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Home > Client Success > Health Distributor Improves Customer Satisfaction with Azure-Based Data Engineering Solution

The Client

This client is a leading North American provider of cattle healthcare products, veterinary services, and livestock management equipment. With a legacy of 50+ years and strong presence across hundreds of feedlot locations, the client promotes animal wellness through constant commitment to understanding customer concerns.

The Challenge

Despite having access to large volumes of feedlot data, the client struggled to generate timely, accurate insights due to siloed systems and manual processes. To better support livestock producers and deliver consistent value, the client required a unified, scalable, and holistic data and AI strategy—to consolidate siloed systems, automate important workflows, and enable real-time operational visibility.

  • Data Inconsistency:
    Inconsistent data across systems threatened the client’s ability to deliver insights to customers, badly impacting customer trust and operational decisions.
  • Disparate Data Systems:
    The client operated 500+ using siloed in-house systems (Animal Maintenance, Financial Accounting, etc.), resulting in fragmented and inconsistent datasets across locations.
  • Manual Processes:
    The client’s reliance on daily CSV exports and FTP uploads introduced delays, errors, and inefficiencies in syncing operational data, making real-time decisions nearly impossible.
  • Lack of Insights:
    The client lacked a consolidated view of LOT-level metrics like operational costs and market readiness at the LOT level, limiting their ability to share strategic insights with customers.

challenges

Scattered data across 500+ feedlots, limiting standardization and consistency

Manual CSV/FTP workflows causing delays and frequent integration issues

Lack of LOT-level visibility, hindering strategic and operational decision-making

Inability to deliver timely insights, impacting customer trust and agility

The Solution

Damco implemented a tailored data and analytics solution to help the client modernize operations, eliminate silos, and deliver more value to livestock producers. The Azure-based data solution centralized feedlot data and used Databricks for advanced data transformations. With advanced reporting built on Power BI and Azure Synapse, the client achieved real-time visibility into LOT-level performance metrics, meaning faster and better data-backed decisions.

Data Platform Modernization

  • Damco deployed a centralized data lake architecture using Azure Data Lake, migrating legacy data from MS SQL servers and CSV files.
  • The team established secure FTP-to-cloud pipelines as a replacement for manual data uploads, improving data accuracy and reducing processing delays.
  • Damco leveraged Databricks for data cleansing, transformation, and standardization (e.g., merging feedlot-specific formats) across 500+ feedlot systems.

Automated Data Pipelines & Analytics

  • Damco’s team used Azure Data Factory (ADF) pipelines to orchestrate end-to-end ELT operations across diverse data sources.
  • Using DevOps, the team established CI/CD pipelines to automate testing and deployment processes, significantly reducing manual intervention and accelerating delivery by 40%.
  • Azure SQL and Synapse Analytics enabled dimensional modeling for scalable reporting on key metrics like animal weight gain and feeding efficiency.
  • Damco also implemented Rollbar to ensure proactive error monitoring and reliable data pipelines.

Real-Time Dashboard Development

  • Damco built comprehensive Power BI dashboards that surfaced real-time metrics like Yard Inventory Management Dashboard, Animal Death Management Dashboard, Animal Death Percentile and Animal Lot Management Dashboard.
  • Using Azure Synapse Analytics, the team combined data warehousing and big data analytics to help the client with scalable querying capabilities for complex KPIs, enhancing strategic visibility at the LOT level.

The Benefits

By implementing an Azure-based analytics platform, Damco empowered the client to transform its fragmented data ecosystem into a centralized, BI-ready data system, promising better operations, enhanced customer experiences, and smart decision-making across 500+ feedlot locations.

  • A centralized, cloud-native data platform offering a single source of truth across feedlot operations
  • 30% faster decision-making through real-time access to LOT-level performance dashboards
  • A 50% improvement in customer satisfaction driven by responsive support and accurate reporting
  • 70% reduction in manual data handling via automated data pipelines and streamlined ELT workflows
  • Improved KPI tracking for preventative care (+25%) and feeding efficiency (+15%)
  • A scalable platform architecture capable of onboarding 200+ additional feedlots with ease
  • 25% reduction in operational costs through intelligent automation and optimized inventory management
  • Comprehensive insights into feeding history, inventory flow, operational costs, and market readiness for informed strategic decisions
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