Note- Tech4Dev Chatbot Impact Accelerator was earlier called as Bootcamp.

This blog is written by Tanmaya Gavankar from TRRAIN

I attended the Glific Bootcamp in October 2023, and it was an eye-opener. I randomly came across Glific on the internet while researching something else. Before we go ahead into my Bootcamp journey, a little bit about myself. I am Tanmaya Gavankar and I work for TRRAIN (Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates of India). The organization has flagship livelihood programs that work to improve the lives of Persons with Disabilities and young women from marginalized backgrounds by building their skills through a short training program and providing them with placement opportunities in the retail sector. When I came across Glific we were looking for a means to connect with our alumni to track the long-term impact of our programs and Glific seemed like an interesting avenue to explore.

As a person leading the Impact Tracking project, I needed to understand what Glific could do for us, however, I was very apprehensive as I have zero tech experience and am not a very tech-savvy person in general. However, over the 2 days of the boot camp, all my doubts were dispelled by the very talented Glific team, as they sparked new ideas and opened new doors into the world of chatbots with Glific. That day I learned something new about myself that I could be a tech person if I wanted to at least with Glific. 

The camp began with an introductory session of the other 10 – 15 NGOs that were present for the Bootcamp, this helped us break the ice and get more comfortable. This was followed by an overview of what exactly Glific could do along with a Use Case demonstration, showcasing how an NGO was using Glific to enhance their project. Demos such as these and experiencing different bots from various NGOs, were extremely helpful in giving us a view of what Glific could mean for each of our programs. One of the key highlights of the boot camp was listening to the experience of other NGOs who had been using Glific to deliver their programs for more than a year. Their Glific journeys and what they had achieved inspired me. It helped me expand my Glific vision to include more use cases.

Another key highlight of the bootcamp was the ‘work times’ given to us over the 2 days . During these, we were encouraged to explore the Glific platform and build our own flows to try them out on the bot. While learning about how Glific works as well as looking at other bots gave me an understanding of Glific and helped me build ideas, these work hours, where I created flows gave me the confidence that this system could work for us. The easy assistance of the Glific team, and the fact that they were ready to respond to the silliest of my questions throughout the entire process of building flows made this a seamless experience.

At the end of the 2 days of the bootcamp, we were asked to demonstrate our bots and much to my pleasant surprise almost all of us had managed to create our flows and give everyone a view of our vision. The ease with which the entire bootcamp was conducted with just the right blend of fun and work made this a very productive and memorable experience. However, the story doesn’t end here, the best was yet to come. 

Post-boot camp, all the participating NGOs were given free rein of the Glific platform to experiment with Glific and run short pilots independently. During this period the Glific team proved to be an invaluable support and they assigned 1 person to work with me to help me navigate through Glific. The facility of having someone who I could message or call anytime I hit a snag was instrumental in ensuring that we could conduct a successful pilot. More importantly, having someone who has gone through or seen the pilot journey with several other NGOs to bounce ideas helped us streamline our pilot journey.  The vast resource material explaining various aspects of Glific through various documents, videos, blogs, etc. on the Glific website and the YouTube channel + the Discord support channel continues to be a great help even once the pilot period has ended.

If you are an NGO looking to connect with any audience through WhatsApp, then Glific is one of the best options for you. Here are a few reasons why I am saying this,

• Easy to understand and use platform, especially for non-tech people.
• Extremely helpful and supportive team to guide and assist you as you build and expand your chatbot. 
• Consistent upgrades to the system based on the feedback received from the users (For example, after receiving feedback from multiple NGOs on the need of having translations easily available, the Glific developers worked on making this possible)
• A community of NGOs that are at different points of their Glific journeys enabling you to learn from their experiences providing important insights and helping you avoid pitfalls.

Hope this helps you make the decision to start your journey with Glific and that it proves to be as fruitful as it has been for me and my organization. Thank you for reading!!