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Education

Data as table stakes dashboard was a novel concept a few decades ago and led
to a ton of guesswork for motorists. Just as your dashboard
For decades, large companies wandered in the dark tells you how the vehicle is performing, analytics do the
much like small ones do today. They struggled to gain same for a business. At a glance, the dashboard delivers
visibility into their business performance, their customers' a metric ton of information: speed, fuel usage, mileage,
spending tendencies, and which levers they could pull to engine temperature, RPMs, and even direction in some
improve performance. Today, business intelligence and cases. Similarly, an analytics platform can quickly put
analytics systems are table stakes for big companies, and revenue, customer loyalty, competitor benchmarking and
small businesses are racing to catch up. In fact, according market trends into context.
to Techaisle, 94 percent of small businesses are now using
software-as-a-service to run their businesses, up from just One of the reasons Square has become so popular
27 percent in 2011. with merchants is the integration of POS, processing
and analytics. With very little friction, merchants can
Soon, business intelligence and analytics software systems take payments and use that transaction data to better
will be as commonplace at small businesses as they are understand their businesses and customers. All MLSs
in big ones. For MLSs, this means it's critical to get ahead need to update their consultative strategy to match.
of the trend now and use data and software solutions in
every consultation. The early adopters will get it. The rest We're still on the cusp of the small business analytics
will remember you when they get on board. movement, but the mainstreaming will be swift and
How to pitch business intelligence sudden. MLSs who work it into their consultations
now will reap the rewards and set their clients up for
Data and software are abstract concepts for most unprecedented success.
merchants, so it's best to use relatable analogies when Barry Davis is vice president of business development at Womply,
adding them to your merchant consultations. http://womply.com, the top software partner to the payments indus-
try and the top provider of front-office software to small business-
The best comparison for business intelligence is your es. For more tips or resources, reach out to the Womply team at
car's dashboard. We take it for granted nowadays, but the
partnerships@womply.com.

What you see isn’t

always what you get.

Transparency builds better

relationships, and you can’t
expect to grow your business

with anything less. We believe in
ownership through partnership.

Created by ISOs. Owned by ISOs. Serving ISOs.

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