“We don’t have enough money to invest in an analytics platform. Even if we did, we don’t have the in-house expertise to manage it.”
And so plays the mantra of small associations. This theme replayed throughout conversations at the YourMembership Conference, and if you are a smaller association, the chances are that you feel similarly. And there’s a good reason why: data is historically expensive and complicated to analyze. And, it can be intimidating.
However, if you’re anything like the good folks we met at the YourMembership Conference last week, you have major data points that matter to your organization, even basic ones like your member count, retention rate, event registration, and engagement on your website and community platform. Your data points live across multiple systems in multiple formats, which means you are probably 1) investing significant time building custom reports repeatedly, or 2) executing a strategy that is only partially informed by these data points.
One thing is clear: it’s not that you don’t understand the importance of data. During the conference, a representative from an Arizona-based association shared that she is tasked with changing the data culture within her organization. She’s unsure if she’ll be able to do such a large job with limited resources. Another association representative said that his Board is giving mixed messages, with Board members insisting on conflicting assessments of membership trends. Where to begin? What’s the real truth?
Whether you are creating or changing your data culture, or trying to get everyone working off the same song sheet, there are now affordable options for smaller organizations. So what’s changed?
- You no longer need a six-figure investment and implementations that take months or even years to get results. Modern process is 30 days or less.
- Blending, analyzing, and visualizing your data from across different systems is possible and accessible to all. Seriously. You don’t need massive data warehouses.
- Producing reports no longer requires a data scientist; in fact, anyone can access live data to read and interpret visual information.
- Data is accessible in real time and outlives any individual at your organization. There’s no need to worry about losing the only person in your organization that can create pivot tables.
- Reporting is now mobile and supports the needs of your on-the-go executives.
All of your reports can (and should be) visualized in one place, whether you’re tracking data from an AMS, community platform like Higher Logic, or an event management platform like Cvent.
It is possible, and not just for large associations. You can have this capability too. Nucleus, the BI tool built specifically for associations, has prebuilt connectors to all of your essential association technology platforms.
Register for the upcoming Nucleus webinar on June 8th to learn how AMIA (American Medical Informatics Association) recently began informing their organizational strategy through analytics and how they’re already experiencing outstanding bottom line results.
