MADISON, Wis. – Credit union data analytics firm AdvantEdge Analytics has launched a Consulting Services business line.
According to the company, the services complement AdvantEdge Analytics’ cloud-based Data Platform, a set of end-to-end analytics technologies designed specifically for credit unions. Consulting Services may be used with or without integrating the Data Platform, reported AdvantEdge Analytics, a unit of CUNA Mutual Group.
“From Fortune 500 companies to community financial institutions, the lack of a definitive business-driven strategy is the single largest barrier to data and analytics success,” said Mike Defnet, president of AdvantEdge Analytics. “This highly complex undertaking becomes even more so without a north star. Our goal is to help credit unions identify and commit to an authentic, mission-centric purpose for their analytics ambitions, so they stay energized and focused on their journey.”
Strategy-First Approach
This strategy-first approach to data transformation relies on a broad set of best practices and principles implemented across a variety of industries. The Consulting Services team designs custom analytics strategies specific to a credit union’s goals. To ease implementation, credit unions receive detailed solution blueprints, an analytics budget and a prioritized roadmap with achievable timelines and guideposts, the company added.
“A clear path to implementation makes the very complex job of data analytics exponentially less intimidating,” said Defnet. “It generates transformative momentum that enables quick wins that fire up teams and excite boards.”
According to Defnet, AdvantEdge Analytics Consulting Services and Data Platform solutions are configurable. “Credit unions are taking wildly divergent paths to data maturity,” he said. “Some are far along, while others are struggling to get started. Our Consulting Services team meets credit unions wherever they are on their journey.”
What Client CUs Say
AdvantEdge Analytics reported one client credit union, BCU in Vernon Hills, Ill., worked alongside the Consulting Services team as a beta engagement to continue maturing the $3.4-billion asset credit union’s analytics program.
“Over the past 10 years our data and analytics function has evolved and matured, but in a somewhat undisciplined way,” said John Sahagian, BCU chief data officer, in a statement. “Before working with the Consulting Services team, we hadn’t established strong, centralized governance, nor any defined management or strategy function. Our best chance for doing that effectively was to partner with data experts who could help us pull all our disparate ideas and aspirations into one strategy the entire business could get behind.”
Rob Keatts, CIO with Chartway Federal Credit Union, another AdvantEdge Analytics client CU, agreed the outside-in perspective has added value to the credit union’s data transformation journey. The $2.2-billion Virginia Beach, Va.-based Chartway FCU recently built a custom data warehouse with many moving parts.
“The Consulting Services team validated many areas of our strategy and showed us how to do things differently,” said Keatts. “Their experience in the industry is second-to-none and helped ensure three very important things: First, that we allocate enough resources to data governance; second, that we not build something so complicated that it’s unusable outside the data team; and third, that our strategy and the technology to support it can grow and expand. Consulting Services encouraged us to pause, which ultimately helped avoid costly mistakes in the long run.”
How to Get Info
For info, downloadThe Strategy-First Approach to Data Analytics: Six guideposts for credit unions on the journey to data transformation.For additional information, go to advantedgeanalytics.com/consulting.