The UBC Sauder MBAN program prepares leaders who seek to create value for the world through

thoughtful, data-driven solutions to difficult problems. Describe a situation where you collected and/or
analyzed data to solve a significant problem in an organization. How did you present your findings to get
buy-in to your solution and initiate change? (500 Words)

Having served more than 03 years in the financial industry of Bangladesh, I have found out first hand that
there is no alternative to data analytics to tackle out the business problems that keeps arising
continuously. In my role as a project manager in United Finance Limited, I was assigned with the
responsibility to research and implement new solutions in order to bring technological automation and
support to our clients as well as our workforce. The three-pronged goal of my team was to implement cost
effective solutions with the aim of increasing efficiency along with customer experience. When Covid-19
pandemic hit Bangladesh in March, 2020; all businesses were faced with a new kind of challenge as the
whole country went under completed lockdown for two months straight along with restriction on public
movement and activities for next 06 months. Prior to Covid-19 pandemic, transaction scenario in
Bangladesh was mostly physical. Majority of the people preferred to carry out their banking activities
physically through branches. The need for alternative banking channels become most prominent during
that time. Online based payment channel presented the option of contactless payment. In pre-pandemic
time, customers of United Finance Limited had to deposit the installments of their monthly savings
scheme in bank accounts. They had three options to deposit their installment: cash deposit in bank,
cheque/Pay order or Fund transfer. During pandemic time, payments that were received through cash
deposit/cheque/pay order decreased to a minimal level due to risk of physical contact. Hence, United
Finance Limited was faced with the challenge to find an alternative mode of payment that will remove the
risk of physical contact and also will be cost effective for the company. I was tasked with finding the
solution to this problem. Due to restriction in physical movement as well as the risk of contracting Covid-
19, United Finance Limited had stopped receiving payment worth 25 million BDT from around 1500
customers per month. These customers used to deposit cash directly to bank and United Finance had to
spend BDT 568 to process each transaction involving cost of receipt submission, maintenance, payment
reconciliation and confirmation. Apart from these direct costs, other service hassles such as physical
handling of instruments, potential of instrument getting lost etc. were also observed for this mode of
transaction. Thus, my team and I come up with the solution of implementing online payment gateway for
installment size up-to BDT 25,000. From our cost benefit analysis, we found out that transaction cost can
be reduced by 600,000 BDT per month on average if cash/cheque deposits up to BDT 25,000 can be
converted to online payment. Analyzing the top 10 popular transaction amounts, also helped to justify the
limiting the cap of online payment to BDT 25,000. Next, we did a comparative analysis with United
Finance Limited’s market competitors and presented the solution to the management highlighting the cost
saving and efficiency on United Finance’s part and service satisfaction on user’s part. The solution
presented a win-win situation for both the customers and the company. Considering the customer need
for such services along with cost management, the company agreed to integrate the online payment
gateway service through third party vendor.