Domo: An Introduction

What is Domo?

Domo is a powerful cloud-based solution that combines data integration & warehousing, business intelligence (BI), and application development in a single platform.

What data sources does Domo connect to?

Out of the box, Domo connects natively to many different cloud-based data sources. At the time of this writing, Domo has over 700 connectors built. Some of these are different connectors to the same parent data source, but this is still a lot of different data sources to connect to. Some examples are below:

Advertising & Marketing

• Google Ads

• Facebook Ads

• YouTube

• Criteo

• AppNexus

• Adobe Analytics

• Google Analytics

• Amazon Advertising

• Snapchat Ads

• Others

Databases

• Amazon Redshift

• Amazon Athena

• MySQL

• PostgreSQL

• SAP

• MongoDB

• Snowflake

• Vertica

• Others

Structured Data Sources

• CSV (upload or connect to HTTP/FTP/SFTP)

• Excel (upload or FTP/SFTP)

• JSON & XML (connect to HTTP)

Public Data Sources

• Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Bureau of Economic Analysis

• OpenWeatherMap

• Open Exchange Rates

• NOAA

• NHTSA

• Others

CRM & Business Apps

• Salesforce

• Hubspot

• Quickbooks

• Freshbooks

• ADP Workforce Now

• Jira

• NetSuite

• SugarCRM

• Box

• Xero

• Others

Domo can also connect to on-premise/local data sources through its proprietary Domo Workbench tool.

In addition to native and on-premise data connections, Domo has a developer platform that allows you to build a your own custom connector. This is helpful in cases where a particular Domo connector may not have the exact information you need, but said information is available via an API call.

Why is Domo great?

Sometimes when tools attempt to do a lot of things, they end up doing none of them that well. Domo is an exception to this rule. Your entire BI/Reporting/Analytics stack can live within Domo. The platform can be your one-stop shop for:

1. Connecting to all of your data sources

2. Storing that data that you've connected

3. Preparing that data using MySQL, Redshift, or Domo's drag-and-drop "Magic ETL"

4. Visualizing that data using one of over 150 different chart types or building your own custom visual or app

5. Analyzing valuable data segments using custom filters, selectors, and drill-downs

6. Detecting and communicating anomalies through Domo alerts

7. Sharing reports and visuals through automated email or embedding in a web page or document

How do I get started?

Domo does have a free trial where you provide your contact information and then you're able to use the platform for a limited time.

There is a bit of a learning curve with the platform, but Domo has great training materials and guides to get you started with connecting, preparing, and visualizing your first dataset. The user community (known as The Dojo) is also a great resource for learning after you start using Domo.

What data can I visualize with Domo?

As mentioned above, you can connect to and visualize data from just about any data source you have. In addition, you can easily bring in public data to overlay with your business data. For example, if you sell rainwear, your business is likely impacted by the weather. You can easily connect to data via one of Domo's NOAA or OpenWeatherMap connectors.

Enrich your business data by bringing weather data into Domo

You could then connect to your Google Analytics transaction data.

What are some useful features?

Built-in ETL + Data Warehouse = One-stop Data Shop

The fact that Domo is a one-stop shop for your data needs is a useful feature in itself. This means that you don't have to build a huge stack with many different providers in order to move, visualize, and use your data. Domo's Magic ETL allows users to combine and process multiple complex data sources in order to produce a single dataset without writing a single line of code.

Magic ETL is where you can combine and clean data in one multi-step process.

Calculated Fields (Beast Mode!!!)

Calculated fields is a pretty standard feature in all reporting and visualization tools, but Domo's Beast Mode is very powerful. It can handle re-aggregation of fields inside a nested CASE statement as well as some window functions typically only found in a SQL-based database environment. In 2020, Domo released the Beast Mode Manager which keeps all calculated fields in a single location within the user interface. This allows for ease of management of those fields so you do not have to be working inside a specific visual in order to create calculated fields. For example, if I need to calculate 10 different fields on my dataset I can easily do so before creating a single visual.

This is an actual Beast Mode calculation that is used to write a sentence that states “For every $1 in revenue that gets credited to PPC, another $X.XX influenced by PPC gets credited to another channel.”

Drill-down

Domo allows you to drill down to view a particular data segment on just about any visual. For example, if you have a map visual displaying lead volume by US state, you could potentially click on Florida to see a map of leads by county or a bar chart displaying the number of leads driven per media channel. This is a completely customizable feature that often gets overlooked.

Alerts

In a true, enterprise-level BI platform, alerts is a must-have. Individuals or groups can be alerted if a metric:

• changes by a certain percentage

• Reaches a specific value

• Is zero (useful in indicating data missing due to potential connection failure)

 Alerts can be sent via:

• Email

• Mobile push notification

• Text message

• Phone call

 Some practical applications of alerts:

• Marketing launches a new digital ad, but that ad is not categorized - be alerted that you need to classify new entities

• Website traffic drops by more than 20% in a given day - be alerted to negative SEO impacts from a recent Google update

• Revenue drops to zero for a high-volume hour of the day - be alerted that you need to look into a potential problem with your Order Management System

Enterprise security

There are many security features within Domo that should remove fear of data getting into the wrong hands or viewed by the wrong people. Some of these features are below

• Filter a dataset in order to restrict access for certain people to only see certain data on a shared dataset

• Create access groups so that users can only see certain dashboards or filtered data on a shared dashboard

• Single Sign-On & Open-ID Connect (SSO) compatibility

• Enable multi-factor authentication

• Restrict access by email address domain

• Create & manage a whitelist for connected applications

Desktop software & plugins

Sometimes you need to email a report to someone within a specific template. Domo makes this super-easy through its Word, Excel, and PowerPoint plugins. For example, if you use the Word or PowerPoint plugin, you can add refreshable visuals to your templated document. If you use the Excel plugin, you can connect a spreadsheet to any dataset in your Domo instance and then download that data on demand.

Domo's Workbench software is a powerful and reliable solution for uploading data to Domo. Sometimes API connections fail, so you need a solution that will reliably and securely upload data from a server or personal machine to Domo, and Workbench does just that. You can use it to upload files from the following sources and formats to existing or new datasets:

• Excel

• CSV

• JSON

• Quickbooks

• Database Query

• SFTP/FTP file transfer

• ODBC & OLEDB Connection

• XML

Developer Platform & App Store

Many companies have utilized Domo's developer platform in order to create custom apps for both internal and commercial use. Some solutions built on the Domo developer platform include apps for measuring sales pipeline velocity, SAP order and vendor management, and contact center performance management. These solutions are available in the app store, but if none of these pre-built configurations meet your needs, you can generate a developer token and get started creating your own app and/or connector.

User Management & Activity Log

Domo's interface allows you to manage users access, group memberships, and permissions in a single location. Users can be imported in bulk which can be useful when managing hundreds or even thousands of users. In addition, admins can view and visualize user activity. This information is critical when getting people to adopt and engage with Domo so that you can talk with your users who rarely log in and have your frequent users become internal evangelists for the platform.

What are some limitations?

Steep Learning Curve

Domo is a great platform for centralizing and democratizing data, but it can be a bit daunting for new users. Old habits die hard, so there will be a challenge in getting some less-tech-savvy folks in your organization want to use the platform. It is best to have someone in the organization who is familiar with SQL and data structure in order to set the proper expectations and govern the instance accordingly.

Metric Comparison in Tables

For all that Domo does right, the lack of out-of-the-box metric comparison for some visuals can be frustrating. It is not currently possible to change time periods for metric comparison on the fly. For each metric in a table, you'd have to create a metric that is filtered to a specific date range (i.e. previous 7 days, last month, last year, two years ago, etc.), and disallow the user to select her own date range. When you have lots of metrics to look at and many different datasets, this can get very tedious very quickly.

Too Much/Never Enough

Some data connectors are mature, some are not fully baked, and others have multiple versions. In the latter case, it can require a lot of trial and error to find the correct connection that gets you the data you need.

Which Facebook connector will get me the data I need?

Is Domo right for me?

If you're asking yourself this question, chances are that Domo is a solution worth evaluating. If any of the below statements apply to you, it's definitely worth at least a look:

• I currently email spreadsheets back-and-forth

• I handle millions of rows of data but do not have a large team/infrastructure already in place to handle data

• I don't have any automated reporting solution in place

• I have a BI/reporting solution in place, but we've outgrown it

• I have data from multiple systems that need to be pulled, compiled, aggregated, visualized, and analyzed quicker than I can currently handle

• I would like to automate my reporting, but don't know where to start

• I would like to automate my reporting, and have a budget to do so

If any of the above are true, or if you tried Domo but got lost, Fusion75 can help. We are a Domo go-to-market partner and can help you get things set up quickly. Don't hesitate to fill out the form or contact us via chat!

Google Data Studio: An Introduction

What is it?

Google Data Studio is a free data visualization tool that allows users to build dashboards and easily share those dashboard with others.

What data sources does it connect to?

Out of the box, it connects natively to many different data sources

• Google-Owned Products

  • Google Ads

  • Google Analytics

  • Google Sheets

  • YouTube

  • BigQuery

  • Google Campaign Manager

  • Google Ad Manager 360

  • Display & Video 360

  • Search Ads 360

  • Google Search Console

  • Google Cloud Storage

  • Google Cloud Spanner

• Databases & File Uploads

  • MySQL

  • PostgreSQL

  • .CSV file upload

In addition to native connections, Google Data Studio has 200+ connectors developed and maintained by partners that allow you to connect directly to a number of sources including:

• Facebook Ads

• Facebook Page Insights

• LinkedIn Ads

• Microsoft Advertising (Bing Ads)

• CallRail

• AdRoll

• Amazon MWS

• AppNexus

• Centro

• Choozle

• Constant Contact

• Criteo

• Hubspot

• Quickbooks

• And more

Why is it great?

Over the years, great data visualization and reporting automation tools have had high barriers to entry. Typically you'd need a large budget to cover not only the cost of a tool (or a whole stack of tools), but also the salary of the people maintaining it. In addition, it could take months or years to begin to see any value from your steep investment.

On the other hand, the cost of continuing to maintain large, complex spreadsheets is a cost that companies can ill-afford to keep paying. Sunk hours of downloading, copying & pasting, and updating vlookups for ad-hoc reports could be better spent using data to make decisions.

Google Data Studio is FREE. As long as you can supply the data, Google will let you visualize it in their tool for no additional cost. Also there is no cost to share your data with anyone who needs to see it.

Google Data Studio is familiar and highly customizable. Many other tools (paid & free) may offer a lot in terms of features and power, but you're stuck with a rigid template or have to be a coding wizard in order to get your dashboard to look the way you want. Rearranging and customizing the look and feel of your Google Data Studio dashboard is as simple as dragging, dropping, re-sizing, and changing fonts & colors as you would do in a PowerPoint (or Google Slides) presentation. On top of this, you can easily add drop-down filters and date range selectors for users to interact with the data on their own.

Re-arranging your report is as simple as drag-and-drop.

How do I get started?

Simply go to Google Data Studio, connect to a data source, and create a report.

If you have any familiarity with Pivot Tables, or with tools such as Tableau, Domo, and Power BI, the interface should look similar.  You select your desired visuals, and then drag and drop fields until your visual accurately communicates your story.

What data can I visualize with it?

As mentioned above, you can connect to and visualize data from just about any data source you have. The Google products integrate seamlessly without much manipulation required, and then if data is prepped in an external database somewhere, it can easily be connected and visualized within Data Studio.

Need to display how many views your YouTube channel gets daily? Use the YouTube connector and create a trend line.

Need to know Cost per Conversion for each of your Google Ads campaigns? Use the Google Ads Connector and create a bar chart or table with those metrics.

Need to track spend vs. budget for your DV360 campaigns? Blend your DV360 data with your budget in a Google Sheet and use a Gantt chart from the community visualization library.

Have a mobile app powered by a PostgreSQL database? Use the PostgreSQL connector and create a map showing what states or countries your new users are coming from.

The bottom line, is that as long as you supply the data and structure it properly, Google Data Studio can help you visualize it.

What are some useful features?

Sharing and embedding

All reports created in Google Data Studio can be shared in the same way that any user can share a Google Doc or Google Sheet. Simply click the +Share button, and select whom you are sharing the report with. You can also make any report accessible to anyone who has the link.

All reports can be embedded on another site or in an internal web application.

We've created a client-facing report for a company who provides information to clients behind a secure login.

Calculated Fields

This one is a pretty standard feature in all reporting and visualization tools, but Google Data Studio keeps all fields (calculated and non-calculated) in a single location on the dataset. This allows for ease of management of those fields. For example, if I need to calculate 10 different fields on my dataset I can easily do so before creating a single visual.

Creating a calculated field is simple in Google Data Studio

Drill-down

Google Data Studio allows you to drill down to view a particular data segment on just about any visual. For example, if you have a table with performance grouped by week, you could potentially drill down to see data by date for a particular week or data by date for all weeks in the table.

Drill down from week to date, category to sub-category, etc.

Row-level security

This is an enterprise-level feature hiding inside a FREE tool. You may have a dataset that contains data for multiple clients, but you only want client A to see client A's data. By adding a field containing client A's email address on client A's data, if client A is logged into her Google account with that same email address, she can only see her data. If she's not logged in, she will not see any data.

Include a client’s email address in your dataset in order to maintain security while achieving scalability.

We actually utilized this feature on the same embedded report mentioned above so that multiple clients could access the same report but still only see their own data.

Metric comparison

In 2020, some PAID tools still do not offer an easy way to do metric comparisons out of the box. If I wanted to create a table showing this month's data and then show the percent change vs. the previous month, I'd have to create a bunch of CASE statements and not allow for changing date ranges, etc. Google Data Studio absolutely knocks this out of the park. We can simply select "Previous period" from a drop-down menu, and BAM! You can even get fancy and choose to not compare certain metrics within your table.

Comparing metrics over time is simple.

Change your date range, and see that both the metric and the comparison numbers change.

Community Visuals

A number of third parties have created cool and useful visuals that live outside the realm of what Google has already created for us. Gantt charts, sunbursts, metric gauges, radar charts, and more already exist and can be added to any report you create, and if you don't see what you need, you can develop it yourself!

What are some limitations?

ETL not Included

Google Data Studio is solely for visualization. It does not include an ETL tool to prep your data, so if you're combining data from multiple sources (i.e. Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Google Analytics) into a single dataset, you'll need to do your data prep work elsewhere. While this in itself is not a bad thing, it is noteworthy for expectation setting.

Fusion75 uses tools such as Xplenty and BigQuery for prepping data prior to visualizing it in Google Data Studio.

Alerts missing

While Google Data Studio is awesome for reporting and visualization, it falls short of being a full-fledged business intelligence tool. For example, a platform like Domo can proactively send alerts stakeholders via email, text message, and push notification if a particular metric changes by a certain percentage.

Drill-down customization

This one is nuanced and may not be a big deal for the vast majority of users, but when drilling down on a visual, you cannot drill down to another type of visual. For example, if I wanted to click on a single week in a table, and have the resulting drill-down be a pie chart breaking down traffic by device type, I would not be able to do so. I can only drill down to another field within that same table.

Manual Refresh

There is no real-time auto-refresh. This one is not a huge deal, because the manual refresh is one click, but if you're dealing with real-time data, you may not want to have to keep clicking the refresh button. Some third-party developers have developed an auto-refresh solution that refreshes the report on user-defined intervals (i.e. 5 seconds, 1 minute, etc.), but these solutions are not maintained by Google and could potentially stop working after a platform update.

CASE Statement limitations

With calculated fields, you cannot include a function or reference an aggregated field inside your CASE statement. Some paid platforms allow you to do this, but Google Data Studio does not. You can, however, create a non-aggregated function and reference that field within a CASE statement, but there is no solution for aggregating a metric within the WHEN clause of a CASE statement.

Is Google Data Studio right for me?

If you're asking yourself this question, chances are that Google Data Studio is a solution worth trying out. If any of the below statements apply to you, it's definitely worth at least a look:

• I currently email spreadsheets back-and-forth with clients and/or my internal team.

• I don't have any automated reporting solution in place.

• I have a reporting solution in place, but it's very rigid and reporting views are not able to be customized.

• I like Google Drive/Docs products and wouldn't mind a user interface similar to those interfaces.

• I would like to automate my reporting, but don't know where to start.

• I would like to automate my reporting, but don't have an enterprise budget.

If any of the above are true, or if you tried Google Data Studio but got lost, Fusion75 can help. Don't hesitate to contact us!