1. Business Analyst Intern, Priceline.com
Sai Charan Thotapalli
Graduate Student, MS in Information Technology and Management
ABSTRACT
INTERNSHIP OBJECTIVES
TOOLS USED
In the Summer’15 semester, I worked as an intern for Priceline.com. Our
company is a commercial website that claims to help users obtain discount
rates for travel-related purchases such as airline tickets and hotel stays.
The company is not a direct supplier of these services; instead it facilitates
the provision of travel services by its suppliers to its customers. It is
headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States.
As a part of the Customer Conversion team, we are always looking for
creative solutions to convert orders into offers. My duty is to collect/validate
the data, analyze various metrics, identify the key points that affect the
performance, and to report/present the entire analysis.
Work on analysis of different orders that are related to different products
like Air, Hotels, Rental Cars, both on the desktop and the mobile interface:
• Filter, segregate, validate and load the data into our database
• Identify, explore metrics that affect the performance
• Analyze data using various analysis/mining methods
• Write high level SQL queries to fetch data, and load the data onto
Tableau for further analysis. Create dynamic dashboards using
parameters that are built using complex calculated fields.
• Report the analysis by publishing the dashboard on the server
• Suggest a possible solution to improve the performance
METHODS
For conclusion, I could make the most out of the opportunity to work in
Priceline.com. This is a great experience in which I could contribute as
well as learn a lot. Through this internship, I gained practical IT skills
such as data collection/ validation/ analysis/ reporting, as well as job-
related skills, such as communication skills and the way to work in a
business/diverse environment. The entire experience was amazing as
it was both fun-filled and challenging at the same time.
Additionally, this internship also gave me a great exposure to the e-
ecommerce industry, which also includes learning of all the new
terminologies used at work. I could get a clear picture of how analytics
is used in order to achieve excellent customer conversion.
CONCLUSION
Databases: Oracle SQL Server (Toad), MySQL Workbench, Git Lab
Data Collection: Accessing tables in the CIS, CMS Server using SQL
Data Validation: Comparing results with the primary DB using SQL
Analysis: MS-SQL, Tableau
Reporting: Tableau
Presentation: Tableau (Dashboards), Google Slides
Data Analysis
Plot the data of orders across various interface
types, offer method codes, GDS, location, and
credit cards. Identifying the key metrics that affect
the overall performance.
Data Collection
Fetch data from various schemas in different
databases like CIS (OLAP), CMS (OLTP) using
Oracle SQL Queries. Performed the queries in
Toad and MySQL Workbench.
Data Validation & Data Loading
Filter, segregate, validate data by removing
duplicates & outliers, dealing with null values,
and compare results to the primary table (UBER)
to see if the results match
In-depth Analysis & Reporting
Calculate the behavior of key metrics in
different scenarios (like same day last week,
same day last year etc.). Create dashboards
using parameters and calculated fields.
Suggest Operational Changes After Analysis
Create dashboards and document the same using Google slides based
on the performed analytics. Organize cross-functional meetings with
other operational departments to suggest possible solutions to improve
the performance. Some of tasks that I worked on were:
• Hotel Offer Rejects – Reason Code Analysis focused on iOS
• Hotel – Listings API Response Times Analysis
• Offer Confirmation on Mobile via Notifications – Error Analysis
• Intern Group Project: How to increase Last minute customers
Name: Sai Charan Thotapalli
Major: Information Technology and Management
UTD ID: 2021204937
Net ID: sxt135830
Email: saicharan.thotapalli@utdallas.edu
Mobile: 469.605.8630
CONTACT