What if data gave every employee their own personal analyst?

• Challenge: InformData had a vision of empowering a data-driven culture. Following the merger of two companies, it was faced with multiple systems and distinct KPIs.
• Solution: With Domo, the company centralized its data while empowering non-technical users with an AI-powered chatbot to automate reporting.
• Impact: With its chatbot, InformData is able to give every employee analyst-level answers without the wait.

INFORMDATA TURNS EVERY USER INTO A DATA SCIENTIST WITH AI CHATBOTS POWERED BY DOMO

InformData connects businesses to verifiable sources of people data for purposes such as background screening and risk, covering areas such as verifying identities, criminal and driving records and employment/education history. With Domo, InformData similarly uses data to understand the true state of its business so it can make timely, accurate business decisions.

“We are a data-driven company. Understanding data in a consolidated fashion is very important, and Domo allows us to pull all that information into a single environment,” said Ellen Rogers, VP controller at InformData. “Domo helps us track our profitability, pricing, and resource allocation so we know what is driving our business and how it can become healthier.”

From fragmented to unified

InformData had a vision of empowering a data-driven culture. Following the merger of two companies, it was faced with multiple systems and distinct KPIs.

“We were the product of a merger of equals, so we had two companies with two different BI solutions and two different sets of KPIs,” shared Nick Kelland, CTO at InformData. “As we looked ahead to the next chapter for InformData, we started looking for a centralized solution that could help us all speak the same language. For a lot of reasons, Domo made perfect sense for us.”

With Domo, InformData brought consistency and clarity to reporting across the business. Data that was once difficult to access is now available in real time to decision-makers at every level. “Domo helped us centralize that data and report on it in a way that’s consistent and actionable for the business,” Kelland said. “One of the things I appreciate most is how easily the rest of the business can now access data, without always relying on the data engineering team to provide it.”

Making data conversational with Domo.AI

As InformData’s lead data scientist and go-to person for analytics, Marcus Wilkins often felt overwhelmed fielding constant requests for custom reports. “I wanted to create a tool that let non-technical users have the same level of depth with their data that tech users do,” he said. “And honestly, I just didn’t want to spend all my time writing reports anymore.”

To expand access to insights, Wilkins used Domo.AI to build a custom agentic AI chatbot called Daisy—short for Data Analytics and Intelligence System—that lets users ask questions, explore options, and work with data in all new ways.

“Daisy is a user interface where you can go in and ask a question of your data in plain English,” said Wilkins. “It’s like having a senior analyst on standby, ready to go at all hours.”

To protect its business and its users, Domo.AI ensures that InformData’s sensitive information is never exposed to the AI itself. “Our biggest obstacle to leveraging AI was figuring out how we could possibly give our data to an AI chatbot given how sensitive it is,” Wilkins said. “And that question ended up being the solution: We just don’t.”

Instead, Daisy uses Domo.AI to interpret the question, build a query against a secure schema, and return an answer—all without the AI layer ever touching the underlying data. “It answers like it was given the data, but it never actually sees it,” Wilkins said.

In addition to handling requests, Daisy helps the team identify patterns to inspire the development of new dashboards and apps. “We look at what people are asking and determine where the needs are in the business for that data,” Wilkins said. “If we see a lot of questions coming up around the same sorts of things, we’ll build the traditional apps and dashboards to answer those questions.”

Less time closing, more time analyzing

At the end of every month, InformData’s finance team is responsible for validating hundreds of vendor invoices tied to operations and revenue. Before Domo, the process was manual and time-consuming.

“Prior to Domo, we were having to review 100 percent of those invoices,” Rogers said. “With Domo, I can pull a report to see what the expected cost should be, so we only have to review about 10 percent now.”

In addition, InformData used Domo to centralize finance data to enable more dynamic analysis while spending less time. “Domo allowed us to take our payroll data set and to move it into an environment where we can drill down at the department and payroll level to better provide analytics to management on costs where they're changing,” Rogers said. “In addition, Domo allowed us to shorten our month-end close schedule by about two to three days per month.”

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