Embrace data science to spur development
PHILLIMON MHLANGA
Zimbabwe companies should embrace data science as a tool to effectively harness the increasing amount and complexity of data being generated to drive sustainable development, experts have said.
Speaking to Business Times on the sidelines of Data Science Zimbabwe Conference held at the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) on Saturday, Tinaye Makoni, a data scientist at Claxon said local businesses should leverage on data to market and price their products appropriately.
According to Makoni, data science fosters innovation by presenting new approaches to complex problems.
“Data science is something which is very important that all big companies should start to incorporate in their day to day work because they are generating a lot data. And in that data there are patterns which repeat in the future and should be able to maximise on these patterns. So, data as it stands , give insights into operations that you are doing as a business, challenges that they are facing and the opportunities that are there,” Makoni said.
He added: “So, if you are able to leverage on data, you are able to properly price your products because you get feedback from clients and also get prices from competitors. You also get what are the pain points of your customers. “So, generating all that data, you are able to find the best pricing of your products and you also find the best way or mechanism to market your products because you know which demography buy your product in terms of their age, their employment or their gender.
“So, if you are able to harness that data, you get more information about your clients and this help to properly market our products. Businesses also need data for customer retention. You need to understand, which kind of customers bring the best value into your company. So if you analyst data and develop it, you then know which people are the anchor of our company and you more focus in retention of those clienys. So, these are some of the most important aspects of how we harness the power of data science for the profitability of the companies.”
Monica Gondo, the coordinator of Master of Technology (MTech) degree at HIT concurred. She said HIT was playing a critical role in the training of the workforce in these emerging technologies.
“We as HIT, an academic institution, we do try to play our role in these new emerging technologies. If you see all these industries, they are generating a lot of data. This data need to be processed for our benefit. How do we possess these? We need some analysis tools, we need the work force trained and ready to be able to analyze this data. Gone are the days when the conversional open a shop, sit there and see customers pass by. Now we are in the digital world, and there is so much data that need to be analysed for the benefit of our institutions,” Gondo told Business Times.
She added: “As an academic institution, we try to come with a training program which then enables this. Data has no limit. Right now, you must have heard that we are starting to talk about AI (Artificial intelligent), of course not the part that we say robots will take up the world.
“We have powerful technology in our hands, and we need to utilise it. But these technologies don’t run on their own, they use fuel to run. And this fuel is data. Industries generate data.
“If we get that data, we create models, we create AI models. These models then help us to predict the future , and help us make decisions. With that help and those insights in the data, when we make the decision, we are helping the businesses.
“So, data is important . Should I say it’s the diamond and platinum of our era. And as an institution, we are trying to capacitate the work force to be able to do so. And for the industry, we need their help because when our workforce is trained, they need data to exercise their knowledge, to exercise the training they have done . My biggest request to industry is please let’s have the data available for our students, our researchers to be able to use it , to help you.”
