I and BI

As an Electrical and Electronics Engineer from BITS, Pilani when I got an opportunity to work for a start-up, Apex Decisions, Bangalore India that works in BI I was confused, because before that day I did not even know what Business Intelligence is.
To my surprise I saw the diverse application of BI in all walks of life. My project area was Retail market with US based clients as GUESS and BigM. I was surprised to see all the sales and promotions run by various retail brands like GUESS, Nike, GAP etc have proper quantitative decisions behind every move. To my surprise I was told that our pilot run with GUESS had increased their yearly revenue by about $20 Million- all because of BI. It was unbelievable for me but as I started working with them and implementing their algorithm and using their tools I could feel how BI can augment a retail business.
Extracting seasonality pattern information from traffic pattern of sales round the year, considering special events like Easter, 4th of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas, and using the tools in the best way possible I could forecast sales patterns for my clients for the coming year.
The biggest surprise was to when my analysis was actually forwarded to GUESS and implemented. The accuracy of my forecast coincided with less that 5% error with their actual yearly sale. This was the moment that ushered me towards BI and couple of months later I find myself in the BI class. Hope my journey takes me to more interesting places. Later.