The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) has recently announced the development of the Alabama Business Intelligence Center (ABIC). The Alabama Business Intelligence Center generates actionable data insights for the recruitment and retention of Alabama businesses.

Its initial areas of focus include industries, companies, and executives that align with Alabama’s value proposition.

In an statement, the EDPA said that the purpose and resourcefulness of the new center is “to increase business development leads, strengthen partnerships through intelligence and resources, collaborate with allies and partners to unlock insights from the combination of quantitative and qualitative information, and position Alabama as a partner for business growth and investment.”

“The Center envisions being a thought-leader on Alabama business and industry trends. It will augment EDPA’s partners’ current work and further position Alabama’s value proposition.”

Greg Barker, President of the EDPA, explained that Alabama Business Intelligence Center is the first comprehensive, statewide research hub of its kind, both proactively mitigating risk and identifying opportunities for targeted business growth and development with the goal of securing new investment throughout the state.

“Every business sector is increasingly dependent upon quality business intelligence to develop actionable strategies,” said Barker. “Economic development is not any different, and I am completely confident that the Alabama Business Intelligence Center will be able to provide the needed business intelligence so Alabama can continue to build on its economic development success.”

In 2021, Alabama was ranked ninth in job-creating economic development projects per capita in Site Selection Magazine’s annual Governor’s Cup analysis. With the development of the ABIC comes optimism for growth and employment opportunities.

Additionally, Lauren Hyde, who serves as the first Executive Director of the ABIC, also offered expertise through the official release, discussing viewing certain aspects through an investment lens. As a CFA® charter holder, Hyde is both well-versed in public and private company research.

“Success for the Alabama Business Intelligence Center looks like success for our partners,” Hyde stated. “ABIC will utilize a risk-return framework of thinking when analyzing opportunities. We are committed to long-term investment in Alabama. It’s not just dollars, incentives, or time. It’s jobs and infrastructure. And we’re here to generate the actionable data insights needed to encourage this investment.”

The ABIC will work with the EDPA business development team and partners to execute projects for lead generation across the state. Additionally, ABIC will serve as a resource to the Alabama Department of Commerce – the State’s economic development leader.

The ABIC will also support Opportunity Alabama and its statewide partners to generate data-informed interventions to build economic resilience in underserved communities, as they recover from the impacts of COVID-19.

According to Alex Flachsbart, Founder and CEO of Opportunity Alabama, the ABIC will be a critical partner in the implementation of this initiative, which is funded by a CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant received in 2021 from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

“In order to execute substantive, place-based strategic interventions, we need to understand local communities in a data-driven way, and ABIC will allow us to do just that,” stated Flachsbart. “We are fortunate to have someone of Lauren’s caliber providing actionable business intelligence statewide and grateful to the Economic Development Administration for supporting this effort.”

For more information on the Alabama Business Intelligence Center, please visit http://www.ALbicenter.org/.

Featured image provided by the EDPA.