www.pwc.com/ng

Advisory Outlook
Data the new Smart
Femi Osinubi
The analytics driven approach is empowering the businesslandscape, and proven successes have been recorded globally.

Imagine having the ability to see everything, and having all
the answers to win, every time and anywhere. Imagine
knowing which customers are thinking of leaving before theyleave and identifying products/channels with the greatest
chance of success and every financial transaction originatedanywhere in the world.

In North America, an international banking and financial
services company with more than 70 million customers across
8,700+ locations had to redesign customer banking in order totransform disorganized data into actionable insights that drove
their strategy. This has led to transformational change inenhancing customer experience, mitigating risk and complianceto regulations2.

Imagine being able to process all that information instantly
and use the insight to improve customer service, build
products, spot and predict fraud. Imagine taking the data inyour business and finding ways to monetize it, with analytics
opening up totally new revenue streams for you.
In reality this is possible, data flows through yourbusiness every day, it is an asset you already own, and you areon your way to achieve the State of the Smart in data andanalytics if you are willing to take the leap required.

A multinational manufacturer of family, personal and householdproducts is overseeing the large scale application of digitaltechnology and advanced analytics across every aspect of its
operations and activities - from the way the consumer goods
giant creates molecules in its R&D labs to how it maintains
relationships with retailers, manufactures products, buildsbrands, and interacts with customers4.

302520151050
12345In China, one of the commercial banks was able to align its
campaign management strategy to boost credit card activations
by 40%. This was done through the implementation of acustomer segmentation model using big data analytics. Throughthis, the bank exceeded its goal of 20%3.

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We live in times where data and content is being generated
more than ever before. As predicted, the volume and varietyof data will continue to grow. By 2020, about
1.7 megabytes of new information will be created every
second for every human being on the planet and theaccumulated digital universe of data will grow from 4.4
zettabytes today to around 44 zettabytes or 44 trillion
gigabytes1. The data volume is exploding, more data has beencreated in the past three years than in the entire history of thehuman race. Sophisticated algorithms and models are being
generated to help us anticipate, forecast and predict changes,
by understanding what's happening and why it's happening
for smarter and more meaningful results.
Globally, senior leaders are wondering whether they are
getting full value from the massive amounts of information
they already have within their organisation and are asking thequestion “how can I be smarter?” The big imperative is fororganizations to seek better ways to obtain value from theirdata in order to compete in the marketplace.

In recent times, as one of our proprietary analytical toolkits, PwC
Nigeria has developed and launched an analytical solution tomanage with-holding tax transactions for Nigerian companies.
This is built on machine learning capabilities which enables it tolearn the appropriate tax codes and applicable tax rates from
historical invoice transactions, and trains the data for subsequenttransactions without any manual intervention or judgement.
Leveraging the power of advanced analytics, data visualizationand machine learning, this solution is able to reduce withholding
tax computation from 10 working days or more to 2 hours,
depending on the volume of transactions. This is a gradualrevolution to the withholding tax computation andreconciliation process for business entities and tax authorities.
The plan is to extend this solution to other areas of tax
computation such as VAT and company taxes.
The strategic thrust is to use data and analytics to drive
innovation and thereafter foster smart business outcomes.
Possibilities in the world of smart data and analytics are limitlessand data is at the center of a new wave of opportunity.

Getting Smart – Take the Lead
The need to invest in analytics, both in technology and people
is now more urgent than ever before.

In recent times, surveys have shown that organisations
recognise that traditional approaches to decision making haveonly taken them so far. Making decisions based on data has
been labeled the smart way to win. These organisations
recognise the urgent need to move beyond intuition to be able
to predict and act with certainty.

Research has shown that organizations that lead in analytics
outperform thrice the efforts of those just beginning to adopt
analytics while top performers are likely to use an analytics
approach 5 times more over intuition5.
Businesses that are using data and analytics successfully are quickto spot opportunities, quick to assess ideas, and quick to test andlearn from these experiences. They exploit the latest technologies
to deliver better experiences for their customers and integratechannels and operations into the fabric of their businesses. They
embed insights to drive actions and deliver value by starting out
with defining the insights and questions needed to meet businessobjective and then identify those pieces of data needed foranswers.
They are also leveraging the same data to build scenarios andsimulations that will aid their strategies as well as help in
measuring impact of prospective decisions.
With the conversation on data and analytics gaining attention andmomentum for us in Nigeria, we need to be proactive atharnessing its transformative opportunities for our business.
We need to begin to evaluate the impact of the convergence ofsocial, mobile, analytics and cloud with its disruption to our“business as usual”. We need to evaluate its success in global
trends, as well as the enabling technology to foster it andconsequently seek ways to adapt our business.
In effect, every business regardless of size, now needs to be a databusiness. We need to recognize that Analytics is going to drive
business for many years to come. It would influence how we sell,
run the banks and capital markets, manage risks, maximize
supply chain, audit operations, engage with customers, create
new products, price products and even build our society. We needto harness the potentials of data and analytics for competitive
advantage, market leadership and profitable growth not just for
the future but even for NOW.
1. http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240174381/Data-to-grow-morequickly-says-IDCs-Digital-Universe-study
2. https://www.tableau.com/solutions/customer/storytelling-big-data-wells-fargo
3. https://www.sas.com/en_gb/customers/citic.html
4. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/ourinsights/inside-p-and-ampgs-digital-revolution
5. MIT Sloane Management Review with IBM

Our data and analytics practice
We use local and global knowledge to deliver strategies andsolutions that are specific to you. Our subject matter experts have
proven success in getting you started on the right path of youranalytics journey. We provide services such as data quality & data
governance, data migration & integration, data monetisationstrategies and implementation of design-to-value business analytics
solutions.

About the authors
Femi Osinubi is the Partner and Leader for Dataand Analytics PwC West Africa
enquiry@ng.pwc.com

IFRS Training 2018
Thursday5

April 2018

Venue:

Topic:IFRS 9: Financial Instruments

Wednesday

25

April 2018

Topic:IFRS 15: Revenue from contracts
with customers

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At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. We’re a network of firms in 158 countries with more than
236,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more by visiting us atwww.pwc.com/ng© 2018 PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited. All rights reserved. In thisdocument, PwC refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited (a Nigerian limited
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