The Callahan team consists of skilled marketing data analysts—but that doesn’t make them data management experts. Callahan analysts wanted to focus on finding insights for their clients, not on the technicalities of managing data pipelines.

Under manual, one-off processes, Callahan struggled with three major pain points:

• Transferring lots of different client data sources—this includes SAP, LinkedIn, Shopify, Facebook and Salesforce, to name just a few.
• Preparing and integrating these datasets in unique ways before they could be used or reported on.
• Creating a singular and trusted view of the data so that all analysts had the same information.

No Data Engineers, No Problem: An Automated Cloud Data Warehouse Solution

Without data engineers on deck to custom-build data pipelines, Callahan assembled a modern cloud data warehouse stack built upon Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that would enable self-service. All but one of the technologies used are software as a service (SaaS), which meant Callahan got up and running in minutes—there was nothing to install or configure.

What most impacted Callahan’s efficiency were the two technologies that automated the process of transferring and preparing data: Fivetran and Cloud Dataprep by Trifacta, respectively. Zack Pike, VP Data Strategy & Marketing Analytics at Callahan, explains that his team uses Fivetran to ingest marketing data like Facebook Ads, Google Analytics or Marketo, while Cloud Dataprep by Trifacta is perfect for messier data. Depending on the use case, Callahan will choose to prepare data before it lands in the database, or after it has been ingested.

“This technology structure has fundamentally changed the way we do business, and it has given us a competitive advantage.”

            —Zack Pike, VP Data Strategy & Marketing Analytics, Callahan

The only technology in Callahan’s stack that is not cloud-based is Tableau, which has prevented the team from being able to operate entirely from anywhere or from any machine. Callahan is now exploring new BI solutions such as Looker to fully transition to a SaaS-based solution without on-premise or product installation dependencies.

What’s Changed? The Impact of an Automated Data Warehouse

Upon implementing its automated cloud data warehouse solution, Callahan has seen tremendous results. Most notably, it has allowed Callahan data analysts to spend the majority of their time (70%) on data analysis by reducing time spent building data pipelines. This means that Callahan analysts get to do what they do best—analyzing data, not managing or maintaining it.

With more time dedicated toward data analysis, Callahan clients have reaped huge benefits as well:

• Client A grew its media impact by 90% while reducing its media budget in half
  Callahan was able to identify the waste in its client’s media spend while simultaneously more efficiently running the ads that were working.
• Client B saw a 2X increase in customers on a 60% reduction of leads purchased
  Callahan was able to identify purchased leads that were not converting for the business, and instead put its client’s money toward leads that would actually make a difference in the bottom line.

Learn More

Interested in learning how you can automate your cloud data warehouse with technologies Trifacta and Fivetran? Schedule a demo with an expert data wrangler to get a personalized look at the Trifacta data preparation platform.