Data Harmony: Blending Integration with Erik Neilssen

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Emily Madere: Hello and welcome to the Unofficial Sage podcast. I don't I don't know what episode we're on now, but we've done quite a few right guys, enough.

Doug Lewis: I think we've done enough. Enough. If you missed the emphasis on unofficial. But that's okay. Emily. Yes.

Emily Madere: Yeah, it's your first.

Doug Lewis: Intro at the.

Emily Madere: Top. Yeah. Such a good job as you dug, but thanks for passing the mantle. Um, well, [00:00:30] welcome all listeners. We are excited to to have you. We are having a a very new and special episode today. We have a guest on. So it's it's just me, Matt and Doug and Eric Nelson. So Eric, hi and welcome.

Erik Neilssen: Hi, Emily. Thanks so much for having me. Really excited to be a guest on this very special episode.

Emily Madere: Yeah. Why don't you why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do? Sure.

Erik Neilssen: Yeah. My name is Eric Nielsen. I am I am [00:01:00] a senior account executive at Data Blend. I just recently celebrated my four year anniversary with Data Blend. Uh, and I wear a couple of different hats on the sales front. Uh, I handle a good chunk of our direct business inbound. Um, I deal with our casshyap, uh, packaging. And then I also am the key correspondent for our data flow relationship with Sage Intacct.

Matt Lescault: Okay, I'll have to talk about what the data flow [00:01:30] relationship is. But, Eric, you're in Boston, right?

Erik Neilssen: Uh, I'm in Keene, New Hampshire, actually. It's like a stone's throw, a large stone's throw from Boston, but it's a drivable distance.

Matt Lescault: So I saw you in Boston recently. How long did it take you to get to, uh, the the venue we were at? Oh.

Erik Neilssen: Man. Are you just. I think you're bringing this up because, you know, I was late to that. Um, but I.

Matt Lescault: Wasn't even going to say anything.

Erik Neilssen: Uh, yeah, I got unfortunately, I got, you know, Eric.

Doug Lewis: Eric before you answer that, just understand [00:02:00] that Matt is far and away the the most tardy to every single one of these recordings. So just just know that. Good to.

Erik Neilssen: Know. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that, Doug. Um, that day, I think it took me three hours and 15 minutes to get to the the final location. It took me it took me an hour and 50 minutes to get to Boston. It took me like, an hour and 15 to get from entering Boston to the final location. So the Boston traffic snagged me hard on a Thursday afternoon.

Matt Lescault: Well, now, now [00:02:30] I feel even more like I owe you, because that's that's a pretty, pretty big ride. You co-sponsored the event with me. We were able to get together with some of the colleagues from Sage, and it was a it was a well attended fun event. We got to chat for a long time. I think we closed down our, uh, our reservation, uh, instead. So it was very good to see you.

Erik Neilssen: Absolutely. It was great to co-sponsor that event. It was great to get. It's always great in this age today to get face time with the [00:03:00] people you work with. And it was truly a really fun event. So yeah, thank you for that opportunity.

Matt Lescault: We're gonna do another one right?

Erik Neilssen: Yeah for sure. That's that's I mean, that's my plan. I'm gonna I'm a senior account executive though, so I say yes to everything.

Matt Lescault: Fair enough, fair enough.

Doug Lewis: Well, you and Matt have that in common. Yeah. You both commit to things, and now. Now you're doing it publicly on air. So that's fun. Yes. So kind of just bring this thing full circle. Eric, um, again, thanks for joining us. This is this is exciting to to really have an expert in the industry here [00:03:30] joining us. And, you know, on your personal intro, by the way, you missed some of the key ones like favorite color and Social Security number. But we'll hit those at the end of the podcast here. But just just for the listeners want to kind of recap what the goal of this thing is because, you know, Eric, I love that the in your intro, you didn't sell this is not a sales podcast, which is great. Um, but I think it's important for people to really understand, number one, who data blend point is what the relationship is with Sage. Data [00:04:00] flow was mentioned. What that looks like a little bit in more detail. But more importantly, why your piece in the Sage ecosystem is important and why the listener should really care about any of this stuff. So, Eric, do you want to just give that brief, uh, 50 zero zero zero foot? We're not even going 10,000 foot. I mean, 50,000 foot. Overview of data blend, who you guys are, what you're doing in the ecosystem with Sage, all that fun stuff.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, yeah.

Erik Neilssen: Yeah, absolutely. Doug. And, you know, I wasn't going to say this on this call because sometimes it doesn't always fit correctly. Um, [00:04:30] or on this podcast. Excuse me. Uh, there's the salesperson. Me right. I'm on screen, so I'm on a call, but, um, uh, at heart, I hate sales. To be honest with you, I almost didn't take this job four years ago because I had a sales job out of college, and I hated it. I gained a lot of weight. I lost a lot of hair. I didn't like the pressure that came with it. I didn't like the some of the dishonesty on my then sales team. Uh, and I just, I always had a bad taste in my mouth about sales, even though I have a lot of the skill set that are good for it. [00:05:00] So I think that's what makes me a good fit for data blend and why. I've been there for four years, and I promise I'm going to jump right into what data blend is all about. But what I love about being a senior account executive at Data Blend is I don't have to be salesy. Right at the heart of what we're doing is solving a friction point for customers, and we're solving problems. And that is something that makes it easy for me to turn on my computer every day and turn it off every night is knowing that I'm helping.

Erik Neilssen: The Office of Finance and Accounting make their life a little easier. Um, so I think that's important to say because [00:05:30] it's an important part about why I'm here today, but about data blend. And I think that's actually a good segue, is data blend is the ETL tool that's extract, transform and load for anyone who doesn't hear that acronym all the time, uh, of data, uh, of financial data for the Office of Finance and Accounting. So if you have data anywhere in your system and you're using a system for a business use case, that wasn't up to finance and accounting. What we do is we make it easy to get that data from one system [00:06:00] to another on an automated basis. Right. And we take away the Excel gymnastics, and we take away the manual work that that is normally needed for getting data from one to the other. And we get to do it at a pretty affordable price point, um, which is, uh, what you're going to hear me talk about with data blend a lot. Is that what we work to offer through everything we do is peace of mind, is we're not doing our job. If the Office of Finance and Accounting doesn't have peace of mind that our tool is doing what it's supposed to be doing in the background.

Doug Lewis: So [00:06:30] I like that.

Matt Lescault: Should we tell him the rule about you're going to do it?

Doug Lewis: Yeah, you beat me. You beat me to the punch there. But just so you're aware, Eric, did I break.

Erik Neilssen: A rule already?

Doug Lewis: No, you didn't break. No, no, no, you.

Doug Lewis: Uh, you actually followed a rule, uh, shockingly, without even knowing you.

Doug Lewis: Exist. If you.

Emily Madere: Break this rule, Matt will just take it up, so.

Doug Lewis: It's fine. Yes. Okay. Emily.

Doug Lewis: Matt and myself have, uh, a friendly arrangement that if, uh if we use an acronym, we have to explain what it stands for.

Erik Neilssen: Okay.

Doug Lewis: In detail. [00:07:00] And if we don't, it's 50 bucks into the general pool and we're still figuring out what we're going to do with that pool. Uh, which is fun, but, uh, it keeps us on track and makes sure the listeners don't get lost as, uh, as much as we possibly can. So any acronym, uh, you're you're immune from the from the rule, which is good. But any acronyms that the three of us don't explain 50 bucks into the pot. And it's a it's a running total, a running tally. So do your best to explain your acronyms. But, uh, yes, for for all the listeners, Eric is 100% immune from [00:07:30] that rule. But. Emily.

Matt Lescault: Yeah, I have an idea.

Emily Madere: Oh, what's your idea?

Matt Lescault: So Doug is technically the host, and it really doesn't use acronyms ever. So he already has one step ahead of us. So he actually should have to own any guest that breaks the rule. And he has to pay for their their.

Emily Madere: Well, I can say Eric is my friend, so just give me a wink. And I mean, I'm sure I can tell Eric to to not explain his acronyms.

Erik Neilssen: I could go [00:08:00] from no acronyms to all acronyms real fast.

Doug Lewis: So yeah, I.

Doug Lewis: Think Matt loved the idea. We'll put it in the maybe pile. But for this.

Doug Lewis: Episode.

Doug Lewis: In all future episodes, we will keep the existing rules as they are. So that's perfect. Uh, any guest is immune. So, Eric, um, you know, appreciate the kind of background on data and all that fun stuff. And I love the fact that you're not super salesy, which is great. Um, a sales background myself, and I hate it myself. So I understand kind of where where you're coming from, from that mindset. But, you know, when did when did the partnership between Data Blend [00:08:30] and Sage really come together?

Erik Neilssen: Uh, that's a great question. Um, so I can't talk about the partnership between Sage and Data Blend without talking about my CEO, David Firth. Uh, I've been with Data Blend for four years. I've had the pleasure of working with David over the last three and a half. And he's a wicked, smart guy. Wicked talented and brings a lot of experience to the table, and I've learned a lot from him and what he brings to the table, besides all experience, is that before he worked at Data Blend, he [00:09:00] was one of the top resellers of Sage Intacct through Leap the Pond in act two. And and so he brought with him a really intimate relationship with the Sage Intacct community, which really opened up a lot of doors for us to build this robust connection to Sage Intacct. So I'm going to use an acronym here, API Application Program Interface. Right. And and today, 82% of our customers are using us to connect to Sage Intacct through this API [00:09:30] as it is our most robust API connection. And we've invested in that. Um, and because of that, we've become we started as a marketplace partner, and the Sage Intacct community was able to reach out to us when they had an integration issue and wanted to talk to us, but the The higher ups at Sage made it clear to David Firth that integration was always going to be something that needed that a solution that needed to be solved for Sage Intacct. Right. [00:10:00] And that they wanted their customers to get the most out of their platform. And so we were able to really take that to a more intimate relationship. Right. I don't know if I should be using the word intimate too often, but, um, uh, let it fly in.

Doug Lewis: A.

Erik Neilssen: More synergistic relationship, I'll say more synergistic relationship with with the ISV relationship, which has led us to the data flows.

Matt Lescault: Well, I want to mention, just for the listeners, Lita Pond was a leading Sage Intacct partner, got acquired by [00:10:30] act two. If I have my history correct, which was the ended up being many years the number one Sage Intacct partner. Yep. That got acquired by Baker Tilly.

Doug Lewis: Yep. Yes.

Matt Lescault: And now, with all that infrastructure that was built from Lita Pond into act two, into Baker Tilly. Baker Tilly is now putting stuff out to marketplace like SaaS Intelligence by Baker Tilly, which I think was originally came out of that leap the Pond [00:11:00] and act two, uh, combination. So I just, I thought that was interesting kind of in where that history came from. Absolutely.

Erik Neilssen: I mean, so you're you're speaking to the point that David Firth's influence in the Sage, uh, ecosystem goes further than what we're doing today. Um, and again, I'm just lucky enough that I get to work with them.

Doug Lewis: And I like how you said it goes further than what you're doing today. If you could just lay out your entire product roadmap on this and just kind of spoil it for everybody, that might be.

Doug Lewis: Helpful.

Doug Lewis: For all the I'm sure you have the ability to do so. Uh, but, I mean.

Erik Neilssen: I [00:11:30] could talk all day and then I could let my product manager listen and make it happen. Um, which, you know, it's funny enough, but that's often how it happens. Right? Is our roadmap has is pretty much dictated by what our our our customers, our prospects and our partners need us to do. Uh, when I started four years ago, I was the fifth employee. We mainly connected to Qbo and Adaptive and we had about 100 customers. Right. And now today, four years later, we have 800 [00:12:00] customers. We connect to hundreds of applications. And, you know, our staff has grown considerably. And that's just to say, hey, I like to talk about that, not to brag, but to talk about how excited I am to be part of that growth journey. But also I like to talk about how, yeah, 82% of our customers are using us to connect to Sage Intacct and it is the most robust API. But at one point we weren't even connecting to Sage Intacct. Right? So by a customer coming to us saying they needed to connect to Sage, that's how that relationship started. And so we're also very good at doing new things, [00:12:30] which again, here's that peace of mind. Thing is, it gives users of data blend that peace of mind that when you use us, we're going to help you get your data from whatever system you're using into the system that you need to use in Sage Intacct in this instance.

Matt Lescault: Right. And if I have a question on that, is it just the fact of being originally in the ecosystem. For David Firth that Sage Intacct has become the number one. Does it have to do anything with Sage Intacct API itself as being more robust than some of the other ones? Can you give us a little insight [00:13:00] into that? It's a little bit of everything.

Erik Neilssen: You know, I think I think if I think back to the history, is there was some really good synergy of David Firth joining while we were already kind of knocking on the door of Sage Intacct and having customers bring us towards Sage Intacct. That helped. But definitely things move faster because of that. And then yeah, for sure. Sage Intacct has a very robust API and has a lot of things mapped out. And again, because of the relationship, we're able to work with them to make [00:13:30] sure that we understand how things are mapped out. Right. So it gives us an even stronger ability to bring a solution. Right. And that and that goes to the other thing that facilitates the growth that we've had is that our development team comes out with two releases every month, and with every release. We're releasing a new connection, but we're also maintaining the APIs that we're already building. Right. And we're improving on the APIs that we're already building. So we're adding endpoints. And none of that comes at the cost of our customers. And that sounds a little salesy, but it's really about our investment [00:14:00] in our tool. Right. And offering a tool that is as robust as it can be. And the second we stop evolving as an integration tool is the second we start losing our value. And why are we in the game in the first place? Right. So it's it's it's that ability to build out anything that's available to the API that has led us to be this robust connection with Sage Intacct.

Emily Madere: So if I've said it once, I've said it a million times, but Sage Intacct is a best in class solution. So, [00:14:30] so customers listening, whoever is listening to this podcast, having integrations into Sage Intacct is a necessary part of Sage Intacct, because Intacct is not trying to be everything to everyone, right? We're not trying to be an expense management solution. We're not trying to be a CRM, so having those connections to other systems is going to create that environment of automation, of AI, of less manual work. And Eric has helped a lot of my clients do this.

Matt Lescault: On that note, Eric, [00:15:00] we keep on talking about your partnership with Sage, and you mentioned dataflows earlier. Can we talk a little bit about that relationship in more depth? Because I think so far we might have kind of just scratched the surface and might not be as obvious to people. Sure.

Doug Lewis: And Eric.

Doug Lewis: I'm actually I'm going to cut you off right before you even answer that. Love the question, Matt. You beat me to the punch. But, uh, for anyone who's actually watching, I know we have a lot of listeners. Anyone actually watching? You'll notice in Eric's screen I see some awards [00:15:30] behind you that look interesting, and I. And before we get back, I want to get into data flow. But, Eric, please tell me, what am I looking at behind you?

Erik Neilssen: Uh, so what you're looking behind you there called Jose Awards. Uh, they might look like Oscars but they're not. Um, and they are for work I did in community theater. So I am a theater major. I went to Hunter College in Manhattan. Um, and I specialized in directing. And then, uh, some years after I graduated college, I had gotten away from theater, so I got invited [00:16:00] back into the community theater scene in Queens, New York, where I was born and raised. Uh, and I got really into directing at that period. And so those awards are for different, uh, shows that I've directed over the years Little Women, Spamalot, and, uh, lend me a tenor. Oh, no. Sorry. Nonsense, nonsense. And then, uh, Noises Off was one of my last, uh, shows I produced, um, and not produced. Directed, um, so I do a little bit of musical, a little bit of comedy, a little bit of everything. Um.

Emily Madere: And [00:16:30] did I, did I hear that you're also a ordained officiant?

Erik Neilssen: I am, I.

Doug Lewis: Am, yeah, man.

Erik Neilssen: Emily, you did your research.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, I am research.

Erik Neilssen: I am an ordained. I'm adorned. I'm ordained with the Universal Life Church. Uh, in my my grandfather on my my father's side was a Lutheran pastor. So I guess I'm kind of kind of, you know, falling in with the family business a little bit there. And then my and then a fun fact about me is, before I became, uh, with [00:17:00] Data Blend, I was actually a union window cleaner in New York City. And I used to wash windows in the sky rises over Time Square, uh, which is, you know, very appropriate for someone who's such a theater major. Right. Uh, and my grandfather on my mom's side, my mom's dad was a window cleaner. Uh, so I kind of have kind of done a little bit of both of my, uh, my grandfather's trades there. Uh, and I have officiated five weddings so far.

Emily Madere: So you you direct on Monday, clean on Tuesday, officiate on Wednesday and sell data blend on Thursday. [00:17:30]

Erik Neilssen: Uh, only if I could still do that. I think in my 20s, that was my lifestyle. When I was in my 20s, I was definitely wearing a lot of hats in one day. Now it's mostly, uh, I do mostly data blend.

Doug Lewis: Um, okay Well, you inspired me.

Erik Neilssen: You take the. Take the boy away from the theater. You can never take the theater out of the boy.

Doug Lewis: Oh.

Matt Lescault: It was interesting. And I really love the theater. Uh, I don't think anybody here knows, uh, I have an aunt and uncle are both theater actors here in D.C. and have done it for [00:18:00] 20, 30 years. I grew up going to theater, and it's such a opportunity as a kid to. And I don't know, Eric, if you have if you have children or not. Um, but I just remember how much impact that had for me as a little kid, getting to experience, to experience those kind of things. So, uh. Very cool.

Erik Neilssen: Yeah. No, I do have a daughter, but she's only two, so she's not quite ready yet. But she is a performer. She's already a ham at two, so I definitely think she's going to be primed for the theater. Um, but my [00:18:30] mom got me into it because I used to watch movies, and then I'd recite the entire movie for, like, family entertainment. Like, I'd go from opening credits to closing credits, and she's like, we got to get you some kind of agent or something. There's a life here. I didn't need to eat, drink and sleep it enough to make it to be a movie star. But it definitely filled a passion for me for a long time.

Matt Lescault: So awesome.

Doug Lewis: So you're not a movie star? That's what I. I'm not, I'm not. Okay. Got it. I just want to make sure. Because we're going to shift this entire episode.

Doug Lewis: Uh.

Doug Lewis: That, uh, I.

Doug Lewis: Become the headliner.

Erik Neilssen: For [00:19:00] a whole other reason, right?

Doug Lewis: I apologize, I took us off track that time. Usually it's Matt or Emily that I'm usually the one that tries to keep us on track, but that was that was my sleep up there because, well.

Doug Lewis: To be fair, I think it was all.

Erik Neilssen: Of you. I think you all kind of joined in.

Doug Lewis: Well.

Emily Madere: Hold us accountable, I love it.

Doug Lewis: We share a.

Doug Lewis: Little. I'll have to put my directing awards, uh, up behind me next. It'll be really easy process. So back to back to Matt's initial question. Dataflow. It's been talked about a little bit. Uh, do you want to give us that that background? Eric, what is dataflow?

Erik Neilssen: Sure. [00:19:30] So dataflow on the simplest terms is data blend available on Sage paper. Um, and basically one data flow is a connection to Sage Intacct, is a connection to Sage Intacct and one system with the ability to move three workflows, right? Or three objects. Say like customer vendor invoice between one system and the other system. And it's really new. It's a very young program. We started it. The conversation started [00:20:00] at the end of last year. And at the beginning, at the outset, we were going to it was really supposed to be about HubSpot and Sage Intacct, and we built these wizard functionalities to bring data from HubSpot to Sage Intacct. But while we were getting ready to roll it out at transform this last year, it was kind of decided that it made sense for us to make it a little more far reaching than that. And so you're allowed to use a data flow to really connect to any system. And and it has really opened up the doors. And over the last 3 [00:20:30] or 4 months, I've gotten to work with Vars and Sage account executives who are getting to have a much more empowered conversation with their customers about integration, and remove a lot of the friction that integration could bring into into a process of looking at what software you want to use and what softwares you are using, and how do you bridge that gap.

Matt Lescault: And what I find really impactful here, at least from customer journey and things of that nature, is with this, with this partnership, it makes [00:21:00] it much more easier for the customer to to engage with and have a plan to utilize a product like this, because before it was up to the implementation partner to try to bring in a third party to try to solve this relationship. And now it's really kind of more of a what I would say in the community approach. Uh, you know, Eric, what have you seen on your end from that side?

Erik Neilssen: Absolutely, absolutely. I mentioned before, like the synergistic, uh, nature of it, right, is if when you're seeing [00:21:30] and we kind of had that experience. Right. We were not a marketplace partner. Then we became a marketplace partner and then we became we. So we've this relationship has continued to strengthen and strengthen, and one of the benefits of coming to the table as a product that has this ISV relationship with Sage Intacct and being on Sage Intacct paper, is the customer doesn't look at you as much as a third party, right? They look at Data blend as a Sage backed integration tool that Sage has. Confidence is going to be able to improve [00:22:00] value of what the customer is getting out of Sage Intacct. And that's what got us excited about this relationship is in every way, shape and form. It's a healthy relationship, right? For it's a healthy relationship for Sage. It's a healthy relationship for data blended. It's a healthy relationship for the end user because together we're improving the value for the end user. And Emily go ahead I'm sorry. Matt go ahead. I just I.

Matt Lescault: Just want to mention, just in case listeners, uh, it's not obvious when he says on Sage paper Sage gray [00:22:30] labels. We talked about this in another, uh, another episode. Gray labels with data blend and sales data blend. Uh on their contract. So it's a one point. Of of contract for the customer, not two different contracts.

Emily Madere: And what what is the name? Is it dataflows powered by data blend? Is that the. No.

Erik Neilssen: It's just it's a it's a product that is that it's data flows. Right. Um, and uh, and it's very simple and doesn't need to get more complicated than that. And it's just, uh, it's [00:23:00] a, it's a product that's available on the Sage price. Price book. And um, through that you get integration. Yeah.

Emily Madere: So kind of going off script here.

Erik Neilssen: Um, I was going to say I rehearsed and I'm glad I'm a theater guy because this is not going like anything I rehearsed. I'm glad. I think it's even better and very organic and yes, and I feel like I've set the bar high for whatever guest comes after me, which is, I think, a great way to start. I don't know that. Yeah, that wasn't very humble. I've been doing [00:23:30] a really good job of being humble until this point. Now I shot myself in the foot.

Emily Madere: Um, but I do have a question So we've kind of explained what a data flow is. And it's on Sage paper. But what does the implementation of this look like?

Erik Neilssen: Well, that's a great question. Is it what. The thing I like to tell all of our customers and anyone who asks about data blend, right, is, is that at heart we're a product, right? And I mentioned before peace of mind. I've mentioned a couple of times I'm going to mention it again is what we want is that the customer [00:24:00] has peace of mind that our solution is going to do what it says. It's going to do, that it's going to be easy to use, that it's going to be easy to get support for it, and it's going to be easy to set up. So those release cycles I mentioned before, where we release new connections and we release updates to our connections. One of the other things we do is we release, uh, improvements to the implementation process. Right? We release these things called wizards. We release templates, and we take common workflows that we see many of our customers using. [00:24:30] Uh, and we try to come up with streamlined ways to implement those use cases So when you subscribe to data Blend, you're not just getting the experience of all of our team, you're getting the experience of our 800 customers and our experience with our 800 customers to make sure that you have an expedited implementation, that you have a streamlined solution that is going to be easy to support and is going to do what you expect it to do. Specifically around implementation, today, we have an implementation team that that does some of that Sage Intacct is taking on some of the work, but then we also [00:25:00] rely on our community of trusted Vars who are certified implementers of data blend.

Erik Neilssen: And so the very same person that you may be buying the data flow from will be the person that can implement data blend for you. But it's not a very complicated process. It doesn't involve a lot of it or resources in general from the customer. Really all they need to do is have credentials to the systems that we're integrating, have sample files of data that we're integrating, um, and then have an idea [00:25:30] of what they want the integration to do that's going to be reflective in a statement of work I was going to say, and I was like, let me save myself the time and just say, statement of work. Um, and then and then our team goes off and builds it or whoever is implementing it. Right. Whether it's our team or Sage or a VAR who can also implement a certified implementer, then they go off and build it, and then they come back and they verify that all the data is doing what it's supposed to be doing. They tie off and then they set you live and they get set everything to a schedule, right? They could set everything [00:26:00] so that you don't really have to think about it. And many data blind users sometimes forget that they're using data blend because it's running so seamlessly in the background. So I know I kind of answered a ton of questions there, not just implementation, but it all kind of has to do with the implementation process.

Emily Madere: Um, and, and a little bit of background for the listeners. So Eric and I got connected because he's done some work for our Intacct clients, and we started working together on a newer prospect. And I'm not going to name any names. Um, but this prospect had a very [00:26:30] unique system, and they're evaluating Sage Intacct. So I called Eric and I said, Eric, help! Let's walk through this together. And Eric, I don't know if you want to kind of explain the process, but you know, you also you know, you sell it, you do implementations, but you also help on the on the the forefront of the project, making sure solutions can connect.

Erik Neilssen: Yeah. So that's a great question and I'm glad you brought that story up. Emily is I mentioned before that the and I think I mentioned [00:27:00] it before is that the core of our value is our ability to transform, right? Is our ability to transform financial data. Right. We do customer to customer and vendor to vendor. But we could also do calculations and things like that. But what expands on that value is our Swiss army like way of connecting to systems. Right. So we have, I like to say four ways of connecting. We have these API reminder, application programing, interface connections, standard connections that we've pre-built. Right. Sage Intacct is a great example of that. Salesforce is another great example of that. Hubspot [00:27:30] is another great example of that. Then we also have what we call our database connector, and that gives us the ability to connect to databases that may be hosted on premise or in a cloud, but that data doesn't have an API available to get that data out. Right. So we have a way to connect to that and get that data. We also have what we call our SftP connector, a secure file transfer protocol. And what that does is that gives us the ability to ingest CSV or TXT flat files, basically [00:28:00] tabular data from a source system and ingest that data and then send that off into a target system.

Erik Neilssen: And then the last way is what we call our. And it's a cousin of the API connection. It's a custom script connection via API. And it's something that we've built out of the back end of our tool, and it gives us the ability to extend API connectivity to any system that has an open API. So real quick, when we say open API and closed API, a product or a vendor might have an API. An open [00:28:30] API means that anybody can access the API with some documentation and can build to it. Right. And so when a system has this open API and has documentation, our team can come in and build a low cost solution that delivers API connectivity. So between these all all four types of connections, it really makes it so that traditionally there are there are systems and there's data that you wouldn't be able to connect to. But because we have these different types of connections, there's really there's [00:29:00] very little that we can't connect to today. And so that that expands our value, that expands the value of the data flow and expands and expands the value of data blend.

Emily Madere: Right. So what you're saying is short answer is you can connect.

Doug Lewis: Yeah. There are ways that connect. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you.

Doug Lewis: Know, he's not a sales guy.

Doug Lewis: So yeah.

Doug Lewis: He's he's not a sales guy. Eric, you mentioned something earlier to, um, kind of how you go about finding these common challenges across the client base, implementing the, the template [00:29:30] approach and being able to roll that out to everybody to essentially cut down on some of the learning curves here. Uh, I think you said about 800. What's kind of the client base look like? Just ballpark numbers, you know, size of companies, any specific industries you tend to to work in or what?

Doug Lewis: Yeah.

Erik Neilssen: For sure. I mean, we, you know, we do a lot in the mid market. We're vertically agnostic, right? What we care about is the the Department of Finance and Accounting. We have a healthy experience with not for profit organizations. Right. And I mentioned Salesforce before. That is [00:30:00] a great example. Right. Is because we have this robust connection to Salesforce through the API. We could grab custom objects, right. And that's something that isn't really available through a standard connection. And so because of that, nonprofit organizations are the ones that usually leverage these more custom endpoints inside of Salesforce. Right. And and use Salesforce for their donation management, grant management, um, paying out those kind of funds. And, and what we can offer is complete automation of all of those objects in [00:30:30] and out of Sage Intacct, right? It's extremely robust. They turn out to be some of our bigger projects. They turn out to be very complex. But again, because of our experience of what we've done before, we can we continue to offer a more streamlined approach to it. And we could also speak knowledgeably to it.

Erik Neilssen: Our team can communicate with each other and say, hey, this is an experience I had with customer A, let's let let's make let's offer this to customer B as well, because it makes their data management a stronger use case. Um, but you know, we also deal a lot like I mentioned [00:31:00] before, I do wear the hat of CAS and SAP practice. We are reaching out. We are growing in our footprint there with and Matt knows this with our outsource accounting practice and offering connectivity for their clients. Um, and that's a select group too, because they like to keep their heads to the ground. Right, and focus on on a task. But I think once they start to see the automation and the time that it opens up, that is also a growing market for us. So we really aren't there aren't very many limits to [00:31:30] who our customer can be and who we reach out to. And we definitely see a lot of success in in the IT space. And the accounting space are probably our two biggest markets.

Matt Lescault: So one of the things that that I'm hearing is in the ecosystem. For a long time, there was some pretty highly regarded firms that specialized in integration of intact and and third parties. But really from a custom perspective, and you've kind of taken [00:32:00] that away. And so if I think about kind of like development, this is almost like a low code approach to integration for firms that allows them to not have to invest in that deeply customized integration that they might have done just a few years ago.

Erik Neilssen: Yeah. I mean, you've got it. You hit the nail on the head, right? What the the traditional sense of integration is that you might have a tool out there, right. But you need someone to use that tool to build the integration. And then you need someone to maintain that integration. And [00:32:30] it's very common for it to break or that's very costly because you need to keep a, you know, a bucket of hours available for someone to come in and fix the integration. And so with data blend, as long as you're paying the subscription, we're maintaining those connections for you. So you again that's peace of mind. You don't have to worry about it. And you hit it on the head again. It's very low code. It's very user friendly. I mentioned our ability to build a script connection before, but that's not the primary right? Is is we really we actually [00:33:00] will sometimes use a script connector as our first experience with something. And then when we see demand build, we'll take that and create a standard connection for that system. Right. And so we've got this refined approach to try new things and then use that to inform how we're going to build out our library and offer more standard connections, but definitely low code and low cost. And again, peace of mind that you don't have to do anything other than pay your subscription to Datablitz.

Emily Madere: Well, [00:33:30] if it's if it's on Sage paper, it's included in their Sage Intacct, right?

Erik Neilssen: Well, yes. If it's the data flow, then correct. Yes. It's on the Sage. Right? Exactly.

Doug Lewis: A couple times. Eric, you've mentioned, I don't want to say crowd sourcing, you know, ways to solve problems, but, you know, you work across a lot of different clients, a lot of different technology platforms and solutions out there. So we've hit it a couple times on our end. When you look at the Sage ecosystem, there's a lot of different players kind of involved in that, whether it's, you know, you look at the marketplace partners, we have [00:34:00] ours, synapse, I mean, the list goes on and on. People like yourself, you know, from a community standpoint, we feel anyways that the Sage ecosystem has a pretty strong community in the sense that everyone's trying to figure out these problems together as opposed to really creating competition. Do you can you kind of speak to your experience, what you see with Sage versus maybe some of the other platforms out there, kind of from that sense, from that community standpoint since.

Erik Neilssen: You know, we we do have connections to other applications. [00:34:30] Uh, I will say get.

Doug Lewis: Off, get off. You don't belong on this podcast.

Doug Lewis: Eric, we're on a It's the Unofficial podcast.

Doug Lewis: So say what you want.

Erik Neilssen: But as I mentioned before, 82% of our customers today use this to connect to Sage Intacct. And I.

Doug Lewis: Don't think what.

Emily Madere: Other what other solutions are you connecting out to? You mentioned QuickBooks. That was one of the first that you.

Doug Lewis: Said we have Qbo.

Erik Neilssen: We have NetSuite, Xero, Acumatica are some of the other ones. Definitely a little less trafficked. Um, Qbo was part of our origin story, right? So that's it's probably that's fairly [00:35:00] robust, but I mentioned before that 82% of our customers are using us to connect to Sage Intacct. That kind of growth would not be possible without there being this synergistic. And God, I'm using that word a lot to I don't know what's better. But anyway, this this kind of community where there's a lot of sharing of knowledge and openness, of communication and willingness to solve a problem. But I will say overall, our list of connections right outside of the ERP space. If you look at CRM and payroll providers and all of that, we [00:35:30] have a robust list there, too. And it's because we're able to call vendors and say, hey, we have a client that needs to connect to your system. We have a solution. How can you help us connect to your system? Right. And so one of the things that is that we're not afraid to start that community, right. We're not afraid to start that conversation on behalf of our other partners and on behalf of our customers in order to make our tool the most powerful it can be and the most robust it can be. But definitely the Sage environment, I'll say is, is very one of a kind. And [00:36:00] um, and, and is one that it's great to be a part of and you just feel it when you go to these events. Right? When you go to transform or, uh, any of these, even the smaller niche events that Sage will sometimes host for the SIP community, it's everyone's willing to talk about ideas, challenges and find solutions to it. And, um, it's one of the things that I love about the industry and working for this company.

Matt Lescault: Well. Questions? Go ahead. Emily.

Emily Madere: Oh, I was just going to give a blanket. The next Sage transform, which is Sage annual conference, is [00:36:30] in June of 2025. So go ahead. Okay.

Matt Lescault: Question I had is technically you guys are an AI pass provider and a integration platform as a service, I think is what it what it stands for. And you're not the only player out there. You're not the only player that works with Sage Intacct. Just like there's multiple expense management products and API management products and so forth. What I want to know is as a firm, as a user, as a potential customer, [00:37:00] how do we assess the difference between one AI pass company and another? What is the differentiators between you guys, you know, in your industry? I mean, what is it?

Doug Lewis: If you've ever queued up a sales question? Yeah.

Doug Lewis: It's a.

Erik Neilssen: Good he's really good.

Doug Lewis: At putting the ball.

Erik Neilssen: On the tee.

Matt Lescault: It is a sales question, but it's also very important when it comes to evaluating for the for the listeners on [00:37:30] what makes the most sense. You know, we may have listeners that are NetSuite users and thinking about Sage, but also have this question on the NetSuite. And I'm going to say maybe data is not the right answer for them, but they still need to know how to assess the right partner in doing this.

Erik Neilssen: Well, let me address one of the last things you just said first is that at heart, data blend. Data blends position is to be the ETL tool for the Office of Finance and Accounting. Right. Is that we believe that the Office of Finance and Accounting [00:38:00] should not be bogged down by out of the box integration, or paying someone a ton to create custom integration. Real quick, I'll talk about a great use case of data blend. Um, that is agnostic to system, but we'll get system specific here. We have a bunch of customers who are using us to connect stripe, uh, Salesforce and Sage Intacct or similar systems of those brand. Right. And what we can do for this customer is a customer makes a donation or a payment on a website through stripe, and we take [00:38:30] the revenue and we send that off to Salesforce. But then you have these credit card fees that are useful because they can be used in the rev rec within Sage Intacct. So traditional integration might say, oh, well, I have to build another custom integration just to bring that over. That's not valuable, or I have to bring that data all the way around to get it to Sage Intacct with data. And you don't have to write just because you're using data blend to connect to those three systems. We can send the revenue off to Salesforce, but we can take the credit card fees and send that directly to Sage Intacct for the rev rec. But then we continue bring the rev [00:39:00] the revenue from Salesforce right into Sage Intacct two, so we can do what traditional integration can do, but we could also do things that they cannot do.

Erik Neilssen: And so that is to say that when you're when you're in the Office of Finance and Accounting and you're thinking of that integration, whether it's with Sage Intacct or whether it's with any of these other systems, the value we serve is that we know finance and accounting are transformations. Can can do the complex things, the simple things and the complex things, and we maintain those integrations. So something you want to think about when you're [00:39:30] exploring an integration solution is do I want to pick a system because it's easy to connect, or do I want to pick a system because it has an out of the box integration? Or do I want to pick a system because it serves my business? Use the best, right. Because I'm in construction and this application talks to construction, or I'm in hospitality and this application talks to hospitality. Data blend believes you shouldn't have to make that choice based off connectivity. You should make that choice based based based off of what's for your business. And then let us come in and help make those connections. Um, and so that could be an agnostic [00:40:00] if you're using Sage or NetSuite or whatever is data blend could be part of that conversation. One of our strongest positions in the Sage market is, is that it is by far our most robust connection today, and we have a lot of confidence in what we're doing in and out of that system. Did I answer the whole question there, Matt, or did I miss anything?

Matt Lescault: I don't know, I don't.

Doug Lewis: Know, I think.

Doug Lewis: I think you answered like a question and a half there, which I like.

Doug Lewis: Yes.

Doug Lewis: Well, you left nothing to to kind of leave, no doubt. No, no. Nothing was. No, no.

Emily Madere: Then maybe [00:40:30] to kind of wrap up this conversation, a piece that I've used a lot from Data Blend is your website, Eric. So maybe talk to the folks who are like, is data blend a good fit for me? What solutions do they integrate with? Can you talk to that that graph on your website?

Erik Neilssen: Yeah, absolutely. So one of the many things that I love, I was going to say I was going to call out Matt for a second because like, I feel like every time Matt asks a question, he's like, so I have one question. Every time you ask a question, I was like, one question.

Doug Lewis: And then.

Matt Lescault: Just one question at that moment, right?

Doug Lewis: Exactly, exactly.

Erik Neilssen: But [00:41:00] I'm just as guilty of saying, well, the one thing that I love about my job or one thing, anyway, one of the many things that I love about what I do and who I work for, is that we're a very transparent company. And so what data, what Emily was referencing is our website. And if you're exploring integration, if you're thinking about connecting systems and you're not sure you can go to our website at. Centcom this is not at all a sales pitch, but we do have a robust, um. Demo library available on there. We do have an integration, uh, matrix [00:41:30] A. Connector matrix available on our integrations page where you can click. The systems that you're looking to integrate with. And we have a list of everything we have experience connecting with. And it'll show you how we've connected to that system and what data we've moved between that system. So it's a good way to start the thought process and start the conversation of, hey, I'm using system A, B, C, D, hey, data is connected to A, B and C, maybe it's worth a conversation with them. Right. Um, and that that could be a really good starting point. And if you [00:42:00] have any questions, you can always feel free to reach out to me. I'm more than glad to have a conversation. It doesn't have to be a sales conversation. It can be a question and answer conversation. Uh, just to help you feel more confident.

Doug Lewis: About your process.

Emily Madere: If you want to book Eric for a wedding, he could help you.

Doug Lewis: That's true, that's true. Yeah.

Erik Neilssen: That's true. Or if you need a.

Doug Lewis: Direct someone to direct your show into the.

Erik Neilssen: Theater. I haven't directed a show since Covid, so I need I need to get back into that market. Um, and we haven't found a way to naturally work it into the conversation. But another thing on my shelf back here is an American flag from my Eagle Scout ceremony when I became [00:42:30] an Eagle Scout. So I'm also an Eagle Scout. I don't know how that whether there's a marketable skill, like if you need someone to tie knots or like start a fire, I'm really good at that. I'm in charge of that whenever we go to the 4th of July.

Doug Lewis: So we'll figure it out.

Doug Lewis: You know, Eric, I did hear that Dos Equis the beer is looking for their their new most interesting man in the world to. Oh you jump into that. So you know what. Maybe just throw your hat in the ring I don't know. That's your choice. I don't know if you have time for that, but at least you'd have a better shot than any of the three of us.

Doug Lewis: Hey, listen. That's [00:43:00] expensive.

Erik Neilssen: I'll entertain any kind of extra revenue I can get these days, you know?

Doug Lewis: That's right, that's right.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, I love that, I love that. Well, I appreciate we won't take up any more of your time. Eric, I appreciate you jumping on joining us here. Usually to cap these things, I throw out just a horrible Dad. Joke. Off the top of my head. And have these two guests at it wildly. And usually it doesn't go well. They don't get it. So you're up, Eric? Yeah.

Emily Madere: Eric, do you have a dad joke off the.

Doug Lewis: Oh.

Doug Lewis: Oh, our guest is going to throw one out I love that.

Emily Madere: Yeah, he is a dad. [00:43:30] He does.

Doug Lewis: I am a dad.

Emily Madere: And he's in theater, so he probably does have one.

Erik Neilssen: Oh my goodness. Uh, I, you know, I have a whole dad joke book, too. Um, man, you're putting me on the spot, I know.

Emily Madere: Uh, if not, we can throw it back to Doug.

Doug Lewis: Doug, why don't you?

Erik Neilssen: You probably have a more practiced one, so I don't want to.

Doug Lewis: I don't really have practice ones. I just have just an unlimited amount of bad ones. Okay, so let's go, let's go. All right. What do you call a rude cow?

Doug Lewis: A [00:44:00] rude.

Erik Neilssen: Cow.

Doug Lewis: I'm working on getting a soundboard in here, too, so I can put some, like, jeopardy music in.

Matt Lescault: I'm going with, like, a moo, some something around a moo.

Doug Lewis: A mu.

Doug Lewis: A. Okay.

Emily Madere: I can't say what I initially thought, um.

Matt Lescault: Or utter utter. I was going to say.

Erik Neilssen: Like utter fool or utter pain.

Doug Lewis: An utterly.

Emily Madere: Bad. I'm just going to say a [00:44:30] bad cow.

Doug Lewis: A rude cow is is a beef jerky.

Erik Neilssen: Be right there.

Doug Lewis: Come on. Next time.

Doug Lewis: Next time you'll get it. You'll get it. Well, Eric, thank you for joining again. I appreciate it. I will have all your information for the listeners so they can find you and all that fun stuff. I love the fact that you're not a sales guy. That was that was fun. You made. You made, uh, data and technology sound not overly boring, which is fun. Um, we don't always get that on this on this [00:45:00] podcast with, especially with Matt going into the weeds on his stuff.

Doug Lewis: But jeez.

Doug Lewis: No, no, no, it's too much knowledge. You just.

Doug Lewis: That's an idea, guy.

Erik Neilssen: Matt just has all these ideas and he's, you know.

Matt Lescault: Um, yeah. Eric. Eric got a little bit of that experience when we were in Boston Just the idea flow.

Doug Lewis: Yeah. And you did let Wicked Fly a few times. I don't know if you heard that one. Yeah. Did I let.

Doug Lewis: It fly or wicked.

Doug Lewis: Up. Yeah. No, you did Eric a couple times. Wicked. Yeah, yeah.

Doug Lewis: You know.

Erik Neilssen: The Queens and me and my friends from Queens would probably be really mad at me, but, you know, two, two years in New Hampshire, it's starting to rub off. [00:45:30] I can't help it.

Doug Lewis: I love it. Eric, we've wasted enough of your life here today.

Doug Lewis: This has not.

Erik Neilssen: Been a waste. This has been a phenomenal experience. I really appreciate you guys. Excited to be on the podcast. Congratulations on on it. And thank you for having me as as one of your first guests. And I'll be glad to come back anytime.

Emily Madere: The first guest.

Doug Lewis: The first.

Erik Neilssen: Guest. Oh yes, I should. Can you send me a trophy? I want to put that next to those over there first.

Doug Lewis: I will.

Doug Lewis: Yes. Well, it's it's in the mail. It's in the mail. Yeah. Thank [00:46:00] you. All right, Eric, thanks for your time, my friend. And we'll be talking to you soon.