Making The World A Better Place… With Data

As well as being a way for businesses to improve their operational efficiencies, data can also also serve as a force to change the world, as smrtr CEO Georgie Brooke explains in this piece.

Data can help businesses create new revenue streams, reduce customer churn and identify potential wastage of money and time. But it can also help make the world a better place.

So many of the issues that we face today as a society can be addressed using the power of data.

As an example, there is no greater challenge today than the COVID-19 pandemic.

And while we as a society wait anxiously for a potential vaccine or cure, behind the scenes, governments and industry are working to find answers in the data during these times of uncertainty.

Recently, Deloitte, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank announced they had teamed up to build a database that captures the health, social and economic interventions countries are putting in place each day to mitigate the pandemic.

“Data analytics gives us a window into what is actually happening on the ground,” said Deloitte partner Dr Stephanie Allen.

One positive to come from the pandemic could be better access to real time public data and a greater investment in data and analytics at a government level.

The World Bank recently shared the example of how the Vietnamese city of Danang was able to combine mobility data, proxies for economic data, NO2 data and flight data in real-time to monitor the impact of local lockdown policies during a second wave of infections in August.

With the localised lockdown, the city was able to see a sharp decline in the number of visits to grocery stores, workplaces, residences, retail, parks and transit. Unlike the March/April lockdown, Danang was able to see a sharper decline in movement compared to bigger cities Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City.

At smrtr, we are already working with the government to make our data available for assistance in its response to COVID-19.

Much like in a commercial context, it is only by ensuring local authorities have the most relevant resources possible that they will be able to deliver an optimised response.

Leave the world a better place

As well as making the world a better place through using data, it is also important to recognise the role of the community.

We are lucky enough to live in a very prosperous society. With this comes a responsibility to give back to the community.

To make sure we are walking the talk, here at smrtr, we have developed smrtr for Good – a foundation that looks to help achieve positive change.

smrtr for Good is built upon four pillars:

Using data to improve the world – taking our most valuable asset – our data – and using it to help resolve global issues
PhD sponsorships – we fund PhD research that uses data to support positive change in the community
Working in the community – look at how the smrtr team can interact with the community in a positive way
Buy 1 Get 1 (B1G1) – we also direct a portion of our revenue to the global B1G1 movement. Our customers can choose from over 500 projects to contribute to

We also offer pro bono consulting to a number of charities.

To find out more about smrtr for Good contact us and we’ll be in touch within the next business day.

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