Jana (USA) and BiNu (Australia) are market research firms that are taking advantage of Africa’s economic growth, increased consumer spending and improved technology to connect businesses to potential and existing consumers.
As Africa continues to progress, market research is shifting from the pen-and-paper system or “Land Rover” methodology to digital data collection, improving the reliability of results while reducing costs and saving time. Specifically, increased access to mobile phones has allowed Jana to conduct mobile surveys (mCent) in exchange for airtime, while BiNu uses text messages for the same purpose.
Effectively, both firms are using a management information system to gather and analyze large amounts of information, which is then passed to medium sized enterprises that use the data about potential and current customers to improve their management decisions.
Another company that helps businesses to engage in Business Technology Management is Kopo Kopo, based in Kenya. The latter amasses and analyses data from a firm’s untracked mobile phone transactions (M-Pesa), providing managers with a better understanding of their existing consumers. With this kind of customer data tracking, organizational decisions are better tailored to the behaviour and location of buyers.
Clearly, there is huge potential for MIS and BTM in Africa; businesses are barely “scratching the surface”.
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