Hardware and Telco Connection: $40,900 (as reported by one user) Standard cost Unit Comments License License $4,750 for initial license, includes 2 Client Access License (CAL)* $1,150 for each additional CAL *1 CAL is needed for each computer Implementation fees Per day $750 Training Per day $750 Maintenance % of license 20% of initial license and CAL costs per year Minimum contract is for three years (clients are obliged to pay three years annual licence and support fees); after the third year, the contract is automatically renewed for a period of one year. 3

4 Pricing Cases (details in RFI) Clients Users Branches % Urban/ % Rural Price Case 1: MFI with Loan, Deposit, Domestic Transfer Products Case 2: MFI with Group and Individual Loan Products 100, /50 N/A 40, /80 N/A Case 3: MFI with Individual Loan and Deposit Products 15, /20 $28,000 Comments: For a high volume of users (Case 1 and 2), the vendor offers ABACUS. 4

5 DELIVERY CHANNELS FRONT OFFICE Features covered by CUBIS CLIENTS PRODUCTS AND SERVICES Teller mgmt Loans Savings Transfers Others ATM POS Mobile Banking PDA Client information Potential client information Customer Relationship Mgmt (CRM) Individual loans Solidarity groups with individual loans Solidarity groups with group loans Collateral mgmt Guarantor mgmt Credit Scoring Savings account Current account Overdraft account Term deposit Planned savings Group savings Interbranch Interbank International Batch Payment card Check mgmt Foreign exchange Insurance LEGEND Function not covered BACK OFFICE NETWORK Function covered at less than 50% Function covered between 50 and 75% Function covered at more than 75% Function covered by Additional module Function covered by partner software ADMINI- STRATION HR administration Payroll Share mgmt FINANCE & ACCOUNTING Finance Budget mgmt Treasury mgmt Asset mgmt Accounting Chart of accounts mgmt Sub-ledger updates Accounting GL REPORTING Operational reporting Regulatory authorities reporting Financial reporting Management reporting PC stand alone On line (WAN) Centralized LAN Decentralized with consolidation of Database transfer With off line option Incremental data transfer 5