WEBVTT
00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:04.959
Welcome everyone to another episode of Dynamics Corner.
00:00:05.280 --> 00:00:08.000
This is gonna be a fun, integrated conversation.
00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:09.519
I'm your co-host, Chris.
00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:10.800
And this is Brad.
00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:14.000
This episode was recorded on November 7th, 2025.
00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:15.519
Chris, Chris, Chris.
00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:16.559
Integrations.
00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:18.239
Who doesn't need an integration?
00:00:18.399 --> 00:00:26.239
With all of the systems that are on the market today, and everybody has a little piece of information, you need to have your information integrated.
00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:30.559
With us today, we had the opportunity to speak with Dave and Robert from iPass.com.
00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:54.799
Doing really well.
00:00:55.119 --> 00:00:56.000
You guys?
00:00:56.399 --> 00:00:58.320
Uh, you know, it's Friday.
00:00:58.799 --> 00:00:59.920
It's going well.
00:01:00.479 --> 00:01:09.599
And I've always vowed to not record on a Friday, so I don't know what will happen because typically the Fridays turn into some sort of fiasco for me.
00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:11.200
So we'll do our best today.
00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:12.799
Hopefully, we can here we are.
00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:15.280
We can make it through this one, okay.
00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:18.799
But uh maybe we should just switch to doing all recordings on Fridays.
00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:23.439
Fridays are good for recordings, it's just the day you don't want to push code.
00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:30.239
Um when you do it, do it on Friday.
00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:33.920
Uh Friday night is usually the best time.
00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:40.000
Friday's rough for us because it's like a lot of people want to rush out, you know what I mean?
00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:43.359
I'm like disconnected already, you know.
00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:49.120
I'm not even in my normal studio right now.
00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:54.079
So yeah, Friday's not a good day to push code.
00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:59.519
Although I know a lot of people who like to do it on Friday, and I have always been one not to do anything on Friday.
00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:03.040
The rationale, I I I try to think of the rationale.
00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:13.199
I understand it's like, well, you know, there's risk, less risk because you have more time to fix it, but I also go with, well, there's more risk because typically there's less people available.
00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:14.000
That's right.
00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:15.280
Uh they don't like weekends.
00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:21.120
You can schedule to have people available, but uh sometimes if you push code out there, you don't know if it works, it doesn't work.
00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:23.039
So do you have people waiting all the time?
00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:26.800
Uh no, because everybody tests everything so thoroughly.
00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:27.280
Oh, no.
00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:28.319
So there are never any problems.
00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:30.639
Those are the people that don't like weekends.
00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:31.520
It's the problem.
00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:33.280
They don't like the weekends.
00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:36.719
So we'll see.
00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:40.400
Uh but thank you both for taking the opportunity to speak with us afternoon.
00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:42.000
I've been looking forward to this conversation.
00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:45.680
Uh, before we jump into the conversation, would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself, Dave?
00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:46.240
Sure.
00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:50.159
Yeah, so uh Dave Malda, I'm here at iPass.com.
00:02:50.479 --> 00:03:03.120
Um, we're in the integration space, and so I've been, you know, in the let's call it EDI, e-commerce, ERP uh integration space for around 17, 18 years.
00:03:03.199 --> 00:03:10.400
So fairly well versed in all the different endpoints, but that doesn't mean there's a day that doesn't go without you know learning something new, right?
00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:12.080
That's what I do love about this.
00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:26.240
Um but yeah, I'm joined here with uh my colleague Robert, and uh so we you know really play in the um a bunch of different ecosystems, including uh the Microsoft ERP ecosystem.
00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:41.759
So lots of tenure with the older dynamics nav, AX, SL, um, you know, those EP is was another popular one, and then of course now it's Dynamics 365 and all the different versions, right?
00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:44.800
So uh it's great to be here and thanks for having me.
00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:46.319
Great.
00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:47.439
Robert.
00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:49.680
Oh well, uh so I'm Robert.
00:03:49.759 --> 00:04:12.240
I head up partnerships and alliances at iPass.com and uh I cut my teeth in in the industry in the e-commerce space, and so helped uh lead a digital agency for about a decade, brought brands like SwissGear and InvictaWatches into e-commerce, a lot of cool different B2B and B2C projects, um Google Premier Partner, Inc.
00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:22.800
5000 company, uh sold in 2017, um exited, and from there I headed a partnership at a different integration platform.
00:04:22.959 --> 00:04:38.079
Dave and I went from being uh you know working at companies that were complementary to um to being in a bit of conflict, and then I headed a partnership at a web hosting firm that dealt with a lot of um you know cloud infrastructure and uh mission critical hosting.
00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:43.759
And uh I joined the team here at iPass.com about uh two and a half years ago now.
00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:54.240
And uh very excited to be joining you today and get to talk a little bit about, as Dave said, you know, where that all comes together with uh the Microsoft community.
00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:58.560
No, that's that's what I'm looking to hear a little bit more about.
00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:07.360
Uh it seems that you have uh a great background on integrations and uh a breadth of exposure to the dynamic space.
00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:09.040
So if we could talk a little bit about that.
00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:13.439
When you talk about integrations, exactly what do you mean by integration?
00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:20.959
So for us, it's really about flowing data with your other best-in-class systems, or hopefully best in class, right?
00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:24.560
We all hope that everyone's using the best software for them.
00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:55.680
But and that's actually one of the challenges is that getting your systems to talk together so that your finance operations, sales, marketing, uh, shipping and warehousing and fulfillment, so that the different departments in an organization, every org's a little different, you know, depending on whether they're more services oriented or or more um retail or wholesale or distribution or manufacturing, whatever you know, sphere they may work in, you know, certainly construction, healthcare, etc., um, they've got data.
00:05:55.839 --> 00:06:13.040
They've got customer data, perhaps product and data, order or transaction data of some sort, invoices, things that are happening um that are important to other stakeholders in an organization and should be in other systems.
00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:41.360
And so at the heart of it, it's really about just getting the data flowing, getting it transformed and translated and orchestrated to all the systems it should be in and flowing naturally, so that nobody's waiting on on some other team to try to get them what they need that they've got access to the key information, and more than just people having access today in the world where you probably don't have a podcast episode that doesn't somehow touch on AI.
00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:44.720
Um I I don't know what that word is.
00:06:46.480 --> 00:07:08.079
Okay, this uh this artificial intelligence stuff, it's more important than ever to make sure that you've got not just data, but clean data, having accountability for that data, because with AI, just like with anything else, trash in, trash out, um, you've got to have the data flowing where it needs to go so that you can benefit from these new systems.
00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:11.120
And just in general, tech stacks are growing.
00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:19.120
And so you need to be able to pull together you know all these systems so that you've got this unified approach to operations.
00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:20.079
Excellent.
00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:20.560
Excellent.
00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:26.240
So IPass, you can integrate external systems to business central.
00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:37.439
We'll call them external systems because I'm a little selfish and I like to call Business Central as you know, the central, the main system, but business central could also be uh ancillary to some other systems, as you had mentioned.
00:07:37.600 --> 00:07:41.759
Many organizations have uh many different products that they use.
00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:50.240
Uh, as you had mentioned, you want to use the best product for the job that you need to do, and sometimes that's not always within Business Central, believe it or not.
00:07:50.399 --> 00:07:52.399
Uh I've learned that over my years with it.
00:07:52.480 --> 00:07:57.120
It's a great product, feature rich, does wonders for art, but sometimes you'd have to integrations with other systems.
00:07:57.519 --> 00:07:57.920
Absolutely.
00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:12.959
I mean, and if you were to think about, for instance, e-commerce, if you're thinking about where the biggest brands are growing, it's with platforms like Shopify and Big Commerce and Magento and Adobe Commerce and Shopware and and so forth.
00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:24.720
And you know, it gives you just an idea of oh, yeah, you know, there are these other software ecosystems out there that businesses are are reliant on, but that need to be interoperable.
00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:29.120
So I'm with you, you know, but the ERP really is the anchor.
00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:30.800
No doubt about that.
00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:33.120
Business Central is is at the heart.
00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:39.440
But we would it at iPass.com, iPass stands for integration platform as a service.
00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:46.159
And what's funny is that if you were to look at how our system operates, we become the hub.
00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:50.159
We're the glue between everything, we're kind of the pipes.
00:08:50.960 --> 00:09:06.639
So, you know, in a diagram, you'd see when we're involved, you'd see us in the middle, um, with one integration into somebody's business central instance, um, being able to transform and translate data with myriad other systems all at once.
00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:08.559
And it's kind of a one-to-many.
00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:15.039
So, with with that integrations, um, you mentioned that it integrates with Business Central.
00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:19.919
I'll take it back from the ERP because I have questions on the other side, but the ERP software with Business Central.
00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:23.600
Does it work with Business Central online or Business Central on premises or both?
00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:24.480
Yes.
00:09:25.360 --> 00:09:28.720
So, really, what we're dealing with is API connectivity.
00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:40.240
Um, and so if we can reach the APIs um of Business Central, the application uh programming interface to basically get data in and out, um, then we're golden.
00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:42.480
Um and that's really what it's about for us.
00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:59.919
So we, for instance, we actually work with uh with nav with you know what was Navision back in the day, same premise that um, you know, if it's an on-prem, sometimes there's uh a few steps to go through to uh you know whitelist some IPs and um and and get proper access.
00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:09.039
But at the end of the day, as long as uh as idass.com as a platform can communicate with the APIs, we're in great shape.
00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:09.840
Okay.
00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:18.000
And do you have a standard list of APIs as part of Business Central that you add as part of this uh experience with the integrations?
00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:18.559
Yes.
00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:20.480
Um when someone goes to the implementation.
00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:34.399
Yes, and so the way that our platform is built, every integration that we have that's already built is in our marketplace and actually lists out all the supported data flows that are already available.
00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:40.879
Um we have an SDK for people that need to expand and um deal with uh with things that are more custom.
00:10:40.960 --> 00:10:51.279
In some cases for users, we'll just go and you know add support for an additional API endpoint here or there um and expand upon the integration that that's already available.
00:10:51.600 --> 00:11:24.080
But uh absolutely that uh, you know, and with a system like Business Central, you'll typically see a mix of, and obviously there are layers uh to these kinds of data as you deal with the relationships between um you know companies and customers and uh you know products and as it relates to inventory and prices, and um, you know, if we're thinking about you know orders as it relates to invoices and shipments and so on and so forth, that we'll have all those sorts of data flows ready to rock and roll.
00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:27.200
So you have you have templates ready for you for them then.
00:11:27.279 --> 00:11:38.080
So for people that want to integrate something really quickly, you they have a good standard um to stand on and then be able to easily add more data points.
00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:39.600
Exactly.
00:11:39.759 --> 00:11:43.600
So we'll for instance you'll have when you spin up those templates.
00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:58.480
So there's kind of the integration itself, which is handling the API communications and being that that translator on on that side to okay, what's the API and business central and where is that going in iPass.com.
00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:10.320
And then we've got mapping templates, and mapping we think of as okay, you know, this field needs to go to that field, and what might need to happen in between, what kind of translation or transformations?
00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:17.759
We're a a no-code to low code system, so sometimes it's just first name over here has to go to given name over there.
00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:34.480
Um, sometimes you need to do more things to split data apart, append data together, or do other things to work with the data and get it ready for whatever system it's trying to go into so that it's properly uh formatted and uh and it's going to be successful.
00:12:34.720 --> 00:12:44.000
But in that process, we've got for each integration templates of the common fields that we uh anticipate running into most often.
00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:51.679
And so if I'm thinking about product data, you can imagine fields like the product name, description, skew, price, inventory, sorts of things.
00:12:51.840 --> 00:13:06.320
But then somebody that's selling, let's say, you know, cell phones, they might have fields of data about how many gigabytes is the phone, and um what carriers does it work with, and um you know what screen size, and so on and so on.
00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:08.480
They might have a hundred fields like that.
00:13:08.799 --> 00:13:17.360
We provide a uh node, a low-code way of mapping those fields and getting that that those additional pieces of data flowing.
00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:24.559
And so you're kind of getting something where we hope in most cases you're about 70% of the way there when you turn it on.
00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:26.720
Sometimes you're 100% of the way there.
00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:29.600
Um, but you know, you can build upon it.
00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:32.879
There's a inherent flexibility built in.
00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:36.799
So it's meant to be a springboard, but not to be a black box.
00:13:37.840 --> 00:13:38.639
No, I understand.
00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:44.960
So it's so you connect to the business central APIs, you have the ability to enhance those APIs.
00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:53.360
If you have a business central, a lot of implementations have extensions that add additional fields or even additional tables that they may need to use.
00:13:53.600 --> 00:14:00.320
So you have a mapping tool that allows you to integrate to the APIs that are visible within Business Central, so that kind of covers that.
00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:04.399
And then you talked about you have the mapping tool in data transformation.
00:14:04.799 --> 00:14:05.919
Where does that take place?
00:14:06.080 --> 00:14:08.320
Does that take place on Business Central side?
00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:11.759
Does that take place in the iPass.com platform?
00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:14.879
That takes place in the iPass.com platform.
00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:24.879
So you're able to log in, um, you're able to see all of this in in you know nice, neat uh user interfaces, and um, you're able to adjust.
00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:37.200
And so it makes it easier uh in that sense to think about what each system that you're integrating uh needs and and what data you're flowing to and from each system.
00:14:37.360 --> 00:15:45.200
And so if you can imagine flowing with business central, with e-commerce, point of sale, CRM, product information management systems, shipping and fulfillment systems like warehouse management, order management, 3PL, um, you know, dealing with all sorts of myriad types of software, HR systems like UKG or sales tax exemption certificate management with Avalera, or you know, that we we get into a lot of different types of integrations, but um in that way, by having that one one you know Grand Central Station where it's being managed, uh you're not dealing with all sorts of one-off connectors that you're trying to maintain independently and monitor independently and uh and you know really debug independently because I from my experience the hardest part of dealing with data integration over time isn't when things work properly, it's when data doesn't get where it's supposed to go, and that's where you know for us we're a cube-based system, data comes in, uh it processes.
00:15:45.360 --> 00:16:00.480
If there's any any issue with the data, we automatically retry on a schedule, it doesn't get lost, we notify you so that you've you know what's going on and give you a bit of a root cause analysis, and the same process is happening on the way out to each receiving system.
00:16:01.039 --> 00:16:16.480
And so, for instance, we might get an order coming down from an e-commerce website that needs to go to Business Central for accounting, to some kind of warehouse management system for fulfillment, uh, to a CRM so the sales team has visibility, etc.
00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:42.320
And maybe it's gonna go to two out of three systems successfully, but one of them, like there was that AWS outage a couple of weeks ago, and so maybe it's unavailable for a while, we'll keep automatically retrying until it's successful, or maybe there's an issue where one of the fields, there's just too many characters to go into whatever the receiving system is, um, and so two of them work fine, but one of them didn't.
00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:51.759
Now you know what's going on and you can see it, and it's not just a matter of, oh, that order didn't get fulfilled and waiting for a shopper to call saying, Where's my stuff?
00:16:51.919 --> 00:17:07.599
Um, the um, you know, the our system is purpose-built to really bring a lot more countability, um, visibility, and control to the whole process, and to minimize the the long-term uh you know expense of trying to maintain all of these.
00:17:07.839 --> 00:17:12.240
Our integrations to all these systems are maintained in our marketplace.
00:17:12.400 --> 00:17:42.559
So, you know, if let's say Shopify Big Commerce is changing uh their APIs, which we see from time to time, our users don't have to go and rewrite these connectors that we're doing it and there's version control, they can just switch to something new and go to version 1.8 of that integration, uh, and not have to take on that burden of things breaking or um or or having to spend all that money in what I'd consider RD reinventing the wheel.
00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:48.480
So this is more of a central hub for managing the data integrations.
00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:54.480
And you'd mentioned that you can work with multiple sources simultaneously in a bi-directional manner.
00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:55.200
Yes.
00:17:55.519 --> 00:18:10.319
And you also pointed out that you track the data flow to because again, if you have uh product data going from one system to uh many disparate systems, and if you have an error with one, uh you'll retry and do that.
00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:20.960
With the data, is is it a pass-through for the data through this service that you have, or is there any data residing in the iPass.com uh platform?
00:18:21.359 --> 00:18:23.119
So we are an actual data hub.
00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:31.279
And in that way, you as for instance, there are gonna be communications happening in an order fulfillment situation.
00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:38.400
It's a great example where an order is gonna maybe come into business central from a sales channel to be fulfilled.
00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:43.279
Um, but then as items are fulfilled, maybe there's a split shipment, right?
00:18:43.359 --> 00:18:46.079
There's gonna be a partial shipment happening.
00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:57.440
We need to keep updating, and so it keeps keeps that together as sort of um an amalgamated source of truth, and so you can keep dealing with the updates that way.
00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:03.759
Um, and it's really what powers a lot of the the one to many and gives a lot more intelligence to the whole process.
00:19:03.920 --> 00:19:14.559
So as opposed to just point-to-point connectors and getting data from A to B, we are really thinking about um the life cycle of the data.
00:19:14.640 --> 00:19:49.440
And so uh and there are times when data is kind of you know splicing together from multiple systems, and so for instance, we might have an organization that has a big product catalog that sells in multiple regions and different languages, perhaps, or under different brands, and they are going to use a product information management system like PIMCOR or a Kenio to manage their product data as it relates to how to categorize the data and all the attributes and tags and additional information, you know, images in a digital asset management system.
00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:55.839
And so the source of truth of the inventory and pricing might always be business central.
00:19:56.160 --> 00:20:11.920
That that's not necessarily gonna happen in in a PIM like a Kenio or PIMCore, uh but in iPass.com there's one record for that product, and we're st you're getting all of the information about that product coming together in one system.
00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:35.119
Um so at that point it's stitched together and ready uh to go wherever it needs to go, as opposed to thinking about having to get you know different fields coming together separately, and then for instance, you know, how do you even build a product into some systems if it doesn't have pricing or inventory, or if it doesn't have some of these other fields, we give that natural place to bring it all together.
00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:38.160
That's that's excellent.
00:20:38.240 --> 00:21:02.640
I I do have a question, uh kind of uh not so much of a left field, but from the world of consulting and implementing Business Central, uh with your tool being an integration tool, have have others used it, not just moving, you know, integrating data, you know, having data uh applications talk to but uh talk to each other, but more of so like moving or migrating data.
00:21:02.720 --> 00:21:16.319
Um so for example, if someone's coming from a nav system that wants to upgrade a business central, could have you had people use it to do a data migration uh uh on top of the other things that they're gonna integrate anyway.
00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:18.799
So yes and no.
00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:35.440
Um we have features as a data hub to uh manually sync pieces of data, to reactivate data, do more of a bigger catch-up on getting data into a system, um, to look for unmatched data between systems.
00:21:35.680 --> 00:22:01.039
You can use us to see data into a system what it's going to come down to is uh you know, if if I'm thinking about going from let's say NAV to business central, are are we set up to move ever all of the types of data that are needed for that user um wholesale and move them kind of you know bi-directionally?
00:22:01.200 --> 00:22:14.480
Uh or would you need to set up certain things because we'll normally think of uh of the ERP as the source of truth of certain data, and so maybe the you know the source of it, but not the destination, for instance.
00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:22.240
Um and so there are cases where some data, like moving customer records from one to the other, yeah, pretty straightforward.
00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:36.000
Um, you know, trying to move certain data, like maybe, you know, certain ty I don't know, I'll make it up here, you know, certain types of purchase orders or something, you know, we might be set up for more of a one-directional and there would be effort to be able to bridge that gap.
00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:58.559
I'd also say that, you know, while our goal is to be, you know, a quick implementation, our bigger focus is the total cost of ownership, is the ability to turn on new spokes to the hub, to minimize the maintenance, to minimize the fires that need to put out with old, you know, reactive kind of situations with connectors that were strung together.
00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:02.000
And so there's still implementation work.
00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:13.279
And if you're not going to continue to use the product, if you were just using it as a migration product, you might be better off just you know formatting the data more manually, moving it more manually.
00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:21.759
So we do like consult on opportunities like that and look at are we the best solution to help with that portion of a project?
00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:25.039
And with a migration, could be yes, could be no.
00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:38.319
Yeah, no, I it I I thought about that because um you know, certainly in in many cases, someone that moves to business central, there's more likely a high chance that they're going to be integrating to other uh solutions.
00:23:38.640 --> 00:23:47.920
So if if someone was to invest in moving from nav to business central, and at the same time they have e-commerce that they want to integrate, it would make sense.
00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:53.920
You know, they can still I mean they could utilize the the product itself to get some of the some of the heavy lifting.
00:23:54.079 --> 00:24:16.240
Because that's always the challenge for implementation is like how do you move the data from one ERP system to another, and at the same time having that consistency of uh uh perhaps they want to get e-commerce, CRM, and all the other uh integrations they want to do, um, they can still certainly benefit from utilizing iPass in that in that sense.
00:24:16.400 --> 00:24:18.640
So and I'll take it a step further.
00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:35.759
So if you're thinking about turning on a new e-commerce website with you know as an organization using let's say business central or moving to business central, you know, often you've got to think about well, how is your product data gonna get into the e-commerce site?
00:24:35.920 --> 00:24:40.000
Um, because the source of truth, and typically that's going to be us.
00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:55.039
And that's important to us because back to stitching things together, that brings more accountability so that we know when an order is coming back from the e-commerce site, it's gonna match perfectly with whatever SKU is in Business Central.
00:24:55.200 --> 00:25:09.839
That we're not worried about you know, somebody manually is adding these items into the e-commerce website, and now there are gonna be mismatches, and orders are gonna be failing to flow successfully to the ERP for fulfillment and accounting.
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:32.480
And so we do see situations where just naturally, um even if it wasn't part of somebody's initial project plan, as they start to scope out how the integrations are gonna happen, they're gonna realize that some of that data is gonna come through us as a best practice, yeah, and they shouldn't do it manually or through some external process.
00:25:33.039 --> 00:25:51.440
Yeah, I just think it about from uh uh investment perspective, or if you're moving it to you're moving your data to business central and you have a PIM solution that you have to populate that, you're you're you're doing it in kind of one process rather than doing business central, and then you gotta figure out from business central to your PIM solution.
00:25:51.599 --> 00:26:01.920
In this case, you can do it to, hey, I'm gonna populate these things anyway, coming from a source, might as well do it uh in in one process.
00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:21.200
Yeah, and that's what we like to see is people thinking more about their entire data ecosystem and thinking about the long term, and not so much just trying to think about you know, reactively how to put a band-aid on it, how to how do they minimally get these things talking?
00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:46.240
Um, and that's where we see different outcomes that just become possible that uh by unifying these sorts of systems that, for instance, you know, for retailers dealing with point of sale, um, that they'll often today they'll have e-commerce and their e-commerce will be hooked up to their marketing stack, and their marketing stack will know all all of the shoppers' online history, but it won't know what they bought in store when.
00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:55.519
And so you'll see brands that are emailing people or sending text messages, hey, you haven't, you know, come to this, you know, to the store in a while, we haven't, you know, seen you in a while.
00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:56.240
Here's a coupon.
00:26:56.400 --> 00:27:00.720
It's like I they were at a brick and mortar store yesterday making a purchase.
00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:15.599
And you just see these silos that um you know that don't have to be broken down on day one, but being able to turn on another spoke to the hub and just get that data flowing now to the marketing stack, you know, that becomes powerful.
00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:48.720
Or I mentioned Avalera earlier, not I wouldn't say it's one of our most common integrations, but if you can imagine um the people that are often talking to customers about um there's you know their orders and sales tax exemption certificates if you're dealing with you know wholesale or non-profit or government or what have you, you know, that they're not usually the people that are in the Avalera account and that can see, or that are necessarily in the R ERP and can see if there's an exemption certificate on file when it might be expiring.
00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:59.200
We can expose that data to the CRM where the sales and account management teams have access, where the people that are sitting in the call center can say, oh yeah, you know, that's expired.
00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:01.440
Oh, yeah, nope, we have that on file already.
00:28:01.599 --> 00:28:10.799
And so it's just some of those things that cut down on a lot of that internal, you know, transferring and back and forth and delay.
00:28:13.200 --> 00:28:17.279
That's I just want to rewind a few to something that you had started talking about.
00:28:17.359 --> 00:28:25.359
Is so it's a central hub for data, and you can connect disparate systems so you can have pieces of information from many sources.
00:28:25.599 --> 00:28:43.119
So if you have item information, business central has certain item fields, uh, excuse me, characteristics of fields, whatever you like to call them, on an item that may or may not be uh relevant for an e-commerce site, or they may not have a place for an e-commerce site, an e-commerce site may have some information, a PIM may have additional information.
00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:53.119
So you can bring all of that together and then distribute the relevant information to the systems with the information that they need only, correct?
00:28:53.440 --> 00:29:04.400
Now another thing thinking about this, with it being a data hub, uh and I've had my fair share of integrations, I can assure you, uh, probably more than you know you can't remember at some points.
00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:14.880
And it's almost because here in 2025, uh everybody wants systems that talk with each other, and it's becoming easier and easier as technology advances and has been over the past several years.
00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:19.039
Can you also filter the data that goes to each system?
00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:27.839
For example, I could have a Shopify store one that has is just specifically for my wholesalers, a Shopify store two that's just for uh retailers.
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:34.160
My product may be different uh because of the nature of the business or the nature of who I'm selling it to.
00:29:34.319 --> 00:29:40.000
And there may be different pricing or there may be different uh pieces of information that have to go to the different sources.
00:29:40.160 --> 00:29:50.480
So can you route it based upon some sort of filtering mechanism or security mechanism to uh keep the data from flowing into systems that shouldn't?
00:29:51.119 --> 00:30:08.160
Not only can you uh can you set rules to decide which systems are going to receive that data, you can also use Use uh our rules engine to decide which data is going to go through which transformations and translations.
00:30:08.319 --> 00:30:26.640
And so let's say in your the situation that you lined out in your example where different storefronts, um, it might be that um when you're dealing with different sales channels, some might be B2B and some might be B2C, and that data may need to be treated a little bit differently.
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:33.599
So not only about where to publish it or where to send it, but how does it need to transform and translate in route?
00:30:35.839 --> 00:30:36.559
That's great.
00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:47.519
And as far as the the storage is concerned, it when I hear of data hubs, I'm used to business central, everyone talks about business central and the and the data storage and the data space.
00:30:47.680 --> 00:30:52.799
Um how is the space allotted for this platform for a customer?
00:30:53.680 --> 00:31:03.599
So we're providing um as a SaaS platform uh individual accounts for users that and our pricing's up on our website.
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:07.519
We're you know proud to have transparency around it.
00:31:07.680 --> 00:31:12.240
Uh where we're charging based upon the number of pieces of software.
00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:15.119
Yeah, it's it's rare in the integration space.
00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:23.759
A lot of places, you know, you you've got to have uh three PhDs and consult your you know your crystal ball to figure it out.
00:31:23.920 --> 00:31:27.039
Um I won't even go down that road of fine your life.
00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:28.960
Like you said, it's uh I swear.
00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:42.640
Yeah, I swear, as much as I love Business Central and the whole Microsoft platform and all that, I swear you could have two full-time people that understand that work just strictly with Microsoft licensing and they wouldn't understand it if that even was their job 24 hours a day.
00:31:42.799 --> 00:31:45.200
So I do as Chris had stated, I do like the transfer.
00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:46.960
And easy to understand.
00:31:47.200 --> 00:31:48.799
So yeah, yeah.
00:31:49.039 --> 00:31:53.440
So it ours is based upon the number of pieces of software that you're integrating.
00:31:53.599 --> 00:31:58.319
And so basically we're counting those, if you want to think about it, like API connections.
00:31:58.480 --> 00:32:04.000
So if you have one instance of Business Central, that's one integration.
00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:11.279
If you've got one instance of Magento or Adobe Commerce or Big Commerce or Shopware, whatever e-comm, that's that's another.
00:32:11.440 --> 00:32:17.599
But to us, now those e-commerce platforms, you might have six storefronts running out of it, right?
00:32:17.680 --> 00:32:22.480
You know, that we're not counting how many brands you're operating or such.
00:32:22.559 --> 00:32:25.759
We're just thinking about how many instances of the software.
00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:34.720
Um, and so our our initial plan starts at a flat$500 a month, and that includes unlimited data throughput.
00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:54.720
So we're not nickel and diming for the API calls, the bandwidth, the storage, the number of admin users that you want, you know, to have access to the iPass.com account, to the number of data flows between the systems that you know you want to start flowing a variety of different data, no problem.
00:32:55.200 --> 00:33:14.880
Um, we're simply looking at the the number of integrations, and then there are a few add-ons that you can tack on if you want a sandbox account um because you want to hook that up to a dev or staging environment, you can get that, you know, at a a rate and such, and all that information, like I say, is published and and readily available.
00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:18.240
Um so we find that that's really advantageous.
