Case Study 1: Graduating From Microsoft Excel

This case study is the first of a series we’ll be doing of anonymous case studies. You might be saying, “Anonymous? That seems unusual” Sure, companies love to celebrate wins, but when the wins involve a company’s internal data and behind-the-scenes information about their

‍

operations, it’s a little more complicated than that. We’re in the data business, so part of our job is to ensure that private information stays private and naturally, we take that very seriously. So in these case studies, we’ll just be focusing on what matters: the challenges these companies faced, the solutions we were able to provide them, and the benefits they saw as a result.

‍

The Challenges

‍

For our first case study, we’ll be focusing on a company in the logistics industry we’ll call Compagnie Logistique Génial, or CLG for short. In logistics, small inefficiencies add up very quickly so we knew that speeding up routine tasks would save them huge amounts of time and money in the long run. 

‍

The first problem they had was that they were still using Excel to pull data and create dashboards for their three most important accounts on a monthly basis. It probably made sense back when they started doing it for that first client, but even doing it for three clients was costing two of their senior management team 2-3 days of work per month. It wasn’t scalable and it was starting to become unsustainable.

‍

Their second problem was that the audits they performed for clients were being done in Excel, too. They were a painstaking process that was, at one time, a necessary evil that took on average 24 work hours to complete. These audits weren’t just being done for the top 3 accounts either, they were a routine part of their business and a significant expenditure of resources.

‍

The Solutions

‍

For CLG’s first problem, the solution was simple. Bear Cloud Studios set up automated daily ingestion of the required data into their DOMO instance, where the data can be processed with the correct business logic and used to power DOMO dashboards. Not only are these dashboards more customizable, flexible, and powerful than Excel graphs and charts, but they can be accessed by the customer at any time. 

‍

Automated data ingestion and processing are powerful features, but in order to make CLG’s auditing more efficient, Bear Cloud Studios needed to dig into more functions. DOMO’s inline editing function provided employees the ability to flag shipments and apply comments to them, but DOMO also needed to be compatible with their current truck management software, which would require some customized connection between the systems.

‍

Bear Cloud Studios was able to work with both CLG and their management software vendor to update the platform to allow for records to be updated in the source system rather than Excel.

‍

The Business Benefits

Monthly Account Dashboards

• Even though only two of the senior management team were creating the monthly dashboards, it had been costing them 40-60 work hours each month. In DOMO, it’s a fully automated function, saving the entire amount of time they had been spending on it. 
• Even better, value was added for their customers. Instead of having to wait each month, those clients could see their dashboards at any time.
  
  

Manual Audits

• Overall, the time required to perform a complete audit was reduced by 75%
• Updating the data at the source rather than going back and forth to an Excel file on an employee’s computer was the most significant factor.
• Storing change history in DOMO was also an important time-saver. Comments could be easily accessed in one place and employees no longer had to hunt through individual Excel files. 
• Instead of changing their fleet management system, they were able to use DOMO to make it much more powerful without the significant costs associated with changing a core part of their operations.

‍