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We sit down with Michel Meeuwse, Chief Data & Strategic Projects at Omniboost, to unveil the secrets of the data services team. Discover how Omniboost's data team transforms raw data into actionable insights and enhances customer experiences with their innovative projects. Michel shares insights into the team's approach, from data flexibility and unification to recent projects like the Strawberry project and the Sweep Action integration.
Join us as we explore the importance of good data practices, tackle data integration challenges, and discuss the role of AI and automation in shaping the future of data services. Michel highlights the collaborative nature of their work, emphasising how learning from colleagues and customers drives Omniboost’s success. Don’t miss this deep dive into how Omniboost is revolutionising data services in the hospitality industry!
Audio Timestamps
[00:04:19] Data flexibility and unification.
[00:09:16] Sweep action integration.
[00:12:10] Data integration challenges and solutions.
[00:15:28] Data Ownership and Trust.
[00:18:38] AI, ML, automation opportunities.
[00:21:15] Customer-focused solutions for growth.
Quotes
00:02:17 - "Probably our best kept secret, but it's no longer a secret anymore, is it?"
00:05:24-00:05:35 - "This is where I love, you know, we talk about data unification, but we also talk about data flexibility."
00:09:46-00:09:56 - "to serve, as you know. And we also try not to say no, it's not possible upfront, but let's dig in. And what can we do for you? What can we accomplish together?"
00:13:47-00:13:58 - "It's so cool. I mean, when you put people in a room and just think of ideas, you don't limit yourself."
00:17:46-00:17:57 - "When you think about accounting, traditional accounting, you have to wait for the month end and they close out and they get that report."
00:21:29-00:21:39 - "Yeah. You know, you can automate accounting and there's a lot of things we could do, but there still has to be a checks and balances."
Connect
Omniboost: https://omniboost.io/
Michel Meeuwse: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelmeeuwse/
Rob Napoli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robnap/
Rob Napoli: https://www.robnapoli.com/
Show Produced by: Niranjan Deshpande (Nick), Broken Frames Studio, www.brokenframesstudio.com
Episode 24: What does Data Unifcation really mean in Hospitality? w/ Kyle McCaig from MCR: https://youtu.be/pKs_A6NmU4M?si=8mbSrJk0zS3koAmM
Episode 3: How Does Technology Help Ensure Customer Experience w/ Strawberry VP of Technology: https://youtu.be/XvF92YZq8yk?si=hH39xV7qgN2NJ89X
Creators & Guests
What is Hospitable?
Hospitable is a podcast that discusses how to make hospitality MORE human through technology.
Hospitable focuses on discussing the leading challenges facing the hospitality industry and to explore the latest trends, technologies, and best practices that are shaping the industry. Each episode features interviews with hoteliers, restaurateurs, chefs, industry analysts, and other experts who share their insights and experiences on topics such as customer experience, sustainability, innovation, staffing, and more.
Hosted by Rob Napoli
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:02:21
Rob Napoli
What is the core knowledge of the data services team?
00:00:03:01 - 00:00:08:16
Michel Meeuwse
It's like a broad range of services. I think about management analysis and the utilization of data.
00:00:08:18 - 00:00:11:07
Rob Napoli
What are we actually doing and how do we start from the ground up?
00:00:11:09 - 00:00:26:11
Michel Meeuwse
Depending on the customer what they have in-house themselves or we can provide. There are different scenarios possible, but I think it comes down to being eager to learn, from each other, but also from customers. What can we do for you? What can we accomplish together?
00:00:26:17 - 00:00:28:21
Rob Napoli
How does the team go about, like checking out that work.
00:00:28:21 - 00:00:32:07
Michel Meeuwse
Step by step take it chunks and then move, steps ahead.
00:00:32:12 - 00:00:42:16
Rob Napoli
Data is good, right? And you got to think good data in equals good data out. Our ability to be flexible and unified, that data offers the ability to create really good data sets.
00:00:42:18 - 00:00:51:01
Michel Meeuwse
Data is not, the same as information. And what we do for customers is make all the data into comprehensive sets of information.
00:00:51:06 - 00:01:04:18
Rob Napoli
Our data services team is probably our best kept secret, but it's no longer secret anymore. Is it?
00:01:04:20 - 00:01:27:13
Rob Napoli
All right. We are back on another episode of hospitable. I'm your host, Rob Napoli, and I'm in the beautiful city of Terneuzen today at Omniboost HQ. And while I'm here for a couple of different meetings and things, I wanted to sit down with our chief data science officer, leading all of our data services teams, working out some really cool project.
00:01:27:13 - 00:01:41:19
Rob Napoli
Michel Meeuwse. So, Michel, I know that we've been talking about doing this for a long time, and every time we've been together, it's like ships passing the night. So finally excited to sit down to chat with you. So appreciate you taking the time to do the show.
00:01:41:21 - 00:01:53:22
Michel Meeuwse
Okay. Thank you. I'm, glad to be on the podcast. looking forward to it. And like I said, we're doing a lot of interesting projects and never really took the time to have this podcast, I think is a good time to do this.
00:01:53:22 - 00:02:17:09
Rob Napoli
Absolutely. Because we've talked about it in press releases. We've got whitepapers and case studies. We've done customer interviews. You know, we had you on the podcast in New York for a short little bit when we did our little New York City podcast, at Citizen M, but I think it's more important because the team that you have, the our data services team, is probably our best kept secret but it's no longer secret anymore, is it?
00:02:17:12 - 00:02:31:04
Michel Meeuwse
No, no, no, we want to don't, want to keep this as a secret. I think it's time for us to really step up and let the public know that we are, Yeah, doing what we are doing. And we're proud of the things that we have done in the past, and also what we are going to do in the future.
00:02:31:08 - 00:02:47:07
Rob Napoli
Yeah. And also, we're currently doing we got some really cool things which we'll get to not to say too much now, but through some of the stuff that the his team has been working on, we actually created a new integrations out that we're really excited to talk about, which is what kind of was like, Holy shit, man, we got to get we got to get this out there.
00:02:47:09 - 00:03:05:20
Rob Napoli
And you know, from my side, on the commercial side, we've done a lot of work and talking about who Omniboost is, what is our equity story. And a lot of people maybe just this is integration partner, but we are a data unification platform, right. So and I work into that and what that means. And I think that the stuff that you're working on is very important.
00:03:05:20 - 00:03:14:16
Rob Napoli
But I think it's important to maybe kind of take a step back. So what does our data services team offer? What are you all doing? Like what is kind of the core knowledge of the data services team?
00:03:14:19 - 00:03:38:08
Michel Meeuwse
Yeah. Like you said, Omniboost is known for like, integrations and what we're doing, we are great at that. But data services go next step. it's like a broad, range of services. you think about management analysis and the utilization of data, those kinds of topics. our data services team is involved in all the steps, activities there.
00:03:38:10 - 00:03:51:18
Michel Meeuwse
in a data range available, like collecting, storing, processing, and extracting all those different data, information that is available there. Because there's a lot of information, but of data. But it's not yet information.
00:03:51:18 - 00:04:10:12
Rob Napoli
Yes. And for those that haven't listened to I did it, an interview with Kyle McCaig. We talked about heavily about data unification and Michel's team, the reason why Michel and I sat down in New York for a quick, hot minute, was that we were in New York working with Kyle McCaig and his team over at MCR on a large scale data unification process.
00:04:10:14 - 00:04:27:00
Rob Napoli
And we did a whole episode. So if you want to learn more about the deep technical side of data unification and data flexibility, go check out Kyle McCaig episode. So when we talk about data unification and we talk about the data services, there's all these different things. But what do we actually like what is the core base starting of the data services team?
00:04:27:00 - 00:04:32:18
Rob Napoli
You know, you throw out data like a data warehouse. Like what are we actually doing and how do we start from the ground up?
00:04:32:18 - 00:04:41:00
Michel Meeuwse
Okay. From the ground up, like you said, we are data unification and we try to unify data across different sources into one target system.
00:04:41:02 - 00:04:44:20
Rob Napoli
So for example, like 15 different PMS to a single accounting platform.
00:04:44:20 - 00:05:16:06
Michel Meeuwse
Yes. We can start really simple like with one targets of one source system into one, target system. But like you said, multiple source systems, we do the unification and put it into one data warehouse. That's also, what we do, and we use defined steps that are really, you know, recognized in the, in the industry, like the bronze, silver, gold steps, where we fetch raw data from different systems, we do a clean up and, aggregation in the gold layer, as you call it, and then we'll.
00:05:16:08 - 00:05:24:09
Michel Meeuwse
Yeah, depending on the customer what they have in-house, themselves or we can provide there are different scenarios possible.
00:05:24:10 - 00:05:42:00
Rob Napoli
This is where I love you know, we talk about data unification. We also talk about data flexibility. What makes Omniboost different, in my opinion, is that we don't have an it's not just out of the box. We have the bronze, silver and gold layer using I am not mistaking AWS. Correct. Yeah. So we're leveraging everything out of out of AWS, which we think is, I mean, one, AWS is strong.
00:05:42:00 - 00:05:56:19
Rob Napoli
And so being able to leverage out of that is we can aggregate data. We can, enhance data, we can do raw data. It's not just step one, step two, step three. We offer flexibility in what data you want to pull and what you're looking for. Correct.
00:05:57:01 - 00:06:18:10
Michel Meeuwse
Yeah. It's still one product. It's one service line. But the outcome and the set up can be different depending on the situation. like for instance, we have once source system will do the data lake ourselves, but the customer can have their own data lake or we provide a data warehouse also for them, or they have their own people who do that.
00:06:18:10 - 00:06:22:04
Michel Meeuwse
So like, for instance, to have their own, people with their own data warehouse.
00:06:22:08 - 00:06:26:18
Rob Napoli
So it could be like data lake to data lake, data lake to data warehouse. Yeah.
00:06:26:20 - 00:06:30:08
Michel Meeuwse
Data house or outsourced. Yeah. Okay.
00:06:30:10 - 00:06:30:20
Rob Napoli
I love that.
00:06:31:01 - 00:06:31:20
Michel Meeuwse
Yeah.
00:06:31:22 - 00:06:49:20
Rob Napoli
I'm learning something new today. so when I think about these different steps that we're building and, this is, coming out to be a full on product line, we've had two major projects, one that we just kind of finished up and rolled out. Was it 280.
00:06:49:22 - 00:06:51:03
Michel Meeuwse
More in 230.
00:06:51:20 - 00:07:07:10
Rob Napoli
230 properties. Talk me through that a little bit. That's the strawberry project. There's a press release that I'll link in the show notes if you didn't know about it. and also there's an episode with VP of technology, Strawberry Kari Ann which is great. I'll link that in the show notes as well, so you can go back and kind of
00:07:07:12 - 00:07:16:00
Rob Napoli
fill up something there but high level. What was that project like for you and how did the team go about chopping wood on it?
00:07:16:02 - 00:07:44:23
Michel Meeuwse
Like my first real big project for Omniboost and, working with, the people from Strawberry was amazing in a way that they have really ambitious goals from day one, and we together believed in what we can accomplish together. And we made it work over the two years. So we just, went to Oslo to finish up the project, and we're now going to a phase that we're going to, enhance all the things we've done already.
00:07:45:01 - 00:08:00:05
Michel Meeuwse
But, what we did in the last two years is like, amazing. Them all the volume they have also the requirements from the business perspective. And we are able to solve them along the way. improve them with other vendors, but also with a Strawberry staff it was amazing.
00:08:00:07 - 00:08:24:18
Rob Napoli
So we're helping them create a connectivity layer, a unification layer, so to speak. We're also enhancing data. And then we're actually going to that phase. We're going to enhance further their processes, their integrations, their data unification and potentially more data leverage through other source systems they brought into their ecosystem. Yeah. And feature in the the way it set up feature wise.
00:08:24:18 - 00:08:29:20
Rob Napoli
If they wanted to add, say, another 20 systems, that's easy for us right.
00:08:29:22 - 00:08:30:04
Michel Meeuwse
Yeah.
00:08:30:06 - 00:08:30:19
Rob Napoli
Yeah.
00:08:30:21 - 00:08:51:02
Michel Meeuwse
Not that easy but gives them the flexibility because they have like their own systems. But also, every chain has this franchise's model. Yeah. And we also accommodate all those franchises, but all the different systems. So, one PMS system flows all into a lot of different accounting systems and we can all support it
00:08:51:02 - 00:09:06:00
Rob Napoli
It's amazing. I think that's really unique too, because some solutions out there box it in and we don't have a box. We allow for flexibility, which I think is really cool. And that strawberry project was huge. And so how big is the data services team right now.
00:09:06:02 - 00:09:07:08
Michel Meeuwse
With, five people.
00:09:07:08 - 00:09:11:08
Rob Napoli
Five people. And when we started strawberry, how many do we have?
00:09:11:10 - 00:09:12:09
Michel Meeuwse
Only 2
00:09:12:09 - 00:09:35:15
Rob Napoli
Wow. Yeah. Crazy to think that we started a project with two and how fast that's growing. And the fact that you like it in Omniboost we have a lean team. We're. So we're growing double in size. We're adding another 25, I think, for end of year. The fact that we can do so much lean. Why do you think that is like from your team's perspective, why is our team able to be lean but also be super efficient?
00:09:35:17 - 00:09:57:01
Michel Meeuwse
I think it comes down to being eager to learn, from each other, but also from customers. And, it's our coordinated the willingness to serve as you know, and we also try, not to say, no, not possible upfront, but let's, dig in. And what, can we do for you? What can we accomplish together?
00:09:57:07 - 00:10:14:13
Rob Napoli
I love that I think it's that collaborative approach that we really work with our partners, that open up a lot of doors and through that project, we also created something special. So let's talk about it. What do you call it?
00:10:14:15 - 00:10:16:21
Michel Meeuwse
Sweep action
00:10:16:22 - 00:10:21:00
Rob Napoli
I remember you been like this. So talk about talk to me about what is the sweep action in integration and how do we leverage that?
00:10:21:02 - 00:10:46:06
Michel Meeuwse
Like I said, they have specific requirements. Business requirements. They want their, reporting available next day, every day by 8:00, something like that. but that gives off some challenges. they'll fetch data from, 3:00 at night till the next day. we have a, window of, like, one and half hour to fit the data into their own data warehouse.
00:10:46:08 - 00:11:22:12
Michel Meeuwse
But during the course of the project, we noticed. And also strawberry notice that, the data in the source systems was changing, or they were adding stuff and we try to get that analysis on why is would happen. And we came to the conclusion we cannot, prevent that. the data is changed in a way, but still they want to have the data the next day, and they want 100% complete for accounting purposes, accounting purposes, you need to 100%.
00:11:22:12 - 00:11:48:01
Michel Meeuwse
Correct. So what we came up with is we didn't delay their, the reporting because that's like a requirement. What we now, implemented together with them is that we do the same integration later today again. And we will store the first one, we will store the second one. Then we compare those. And if there's any changes, some other source system or
00:11:48:03 - 00:11:49:00
Rob Napoli
An adjustment or.
00:11:49:00 - 00:12:00:08
Michel Meeuwse
Adjustment is made in the system, we'll notice that, we'll make additional journal entries to post them the same day. So in 24 hours the system is watertight.
00:12:00:10 - 00:12:08:00
Rob Napoli
That is amazing. And I think this is so cool because the sweep action is something we can leverage in other projects. and it's unique.
00:12:08:01 - 00:12:10:04
Michel Meeuwse
Yeah.
00:12:10:06 - 00:12:17:10
Rob Napoli
When we are looking at that solution. Right. It's the collaboration approach. never saying no, figuring out how to do this. What was.
00:12:17:16 - 00:12:32:18
Michel Meeuwse
The first initial response was, oh, we have to delay the reporting. Yeah. But that that's I said, that's not an option. Yeah. One 8:00 every day. Yeah. So we came up with that, set up that we. Yeah. we'll have the same result but still have the option of accounting. Yeah.
00:12:32:18 - 00:12:50:14
Rob Napoli
So but I want to walk you through is, is when you're going through that idea ideation and you the team was kind of problem solving this like walk me through that problem solving mentality because we talk about coordinate growth mindset. We're always wanting to learn, willingness to serve. Right. And those are two core things. And accountability extreme ownership.
00:12:50:15 - 00:13:03:13
Rob Napoli
Yeah. All three things came into play here. So what was that solution process with the team like how did you like what was like you sit down and chop it up. Like, what was that kind of walk me through your process of coming up with that solution.
00:13:03:15 - 00:13:25:04
Michel Meeuwse
Now, for this example, is that we came up with the analysis that, the numbers were, changing in the source system. was a given. And then we was thinking how we can make sure that the numbers will end up in the accounting system hundred percent correct in certain time. And somebody said maybe we can do just like a sweep.
00:13:25:06 - 00:13:46:14
Michel Meeuwse
Sweep? Yeah we just sweep everything that's changed into one, integration. But yeah, it's easier said than done. So you have to really make sure that you're doing the right steps because there's a lot of volume there. Like you said, a lot of hotels, we may have to make sure that we do the right, comparison between the right timing, and then do the adjustments.
00:13:46:15 - 00:14:10:01
Rob Napoli
Amazing. So cool. I mean, when you put people in a room and just think of ideas. So you don't limit yourself a sweep action. Yeah. Like. Yeah. Amazing. Right. And so that project was super successful. We've got this new sweep action that we can actually leverage with other projects currently working separately with Kyle McCaig and his team over at MCR to do a huge data unification process.
00:14:10:03 - 00:14:24:00
Rob Napoli
Walk me through that one a little bit, you know, because you got to come to New York and while you're in New York, you ran the Highline. You got to explore the city, your Central Park run. But, you know, you're there for business. So walk me through that a little bit. And what that means to the data services team and what y'all are working on.
00:14:24:05 - 00:14:47:14
Michel Meeuwse
Okay, I was my first time in New York, like you said. really enjoyed the time. and the challenge that you've got is that they have so many different, hotels systems. like for strawberry, they have like one source system and multiple, output systems. it's all, all the way around. So we have to, sook, find a way to, make that work.
00:14:47:14 - 00:14:56:12
Michel Meeuwse
Yeah. going step by step for each system, make it work, get it into their systems and get it robust and predictable.
00:14:56:14 - 00:15:05:02
Rob Napoli
That's amazing. And so with and we're also creating daily reporting for them as well. Right. So are we using the sweep action there or not yet?
00:15:05:05 - 00:15:06:12
Michel Meeuwse
Not yet.
00:15:06:14 - 00:15:24:02
Rob Napoli
So how are we when we go about this. So it's a little bit different with you know in terms of one our system to multiple. How does the team go about like chunking out that work. Like obviously not getting too much of the details. But when you think about a project that size and scale, how do you go about thinking about that in a way to make it, you know, taking it one bite at a time?
00:15:24:04 - 00:15:42:17
Michel Meeuwse
Now, first of all, what I try to do is make, a clear overview for all the stakeholders, external also internally, where we are and what we've done, in previous steps, document things and like you said, step by step, take a chunks and then move, steps ahead.
00:15:42:19 - 00:16:00:16
Rob Napoli
Of course. So the MCR projects, you know, well underway and doing a lot of cool stuff for them. And as we kind of continue to grow the data services team, we've grown it from 2 to 5, and doing a lot of things. So what are other, you know, use cases or what do we see kind of moving forward for the data services team.
00:16:00:16 - 00:16:10:07
Rob Napoli
What are the things that we really want to get more into looking and for to what innovation is coming out of, you know, you all you know, we get to work closely on certain things, but.
00:16:10:09 - 00:16:32:03
Michel Meeuwse
What is the in general is that there is a lot of, SARS systems still there, of, getting more there and moving from traditional systems to the online. And that's is a really, nice step for a lot of companies. The downside is that they don't have ownership of the data anymore. Yeah. And that's what we see.
00:16:32:08 - 00:16:52:03
Michel Meeuwse
People companies still want to have one. Yeah. Set of their own data. It's not just, they, don't trust their, vendors, but they want to have their own files to own information if they're going to switch or something else, they want to do their own comparisons on reporting. They want to have the full set of, information.
00:16:52:05 - 00:17:09:06
Rob Napoli
And that's really important because we have a lot of amazing partners they work with, and all our partners are great, and everyone has their a certain output, a certain storage and things like that. And it's great to have all that. But sometimes you need to take those data as those different data sets and piece it together with other things to get a full look or feel.
00:17:09:07 - 00:17:09:20
Michel Meeuwse
Yeah.
00:17:09:22 - 00:17:22:08
Rob Napoli
And that's what makes us unique. That's why we talk about data unification and data flexibility. We're able to pull and maneuver those things from the source system and we also you know, we do data lakes, data warehouse. We also have our own BI abilities to correct. And a lot of times they have their own power from.
00:17:22:08 - 00:17:45:10
Michel Meeuwse
From complex like the dashboards. But all the also really simple from a, daily, reporting in the mail PDF or embedded what the customer likes, with the budget and the historical, comparison of last year, month to date, year to date, very simple, very straightforward. But hotel management really likes those simple, reporting that really works on a daily basis.
00:17:45:10 - 00:17:54:20
Rob Napoli
Yeah. Because I think, you know, when you think about accounting, traditional accounting, you have to wait for the month end. They close out and they get that report, and it's usually about a week to two weeks later. So you're already halfway through the next month.
00:17:54:20 - 00:17:55:23
Michel Meeuwse
Yeah.
00:17:56:01 - 00:18:08:20
Rob Napoli
We're offering on a daily basis this the current numbers with the data today is the historical from last year and yearly, monthly and yearly. And we can kind of do that. And that's within 95% accuracy to what's going to happen because it looks right.
00:18:08:22 - 00:18:12:04
Michel Meeuwse
Yeah. Correct. But the revenue is there. Yeah.
00:18:12:06 - 00:18:37:21
Rob Napoli
And that's what I think is really cool that people don't always realize, like we have this amazing capability and this amazing team doing these things. And it's really important to highlight that. And I think something that I get super jazzed up about, especially talking with customers on our direct side, we're looking at hoteliers, hospitality groups you know, project management companies, being able to kind of explain this stuff and show them what they have access to is something that really resonates when we talk about data unification
00:18:37:21 - 00:18:56:11
Rob Napoli
That's a lot of work from your team. But also, you know, our integration team, our tech team, our onboarding, and support team. We're looking at all these different things. And like data is good, right. But there's a lot of data. And you got to think good data in equals good data out. And that all data is good data.
00:18:56:13 - 00:19:04:21
Rob Napoli
Our ability to be flexible and unify that data offers the ability to create really good data sets. I think that's really important.
00:19:04:23 - 00:19:31:12
Michel Meeuwse
Correct. like you say, this, data is not, the same as information. And what we do for customers is make all the data into comprehensive sets of information so that they can digest it or reprocess it, or they do it on their own is like the different scenarios are possible. But, really like the next step, with, combining information that's available in maybe 1 or 2 systems and they have their own information.
00:19:31:12 - 00:19:50:13
Rob Napoli
Yeah that's amazing. And you know, the new but the hot topic right now AI, ML, automation. What are you excited about with these trends? I know we're working on some things. What are you excited by these trends and what challenges do you foresee and what opportunities that open up in the data unification layer?
00:19:50:15 - 00:20:20:08
Michel Meeuwse
I think personally is really interesting is what is AI is going to bring to us. for our field of expertise, there is not a lot of room for like interpretation or guessing or 80/20 is also right, is has to be hundred percent correct. So like you said, we are exploring the opportunities, what AI can bring to us and maybe, speed up development or, the reporting, side of things.
00:20:20:10 - 00:20:32:22
Michel Meeuwse
But for core business, it just. Yeah. AI is not, where I see you in the coming years. for what we will, incorporate
00:20:33:00 - 00:20:46:22
Rob Napoli
And so I bring that up for the fact that I think, you know, what at Omniboost where, you know, we've got a lot of automation, and, we're planning around some AI things. We've got some things cooking in the lab, right. But I think it's always important to highlight it is a big of a topic of AI is.
00:20:46:23 - 00:21:03:14
Rob Napoli
And some of the stuff that can happen with AI. It's important that when you are looking at data sets, especially when it comes to accounting, there's not a lot of room for interpretation. And so everyone thinks AI is going to change the game and it is in different ways. But AI automation is not meant to replace. It's meant to enhance speed up.
00:21:03:15 - 00:21:15:19
Michel Meeuwse
Yeah. The guest experience, I think, on that topic, the guest experience on what customer, what you can expect the customer wants or as a suggestion, I think there was a lot of opportunities there. Yeah.
00:21:15:21 - 00:21:23:01
Rob Napoli
And that's why I think people have to really look at this holistically as of AI in this space can do a lot of things. But in certain areas.
00:21:23:04 - 00:21:28:17
Michel Meeuwse
In the back office you don't want to have like, oh, the day I did something of accounting. Yeah.
00:21:28:19 - 00:21:45:22
Rob Napoli
You could automate accounting and there's a lot of things we could do. Like there still has to be a checks and balances. And that's what I think is really important. We also did a podcast with, Jennifer Jones where we talked about, you know, where AI and automation can really help in the back office. But the fact of the matter is, is that you still need people to check it, because the data has to be.
00:21:46:00 - 00:21:46:15
Michel Meeuwse
100% correct
00:21:46:15 - 00:22:19:05
Rob Napoli
Exactly. Cool. When we think about the team? I know, you know, it's continuing to grow and we've got some projects coming in place that we only touched upon a couple of projects. There's dozen other projects that you and the team are working on. So we're really excited to see where that team continues to grow. I've got to get you back over to New York, because I know, always a fun thing, but any other things that you're really excited for as we look at the second half of 24 going into 25, that your teams working on anything that, really that just jazzes you up to, get up out of bed every morning.
00:22:19:07 - 00:22:39:01
Michel Meeuwse
What I'm looking forward to the, second half of this year is getting out with my team to, visit customers more with some more really, in-depth, sessions with customers. What we can help them with? because step one is we fetch the data for them, do the cleaning and etc., all the things that we, can do.
00:22:39:06 - 00:23:06:10
Michel Meeuwse
But then, can we do more for them? can we help them in their, daily, operation? Are they now doing manual stuff or whatever? simple thing is like we have, legionella reporting, that is very straightforward because that's like when a room is empty for x amount of days, house cleaning must do some extra check, before this can be rented out again.
00:23:06:18 - 00:23:22:23
Michel Meeuwse
Some, systems don't have that, in stock, by default. So we provide that information. So that's something that's also okay. That was, somebody else told it. Yeah. That would be nice if you had that. Okay. We can take a look at makes a great something like that.
00:23:23:01 - 00:23:34:21
Rob Napoli
I love that. I love the idea of getting out and talking to customers is, as you know, being on the commercial side at types. So I had I bring you into a lot of conversations, even if it's not relevant. Sometimes I bring in you and your team and just to listen and so you can hear that customer feedback.
00:23:34:21 - 00:23:52:15
Rob Napoli
So I'm excited to see the data team go on the road a little bit, talk with customers and really figure out where we provide other solutions. Because the sweep action thing. Yeah. Give us a challenge for I thought listening to this podcast, if you have a challenge on something that with your data unification that you would love to see, but you don't currently have a fix where, let us know.
00:23:52:15 - 00:24:06:21
Rob Napoli
Let us be creative. Like this is what we love to do, right? Yeah, I love that. I can't wait to see you out on the road. Hopefully back in New York soon. and especially with the team growing, getting you over there. I'm sure there's a few reasons to, get the team out, and,
00:24:06:23 - 00:24:08:18
Michel Meeuwse
I think we could think of some something.
00:24:08:18 - 00:24:22:13
Rob Napoli
And I know you've been out, you know, crossed Europe a lot, and you got some other trips already planned for going across Europe with some of our customers. So really excited about that. And, I appreciate you taking the time to talk through what the team is doing, kind of share with,
00:24:22:15 - 00:24:36:23
Michel Meeuwse
Thank you for having me, and for giving me the chance to talk about something that. Yeah, I've been the best kept secret for Omniboost the last years. But I think it's ready for audience to know that we are out there and we can do a lot of, amazing stuff beyond our integrations.
00:24:36:23 - 00:24:52:18
Michel Meeuwse
Absolutely so what I'm going to do is, also link your email and your LinkedIn. So if you would like to talk with Michel if you have questions, thoughts, challenges let me share myself. We'd love to have a conversation with you. We'd love to chat. You know, go ahead on of the challenges for you.
00:24:52:18 - 00:25:13:15
Rob Napoli
And I'm excited to, highlight one of our best kept secrets because it is something that we are so passionate about. It resonates with so many people. And, for those out there listening, if we can ever be of service, let us know. as always, be a tier one. Make sure you like subscribe rate review. If you want to be on the podcast, somebody you know should be on the podcast, let us know.
00:25:13:15 - 00:25:22:10
Rob Napoli
My email is in the links as well. And, keep us posted on, other things that you want to, discover with the Omniboost team.
00:25:22:12 - 00:25:24:03
Michel Meeuwse
Okay. Keep up the good work. Well.
00:25:24:05 - 00:25:27:16
Rob Napoli
Thank you. Until next time y'all stay well. Be hospitable.