A flexible optimization tool for direct marketing campaigns

In order to maximize benefit to the company and the customer, Scotiabank engages its customer on an ongoingbasis, offering them new products and drawing attention to existing products of high potential benefit. Thismarketing effort is based on an extensive quantitative analysis, performed by the company's department ofDecision Sciences. An integral part of this analysis is a complex optimization problem. Scotiabank is lookingto find a better way to solve this optimization problem efficiently. The aim is to develop a flexibleOptimization Solution Tool which is adaptable to new constraints that may arise in the future.We will develop a new algorithm to solve the optimization problem. Starting from a restricted version of theproblem for which a fast solution method exists, we will add more complex constraints in an iterative fashion,all the while keeping track of bounds on the gap between the obtained solution and the optimal. This methodwill allow for sensitivity analysis, where we can measure the effect of a given constraint on the optimalsolution. This analysis will allow better use of the solution to aid in decision making.