Making better business decisions with data analytics

Adnan Beg

Adnan Beg is a recent UBC Sauder MBAN graduate who works for Providence Health Care as a Business Intelligence Developer. He stores, analyzes and presents new patient data for various users and stakeholders.

“I work in Health Information Management, which is responsible for procuring patient data from hospitals in the Lower Mainland. My team creates innovative solutions that help in the decision-making process and we provide operational support to the healthcare workers using this data,” he explains. 

“Some of our recent analysis has been focused on COVID-19. For example, last year we looked at the trend of COVID patients visiting the hospitals and analyzed the effect it was having on other departments.”

Steve Sung, Regional Manager at Providence Health Care, says Beg arrived on the job with a strong foundation to solve real-life analytical problems related to healthcare. 

“In the summer of 2020, I recruited Adnan to help address the increased demand that Lower Mainland Health Information Management had gone through due to the pandemic,” says Sung. “Our overall experience with Adnan was so positive that after he completed his internship, I was able to offer him a full-time position and continue our working relationship.”

Amy Chen

Fellow UBC Sauder MBAN graduate Amy Chen was also offered a full-time job after wrapping up her internship with Canadian women’s fashion brand, Aritzia.

“I interned as a Business Analyst for the Omni Channel Team where I worked on improving the holistic customer experience. I collaborated with different groups in the backend and the frontend of the company and provided business analysis,” says Chen.

Upon realizing she wanted to pursue a deeper focus on data, Chen transitioned to a Data Analyst role with video game company, Electronic Arts (EA). In her new job, she collects and analyzes data to offer actionable insights and recommendations for future FIFA game titles. 

“In many ways, a data analyst is one of the driving forces behind decision making,” explains Chen from her home-based office. “I transform data on our customers into valuable information that addresses the business needs of the teams that develop our products.”

According to Alexandra Bajc, Senior Analyst with EA and Chen’s manager: “Amy’s education and experience equipped her with not only the technical skills, but also the soft skills needed to excel in the role. She can define the problem, navigate the best approach to solving the problem, and effectively interpret and communicate the results to stakeholders who don’t come from analytical backgrounds.” 

Shukai Zhang

Shukai Zhang is a UBC Sauder Bachelor of Commerce graduate who completed the UBC Sauder MBAN program last year and now works for PureWeb, a 3D, interactive, cloud streaming platform.

Data and business analysts are not just delivering value to large employers, they can also offer a broad range of capabilities to smaller organizations. 

“Initially, I was hired to investigate the inefficiencies in capacity utilization,” says Zhang. “Applying my data science knowledge, I was able to pin down the root causes of the issue and provide action items on the product roadmap to the R&D team. Moreover, having modeled the company’s cost structure, I helped to build our pricing from scratch.”

PureWeb’s Director of Product and Marketing, Ben Ospino, credits Zhang with improving the company’s bottom line.

“Shukai’s analysis resulted in a significant overhaul of product pricing and our quotation process, reducing the time to quote from three days to 20 minutes,” says Ospino. 

“Moreover, he took the initiative to apply statistical tests and provided evidence-based support for product improvements that resulted in a drop in our publishing pricing from US$ 0.08 to US$ 0.02 per server minute.”