Fast followers win: why clubs don’t need to lead to succeed at BI

Blog: Professional advantage - BPM blog

In the mid to late nineties, Yahoo was the world’s top search engine. It wasn’t the only search engine available (remember Alta Vista and Lycos?), but it was the first to index the web, which gave it a first mover advantage.

Then Google came along. Rather than reinventing the wheel, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin built on the success of first movers like Yahoo to develop a search engine that delivered more relevant results. The rest, as they say, is history.

Google is proof that success doesn’t always mean being the fastest or most innovative. In fact, some of Google’s most successful products, including Gmail and Chrome, were released over a decade later than competitor products like Hotmail and Internet Explorer.

But what does Google have to do with clubs and business intelligence (BI)? In this post we’ll explain why taking Google’s lead and being a fast follower can give your club better BI results.

Why clubs don’t need to reinvent the BI wheel

We often speak with club managers who say they know they need BI, but they’re not ready to take the next step.

This is usually for one of two reasons:

They want to avoid the stress and hassle of developing a custom BI solution.
They don’t know of any other clubs using club-specific BI products, and don’t want to be the first mover in case it doesn’t work out.

This is entirely understandable. No one wants to be responsible for an IT project that doesn’t deliver. Some clubs tell us they waited five years to implement a BI solution, because they wanted to see how the product worked for nearby clubs first.

The first mover days are over

The first movers of the club world have already tried and tested club-specific BI products like ClubIntel.

Like Yahoo, they had the advantage of being first, but they also took on the additional risk of working with an unfamiliar product.

What first mover clubs say about ClubIntel

“We investigated a number of other solutions before selecting ClubIntel. A lot of systems claim they can do what ClubIntel does, but they’re not club-specific and they don’t have the same track record. We didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. We are basically tweaking ClubIntel’s look and feel, rather than building a solution from scratch. That’s a big plus.” – Panthers Group financial controller Mathew Luszczynski

“We reviewed many BI systems across a range of price points and functionality. We were impressed with ClubIntel, as it has been developed and tailored specifically for our industry… ClubIntel provides us with a single solution, with close to real-time data access, so that all our managers can make decisions. We have a high level of confidence that we will achieve our objectives with ClubIntel.” – Campbelltown Catholic Club executive manager Roger Cubitt

“There are a lot of BI systems out there, but it was important that we carefully select a solution that could address our specific needs. After an arduous due diligence across at least half a dozen BI solutions, we concluded that ClubIntel was the right one for us.” – Wests Ashfield Leagues Club chief financial officer Basil Jong.

What works for first movers also works for fast followers

Most clubs have similar operating systems and processes, so what works for Penrith Panthers, Campbelltown Catholic Club and Wests Ashfield Leagues Club will likely work for your club too.

As a fast follower, you’ll benefit from reduced risk and an improved ability to build on lessons learned by first movers. If it’s good enough for Larry Page and Sergey Brin, there’s a strong chance your club can benefit from a similar approach.

If your club is ready to start its BI journey, speak to a Professional Advantage ClubIntel consultant today on 1800 126 499.

You can read more about Professional Advantage and ClubIntel here.