Brazil
I’m the Managing Director of Serasa Experian, meaning I work with Experian’s Business Services Unit to identify how data can unlock new opportunities for businesses across Brazil. I worked in the banking industry for more than twenty years, but joined Experian two years ago because I was excited by the company’s innovative use of data to solve real-world problems. I regularly work with small businesses in Brazil and hear firsthand about the challenges they face. From client conversations and recent data analysis, my team discovered that companies across the country were having difficulty identifying trustworthy suppliers for their supply chain. In fact, a recent Experian survey found that eight percent of suppliers pose risks to their business partners due to labor, tax or environmental problems. Verified background information – such as financial history and risk of default – are surprisingly difficult to find, making it difficult and time-consuming for small businesses to find trustworthy supply chains. We knew there had to be a simpler way to match companies. That’s why we created Serasa Conecta, an online marketplace that connects verified suppliers with verified buyers. Using Seresa Conecta, a buyer of a clothing store, for example, can register a customized page and scroll through the pages of trusted retail suppliers who can partner with their business. Suppliers, on the other hand, can use the portal to identify new customers to help increase sales and build their reputation. On the backend of the marketplace, Experian analyzes each company’s background, and can help determine which companies could forge the best partnerships based on simple reports and balance sheet analyses. Whenever a buyer selects a supplier, Experian also runs a risk assessment of both parties to ensure it’s a good fit. When Serasa Conecta was launched, buyers and suppliers in Brazil were thrilled by the marketplace’s ability to both increase sales and verify safe companies quickly and easily. I take pride in knowing my team and I have made a positive impact on thousands of small businesses in the country. Although I have only been at Experian Serasa for two years, I am excited to see how data can continue to unlock opportunities, connecting communities and improving the lives of companies around the world.
I’m the head of Serasa Experian’s DataLab, where my colleagues and I focus on using data and artificial intelligence to solve complex challenges for our customers. Our team of data scientists and applied research practitioners use data analytics to create new products and services that address world needs. One successful product is RWA, a platform that analyzes the dynamics of cities to help businesses make informed decisions on their next site location. Occasionally, however, we also discover innovative ways data can solve our own obstacles at Experian. Last year, several departments within Experian were facing similar challenges. We realized the problem could be solved if each group got together to share their perspectives, brainstorm and then collaborate on a common solution. At the end of that project, our teams decided to find more ways to encourage cross-team collaboration within the DataLab network more often. That’s when we decided to launch our first hackathon. Hackathons are events where a large number of people are challenged to participate in collaborative computer programming projects. Various challenges are proposed and the goal is to optimize, reinvent or replace current solutions, providing the participants with the freedom to select their project and team. For our inaugural hackathon, we challenged 80 programmers, designers and project managers to work together for more than 24 hours to create efficient authentication and retention processes to benefit customers. In our second hackathon, we asked participants to create a new Serasa Experian app that would improve relationships with consumers, along with new products that would utilize Experian’s database. The winning app solution ended up using positive registration data to improve personal credit scores for consumers. This app is now in the process of implementation. For our most recent hackathon, held in 2017, we challenged 200 employees and external participants to develop solutions. One of the challenges was to develop solutions to improve the lives of visually disabled individuals. We invited three people with visual disabilities to share their experiences, giving the teams a personal perspective for how a new product could improve their daily lives. For more than 40 hours, the teams worked tirelessly – utilizing data analysis, product design and business planning – to develop their innovative ideas. Although we have only hosted three so far, I hope to continue bringing the culture of the hackathons into our day-to-day activities at Serasa Experian. By collaborating more with coworkers in the past couple of years, I have been inspired by their ability to approach problems in unique ways. I am proud to foster such a collaborative environment and excited to see my coworkers prove a fundamental belief at Experian - hard work can also be fun when you work hard and play hard.
As Serasa Experian’s Corporate Sustainability Manager in Brazil, I’m dedicated to my job promoting diversity and inclusion efforts at work. But it also happens to be my passion. I believe that companies have a responsibility to reflect the diversity found in society, giving everyone equal opportunity to excel regardless of color, gender or disability. And yet, while a lot of companies over the years have made great strides toward hiring a diverse array of people, sometimes the harder — yet more impactful — work is making sure that diverse group of employees can continue to develop professionally after they’re hired. To this end, Serasa Experian’s Business Network for Social Inclusion (Rede Empresarial de Inclusão Social) launched a program called the Top Talent Project, which encourages and accelerates professional development once someone with physical disabilities is hired. I don’t want to simply hire people with disabilities; I want to ensure they can be productive and grow in their roles. While people with disabilities can bring great experience and skill to their positions, they may need some help integrating into teams. That’s why we work closely with each new hire, their managers and their mentors to guide them on a daily basis. If someone is hearing-impaired, for example, they may know only sign language and not Portuguese, making it difficult for them to communicate with their team. Through the Top Talent Project, we train new hires to communicate at work with their Portuguese-speaking coworkers. And then we give sign language training to their team members! We work hard to create a working environment that ensures success for everyone. In 2016, Serasa Experian received the United Nations Good Practices for Workers with Disabilities Award for our inclusion work in Brazil. That same month, I also was honored to receive the Empregueafro Award from the City Council of São Paulo for promoting ethnic diversity. All these accolades make me so proud because they’re a reflection of the way we at Experian take care of our people. Ten years ago, I changed careers so I could focus more on making the world a better place. Serasa Experian has given me the opportunity to do just that.
By volunteering through Experian’s Sohos Reais – Real Dreams – project, I taught a mother of five about understanding basic business concepts so she could expand her sewing business and keep pursuing her dream. I grew up with parents who loved helping others, which fostered my love for volunteerism. Now that I work at Experian, this passion has blossomed as I’ve volunteered in many different capacities, from dressing as a clown to cheer up people in hospitals, to helping teach financial literacy to small-business owners in São Paulo, Brazil. Experian’s Sohos Reais – Real Dreams – program is designed to help connect entrepreneurs and small-business owners with experts who can advise them on how to help their business succeed. My volunteer partner, Diana, and I went through the training together, and a few months later were contacted by Aliança Empreendedora – Experian’s project partner – to help support a local entrepreneur. We were sent information about a woman named Adriana who was looking for advice for her sewing business. When we first met at Adriana’s house, she welcomed us into her home, fed us toast and black coffee, and introduced us to her five children. Adriana is a single mom whose husband left her after becoming a drug dealer. She told us how he had stopped supporting her and the children financially, and how Adriana now relied on her sewing business to support herself and the children – two of whom had serious health issues. Creating this business had been her dream since she was 12, when she had made her first dress for a school party. Now, she sewed colorful shopping bags and purses every day that she sold for R$1.25 a piece – a tiny price compared with the amount of work it took her to produce them. While she loved her job, Adriana told us that the money she made from her sales barely allowed her to cover basic living expenses, like water and electricity. She was on the brink of giving up her dream. The more we talked with Adriana, the more Diana and I realized that what she needed most was someone to help her understand basic business concepts, like cost and revenue. I thought that if we could help her control the money going out, we could solve a lot of her problems. Adriana was eager to learn, so right then and there, I showed her how, by keeping track of costs and profits, she could pay her bills and start to save money for her family. After our first meeting, a group of us from Experian were so inspired by her story that we raised R$1,415 for Adriana to buy fabric for her bags, and gave her a book to help her track her finances. Now every time we meet, Adriana brings the book with her, full of notes – she says it helps her work out her profit from the bags she sells so she knows how much more fabric she can buy. I never imagined that just sharing my financial knowledge with someone could help change their life. By volunteering with Real Dreams, Diana and I helped Adriana get back on her feet and continue pursuing her dream as a small-business owner and provider for her family.
I’m an Analyst for Serasa Experian’s O2C department. I first met Patricia — a fellow Experian employee — over a video call, using sign language. She had been struggling with parts of her job and wanted to learn about a new training course I was setting up through Serasa Experian’s inclusion program. You see, Patricia and I are both deaf, which can bring many challenges to our jobs. The new Excel training I’d created was aimed at helping people like us with disabilities. Patricia and I met face-to-face on the first day of training. There were 18 other students joining her, all eager to learn the formulas and tricks that would help them in their daily activities. Most of them were hearing-impaired like Patricia and I, but some were visually-impaired as well. We all sat down together to talk through the challenges we had with Excel. As I led this discussion, I used sign language for my deaf students and a “speak aloud” computer feature for those who were visually-impaired. Our goal was for everyone to learn something. We took the time to understand each participant’s unique issues with Excel and share potential solutions. Patricia shared how each week she spends hours creating a department performance report for her manager. It took a long time because she could only put the numbers in one by one. She didn’t know the formulas and functions that would speed up her process or how to depict the numbers on a chart or a graph, like her boss needed. As a group, we shared ideas of ways to make Patricia’s work more efficient. My students left the class inspired and full of new ideas they couldn’t wait to put into practice and share with their colleagues. A few weeks after the class, Patricia told me she could do her job much faster and better, giving her time to learn more sophisticated formulas to enhance her presentations. And the inspiring part was that because of the training, she had been promoted. It’s amazing to see the tangible impact my volunteer work through Experian is having for people with disabilities. I feel inspired to do more. Read more #ExperianStories from our colleagues around the world.
I’m the Product Manager of Brazil’s Limpa Nome Online Recovery Portal, which was developed to help people manage and clear their debts. In Brazil, if you have debts, you are said to have a “nome sujo.” Literally translated, this means a “dirty name” — and that means good financial standing and access to credit are nearly impossible. My colleague and I met a Brazilian named Fabio who had a “nome sujo.” We sat down with him one afternoon to learn more about his situation. He told us he had built up debt with a national bank over six months. The debt was so unmanageable, he said, he was almost to the point where he could no longer pay it back. Fabio also told us how he spent at least four hours commuting to and from work each day, which limited his time outside of work. The thought of spending the limited time he had at a bank or collection agency trying to convince them to negotiate with the lender on his behalf seemed impossible. Understandingly, Fabio was enduring many sleepless nights. He tried searching on Google for help and came across Limpa Nome from Serasa Experian. He enrolled on our website, where he could view the debt he owed to the lender as well as proposals to make a settlement of dispute with the bank. Because Fabio had made a settlement proposal through Experian’s Limpa Nome website, the bank made an exception for him, allowing him to pay R$70 instead of R$1,000 each month until his debt was paid off. Within 10 minutes, Fabio’s problems were solved and his name was once again a “limpa nome” — a clear name. Our tool helped remove his financial burden and enabled him to have good credit to now be able to buy a house or a car. Using Experian’s Limpa Nome Online Recovery Portal, my team and I are using data to help give people like Fabio the tools to re-establish a good financial standing so they can pursue their dreams. Read more #ExperianStories from our colleagues around the world.
Portuguese Translation I’m a Marketing Analyst in Serasa Experian’s Data Strategy and Management department. While my day job is to help businesses create user-friendly digital experiences online, the role I’m most passionate about is a project I’m implementing that will use interactive games to help people take better control of their finances. Earlier this year, I learned about One Young World – a summit in Ottawa, Canada where delegates from around the world share solutions for pressing global issues, including financial education. To be selected as one of five ambassadors to this event from Experian, I had to pitch a project idea that would provide financial education to Brazilian citizens. My idea was to transform Experian’s existing educational website and mobile app into a game, to make financial education more interactive and engaging. I envisioned incentivizing customers to better understand their finances by offering them product discounts in exchange for high scores in games. Each game would teach people different skills on how to control their finances – like budgeting – or improve their credit score. Experian loved the idea so much that they not only selected me as one of their ambassadors for One Young World, but also chose to implement the idea for our customers. Within the next 12 months, my project will be implemented, providing financial education to countless Brazilian men and women who are struggling to clear their debts and manage their budgets. I attended the One Young World summit in the fall, which furthered my desire to continuously provide better financial education for the people in my country. I want everyone to feel empowered when they think about their finances. It’s important for people to be able to recover their dignity and clear their name if they had a poor credit background. And I’m happy to do my part to give people better access to the credit they need to improve their lives and the lives of their families. Read more #ExperianStories from our colleagues around the world.
I’m an IT Trainee at Serasa Experian. I research and identify ways to solve the challenges facing financial technology (fintech) organizations in Brazil, including fraud. Fraud is a prevalent problem that makes loans expensive and application processes time-consuming. I’m working to help fintechs, like online lenders, give their customers more affordable loans without risking fraud. One particular fintech wanted our help to offer cheaper credit to people through online lending. The problem was they weren’t relying on any bureau data or automated processes, which made verifying identities and credit scores difficult. They relied on face-to-face conversations and a manual paperwork reviewal process, which was both expensive and tedious. Not surprisingly, they were having significant issues with fraud. My team came in and provided a scoring system for credit reports and a fraud protection tool that Experian had developed. Now when an individual applies for a loan through the lender’s mobile application, Experian runs the credit score for them and verifies that person’s identity. This process is not only faster, but it has significantly decreased their cases of fraud. Because this fintech can now obtain more accurate credit scores for its applicants, it can offer loans to more customers who genuinely need them, while lowering costs. I take pride in knowing that the work I do is making an impact on my country’s economy and helping people get the financial access they need at a fair price, faster. Read more #ExperianStories from our colleagues around the world.
Serasa today launches a new service that allows Brazilian consumers to check their credit reports online for free. By visiting serasaconsumidor.com.br or by downloading the SerasaConsumidor App on Google Play or iTunes, consumers can check if they are delinquent, what led them to this status and whether it relates to bank, credit card, financial, retail, utilities, protested securities, checks without funds or lawsuits checks. Consumers will also have information about lenders, such as telephones, address, email and website as well as the value of the debt and repayment date for the delayed debt. Additionally, the consumer can renegotiate the debt directly, without intermediaries, if the company is a partner of Serasa’s free service Limpa Nome Online. People can make a free online inquiry as often as they would like. To participate in the free online program, consumers must access serasaconsumidor.com.br and fill out a registration or enter an email address and password if already registered. The service is also available on mobile Apps Android and iOS. To properly verify the user accessing the information in Serasa, after the registration, the consumer must go through an authentication process. One of the steps is to enter the mobile number and confirm the validation code received via SMS. This validation is required only on the first access. For the director of SerasaConsumidor, Fernanda Monnerat, this new service presents the opportunity for consumers to easily and safely check the existence debts in a single digital environment. \"It\'s another tool that we provide to Brazilians so they can have access to services that make possible, above all, their financial citizenship and ability to build a more sustainable relationship with the credit. Therefore, we reaffirm once again the commitment of Serasa with the consumer,” said Monnerat. Among other free services available on the SerasaConsumidor website, consumers can opt-in to the positive data initiative, which gathers information on the consumer’s payment history, measures their payment timeliness of debts and evaluates the risk of debt distress. Through the program, it is also possible to make a document alert and stolen checks alert. Free registration in Serasa helps to reduce risk of fraud and to avoid the challenges of having personal information used by scammers. Also on the website, users will find guidelines and tests on financial education on the newly launched page www.serasaconsumidor.com.br/organizar-financas.