Nicola Mawson
Vodacom, which recently celebrated its 30th birthday, solved 4 000 instances of fraud through robotic process automation recently, and is integrating technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) into its systems so that it has the analytics that will allow it to remain competitive.
Speaking at the Finance Indaba held yesterday in Sandton, Raisibe Morathi, Vodacom Group chief financial officer, said that the influx of technology was not going to stop but it can be used to inform better decision making.
She said the emergence of technology that matters “does not stop…it is a lot; it is not going to stop there”.
Addressing delegates at Africa’s biggest finance conference, Morathi warned that new technology needed to be embraced because, failing to do so, will result in people being replaced.
“We all have the threat of being replaced if we don’t use the technology. We need a blend of skills,” she said.
Machine Learning can, for example, identify some of the issues companies have not even planned for yet, said Morathi.
Integrating AI into the finance processes allowed companies to make solid, informed, decisions that provide the information needed to grow the business and not being outdone by competitors.
“It allows us to actually do some of the things that would have taken a lot of time and distance but that we can now do virtually,” she said.
Morathi added that technology such as AI can be used to analyse consumer spending behaviour.
An example she provided was tracking data to predict behaviour, such as the telecoms company knows how much a customer was likely to spend, and whether the company should offer a discount to them so that they were retained as a subscriber.
She said AI was “obviously the modern buzz word”.
In addition, robotic process automation can be used to detect areas of fraud and solve these proactively by picking up before issues become a serious problem. Recently, it solved 4 000 instances of fraud.
However, Morathi warned that companies need to use data carefully and make certain that they are running analysis against the correct data and also that it is protected in terms of relevant data privacy laws, such as the Protection of Personal Information Act.
She said the mobile operator has 300 data analysts to ensure data was clean and complied with data privacy laws.
Vodacom, which has 200 million subscribers, recently said in its results for the three months to June, reported 10.0% growth in normalised group service revenue to R29 billion in the first quarter, ahead of its medium-term target, as well as an 16.8% increase
At the time, Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub said “as a purpose-driven company, I am particularly proud of the extraordinary transformational impact we have on our customers and the economies where we operate.
“This has provided a strong foundation upon which we are able to ensure sustainable growth of our businesses, while at the same time making a significant contribution in bridging the digital divide and expanding financial inclusion in Africa.”
BUSINESS REPORT