By Charlie Sapienza, Business Development Manager
If there’s one thing I could say about Solutions Day 2019, or any .orgCommunity event for that matter, it’s that the sessions and content are fantastic. They always are. Among the content at Solutions Day — live demos, video presentations, guest speakers and much more — there was one underlying theme: the ever-growing importance of data and business intelligence.
But what is business intelligence (BI)? Why does it matter? And how can your association capitalize on the rapidly growing BI industry? In this post, I’ll give a broad overview of BI, and outline why it was the talk of Solutions Day 2019.
What is Business Intelligence?
Here’s how Microsoft — whose Power BI platform is one of a select few BI options listed on Capterra with both a 4.5-star rating and more than 500 reviews — describes business intelligence:
“While not as flexible as business analytics tools, BI tools provide a way of amassing data to find information primarily through queries. These tools also help prepare data for analysis so that you can create reports, dashboards, and data visualizations. The results give both employees and managers the power to accelerate and improve decision making, increase operational efficiency, pinpoint new revenue potentials, identify market trends, report genuine KPIs, and identify new business opportunities.”
Why Does Business Intelligence Matter to Associations?
Business intelligence clearly has the potential to be a game-changer for associations, as evidenced by its presence at Solutions Day 2019.
One of my favorite sessions of the day came courtesy of Thad Lurie, VP of Business Intelligence and Performance at Experient. It’s quite possible that Thad introduced many in attendance to the true power of business intelligence and the methods in which it can improve business outcomes.
Clearly, BI will provide key opportunities for associations, it’s just a matter of whether they’re willing to implement a business intelligence solution. Here’s how our own BI expert, LX Product Manager Matt Dickens, explained the benefit of business intelligence in a blog post of his own.
“By using interactive charts and graphs, your association’s leadership will be able to see positive or negative patterns. They’ll be able to visualize the path the organization is on, and take action accordingly. All of that can be achieved by simply tying a story to your member data.”
How Can Your Association Capitalize on the Rapidly Growing Business Intelligence Industry?
The best thing about the rise of BI is the sheer volume of options. Capterra lists more than 450 business intelligence solutions on the market — and we all know a little friendly competition is bound to elevate everyone’s performance.
The challenge is finding business intelligence software that integrates effortlessly with your association management software and can be viewed from within your AMS and implemented at a reasonable price. That’s why Protech harnessed the capabilities of Microsoft’s Power BI to provide customers with access to an association-focused business intelligence tool at a fraction of the cost of the typical BI implementation.
To learn more about Protech’s entry into the BI space, read our recent press release and find out how you can provide your association’s leadership with the business intelligence needed to maximize revenue and make data-driven decisions.