What was said
What this says
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Onboarding call on 27 Jan 2026 with Stijn Gielen alone. Order status and shipper nulls were settled, the order connector starts next, and the finance system is to follow with Karin looped in. Lieke Hermans was not on the call.
What happened: Stijn Gielen raised mapping questions on the order status field and null shipper names. Hamza Akhtar agreed to cast status as text with a lookup table and to quantify the nulls in his report.
Customer view: Stijn is cooperative and hands-on, and has credentials and connection tests done for the order system. He called finance usually the messiest source.
Commercial: No price, renewal or rival comment. The call is delivery progress, with a business-side test of the brain by Stijn and Karin as the next validation step.
Watch: Karin, the finance manager, has not yet been engaged. Lieke was absent, so the training schedule approval and any shipper data quality question for her team are still open.
Themes
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026Who was there
BG-Demo
Them
Follow-up
Next steps
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Hamza Akhtar sends Stijn Gielen the test brain link the day after the call.
- Hamza Akhtar sends the data quality report and connector status to Stijn on Friday.
- Stijn Gielen loops Karin in when the finance connector work begins.
Risks
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- The finance system connector may be fiddly, and the finance manager has not yet been involved.
- Hundreds of null shipper values would become a data quality task for the customer's own team.
Opportunities
As at Fri 9 Oct 2026- Having Stijn Gielen and Karin test the brain with real questions can build early trust in the answers.
Transcript
- Hamza AkhtarAfternoon, Stijn. How are you getting on with your end?
- Stijn GielenGood, good. I've been looking at the data you pulled. A few questions on the mappings.
- Hamza AkhtarGo on.
- Stijn GielenThe order status field, it's coming through as a number but it should be text. How do we handle that?
- Hamza AkhtarGood catch. I'll cast it as text on my side when I ingest it. What's the mapping? One is pending, two is shipped, that sort of thing?
- Stijn GielenYeah. One is new, two is confirmed, three is packed, four is shipped, five is delivered. Six is on hold, seven is cancelled.
- Hamza AkhtarPerfect. I'll set up a lookup table so when someone queries the brain it shows them the text, not the number. Much more readable. Any other fields?
- Stijn GielenThe shipper name field has some nulls, some orders don't have a shipper assigned yet. Is that a problem?
- Hamza AkhtarNot a problem, but it's something to flag to Lieke's team, once an order is live, it should have a shipper. If there are hundreds of nulls, that's a data quality question for you lot to address. I'll quantify it in my report.
- Hamza AkhtarHow's the order system access coming along? Any issues from IT?
- Stijn GielenNo problems. I've got credentials set up and I've tested the connection. Data's pulling fine.
- Hamza AkhtarGreat. So I'm going to kick off that connector tomorrow and start the same validation for orders. Once I'm happy with both WMS and orders, I'll move to the finance system. That one can be fiddly sometimes.
- Stijn GielenWhy finance? Usually that's the messiest.
- Hamza AkhtarInvoice records, coding inconsistencies, things like that. But I've done this before and I've got a pattern. We'll get there. You've got a finance person we should involve?
- Stijn GielenKarin's the finance manager. I can loop her in when you get there.
- Hamza AkhtarDo that. I'll send her an email with what I need: data dictionary for the invoice system, export examples, stuff like that. Nothing too involved.
- Hamza AkhtarSo timeline, we're about three weeks out now. I'm on track to have all three connectors validated by the end of next week. Then the following week I'm doing a full end-to-end test, I'll ask the brain some sample questions and you'll check the answers make sense.
- Stijn GielenWhat sort of questions?
- Hamza AkhtarThings like, show me all orders for shipper X that are over a month old and not yet delivered. Or, what's the total invoice value from shipper Y in the last quarter? Stuff your team will actually ask.
- Stijn GielenRight. And then training starts?
- Hamza AkhtarTwo weeks after that. I'll prepare a draft schedule and send it to you and Lieke for approval, we need to fit around your warehouse schedules.
- Hamza AkhtarFor now, I want you and Karin both playing with the test brain once I've got the data in. Ask some questions, tell me if the answers feel right. That's the best validation I get.
- Stijn GielenHappy to. Send me a link and I'll have a dig.
- Hamza AkhtarWill do, tomorrow. Right, I'm going to keep building. I'll update you Friday with the data quality report and the connector status. Cheers, Stijn.
- Stijn GielenThanks, Hamza.