Romain Sion

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Tag: Friends International

  • The Futures Factory, an NGO Led Shopping Center For Social Enterprises in Cambodia

    The Futures Factory, an NGO Led Shopping Center For Social Enterprises in Cambodia

    ✌️As you know, I travelled 🌏this summer🌞 to Cambodia 🇰🇭for a full immersion with Friends International, a leading social enterprise🚀 saving😀 lives and building⚒️ futures for the most marginalized children 👦👧in Southeast Asia. Their secret sauce is brilliant🌟: they build social enterprises to teach 👨‍🏫young people practical & soft skills in promising industries🍴💇‍♂️, before helping them find a job 💼across the country.

    Friends International created multiple social enterprises: garages🏍️, restaurants🍴, hairdressers💇‍♂️, electrical services🌟, beauty salons❇️, apparel shops👚… They were a real success🌟 with the expat community. However, Friends International’s mission🚀 went further. They wanted to involve every stakeholder in their adventure, including locals. To meet their goals🎯, they had to create a customer experience equivalent to that of regular shopping🛍️ centers.

    They took up the challenge and opened🔓 the Futures Factory 🛍️, a melting pot of creativity🖍️, social enterprise🚀 and community collaboration👋. Customers can find all the Friends International shops, services and restaurants 🍴, as well as traditional cafés☕ and eco-friendly, socially responsible shops🏪. The experience is stunning! 👍Families can enjoy concerts, activities and shopping while, at the same time, young people from the most marginalized communities are trained for promising jobs😀.

    🌟🌟🌟At Our Own Pace And Scale, Everyone Can Aspire To Change The World🌟🌟🌟

    • Romain Sion Hairdresser Friends International Cambodia
    • Office Friends International Cambodia
    • Marine Friends International Cambodia
    • Futures Factory Friends International Cambodia
    • Exterior Futures Factory Friends International Cambodia
    • Apparel & Design Shop Friends International Cambodia
  • Friends International Is Convinced About The Benefits Of Tech and Aims At Being Fully Digitalized

    Friends International Is Convinced About The Benefits Of Tech and Aims At Being Fully Digitalized

    👋After completing our mission 🚀at Friends International, which was to support 🤝the identification and implementation of a recruitment platform to ensure the matching 🔥/ tracking🔎 of hundreds of beneficiaries👦👧, we shared our report📄. We recommended the implementation of two integrated solutions🖥️: Oscar and Salesforce. What we really appreciated was their genuine desire to digitalize all their programs. We had interesting conversations about the implementation of these solutions, team training, the recruitment of their future IT lead / CTO💻, cost 👛optimization…

    In general, we have noticed that many NGOs see digitalization as a powerful 💪way to create a sustainable 🚀competitive advantage (centralized data💿 collection, automated reports📄, real-time information ℹ️…). At the same time, the range of available solutions is growing📈. Companies like Salesforce have created specific packages for NGOs, startups are developing dedicated SaaS solutions, and some NGOs have partnered 🤲 to share the costs of developing a 🌠common tech solution…

    Romain Sion Friends International Cambodia 3
    Friends International Cambodia 4
    Romain Sion Friends International Cambodia 6
    Romain Sion Friends International Cambodia 2
    Friends International Cambodia 7
    Romain Sion Friends International Cambodia 5

  • Digitalization As A Powerful Tool To Make NGO’s Operations More Efficient

    Digitalization As A Powerful Tool To Make NGO’s Operations More Efficient

    👋Convincing a donor to🌠 support an 👨‍🏫educational program is much more concrete and attractive 🧲than asking them to finance 💰office rent or IT 💻software, which are just as important. Many NGOs are therefore forced to under-staff or✂️ cut certain key expenses, particularly administrative ones.

    To our knowledge, 3 levers can help cover these costs:
    1) Securing unrestricted funds that are not tied to specific projects 📝(e.g. EPIC Foundation)
    2) Launching self-financing 🌀 activities to cover part of the budget
    3) Digitalization🖥️, by integrating a range of IT solutions into their activities

    This summer☀️, our mission 🚀at Friends International is part of their digitalization strategy, which aims to set up a central 🎯information system. Who would not dream of collecting data💾 in real time or automating reports? For some NGOs, a single report can take up to a week to consolidate. Our goal 🚀is to help them identify and implement a recruitment👨‍💼👩‍💼 platform to ensure the matching / tracking of hundreds of beneficiaries of their Vocational Training Programs with companies seeking to recruit. The stakes are many: cost💰, integration, UX, security, internal resources, API… A few more days ☀️of work and we will provide them with our report.

    Romain Sion Friends International Cambodia
    Romain Sion Friends International Cambodia
    Friends International Cambodia