Access to Decision-making Data Gives Whisker a Strategic Cat’s-eye-view of its Market
Industry
Consumer Goods
Solution
Domo
Client Since
2020
Whisker
As the leading innovator within the pet care and pet tech space, Whisker proudly designs, engineers, and assembles its pet robot appliances in the USA. The company is best known for the Litter-Robot, which combines 20 years of experience and innovation into a self-cleaning litter box complete with a pet monitoring app.
In January of 2023, Whisker sold its millionth robot, marking an impressive growth trajectory and earning it and in-depth feature in Forbes magazine. Sustaining profitable growth in a crowded pet products marketplace requires access to actionable data, which Whisker gets through its partnership with BT Partners and Domo.
"BT Partners listened to our challenges and concerns and then showed us in very clear terms how they saw Domo solving them. There was no sales pitch, only answers."
Creating a Data-Driven Culture
Whisker sells its products throughout North America and the EU through major retailers and direct-to-consumers through its eCommerce site. To succeed in a competitive marketplace, Whisker needs continuous visibility into what’s selling, when, and where. It also must ensure that orders ship accurately, on time, and complete. The challenge for Whisker is that much of this information resides in multiple disparate applications. “We had bits of information spread across multiple systems — we needed one source of truth,” says Jason Meleg, Business Intelligence Manager at Whisker. “Domo is now the source of truth for us. We’re using its connectors and inherent flexibility to combine all aspects of our sales data and turn them into meaningful metrics.”
Meleg was the one charged with helping build that data-driven culture. “When I joined Whisker, we didn’t have a data stack or any way to gain a unified view of our data,” he explains. “We evaluated many data analytics tools, but when we found Domo and BT Partners, we stopped looking. With other BI tools, you often need multiple products from multiple vendors to create a solution. You don’t with Domo, which was very appealing to us. BT Partners listened to our challenges and concerns and then showed us in very clear terms how they saw Domo solving them. There was no sales pitch, only answers.”
Skilled Implementation
Meleg recalls that Whisker was already in contract talks with another data analytics tools solutions vendor when they first learned of Domo. “It looked like a very complex project that would require a lot of internal time and resources, but we thought that was inevitable. BT Partners showed us that we could get exactly what we need with Domo without the overhead and complexity. They got us up and running quickly.”
As a result of the success, he has high praise for the Domo consultants at BT Partners. “BT Partners’ executive analytics team are experts, and they opened my eyes to the possibilities. I appreciated that we weren’t handed off to a new team after the sale. There was continuity, honesty, and really good results.”
Early Wins Deliver Proof
BT Partners worked with Whisker to ensure they gained early wins in the implementation. “We tackled the high-value, more straight-forward connections first,” recalls Meleg. “Some were nearly as simple as clicking and dragging. It was rewarding to begin seeing results right away.”
One hurdle Whisker faced is that some of its applications and associated data are housed on-premise, which can complicate many business data analytics tools initiatives. BT Partners introduced Whisker to the Domo Workbench, a unique tool for uploading on-premise data to Domo. “It eliminates many traditional IT pain points,” says Meleg. “For example, we can just stream the data up without working through firewalls.”
Real-Time Data Availability
In the fast-paced world of eCommerce, yesterday’s numbers are a day late — and potentially many dollars short. “With Domo, we now have near real-time access to decision-making data,” Meleg says. “We can react in time to make a difference.”
What were yesterday’s sales? Are fulfillment rates remaining high? Is shipping happening on time and complete? Is there sufficient inventory on hand? Throughout the company, Domo answers the questions that matter most to Whisker’s teams. “From our sales and production teams to the executive leadership, we all have a pulse on the business’s health,” says Meleg.
Whisker’s teams can watch sales transactions and site activity on monitors stationed in the office and warehouse. “What this does is allow us to make slight, strategic shifts as needed,” adds Meleg. “We’ve even configured alerts within Domo to notify us if, for example, order activity is increasing, yet fulfillment times are slowing. Domo gives us the information to stay out in front and deliver the best for our customers.”
Connections Extend the Value
While dashboards and alerts are the most visible elements of Whisker’s Domo implementation, there are other ways the application helps the company excel. “We leverage Domo’s write-back capabilities to send selected sales-related data to our resellers and other business partners,” Meleg says. “It’s more evidence of Domo’s versatility and value to Whisker.”
BT Partners created custom connectors for Whisker’s marketing automation platform and other stand-alone applications, making vital business data available for deep analysis.
Data Fuels Curiosity
Two years into its use of Domo, Meleg says Whisker is largely self-sufficient, turning to BT Partners as and when needed. “We’re able to create our own dashboards now, but for discrete initiatives that require more time and expertise, we always call in BT Partners.”
Domo is creating its own demand at Whisker. “It sells itself,” concludes Meleg. “The more data people get, the more they want. We’re always getting requests for more — and so far, there’s nothing that Domo or BT Partners can’t deliver.”