Anyone can show you a number.
Getting a number is easy. Trusting it is not: whether the data has been validated, whether the cohorts are built correctly, whether a decline is real or a definition change. An answer you cannot defend is worse than no answer, because you will act on it. Establishing that trust is what we have done since 2000, and it ships with the product.
Extract
A monthly extract from your case management system. Any CMS, no new integration.
Validate
Every record checked with FWS Verify before it moves on.
Standardize
Raw PIRL and supplemental data transformed into one consistent structure.
Warehouse
Loaded into the FutureWorks BI data warehouse. Current and historical, in one secure place.
Explore
Live in FutureWorks BI. Your team queries, tracks, and acts. No technical skills required.
Between the raw PIRL file and an answer you can defend sit four steps: extract, validate, standardize, warehouse. We own all four, and they are finished before you open the platform. The fifth one is yours.
The part that never gets easier.
Some organizations do consider building this, usually with a general BI tool and a capable analyst. The tooling for that fifth step has gotten much easier, and that is real. Steps one through four are where the work actually lives, and they have not gotten easier at all: knowing how each WIOA indicator is defined, how the cohorts are constructed, where the PIRL file hides its meaning, and holding all of it steady as definitions shift and program years accumulate. That is not a project you finish. It is one you maintain permanently, and it is the part we have already absorbed.
The one thing we are not.
Here is the one thing we are not. FutureWorks BI is not a build-your-own-dashboard tool like Power BI or Tableau. We made the analytical decisions in advance, which is exactly why it is fast to use and why a non-technical user can get a real answer in minutes. The trade is visualization control: you are working within the analysis we built, not drawing your own from a blank canvas. For the people we serve, that trade is the whole point. If it is not the trade you want, we will say so honestly.
The clearest evidence is what we find with it.
The clearest evidence that the tool surfaces things others miss is what we find with it.
What working the national data turned up
Looking across the whole country at the occupations that Title I Adult and Dislocated Workers are trained for, we can see, state by state, that a share of participants have training on record with no occupation attached to it. It is a gap in the data, and it is one we can measure. We encourage states to fill that information in as completely as they can, because the more complete the record, the clearer the national picture of what training is actually being delivered, and for which occupations. With that picture, a state or a board can ask a sharper question: is training pointed at the occupations and sectors where demand and opportunity for job seekers are greatest?
Source data: USDOL PY25Q1 Public PIRL
It is the kind of pattern that only surfaces when you can work the data directly, and the kind of thing FutureWorks BI makes visible.
From reporting your data to using it.
One more thing about how we see this. For every year we have worked in this system, it has been required to report its data. The harder task, the one that actually changes outcomes, is using it. Plain-language analysis is the most direct step we have seen toward that: it turns a data view into an answer someone on your team can act on the moment the question comes up, which is the most literal form of what we have always built toward, data you stay in conversation with rather than file once and set aside. We are adding it deliberately, under your governance and your control, because the point is to extend your team's reach, not to stand in for the judgment that makes the work good.
The path in is simpler than people expect.
None of this requires a major IT project. Implementation typically runs weeks, not months. Board Matters sits below most procurement thresholds and can be bought like any software subscription. National sits below them too, with pricing scoped to your organization, and the full platform moves through IT resellers already holding state contracts. The path in is usually far simpler than people expect.
See whether it fits.
The fastest way to judge any of this is to talk it through, or to watch the product run on real workforce data.