Intelligence Node is a global technology company that specializes in the development of analytical products and services using a SaaS-based delivery model focused on price optimization. The company generates analytics from Big Data pertaining to the retail industry. Intelligence Node was constituted in 2012 as a consulting firm and since then has evolved into the retail space as the provider of an analytics platform.
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History/Background
Intelligence Node was incepted in 2012 as a consulting company that focused on providing expert consulting to the retailers in the e-commerce apparel domain. The company was co-founded by Sanjeev Sularia, CEO of Intelligence Node and Yasen Dimitrov, COO of Intelligence Node. Sularia previously worked as the CFO for Exclusively.in (an e-commerce portal for upscale fashion), now acquired by Snapdeal, and CFO for Shersingh.com (a private label e-commerce fast fashion portal), now under Myntra. While Yasen was the Practice Leader at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in their London office. Prior to this, he was the Head of Research and Analytics in a boutique financial research lab in London. Intelligence Node began its operations with seven members at Mumbai, India. The company currently has offices in London, New York City, and Dubai along with Mumbai.
The enterprise expanded its consulting business into retail analytics that provides real-time information to the retailers by enabling them to gain access to pools of data generated globally, and also resources to synthesize them. Retailers can use the products as trading platforms where they can implement a dynamic pricing model based on accurate and reliable insights. The technology engaged by the company encompasses a SaaS-based platform that scans the internet for the pricing strategies and cataloging models of over 1 billion products of more than 130,000 brands sold in around 1,100 categories.
In 2015, Intelligence Node raised $4 million in Series A funding from New Enterprise Associates and Orios Venture Partners and now plans to expand its operations in the US and Europe.
Currently, the company offers two products- Incompetitor which is a SaaS based offering that helps in competitor price assortment and benchmarking, and Inoptimizer, a rules-based optimization engine, which enables price optimization. The products make it possible for the retailers to offer everyday low pricing instead of specific period discounts.The analytics take into consideration the pricing variances based on the geographical locations of the customers allowing merchants to streamline the pricing.
Intelligence Node seeks to fill the gap in the retail industry through its Big Data Analytics by enabling retailers to get details of what their competitors are offering. Intelligence Node’s solutions also analyze the product turnover rate of the global fashion industry. Both the products are offered a subscription-based licensing service to the users.
As a part of its global expansion strategy, Intelligence Node has integrated multilingual support into its applications. Currently, the platforms support 29 major languages, which represent around 95% of the total global GDP. It will enable the company to serve a global clientele and make its processes internationally scalable.
In 2016, Indonesian lifestyle retail giant Mitra Adiperska (MAP) entered into a contract with Intelligence Node for its analytical services. MAP operates across a range of retail products including apparel, food and sports equipment, and is the Indonesian master franchise partner for prominent brands that include Zara, Starbucks, New Balance and M&S. Another major organization that has partnered with Intelligence Node is Bfashion, a Bulgarian fashion retailer.
The further business expansion strategy of Intelligence Nodes entails offering analytical services to offline businesses apart from its existing portfolio of online retailers.
Products
The two main products of Intelligence Node are – Incompetitor and Inoptimizer. Both these platforms work on a Software-as-a-Service(SaaS) model and offer a subscription-based licensing service to the users.
Incompetitor is an analytical platform that collates and synthesizes Big Data around the globe to give customers in-depth knowledge about the competitors catalogue width and the pricing strategies and structures. It also provides a comparative view of the company’s own pricing alongside those of its competitors. The competitors include in-house brands as well as private labels. Incompetitor also displays the analytical comparisons on a product catalog basis presenting the range of products offered by the competitors.
Inoptimizer is a rules based pricing engine that eliminates the need for the retailers to affix a fixed price tag for their products and instead offers variable pricing based on the industry and market trends. The prices can increase or decrease depending on the competitors’ pricing, resulting in price optimization. It also enables smart inventory management using sales modeling and a recommendation engine to upsell and cross sell.
Big Data Analytics
The products of Intelligence Node are designed to tap into the potential of Big Data analytics. Big Data analytics has emerged in the recent years as the key driver of growth of businesses by offering invaluable insights into the dynamics of the markets and industries. It enables organizations to synthesize the vast amount of data which is generated around the globe by organizing it into comprehensible patterns, trends, and other useful knowledge. It allows enterprises to make decisions based on the reliable analytical information. The process of using Big Data Analytics has enabled companies to witness a paradigm shift in the way they operate and formulate, and implement their strategies. Managers are aptly supported by the knowledge they derive using analytics and market intelligence. One of the core functions of Big Data
Analytics is incorporating a dynamic pricing strategy leading to a more transparent and efficient system. Pricing intelligence helps enterprises to determine the right pricing structures based on the analysis of what their competitors offer. The pricing intelligence enables companies to leverage dynamic pricing to increase their profitability by avoiding over-charging as well as undercharging.