NAFCU Journal November December 2021

Surround Yourself with Analytics Masters + Drastically shortened insights delivery time. Coastal’s analytics team has established processes and techniques for getting business intelligence into the right hands very quickly. We’ve assisted our outbound calling team with highly targeted leads from predictive models; we’ve quickly answered ad hoc business questions from executives; we’ve delivered forward- looking balance insights to our mortgage and business lending teams. Soon, we’ll have built a delinquency dashboard to keep outreach efforts focused on those members who can benefit most. + Deepened internal analytics knowledge. At the outset of our engagement, AdvantEdge Digital delivered a lot of analytics capabilities with practical outputs. It became clear that the greatest value for our team would be to learn from them so we could evolve our own analytics expertise. They taught us how to provide business-altering information internally, which enriched the team, and showed me personally how to do analytics well. + Continuously building predictive models. The credit union is benefiting from our partner’s knowledge of what works in various industries and styles of business. Their ‘in the wild’ experience taught us advanced methods for building data models we can continuously reuse for different marketing efforts. We are now poised to take a much more predictive approach to helping members through their financial journeys. A vendor partner’s willingness to listen to a credit union’s needs and quickly pivot their services to match ensures measurable and enriching outcomes. My advice to any credit union BI team looking to boldly step into the leadership position is to find an external resource willing to contribute to the development of internal competencies. It takes time to pin down the right partner, but it’s worth every ounce of effort to find a good match. Credit union business intelligence teams can boldly step into the leadership position. As more credit unions confront the need to improve their data engines and analytics capabilities to better serve modern members, business intelligence (BI) teams are in a time of transition. What was once a reactive function, responding to requests for data and insight, has become much more proactive. In fact, many are expected to lead strategy based on the stories the data is telling. One thing we know about great leaders — they surround themselves with experts. For credit union BI and analytics teams navigating new expectations, that often means layering in the perspective of an outside analytics expert. The trick is finding the right one. Credit unions need an analytics partner willing to flex and adjust, which is particularly important for credit unions that take an agile approach to innovation. As everyone knows, different credit unions are on wildly divergent paths to data transformation. A one-size- fits-all strategy is a non-starter. For these reasons, it’s a good idea to set out rules of engagement before you even start talking to vendors. Here are a few examples: 1 | The partner is willing to listen and adapt its services to your goals. 2 | Analytics capabilities must translate through showing as much as doing. 3 | Your internal team’s skillset will grow as a result of the partnership. Our team set up similar rules ahead of our search, and as a result, leapfrogged traditional milestones on the road to analytics mastery. In collaboration with the data analytics consulting team at AdvantEdge Digital, our team has achieved several wins that have generated substantial momentum for the future while also supporting us in leading Coastal’s data strategy. These are just a few: By Richard Sowell VP, Reporting and Analytics at Coastal Credit Union FindYour Analytics Master