Like many businesses, Best Friends Animal Society set out to apply data to achieve its mission — in its case, to lower the number of dogs and cats killed in animal shelters across the country. However, collecting the data and being able to apply it effectively proved harder than it would first seem. “All of the data was in silos, and it was just horrible,” said CIO Angie Embree. “We couldn’t, as we can today, tell how many animals were being killed … everything was in the dark. And it was like, ‘We’ve got to get this data out into the light, and we’ve got to get it out of shelters and create this mechanism for innovation. So that we can create new ways of engaging people in the movement, and collect data to create more innovation and just keep going in that iterative mode,’” she said.