The AEM Data Journey: Building a Strategic Framework for People, Process, and Impact

By Sara Feuling, Senior Director of Portfolio Management, Association of Equipment Manufacturers --

Consider the word "data" for a moment. What sorts of things come to mind? What role or purpose does data play within your organization? How is it being used to drive strategy and desired outcomes?

These are questions more easily asked than answered. At AEM, when we refer to "data," it most often occurs within the context of our market share statistics programs or business intelligence offerings. Increasingly, however, we find ourselves looking at data through an organizational and operational lens.

It's no surprise why. Within our organization, data is a strategic priority that helps bring benefits to our members and our industry. So, in support of AEM's 2025-2027 Strategic Plan, our leadership identified nine priorities and goals to drive our efforts and activities throughout the remainder of 2026.

One such priority involves launching the first phase of a data framework to support AEM strategic goals. To accomplish this task, we have moved forward with a phased approach to identify:

• Operational efficiencies that improve day-to-day business operations with streamlined, standardized policies, processes, and procedures
• Innovations that transform AEM by introducing capabilities that would enable exponential growth or significantly impact how AEM does business
• An enterprise data program to leverage our information-based assets to drive operational and strategic decision-making, as well as provide meaningful value to members

Our work began with three main tasks: taking an inventory, creating a baseline, and evaluating the state of our systems and data. This entailed identifying key departments and data stakeholders from AEM staff to help develop a series of recommended initiatives - including data stewardship, enterprise analytics, and customer resource management integrations.

The next step was to create a roadmap to help get us closer to "the finish line." However, we quickly realized our roadmap, along with its corresponding information systems, were only useful if we had the right people working in the proper roles to execute it. Enter "people strategy," an approach we employed to define the key data and technological skills needed in critical roles to support our objectives.

Once we had those roles defined, we quickly recognized we couldn't do it alone. We're not really "tech" people at AEM. We're an association, which means we're in what is best described as "the people business." We're focused on providing services and building relationships and would require third-party expertise and support when dealing with data and technology.

One other notable result of our people-strategy-related efforts was the creation of a new position for me at AEM: Senior Director of Portfolio Management. As a civil engineer who spent more than a decade working in the construction industry, I'll never be confused with a data scientist or technology strategist. However, what I do possess are demonstrated project management experience and a proven track record as an employee at AEM, both of which have helped me look across the organizational silos within our organization and work to connect people and services.

So, as I looked into individual needs and roles at AEM, I found the organization possessed a need for data and technology leadership. Ultimately, we need our entire senior team to become technology leaders. For some people, this means demonstrating leadership skills in an area where they lack sufficient background knowledge and experience. It also means taking educated risks, making mistakes, and "crawling" before we "run."

We now find ourselves in the earliest stages of an implementation phase focused on more than just "doing." The work also involves understanding, facilitating, and communicating. As part of the phase, we've created a working group representing IT, operations, and policy. We meet regularly along with our partners at information systems and consulting firm SysLogic and data management company Hargrove Association Insights to discuss our objectives, prioritize our initiatives, and identify additional opportunities related to our goal of establishing data as a strategic priority.

The task that now lies ahead of us is easier undertaken than accomplished: Leave the organization better than we found it. However, collective intelligence can be a useful tool for us as we leverage data to help improve our organization, drive value for our members, and positively impact our industry.

Our work is just starting, but AEM is making strong progress. We're also excited to keep you updated as our work continues to evolve in the months ahead.

Stay tuned!