The Local Search Association (LSA) on Wednesday announced the appointment of Bill Dinan to president. He replaces newly retired Neg Norton, who held the position for 15 years.

Dinan previously served as vice president of strategic business development for WEB.com, which provides global Internet services and online marketing solutions for local businesses. Prior to that he held senior executive roles with companies such as pay-per-click platform Acquisio, and call analytics company Telmetrics.

One of the biggest challenges for 2019 is teaching the industry about the positive elements of sharing data through partnerships.

Dinan said the “biggest challenge for 2019 is helping teach these companies that can form partnerships realize they should.”

Some companies get the concept of partnerships, while others don’t. Many think they should build everything themselves. “Partnering isn’t always to bring products together,” he said. “Partnering is partnering to build insights and knowledge together. Partnerships in years gone by has been lip service.”

Along with partnerships, data and education will become a major focus. These have been identified as trends around local search and business.

Recent highlights from the LSA Tech Adoption Index based on a survey of about 1,000 small and medium-sized businesses conducted in October 2018 shows SMBs continue to shift to cloud-based services.

In fact, the data shows that during the past year, the number using cloud-based software has increased across many areas.

Finance and operations solutions lead with a 100% increase from 10% in 2017 to 20% in 2018, closely followed by payroll and human resources with 85% increase year-over-year. About 48% of businesses shifted because it saves them time operating their businesses.

Dinan isn’t a stranger to the LSA. He served as Chairman of the Board since 2013 and a member of the Board of Directors for a decade. 

The LSA will introduce the nearly appointed president at the upcoming annual conference, LSA19: The Art and Science of Localogy, in Dana Point, California later this month.