Clearscore becomes driven by data thanks to Domo.

Challenge: This financial services company struggled to overcome the limitations of its homegrown data infrastructure.

Solution: Domo helps ClearScore gain transparency into its data while making data accessible to employees outside of the analytics department.

Impact: ClearScore can be a data-driven organization as it expands into international markets.

ClearScore launched in 2015 with a mission to help people achieve greater financial wellbeing by giving everybody access to their credit score and report for free, forever. But as this startup began to expand internationally from the UK to developing countries like South Africa and India, it was starting to find that the story its own data was trying to tell was anything but clear.

Shawdon said that things like daily reporting had begun to sprawl out of control: “It was just lots of little graphs that people didn’t really understand. We aspired to be a data-driven organization, but didn’t have a clear understanding about how to get there.”

Making data accessible.

ClearScore chose Domo in large part because it was easy for everyone to use. While it’s natural to want to become a data-driven organization, the fact is that not everyone is as comfortable with data as analysts. According to Shawdon, “For some people in our organization, data is quite scary. You show them a bunch of numbers and they say, ‘No, I’m not a numbers person, I don’t really deal with graphs.’” Domo gave all of ClearScore’s employees–analytical or not–easy understanding of the business.

In addition, ClearScore chose Domo because it would enable the company to break down silos between departments. “We don’t want to keep any data in the organization hidden from one part or another, so it was important that everyone in our organization be able to access all our data,” said Shawdon.

Today, Shawdon appreciates Domo not only for what it allows her to do, but the work it was able to eliminate. “Domo let me step away from all the stuff you’re supposed to do with Domo,” she said. “Because it’s such an easy tool to visualize information, people don’t come up to me asking how much money we made yesterday or how many users we just signed up. They just go find that information themselves.” 

Domo has allowed Shawdon to shift her focus away from business reporting and towards data science initiatives such as building credit risk or eligibility models in developing markets. These models will help ClearScore build new products that can empower its users to be smarter when applying for and managing credit. “Being able to make a real, tangible difference to users in less-developed markets is incredible because you know you’re really making a strong difference,” she said.

In-depth insights.

For ClearScore, Domo has provided a transparent view into the company. “Where Domo has been most valuable to us is being able to deeply understand what’s going on in the business,” said Shawdon. ”There’s been quite a few times where we’ve spotted a spike or a dip and just been able to go into it and look at it in more detail.”

As the company continues to expand into new markets, it is planning to expand its use of Domo in kind to make it a more comprehensive data environment. While the company has most of its internal data and analytics already in Domo, there are still many other rich third-party data sources it can still bring in. “Being able to bring all our data into one place and tie it all together, that’s where data really becomes super powerful,” said Shawdon. 

“You can’t exaggerate how much Domo helped not only increase our data coverage, but our understanding of it,” said Shawdon. “People in our organization are now so comfortable using data on a daily basis.”