Connecting Remote Work Sites and Digitizing Legacy Systems with Jamie Lyle

The conversation dives into the challenges and opportunities in digitizing industries with legacy systems, particularly focusing on the oil and gas sector. Jamie Lyle of Muddy Boots Online shares his journey from 20 years in field operations to his transition to facilitating data management. His journey highlights field experiences, the process of setting up and digitizing operations, dealing with regulatory requirements, and the benefits of transitioning to digital systems. Emphasis is placed on the importance of making solutions user-friendly for field operators, optimizing time management, and ensuring data interoperability. Jamie explains how feedback from clients continuously shapes how software companies are adapting to meet the evolving needs of the industry, and most importantly the operators on the ground that need to believe in the value of those tools.

0:00 Podcast - Connecting Remote Work Sites with Legacy Systems

00:26 Introduction to Digitization and Legacy Systems

00:40 Field Work and Operator Setup

02:36 Challenges in Data Management

04:05 Jamie's Journey in Oil and Gas

05:05 Implementing Digitization Solutions

09:08 Operate by Exception Explained

11:14 Streamlining Data and Reporting

25:57 Customer-Centric Software Development

35:09 Conclusion

Transcript

Ryan C: 0:26

today on what to expect when you're connecting, we're going to be, diving into this idea of that fear of missing out when it comes to digitization and industries that have legacy systems.

Jamie Lyle: 0:40

I had to go on Northern Alberta yesterday and go get some operators to set up. But, yeah, man, I was up in the middle of nowhere pouring rain, mud, taking me back to the old days of operating. And, it was about 40 kilometers. It took me an hour and a half to get through. Because of how bad the mud was. it was a long day.

Ryan C: 0:58

What do you drive in to get through all of that mud?

Jamie Lyle: 1:01

I just had my half ton, so I just used my pickup truck to get through there. And for the most part, they're pretty good. This is a radio controlled road. So you're going in there and you're calling in every kilometre to make sure that there's nobody else coming in the other way. Because that's the big scary thing, right? When you're running into some of these tankers or other trucks. but yeah, it's sketchy. You pull off to the side and then you're barely hanging on some of those roads. some of the operators up there, I saw one guy had a little Nissan Xterra, little all wheel drive that he was ripping around. a lot of guys believe lighter is better. You'll see Ford Rangers ripping around, those little Toyotas. all the way up to three quarter tons, so it's whatever their poison is.

Ryan C: 1:35

what does it mean to set up an operator, Jamie?

Jamie Lyle: 1:38

so what I was doing yesterday is they're trialing out the Muddy Boots, operations platform that I was telling you about, my software system there that I work with. for them, these guys wanted to get a handle on all the regulatory reporting. So they wanted to be able to streamline all of their tank inspections, pegging records, all of that different stuff, because, this is a very big producer and they've got fields all over Alberta and BC. So for them, that's one of their big challenges right now is just helping their operations. With all those day to day activities. So what we do in this case is a lot of times for a big company like this is we'll set up a pilot, a little trial for them to get in there and use our system. we're doing a full blown, trial with these guys. And so I went up there and I spent the day with the operations, got them set up in the system. We digitized all their sites and all their assets up there, streamlined a bunch of their reports and digitize them for them so that we can make them paperless. And Yesterday was the first day of us going through it, getting them in there, entering reports, and, they're going to spend the next month beating it up and seeing if it works for them.

Ryan C: 2:37

When it comes to digitization and industries that have legacy systems. And it's something that you're very familiar with. there's lots of people in the field or in a facility. And, each of these jobs that, you were, we're talking about are full of different dependencies. I need to know this in order to do that, either for regulatory purposes or for titrating levels on another part of a system, and then there's orphans data, lack of data trails and what I'm hearing. And whenever I go out in the field or talk to folks like yourself, Jamie, who are in the field, going through radio controlled roads out to these remote locations, people need to see this data quickly. But the systems that they're working with are piecemeal patch together. They're not always working either on the same system, or the system just doesn't extract the data and put it in a format that's usable to them. Maybe corporate HQ can make sense of it. After the fact, but seeing the live view right now, what's on the main what's on the main, the main screen of the starship, like we need to know what's happening right now, not an analyst's view. talk to me about, what it is that you have done and what you're doing now in this role of digitization, in specifically in this case, oil and gas.

Jamie Lyle: 4:04

Yeah, no, absolutely. really, my journey and career starts about 20 years ago. I'm an Alberta boy, born and raised here, in a small town called Sundry. Like a lot of Canadian boys, I thought I was going to make the NHL. That was my dream. When I hit, 1920, realization settled that wasn't the case. And so I found myself in the patch and out there working down the James River Road on a maintenance truck, which slowly led into me becoming a field operator. And I had the opportunity to spend, close to the next 10 years out in that area, working for a really big producer. Which was my education and my kickoff into the oil and gas and the field operating. like I said, spent 10 years out there, learning, the different procedures and the ways that these big companies like to operate. fell in love, followed my now to be wife up into Northern Alberta. Which some of us do, and, ended up finding myself working for a smaller junior company up in, really far northern Alberta, Red Earth Creek. And that's when I had the opportunity to really figure out, digitization, data management. they challenged me with the opportunity to be able to go out there and digitize our operations. So we were looking for something to streamline exactly what I was just talking about all of those reporting requirements So that when I hit save in real time, everything now is visible for everybody back And like I was saying my office when I'm in the field out there could be 300 square miles from all the different sites and everything. So what we were looking for was a better line into our data and an easier tool for us to be able to communicate and track all of those regulatory requirements and so forth. So that's what led me down this journey of data management, asset management, being connected to everything. and I got introduced to Muddy Boots online. Which is, that operations platform that we've been talking about that really opened my eyes up to the data management world, digitization, streamlining operations, but taking it so much further and being able to connect everybody back to those assets that we were talking about, the legacy ones to our main facilities, to everything, being in control of everything. So after getting to, use the system out in the field for a few years, streamlining my guys. I just saw that this is the future. and with what a lot of companies do, my, my field got sold and I needed to get out of red earth cause I'd been up there for 10 years doing the, two and two. And I use the opportunity to connect even deeper with muddy boots now. And that's what I do with my field experience. I go and I meet new producers, new companies, new businesses, and we look at how we can streamline their operations and connect them to their assets. And as somebody who's been in the field and who's used the system, that's how I like to try to be relatable in this fact, as somebody who's been out there in the grind, mud on his boots, needed that solution. And then I found one.

Ryan C: 6:49

That's great. So what I'm curious to know, and maybe what's helpful for listeners and others that are out there working in industries that have legacy systems, and they're looking to make those connections. What is your process for making that assessment or stepping people through going from an unconnected older system to, taking those steps towards maybe modernized operations or more responsive operations. Maybe you could talk a little bit about that.

Jamie Lyle: 7:25

absolutely. we always have to figure out when we're talking to a new client or somebody who's interested in changing the way they do business, the initial steps really is defining what their needs and their goals are. You got to go out there and look at what they're doing because when we're talking oil and gas, at the end of the day, the producers have the same goal. They want to make money. That's the job, right? They need these wells to be able to produce to make money. and we've got a lot of regulatory requirements and safety needs that they don't, I don't want to say they get in the way, but they are in a sense that we have to manage these so that we can get to what our goal is for them is to make money. and so how do we do that effectively? And what does operate by exception mean to them? Because it means something a little bit different for each one of these companies is what I'm starting to learn because of what you were just talking about. They're all in different places in their data management goal or their digitization structure. So what we need to do is we need to assess what shape their data is in, what types of softwares and technologies are you currently using? And then once we've assessed what you're doing and what your goals are, now we can come together and we can make an action plan, right? We can start with those main pinch points. Maybe did you reach out because, you're scared about your regulatory side and if you got an audit on your pipeline integrity program, you're afraid that you guys wouldn't be able to submit the appropriate paperwork to show that you're doing your job. So we got to start there. But maybe after we can do that and we can give back people their time and connect them to everything, that's when we get to start looking at how do we change these operations. Looking at these, older assets that are out there. And what do they mean to us? Because that's the challenge when we're talking legacy and connecting people to all those different pieces of equipment is, what does that site make? We've got to figure it out. What does it mean to you and what do you want to do with it? And then once we're there, we can start introducing different solutions.

Ryan C: 9:08

Sure. So what does it mean when you're talking about operating by exception? give me an example of what that might be in some of these industries that you're working in.

Jamie Lyle: 9:17

operate by exception, basically. a lot of times it means using operators to focus on problematic wells operate by exception in the oil and gas world a field operator, my run could be 300 square miles. And I might have 200 different wells out there. So we need to be able to help give these people in the field a line of sight to all of the different work that needs to be done so that we can focus on the bigger, more problematic wells, the bigger producing wells, while not forgetting about the little wells out there. But within that becomes steps. So one of the things that we talk about with Operate by Exception is, can we move operators from checking sites daily? Maybe you don't need to go to that site for, every three or four or five days. And space it out before having to go there because that becomes a lot of time

Ryan C: 9:59

what you're saying is, operate by exception is, let's prioritize all the check engine lights and, instead of just getting in the truck and going from site to site to site, actually address the ones with precursors to what could be a larger problem, address the squeaky wheels before they become broken wheels.

Jamie Lyle: 10:21

Yeah, more or less utilizing, different technologies, software so that we can isolate and have a better line of sight into our field so that we can focus and spend our time on the more critical jobs without forgetting about the other ones that are out there and protecting them at the same time. And that's where we can really, when we're talking about connecting and we get into devices and things that we can still be in control of a site that might be 200 miles across the river, but we have to make sure does that site, does it, is it necessary to do that with that site? Do we want to use remote monitoring or SCADA systems? Because we can still see it now without having to physically be there. But what does that mean to that field? And within each one is where the challenge is, because each field is built different. They've got different assets. So we've got to go in there and we've got to learn what are your pinch points? What are your pinch point for your operations? That's when we can figure out what operated by exception means to them and give them different solutions. Absolutely.

Ryan C: 11:14

if we've got that whole audit done and we know what's digital, what's not, what can output, what the outputs are, what do you do once you've got that audit complete, you've got a map of of all of the things that if we could fix. Out of 27 things we've identified, these are the top two, like they, they continually give us grief or eat up a bulk of our operators time. And what are the steps that you, you take from there? I've always found that it's not just about sensing a thing, sending the data out and then just knowing that. Okay, cool. now that it's connected, everything's taken care of, right? there's that human adoption component that. I've always found to be the weakest link period. if people don't think it's valuable, they're not going to use it.

Jamie Lyle: 12:06

Absolutely. Hence why, the people who built Muddy Boots, they called it Muddy Boots Online. With the idea being you need to make a platform that's easy for the guys on the ground to be able to utilize. Because if you can't get buy in from your field workers to get the data into what you need back in Calgary, it doesn't work. So our idea is to make a really user friendly system that everybody in the field can adapt to and get by it because you're right. If you don't get buy in from the people who need to use it, it's not going to work. So that's number one, right? Like I said, when I was up there doing my trial, getting your operators to buy into the system is number one, getting them familiar with it. and then once you've done that and you're in it now, again, we want to look at the big thing is how many different softwares are we using or different technologies? Because

Ryan C: 12:53

needs another portal to log into.

Jamie Lyle: 12:55

exactly. So do we have so many? And that's the other thing, like you said, what does it mean when we're assessing all of these different, shapes of data and what different types of softwares are you using or technologies? Can we bring that down to maybe one or two or three so that we don't have so many different softwares? Systems for these guys that they're trying to manage out there. So trying to simplify the way that everybody can see their assets and see the work that's need to be done. That's number one in that sense, right? Simplifying it. And then we can get that really quick ROI, right? If we can take it down from say four or five software solutions to one, now you're going to be able to save money right there alone, but you're also going to be able to save effectiveness by using one system.

Ryan C: 13:40

when we originally spoke, we talked about things like, taking that whole inventory, finding out, what the goals are and what's digital, then looking at getting control of the assets itself, finding ways of digitizing them. So it's going to be using software tools. Sometimes there might be an asset that doesn't have any output on it. It might just be. a dumb piece of equipment with a motor, some hydraulics, it might have some, so you got current, you've got heat, you've got a couple of other things you could probably put some sensors onto those. Do you ever find yourself having to take these very sophisticated systems sitting next to really dumb systems and getting data out of both of them and then piping it into a single. Dashboard or set of reports.

Jamie Lyle: 14:29

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So that's one of the nice things when we start talking and, we get into the SCADA world and we start talking about, the communication ends and stuff like that. And what you just mentioned, there's so many different types of technologies and, Devices that are already out there. And so for a lot of people and the people in the communication world, the telecommunication world that are experts in that's one of their skills is being able to make things talk to each other and even using existing data or different tools out there to be able to speak to new existing tools. And that's really where the technology is going. So utilizing existing stuff, but connecting it to the new stuff. So that we get that line of sight, but exactly what you're talking about, it's also streamlining it down to the points of just getting the data that we need, the required data. So if we go to site, maybe it only needs to see three points. Maybe we just need to see a temperature, a flow rate, and have some alarm management. Maybe we don't need nice eyes on the entire site because it doesn't require that. So we don't need a system that costs all of that. So that's where, again, we have to go in and make these assessments. if there's not a real high risk ranking on a low CBM well in the middle of a field, even if there is a leak, it's like a fart in the wind. We don't have the same requirements down the road if we've got a well that's producing 50 cubes a day of sour gas. Or a sour oil with, sour gas associated to it. So we've got to, again, make these assessments, but then we look at the devices that are out there. And if we can make them talk, and it makes sense so that we can show ROI back, then absolutely we'll connect those. But we have to make those assessments. does it worth it depending on what those wells make when we're talking oil and gas?

Ryan C: 16:06

When you're on site and you've gone through your, you've looked around the location and you're talking to the people that are the boots on the ground, what are the, what is it that you're typically talking about when they start leaning in and nodding their head a whole lot? Like, when do you find that, that adoption or they, like the light bulb goes off, what topic or what type of, demo or what is it that you're doing to get these guys to. the light,

Jamie Lyle: 16:36

Yeah, no, it's a great question. Especially when we're talking about the boots on the ground, like we were saying, we need to get buy in from them. And the biggest thing that I get to showcase for them is I give them back time management, because at the end of the day, the reporting requirements for these guys and girls out in the field is huge and it's just getting more and more every day. Okay. The regulatory requirements in Alberta. And now we're getting into the admission world and for producers and stuff to make this economical, they put a lot on these operators. And and the only that spreadsheets that's Excel, that's maybe not things that these people want to do, maybe that what they, are great at. So for me, when I'm able to get out there and show them a different way to be able to manage all of these reporting requirements, have everything into one place. Thanks. I show them how I can give them back time and that is the biggest optimization tool that when you really get control of your data and your reporting, I find that we have because now when we give people back their time, you're not necessarily having to drive 50 miles to go to an office to do reports. Now, at the end of the day, we've got technologies that we can do that right here. and the other thing too, like our month end, I used to spend up to 10 hours at the end of the month, having to send in all of my different forms and inspections that I gathered back to my Calgary head office every month, that was ritual that goes away. We can just hit save now, and by utilizing cloud management, we can connect everybody in real time to hit save. So it is showing them that all of the work that they do can be showcased very easily now in accountability system. We really help them see what they have to do and get done. No,

Ryan C: 18:13

I'm hearing you talk about giving people time back at the end of the day, and it sounds so similar to the healthcare world where the amount of time people are stuck with their nose in a laptop or a tablet or typing in, like, all of these things for reporting. It's not actually, So much of the work is not there to improve the patient outcome. It's to document for regulatory, for insurance, for CYA type stuff. there's just so much work spent at a computer. And these are people who are specialists in their field and doing computer work may not have been the thing that they were. Anticipating being a large portion of their day and anything to give them some time back at the end of the day or to spend their, to work to the top of their education, right? you went to school and got a doctorate to do that, and just like you got some guys in the field, like I've spent 15 years in the field being a senior level, whatever, who, Can fix some pretty amazing, challenging problems, but, I'm effectively filling out a digital clipboard. Right.

Jamie Lyle: 19:31

Time management.

Ryan C: 19:33

so one of the things that I find in, whenever I'm talking about industries that are very data driven, and we're trying to bring in a level of automation and we're talking about reporting. yeah, I think about this idea of interoperability, data interoperability or data liquidity, this. Goal of all of the data looks a little bit different where it's living, depending on the system. If it's in a SCADA system, a PLC system, if it's coming off of a discrete sensor suite, like a vibration monitoring system, what is it that you're seeing as far as that, that cleaning of data? How much work do you have to put into? Building out these models so you can have data in one place that people at the corporate level or whomever can point to, and you're not having to ask more of the people out in the field. Does that make sense?

Jamie Lyle: 20:33

Yeah. In a sense, I know you mean it goes back to that idea of like. there's the old saying, garbage in is garbage out when we talk about data. So when we're doing those initial assessments, it's like, what shape are you in and where have you been and what are you doing right now? So we've got to start that initial assessment and sometimes it can be a very big challenge to try to help, get everything into one collective spot so that we can now take a look at it and start building it. people are scared of this side because of. software solutions that have gone on seven, eight year implementations that haven't happened that are still fighting through it. And that's a scare that's out there in our world. with new technology and the way we do it now, we work very closely with the producers. That's why guys like myself, Go to the field now to get connected with them. So even a part of yesterday when I was out with that company, it wasn't just training the operations. It was going through all of their measurement schematics and trying to, correctly and digitize their assets with them. So really connecting with people there and working with the field staff who know what are out there. And so the technologies and the softwares are getting better now where people and the implementation is easier, but it always goes back to what are they using existingly? Do they even have a system in place? Are we just going back to spreadsheets that are spread all over? So it really goes down to a base by base, client, but at the end of the day, it can be definitely a challenge, but that's our goal is to get it into that one spot.

Ryan C: 21:57

for sure. the way that you're describing this process sounds. I don't want to say backwards. It's just unusual because I'm used to seeing a lot of these early connected projects where they'd go in, identify. the different outputs. Oh, this has got a RS232 serial output. Great. We're going to grab this. We're going to bring this feed in and building these complex data normalization engines. and then finding that date formatting or pressure, like how the sensor, like the parsing of the pressure formatting might be different. and then you've got an army of data scientists who are all trying to interpret. What that data might be. Whereas I'm hearing you're going to the source and leveraging the person with the field, like on the ground intelligence. And so this value represents, you're drawing the connected dots, right? Between the relationships of the data that matters to the operations team rather than, we'll just collect it all. Cause oh my goodness, back, 2017 or so, that was like the, like a big boom for industrial internet of things. even in things like energy and utility and the prevailing philosophy was, we don't know what we want to do with all the data. We just know that our digital transformation initiative says that we should have all the data. And so I ended up with huge data lakes. Filled with data, but then it started falling to the garbage in garbage out philosophy. And now you have to, bring in armies of data scientists just to unravel that spaghetti junction of disparate data pieces. they like, we think this is a pressure value, but what kind of pressure value? Because, it changes. Oh, this is a pressure value. Underwater. there's all of the different calculations that change. And so context is king. And so I'm hearing that you're going in and just very surgically picking several data points. And then over time, you might bring in more. Is that?

Jamie Lyle: 24:16

I believe like from where you're speaking, I'm almost one step ahead of where you're at when we're talking about the data management solution because we're trying to find a platform for these guys that they can funnel all that data in to one. And now once I've got control of their data and it's housed say in muddy boots, And every report from anybody who's been on site internally, externally. Now we're in control of our data. And now we look at having that data tell you your story. What do you want to do with the data once it's collected? And are we talking about those different points? And is it SCADA? And we're talking about pipeline integrity programs. now we need to identify different pressures so that we can do You know, leak detection and we can start utilizing different things once we've got that data into a place that we trust and that we can see. So we definitely get to that space that you're talking about, but first we've got to get in control of this data. And once we've done it, now we can tell a story with it. And that's the beautiful thing about all of the software solution is that. Customize it to suit your needs so that your data tells your story. And that's very important to these guys, right? Don't offer them something that does 50 things that they have to do. No, you do a customized solution so that you can start with where your pinch points are, but over time working into the things that you're speaking about. So yeah, I start right at the root. Right from the guys entering it to digitizing those assets so that we've got a line of sight to what we can see. Then we specialize in telling you, Now it's your data. Is it your emission reporting that you want to submit? Is it your health and safety program? That's your importance. Is it your, you get to decide. And then we just connect to different softwares and technologies or SCADA systems. Push or pull that data to tell that story.

Ryan C: 25:57

so I would like to close by talking a little bit about Muddy Boots, but not just Muddy Boots, but as a software platform that is specific to an industry and an industry in which you are appealing to the operators on the ground to save them time, knowing that. It's almost of a ground up approach to create a level of data alignment at the top. How does a software company like muddy boots keep, like, how do you take feedback from the field and use that to continually improve the platform that helps tell people's stories? Because clearly you are anticipating. Certain scenarios, like we already got shit. we're six steps ahead of you, So how, what does that feedback process look like? And how do you, how does that team use it to improve and make their software appeal to their core customer?

Jamie Lyle: 26:59

It's a really good question actually, and it really takes you back to the heart of what Muddy Boots is. Muddy Boots is an integrated suite of modules that our clients get to pick and choose how they use it. So it's a web based solution, so you can use it on any device, which is very important, we can be connected anywhere. But it started 12 years ago, and it started with one module, and it was in the measurement schematic world. And so they started being able to draw all the different schematics for the producers out there, but it was one of their clients that challenged them and said, Okay, this is great. But we want to be able to do our reporting in here. So then our next module came and they helped shape it for their needs. And over time, now that we've got, 50 or 60 different producers, throughout North America using our software, they're the ones that define how it works in a sense, it's so customizable. So you build it to their needs and then they challenge you. From there, we go from one module to now where we're at seven or eight, but they've all been driven from our clients. And even to this day, they still shape how we do things. If I build an activity, if the regulators change a new, requirement and I have to build a new activity for one of my clients, I can now use that for everybody. So that's where you say, how do I bring in a new client? Say I'm right here with you. we've already done it. Now we've done it 20 different times for these guys. So let's show you the different ways that we can do it to meet your needs. So it has to be a customizable solution that they can utilize because I do not want to force feed them something that's expensive and too much. Break it down to your needs, scale it to your size and then grow with it. And that's the point that we try to drive into them right there because the software has to be able to be used from a company that's got five wells. Or 5, 000

Ryan C: 28:39

right,

Jamie Lyle: 28:40

and that's our goal, right? Making a system that's used, that can be used for everybody. and even well outside of oil and gas, it's a very customizable asset management and workflow tracking system. So like you, you talked about health, healthcare, like we've recently been able to get into Alberta health services here, and I'm learning that their pinch points are very similar. it's the ability, they need to track equipment. For them right now, the idea for them to be able to look up all the different hospital beds and to see if somebody calls and says, I need a hospital bed to go to service. It takes them almost 20 minutes to get the required information on their computer system, on their maintenance tracking system to be able to see if that bed is now qualified to go to work. that should take you 20 seconds in my world. So that's the idea of how we can connect anybody to whatever they want.

Ryan C: 29:27

Asset management is in every, it's like in almost every industry, right? that's interesting because, one of the leadership statements at Sorcom is customer centric. And, that's hearing how Muddy Boots is developing its softwares. each module, each new module likely represents A customer that had a challenge that could not be addressed by the current software. And, there, at some point there's an evaluation like, yeah, you know what, I think other people probably suffer from the same thing. I think that's how we went from a software company that had connectivity to becoming a whole technology platform with dozens of different ways of handling connectivity, but not just. Here, pop in a sim and here's a dumb pipe to the internet when you've got people who are, in rural remote locations. I think about our oil and gas. clientele, most of them have the exact same, profile. they're either saying, yep, this is in remote, rural locations. It's 1 or 2 bars tops. And, based on the current weather conditions, or which side of the hill, we're going to be putting that pump jack or a well head is located, we might get a different signal from a different carrier. sometimes our operations even take us further out beyond any cellular coverage, and it would be great if we could get at least a heartbeat signal over something like satellite, with all using the same equipment or the same carrier and, or they're going to fall into the, this is really sensitive data and it has to be secure. It cannot touch the public Internet. It cannot be accessible from the outside world. And, they're like, we're wrestling with needing to put in a private cellular infrastructure, which is hundreds of thousands of dollars, or they have to marry themselves to a single carrier and get their themselves a private APN. So it's like their own. Stack of hardware sitting at the data center, through Rogers or Telus or Saskatelle or whoever. And, but they're married to that carrier to get that level of security. And we're finding that the ability to address security challenges and let people spin up their own instance of their own telecommunications stack, click a checkbox and say, no public internet access to these devices at all. And. Marry it to our corporate VPN, click, and have it up and running in a couple of days, rather than six to 12 months, makes it really happy and then all the operations people knowing, oh, I can put this on either side of the hill and the device will pick the carrier for me. And it just knows, and then it fails over if something goes bad and I can get another signal great. like so encouraging to be able to go into the field or go into the industry when you represent a company that is customer centric. Because it's not, let me put you in my box, right? let's see if we can fit your 10 pounds of crap in my eight pound box. Or square peg round hole, pick your analogy, hammers and nails. instead it's getting to go in and. You do it enough though. You're like, Oh, you're not unique. You're just a little bit different, but you all the same patterns, are you tracking assets? Do you want to know where they are? Do you have a, an asset system lives somewhere? are you taking sensor readings? Do you have, like a heartbeat on your equipment? it's crazy to think about, all those design patterns.

Jamie Lyle: 33:12

absolutely I think you're right. Exactly there. And so even, one of the principles of what we believe in money boots is yeah, we call ourselves an all in one software solution. But at the end of the day, we don't do everything. we do as much as I've ever seen a software be able to do in that asset tracking world. But what else we're do and we want to stay relevant. And that's why we've been relevant for the last 12 years and will continue to be as we've got a really open ended API. Which means we can connect with many different softwares, many different scales distance to be able to be that hub because we believe in just connecting with the different champions. So like you said, when I go out there and meet it, it's not trying to say this is giving different solutions that fit their needs. And that goes from all the different technologies, like you said, from the IOT side of things to the specific devices to different software solutions. But that's where we've got to be able to come together, I think. And if we all go out there and attack it like that. champions in our world connected, then we can offer a solution that actually makes a difference.

Ryan C: 34:09

Couldn't agree more. I think everyone should be considering how is their products and services also client centric and, start with solving. It's so trite. Start with solving a customer problem. I think it's actually start by thinking about putting yourself in the shoes of the person on the ground. That has to do the hard work where their office is 326 square miles that they're responsible for and, tell them, all right, in the morning, what's your most important thing you need to do? Sometimes I don't know. It's, I just have to start going and look for a problem. I don't have any good way of knowing.

Jamie Lyle: 34:50

And you're still right. The man is a guy spent 20 years in the ground in the field. I can appreciate that because that's the exact goal, what we're trying to do. And then once they're connected, utilizing cloud management, we're connecting everybody back in the offices. We're all connected now and that's when the true power of being able to utilize your dad is there It's a

Ryan C: 35:09

Lyle, Muddy Boots Online. Thank you for coming out and coming out, logging in, and, and talking about data collection and, just helping people do their jobs and save time.

Jamie Lyle: 35:24

Trying man, thank you so much for having me ryan. I sure appreciate the opportunity to talk with you

Ryan C: 35:29

If anyone wants to learn more about, you or muddy boots, where would they go?

Jamie Lyle: 35:32

they can reach out to me on linkedin at any time or they can look us up on money boots online and be feel free to look through our website and you can contact us for any more, details

Ryan C: 35:44

Fantastic. All right. thank you so much.

Jamie Lyle: 35:47

Okay. Thank you very much

35:49

This has been another episode of What to Expect When You're Connecting. Until next time.

Ryan C: 35:55

All right. One last question. Answer however you wish. Jamie, what is Soracom to you?

Jamie Lyle: 36:07

What is Soracom to me? Soracom to me is a connectivity Internet of things that has got the ability to be able to connect different devices and people by utilizing yeah internet of things. Sorry, not the best answer in the world there, buddy.

Ryan C: 36:24

I spring it on everyone. it's just a thing.