Today, this picture of opportunity is being repeated across Latin America thanks to an innovative field service solution created by ACCION International (at http://www.accion.org) that's taking handheld technology to unexpected places in an effort to cut the time and costs associated with microlending. The ACCION solution presents helpful lessons about how handheld technology can overcome common and even uncommon business challenges.

What are Microloans?
Just like the largest public corporations, the smallest enterprises require working capital to grow. Since 1973, ACCION International has been providing small or "micro" loans to help impoverished people around the world work their way out of poverty. In the last 10 years the organization and its affiliates have loaned $3.2 billion, with an average loan size of $500 and an impressive 98% repayment rate. ACCION, which today operates in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and the United States, has lent to over 2 million owners of small businesses, 65 percent of whom are women. Women like Ana Elvia.

At 61, Ana Elvia runs her own grocery store on a hill at the end of a dirt road in Cerro Norte, an outlying barrio of Bogota, Colombia. Although she cannot read or write and never went to school, Ana Elvia's business skills are solid. "When my husband and I first came to this hill 30 years ago, we had nothing," she says. To support her five children, Ana Elvia began cooking hot meals for local workers.

In 1991, Ana Elvia received her first microloan, $70, from ACCION International affiliate Cooperativa Emprender. With this small investment, she began to expand her tiny store. Twenty-five loans later, she has enlarged her stock and added display cases and a freezer. Over the years she has diversified her inventory from basic staples like rice and beans to a full line of foodstuffs including sausage, cheese, candy, and drinks. "The loans help you a lot," she says. "Once I pay off this loan, I will see if I can add vegetables and other products."