b'SECTION 01 THE STORY SO FARThe story New features: The feature set of Insight Communities has expanded dramatically, to include survey data, live chat, video data and live video so far chat, collaborative tools like whiteboards, and more. All these increase the range of tasks for members and widen the scope of data the Insight Community directly collects.User experience: Alongside this the experience of taking part in an Insight Community has greatly improved. The basic interfaces - posting, commenting, uploading - are smoother, the information in a community is better organised, and mobile support is far stronger. Behind the scenes, its easier to track and reward activity and what motivates participants Insight Communities are older thanBy the early 00s, Market Researchis better understood.you might think! They trace their originsagencies developed the first dedicatedBusiness integration: Data integration is crucial. A modern Insight back to the early days of the World WideInsight Communities. They were usuallyCommunity can better integrate with existing survey, CRM and other Web. Large consumer-facing brands likeshort-term discussion groups, centreddata streams. But data is only a part of integration - a community also PepsiCo had set up multiple onlineon a succession of online qual tasks.needs to mesh with an organisations structure, processes and workflows communities by the end of the 90s.and align with its goals. This is an area in which technology can only do These functions remain a central capabilityso much of the work, but its the area in which the future of Insight The major difference was that they wereof Insight Communities, but the tools haveCommunities will be determined. designed as direct marketing channels,evolved way beyond that. The development rather than as a customer voice tool.of Insight Communities has run along This provided an early model for brandsthree tracks: new features, a better use of social media and reflects theand easier user experience, and better mindset of the time. Brands saw newbusiness integration.channels as an extension of the one-sided conversations they were having whereTop-class technology on its own wontBut too often the way in which they the emphasis was on talking rathertransform the value a community bringsare being used is still the same - the than listening. to a business. What matters is the thirdcommunities are siloed within a research domain - improvements in analysis andor insight function, producing reports which business integration.are fascinating and detail rich but which go unused because they arent integrated with What we see today are businesses usingthe actual needs of the business. Insight Communities that are massively more technically advanced than theirTo solve this, Insight Communities equivalents of 10 or 15 years ago.must become strategic assets within an organisation.07 | INSIGHT COMMUNITIES 2023 08 | INSIGHT COMMUNITIES 2023'