Q&A with Amerley Ampofo, Senior Manager, Customer Analytics, MTN
As businesses gear up for the upcoming 25th MTN Business World Executive Breakfast Meeting on 28th march 2019, we caught up with Amerley Ampofo, Senior Manager, Customer Analytics at MTN to share some more light on the Theme.
Amerley Ampofo
BW- What is Location Intelligence (LI)?
Amerley –Location Intelligence (LI) is a hybrid of Business Intelligence and Geospatial Technology. LI enables businesses/organizations use systematic processes and analytical tools to transform varied sources of data, including location-referenced data, into meaningful and actionable insights for decision making. These Geospatial Technologies (example Google Earth, Global Positioning System (GPS), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing) allow location data to be collected and processed. GIS actually powers LI.
BW- How can businesses practically harness the potential of Location Intelligence?
Amerley– Our society has become more complex today than before and businesses have to provide solutions to most of these complex issues. Our connected world provides us with volumes of data that can be analyzed to support such decisions. In order for business to harness LI, they need to first adopt a location strategy that cuts across the entire organization. This will involve adopting a system of engagement for their business records that are typically in silos. LI would then provide an efficient data management platform, empower all functions during business decision making, as insights can then be visualized across the business – a single view of the truth. Additionally LI would provide field mobility through insights sharing in and out of field, this enhances operational efficiency. Another potential is the ability to use location analytics to describe, predict and improve business performance. These issues/problems LI helps address include – where are the crime hotspots in the city and how many police officers should be deployed? How many of my customers are in flood prone areas and what premium should I charge? Where are the target segments for my service?
BW- Which sectors of businesses or companies would you advise to take advantage of location intelligence?
Amerley -Any business that needs to address the “where” component in its decision-making process should take advantage of Location Intelligence. The importance of location cuts across all sectors. Businesses that are customer-focused are able to understand the demographics and segment their market to address customer needs. Generally, it broadens the lens of businesses – all scenarios of the decision process can be fully analyzed from both internal and external perspectives. It cuts across the three major sectors of business. From the extraction of raw materials (primary), manufacturing (secondary), and services (tertiary) LI enables the delivery of timely business insight to increase profit and decrease risk.
BW- How can government adopt Location Intelligence to enhance its operations?
Amerley -Location Intelligence is very critical for government. Government has the responsibility of allocating limited resources to a wide range of services to the entire population – plan cities, manage crime, protect forests, provide emergency services and deliver quality education among others. The agencies responsible would first have to identify the problems and issues to be solved from a location perspective. A strategy would then have to be developed based on data sources, technology, systematic process and people to achieve the goals. LI in the government instance becomes a decision-support tool enabling the improvement of government operations and enhancing services provided to the public.
BW- Most businesses and individuals are yet to grasp the Location Intelligence phenomenon. Is it a new concept?
Amerley -LI is not entirely new. The value and importance of “location” in decision-making and problem-solving has long been known by many including epidemiologists and marketers. The advances in geospatial technologies and the explosion of data has however led to the evolution and increasing application of LI. Like any other technology, awareness and adoption levels vary based on the data and analytics maturity levels of organizations. At the individual level LI is used for directional decisions through applications such as Google Maps. Uber is also a good example of LI in action – connecting the demand and supply of city rides.
BW-What are businesses operating without Location Intelligence missing out on?
Amerley – They are missing the power that location data provides. Decision-making becomes opinion based rather than data-driven. Better conclusions can be drawn from the visualization of relationships that LI offers. Such companies become operationally deficient – misallocating resources and wasting time which is a scarce resource. Ultimately not operating at maximum efficiency.
BW– Thank you very much for your time.
Amerley– Thanks for having me.
Business World Ghana