Domo BI update includes app development, multi-cloud tools
The vendor's platform update highlights its focus on applications as a way to extend analytics to more business users and expands the platform's multi-cloud capabilities.
New application development tools and enhanced multi-cloud capabilities highlight the latest Domo BI platform update as the vendor attempts to give more business users access to data and analytics.
Domo, founded in 2010 and based in American Fork, Utah, unveiled the new and enhanced capabilities on Wednesday during Domopalooza 2022, the vendor's virtual user conference.
App development
Josh James, Domo's founder and CEO until stepping down on March 2, started the company on the premise that analytics should be for everyone in an organization rather than just members of the executive suite and a team of data scientists and analysts.
As a result, Domo has made embedded BI a priority in recent years, adding tools that enable developers to build analytics applications and push them out to end users so they can inform decisions in the moment within those end users' everyday workflows.
With the launch of Data Apps on Wednesday, Domo is adding to its application development and furthering its embedded BI capabilities under the direction of new CEO John Mellor.
Data Apps are low-code tools that combine data, analytics and workflows and can be customized to fit the needs of various roles within an organization. The Data Apps can be used on a mobile device or embedded into existing work applications and processes, and their aim is to guide and inform business users during decision-making.
That application experience for analytics is exactly what many organizations need, according to David Menninger, an analyst at Ventana Research.
Domo CEO John Mellor discusses the importance of applications during Domopalooza 2022, the vendor's virtual user conference.
"I'm a huge fan of applications," he said, noting that data shows that many organizations continue to struggle to get analytics in the hands of more than a small percentage of workers.
"Most people in the workforce are not analysts, [and] asking them to become analysts is the wrong way to help them do their jobs better," Menninger continued. "Data Apps is Domo's way of delivering their functionality in a way that is much more tailored to helping individuals get their jobs done."
Most people in the workforce are not analysts, [and] asking them to become analysts is the wrong way to help them do their jobs better. Data Apps is Domo's way of delivering their functionality in a way that is much more tailored to helping individuals get their jobs done.
David MenningerAnalyst, Ventana Research
Beyond providing an easy-to-use framework for the development and deployment of analytics applications, Domo unveiled four "solution accelerators," industry-specific Data Apps that make configuration faster and easier by coming equipped with the ability to pull in specific data and run analyses common to a specific industry.
The accelerators include Retail Store Performance and Operations, Retail-Vendor Brand Performance and Insight Sharing, Supply Chain Collaboration and Operations, and Banking Customer Profitability and Behavior Analytics. Now generally available, they stand to significantly benefit Domo customers in the retail, supply chain and banking industries, according to Doug Henschen, an analyst at Constellation Research.
"Domo is not the first BI/analytics vendor to provide no-code/low-code development options, but I like its industry-specific focus with solution accelerators for the retail, CPG and financial services industries," he said. "Accelerators can be more helpful than generalized toolkits or capabilities because they get you 80% of the way toward a finished application."
Domo's existing multi-cloud capabilities -- including its own cloud data warehouse -- already enabled native integrations with cloud data warehouses beyond the Domo BI platform where users could store, query and transform data and perform analytics.
New capabilities include what Domo calls side-by-side clouds and cross-cloud extract, transform and load (ETL), in which applications can use data from both Domo's cloud data warehouse and another cloud data warehouse without moving or copying the data and without losing performance.
In addition, customers can make one cloud their preferred storage location where they can move data from other clouds as well as select a target cloud when transitioning data between clouds.
According to Henschen, the new multi-cloud capabilities not only expand options for users but also deliver on a promise Domo made during its user conference in 2021.
"Many potential customers want to take advantage of their investments in third-party cloud data warehouses and data stores that live on other public clouds," he said. "Domo responded to these requests last year. And it seems they're delivering on that promise here in 2022, announcing 'side-by-side clouds' and cross-cloud ETL."
The potential of the new capabilities is that customers will be able to use data where it resides without moving or copying their data, Henschen continued.
"From the customer's perspective, it's all about leveraging existing investments without compromising on Domo's performance," he said.
Similarly, Menninger noted the significance of the added multi-cloud capability.
"For those organizations that have committed to using a cloud data warehouse, they now have an option in Domo to support that configuration," he said. "Originally, Domo only supported the Domo Warehouse. If your data was elsewhere and you wanted to analyze it with Domo, you had no choice but to load it into their warehouse."
Additional capabilities
Beyond the new application development and multi-cloud capabilities, Domo built out its BI platform by adding what it calls its Enterprise Tool Kit, new data modeling tools and an integration with the Microsoft Office suite and Teams.
The Enterprise Tool Kit packages Domo's Governance Toolkit, Sandbox and Brand Kit in one environment. The Governance Toolkit enables users to scale and automate data management tasks, Sandbox is a portal for collaborative development and testing, and the Brand Kit provides a means for users to maintain a consistent look and feel across their entire data system.
The Microsoft integrations, meanwhile, enable users to sync Domo data with Microsoft Office, share real-time data with Word and PowerPoint, use Domo directly with Outlook, transform data in Excel by importing Domo data sets and share data within Teams.
"Domo has been working steadily in recent years to bolster its enterprise platform chops, its utility across functions and industries, and, most recently, its ability to address multi-cloud requirements and a broader base of users," Henschen said. "I like the direction overall."
