By Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba, PhD Uganda Technology And Management University (UTAMU) www.utamu.ac.ug/barya ; barya@utamu.ac.ug 12th Operations Research Society for Eastern Africa (ORSEA) Conference, October 20-21, 2016, Hosted at the Faculty of Computing and Management Science Building, Makerere University Business School (MUBS), Kampala Uganda

1. Operations Research and ICT
A Keynote Address
20th October 2016, 16.30hrs
By
Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba, PhD
Uganda Technology And Management University (UTAMU)
www.utamu.ac.ug/barya ; barya@utamu.ac.ug
12th Operations Research Society for Eastern Africa (ORSEA)
Conference, October 20-21, 2016, Hosted at the Faculty of Computing
and Management Science Building, Makerere University Business School
(MUBS), Kampala Uganda

2. Information and Communications Technology
(ICT)
• ICT (information and communications technology - or technologies) is
an umbrella term that includes any communication device or
application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones,
computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and
so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with
them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning.
• ICTs are often spoken of in a particular context, such as ICTs in
education, healthcare, business, operations research etc.
• ICT is an enabler

3. Operations Research (OR)
• Is the application of scientific principles/techniques/methods to
business management, providing a quantitative basis for complex
decisions.
• Is a discipline that deals with the application of advanced analytical
techniques/methods to help make better decisions or improve
decision making.
• It is sometimes known as operational research, management science
or industrial engineering.
• People with skills in operations research hold jobs in decision support,
business analytics, marketing analysis, logistics planning, etc.

4. Scientific Method
• Is a method of procedure that has characterized natural science since
the 17th century, consisting of systematic observation, measurement,
and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of
hypotheses.

5. Analytical Method
• Is a generic process combining the power of the Scientific Method
with the use of formal process to solve any type of problem. It has
nine steps:
• 1. Identify the problem to solve.
• 2. Choose an appropriate process. (THE KEY STEP)
• 3. Use the process to hypothesize analysis or solution elements.
• 4. Design an experiment(s) to test the hypothesis.
• 5. Perform the experiment(s).
• 6. Accept, reject, or modify the hypothesis.
• 7. Repeat steps 3, 4, 5, and 6 until the hypothesis is accepted.
• 8. Implement the solution.
• 9. Continuously improve the process as opportunities arise.

6. Data Analytics
• Data Analytics (DA) is the science of examining raw data with the
purpose of drawing conclusions about that information.
• Data analytics is used in many industries to allow companies and
organization to make better business decisions and in the sciences to
verify or disprove existing models or theories.
• Computing power is needed for data analytics

7. Why Big Data Analytics is Important
• Big data analytics examines large amounts of data to uncover hidden
patterns, correlations and other insights.
• With today’s technology, it’s possible to analyze data and get answers
from it almost immediately whereas the traditional business
intelligence solutions are slower and less efficient.
• Big data analytics helps organizations harness their data and use it to
identify new opportunities. That, in turn, leads to smarter business
moves, more efficient operations, higher profits and happier
customers.

8. Why Big Data Analytics is Important Cont’d
• Cost reduction. Big data technologies such as Hadoop and cloud-based
analytics bring significant cost advantages when it comes to storing large
amounts of data – plus they can identify more efficient ways of doing
business.
• Faster, better decision making. With the speed of Hadoop and in-memory
analytics, combined with the ability to analyze new sources of data,
businesses are able to analyze information immediately – and make
decisions based on what they’ve learned.
• New products and services. With the ability to gauge customer needs and
satisfaction through analytics comes the power to give customers what
they want. With big data analytics, more companies are creating new
products to meet customers’ needs.

9. Examples of Operations Research in Action
• Scheduling:
• of aircrews and the fleet for airlines
• of vehicles in supply chains
• of orders in a factory
• of operating theatres in a hospital
• Facility planning:
• computer simulations of airports for the rapid and safe processing of
travellers
• improving appointments systems for medical practice.
• Planning and forecasting:
• identifying possible future developments in telecommunications
• Identifying possible future developments in banking
• deciding how much capacity is needed in a holiday business

10. Examples of Operations Research in Action
Cont’d
• Yield management:
• setting the prices of airline seats and hotel rooms to reflect changing demand
and the risk of no shows
• Credit scoring: deciding which customers offer the best prospects for
credit companies.
• Marketing: evaluating the value of sale promotions, developing
customer profiles and computing the life-time value of a customer.
• Defence and peace keeping: finding ways to deploy troops rapidly.

11. Some application areas of ICT and OR
• Business and Commerce
• Logistics, Transportation, Operations & Supply Chain Management
• Accounting, Finance and investment
• Human Resources Management
• Informal Sector
• Politics
• Governance and Leadership
• Marketing Management
• Public Sector and Healthcare Management
• Banking
• Mobile Money

12. Emphasis on a few application areas
• E-Business
• Personal Travel and Commercial Vehicle Operations
• Politics
• Informal Sector
• Healthcare Management
• Mobile Money

13. E-Business Systems
• E-business systems are a set of online technologies, equipment and tools
that a business uses to conduct business via the Internet. These systems
help a company connect with customers, process orders and manage
information.
• For instance, one high-profit e-business system is a web-based retail store
where customers can purchase products online.
• Components of Business
• Business Process
• Managing Business and Firm Hierarchies
• The Business Environment
• The Role of Information Systems in Business
• Systems that Span the Enterprise
• Enterprise Applications
• Intranets and Extranets
• E-Business, E-Commerce and E-Government

14. Personal Travel and Commercial Vehicle
Operations
• Travel, like many other aspects of daily life is being transformed by
the information technology revolution.
• Accessibility can no longer be measured only in terms of travel time,
distance or generalized travel cost.
• Information Technology (IT) gives people virtual accessibility to a
rapidly growing range of activities.
• Therefore, there is need to look at:
• Potential effects of IT on personal transportation e.g. Uber services
• Potential effects of IT on freight transportation

15. Freight Transportation
• E-commerce has become a catalyst for structural changes in the
freight transportation industry and is changing where freight moves,
the size of typical shipments and the time within which goods must
be delivered.
• Freight transportation is being affected by IT developments in many
different ways. Individual modes are made more effective by the use
of communication technologies coupled with specialized routing and
scheduling, vehicle monitoring and maintenance and record keeping
software.

16. Freight Transportation Cont’d
• Web-based load matching systems, both free and fee based, aid
carriers in finding loads.
• On-line auctions match freight and automate the bidding process.
• Intermodal freight transportation, particularly maritime and air cargo
is being transformed by IT.
• Tracking and tracing technologies for containers and packages are
gaining widespread use, and web based information clearing houses
are providing key information to improve the efficiency of modal
transfers.
• The freight forwarder and customs brokerage industries are being
transformed by new industry entrants and existing companies rushing
to provide a wider array of information rich services.

17. Politics and Operations Research
• Winning politics is now tied to big data analytics
• One of the storylines in the November 2016 US presidential election
is how both major political parties are using big data analytics to
inform their decisions and try to get ahead.
• In winning the 2012 US presidential election, the Obama campaign
successfully employed big data analytics to influence people and get
them to vote. Analytics experts say enterprises can apply these same
tactics to influence customers and drive sales.
• The 2012 US Presidential election was a watershed event for
leveraging technology in the political arena. Both the Obama and
Romney campaigns relied heavily on technology, but many observers
say the Obama campaign tapped into the power of data analytics
more effectively.

18. The Informal Sector and Operations Research
• International Labor Organization's (ILO) Guidelines on Measuring the
Informal Sector uses data analytics techniques
• Knowing the size of the informal sector in any country helps in
planning and deployment of key interventions
• Data analytics is critical in informing strategies aimed at transforming
the informal sector to the formal sector

19. Healthcare management and Operations
Research
• The healthcare industry historically has generated large amounts of
data, driven by record keeping, compliance & regulatory
requirements, and patient care.
• Big data in healthcare refers to electronic health data sets so large
and complex that they are difficult (or impossible) to manage with
traditional software and/or hardware; nor can they be easily
managed with traditional or common data management tools and
methods
• Big data analytics in healthcare is evolving into a promising field for
providing insight from very large data sets and improving outcomes
while reducing costs.
• Big data analytics in healthcare has great potential despite the various
challenges to overcome.

20. Mobile Money and Operations Research
• Mobile money providers, particularly mobile operators, are sitting on two
gold mines of data: one from their core GSM operations (Telco Call Detail
Record (CDR) data, detailed coordinates of their Cell IDs, etc.) and one from
their mobile money operation (Know Your Customer (KYC) data for
customers, agent registration forms, transactional databases, etc.).
• Uncovering, analyzing and transforming mobile money data into action:
• Data analytics can help in understanding how issues like customer demographics,
usage in the first month after sign-up and quality of agents impact ongoing customer
activity.
• Data analytics can also yield very powerful insights to track mobile money fraud, how
to better manage an agent network, manage float and cash, drive the marketing
expenditures, etc.
• Data analytics can feed into most of the key business decisions a mobile money
manager can make.

21. Future of Application of ICT in Operations
Research
• ICT is a necessary enabler of Operations Research
• ICT is at the heart of big data analytics
• ICT is continuing to evolve
• So as ICT evolves, operations research gets more enabled
Thank You.
END