ASA business intelligence dashboard launches successfully

American Supply Association’s business intelligence (BI) smoothly transitions into a new phase. As part of the ASA 2018 approved operating budget, the ASA Board of Directors approved additional funding to hire a full-time business analyst to manage this transition as
well as the BI offerings.

ASA conducted a BI survey to gather feedback from members on the current offerings and ideas on how to enhance the program in 2019. In addition to the survey, ASA conducted phone interviews with members who have been engaged with the BI offerings over the last few years. Based on the positive feedback from the survey and member phone interviews, ASA moved forward with some exciting new changes to the BI program.

Online portal

To add even more value to this member-valued program, ASA developed a way for the offerings to be much more easily accessible in one convenient online portal. ASA understands how critical it is this day and age to report on data and analyze trends in order to make intelligent business decisions. The BI dashboard has the capability to do all this, so anyone can get to the information they want in as little time as possible. The BI dashboard can be accessed by going to www.asabusinessintelligence.com.

The hard work came to full fruition in April when the dashboard officially launched. Since the launch in April, we continue to hear positive feedback from members and traffic to the dashboard continues to increase.

The dashboard currently hosts the following BI offerings:

Operating Performance Report (OPR)
Quarterly Pulse
Biannual cross-industry compensation and benefits study
Sales forecasting tool (brand new to the ASA BI portfolio)
ASA Advisor & Materials Report
Business valuation

“The surveys were quick and easy to complete. We were able to finish the OPR & Pulse survey online in maybe 45 minutes. The selection of the questions was such that it would help the industry get the most relevant financial information to steer the business in the right direction. Looking forward to the results.”

The first edition of the Quarterly Pulse (Q1) is now available to members who participated. Those members who participated also receive company-specific reports. Data collection for the Operating Performance Report (OPR) is now complete. Participants will be able to view and download their reports on the dashboard, as well as slice and dice the data using the online reporting tools; an enhancement to what was offered previously.

Sales Forecasting Tool

The dashboard also hosts a brand-new offering complimentary to ASA members. The Sales Forecasting Tool allows members to enter their sales data as far back as 2004 and get the best prediction of what their sales would look like over the next five years. In addition, the tool also includes key economic data for comparison, such as the ASA Index, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Housing Starts, Wholesale Sales, and Purchasing Managers Index (PMI).

The 2018 biannual cross-industry compensation and benefits study is also available for purchase in the dashboard for a special member rate and also available at a non-member rate. Those members who contributed data have already received their company-specific reports.

ASA Advisor & Materials Report is also available as a complimentary member benefit and the Business Valuation service is available to anyone interested in appraising their business.