The Group Dentistry Now Show: The Voice of the DSO Industry – Episode 177

Eric Giesecke, CEO of Planet DDS & Rod Ganjifard, Vice President of Technology of Onsite Dental, join the GDN podcast to discuss:

• The need for integrated data
• DSO tech challenges
• What DentalOS is
• Much more

If you would like to learn more about Planet DDS visit – https://www.planetdds.com/ .

If you would like to attend or learn more about the Planet DDS Orbit 2025 conference visit – https://dso.pub/Orbit2025

You can also learn about Onsite Dental here – https://onsitedental.com/

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Full Group Dentistry Now Podcast Transcript: 

Technology, data integrations & innovations for DSOs with Eric Giesecke of Planet DDS & Rod Ganjifard of Onsite Dental

Bill Neumann: Welcome everyone to the Group Dentistry Now show. I’m Bill Neumann, and as always, we appreciate you watching us. We have two guests on. Actually, the topic or the theme today is going to be really interesting. We’re going to talk about data integrations, focus on technology, and then how this affects DSOs. I know data integration is something that I’ve been hearing a lot about the different DSO meetings, oh gosh, I think for the past year, maybe a year and a half. And I think now there’s some solutions on the market maybe where there weren’t in the past. And so there’s a lot of excitement around this topic and I’m sure there’s also a lot of confusion. So I’d love to bring these two guests into the show and have a nice conversation about this. Hopefully we can maybe shed some light on some of the challenges and some solutions that are out there. So we have Eric Giesecke with us. He is the CEO of PlanetDDS. Eric, I think you’ve been on our podcast probably three or four times, so it’s great to have you back.

Eric Giesecke: Great to be here, Will. Thanks for having me.

Bill Neumann: And we have Rod Gangevard, who is the VP of Technology for Onsite Dental. And both Rod and Eric were on, it was about a year ago, it was last August, August of 2023. We had a Navigating Data Integrity DSO Study Club webinar. So Rod is also known to the Group Dentistry Now show and audience. So Rod, I appreciate you coming back again.

Rod Ganjifard: Oh yeah, thanks for having me. Always a great time with you.

Bill Neumann: Yeah, this is great. So a little bit about maybe start with you, Eric, for like the two people in the audience that don’t know who you are, who Planet DDS is. Can you just kind of fill in some of the blanks there?

Eric Giesecke: Sure. So we are A dental software practice management, imaging, patient marketing, and actually orthodontic software provider, mostly for groups and DSOs and OSOs. We’re at about 13,000 practices across the US. We work with over half of the top 25 DSOs, but kind of when we think about a platform or data integration, that’s super keen to what we, how we think about solving problems with folks like Rod and how we, where we think the industry’s going. So I’m really excited to be here.

Bill Neumann: Thanks, Arik. And Rod, you’re the vice president of technology for Onsite Dental. Can you talk a little bit about your role there? And then also, Onsite has a pretty unique model, so maybe discuss that if you wouldn’t mind.

Rod Ganjifard: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, I’m BP technology kind of just sits on the infrastructure. It’s reached out to the BI data integration team. Also are kind of like web development or app development for patient engagement platform, both which need to tie really back into the practice management system. So Denicon is where all our data lives. And that’s where we kind of live, you know, from from 90 point from where I’m at. Our model, you know, we’re not a traditional DSO. We are mobile employer-based dentistry. So what does that mean is we pick Fortune 100 companies and above. We like Intel’s, Meta, Boeing, and we provide dental service for their employees on site. So we have a big semi-trailer vehicle, about three or four dental operatories in it, a full dental team, you know, so dentist, hygienist, assistant, front desk manager. that actually go to like these locations, you dental work for three or four days, pick up and go to another spot. Some are more static, some stay there long term, some are fixed, and some move around, you know. It’s a good model because not many vendors out there in the industry. And it’s definitely a service that provides a good health care benefit to the employers in these companies. Right. So the employers and employees feel like they’re getting a benefit from their company, which keeps them there longer. Of course, obviously, the health, everything around the health behind it. So that’s our our model is just a little different, you know, and I think we’re going to be growing heavily in the future. You know, pre-COVID, we were on a drive up. COVID kind of changed the landscape a little bit because of work from home. And we pivoted, you know, so we’re now back to more manufacturing clients and we’re just grown. So it’s a green sky or blue sky.

Bill Neumann: Thanks, Rob. Yeah, the model is really interesting. I just we’ve been covering what Onsite’s been doing on group dentistry now for for quite a long time. So you’ve got some Huge, huge names as customers as far as companies go. So kudos to you and kind of having a really unique model that makes a lot of sense. So I’ll start with you, Rod, as you get into the Q&A portion of this podcast. How has the DSO market driven this need for integrated data? And I kind of mentioned it earlier as I introduced the subject. I mean, have you noticed that too in the past couple of years that there’s been a lot of conversation around integrating data? But let’s talk a little bit about what’s going on in the market to drive that conversation and the need for it. Yeah.

Rod Ganjifard: I look at it from a customer side, so the customer expectations are, you know, we look at our data and we need access to it. We need it from the most granular level because we have a business set of questions we need to answer. you know, that whether that’s for KPIs, or, you know, industry benchmarking, we’re trying to get an answer to a question. And the need for the integration of the data only makes that lifecycle easier, right, more correct, you know, Obviously, we’ll look at live data. The key drivers to integrate the data are making sure that we have access to everything from any disparate source. It could be one point of database to customer social media, to SEO stuff. Having access to everything is the main drive. That’s just the expectation now from a DSO standpoint, is I need to have access to everything. Otherwise, I don’t know what my ROI is. I don’t know if this thing is working or what I’m doing is working or if I’m making my patients healthier.

Bill Neumann: Eric, do you have any more insight on that? How do you think we’ve arrived at this point in the market where there seems to be such a need?

Eric Giesecke: Yeah, I think Rod’s 100% right. There’s a critical need for insights related to multiple data sources. So example being I know you guys look at all this type of stuff, but whether it be marketing data in terms of what you’re spending to attract new patients or your clients are attracting new patients to the PMS data that shows production per hour to financial data that you might need as a DSO to be able to show what you’re paying providers relative to production. All this stuff is critical and you need to get the data in a reliable, manageable source. The second thing that I think is happening now is, in particular, is the industry moves more DSO and more cloud. And I know, Rod, you guys have done this because we’ve worked on some really cool stuff with you guys too, given your use case and the technology forward requirements of your clients. DSOs want to take advantage of innovation outside of the system of record or practice management software, which means APIs, which means tying in either through data connectivity to be able to either use or build applications around patient experience, around marketing, around even analytics, around some of the RCM stuff that’s happening. In order to do all of that, in order to be able to use not only in our case at DeniCon, but to be able to use a patient engagement platform that’s not native to DeniCon, or to be able to look at some of the insights that Rob was talking about around being able to look at KPIs, all of that stuff is super critical in the industry and kind of where things are going. I think that data integration piece really has two kinds of focus. One is like on the pure data analytics side, but also on the usability and the innovation that’s happening through software applications as they tie together.

Bill Neumann: So, Rod, let’s talk from a technology challenge perspective. What are you seeing right now when you’re using fragmented or using multiple systems? What are the challenges at on-site?

Rod Ganjifard: Oh, man, there’s so many, right? You got inconsistent data across lack of real-time syncing data, right? Complex workflows. People have to do complex things to kind of get a simple answer. And then the other stuff, higher IT costs, you know, like it just costs us more money to run those multiple systems. And then they have to have multiple redundant systems back on that and make sure everything’s good. User experience, and then just, you know, kind of training. So it’s just a lot of stuff that… are unnecessary when you have one single data source. Now, I know it’s easy to say, oh, just give me one PMS system across my technology. But, you know, especially when you’ve got these DSOs that do a lot of acquisitions, you know, some DSOs convert over right to their practice. Some just leave them in place. And then they say, you know what, we’ll figure it out on the reporting side. And that really depends on where you want to spend your money, right? You know, whether it be, you know, having a high power like analytics team, right? You know, one of these like crazy MIT mathematicians that can like parse all the data, bring it in. Or, you know, you go the other way where we’re going to bring everyone into one single pane and we’re going to use our, you know, generic off the board metrics, you know, and rinse and repeat.

Bill Neumann: So, Arik, what do you see as far as maybe some of the clients that PlanetDDS works with and their challenges with fragmented data?

Eric Giesecke: I think it is to some degree that. If you’re on multiple systems, multiple PMS systems, rationalizing and normalizing data is a challenge. One PMS system’s definition of adjusted net production is going to be different than So when you’re on multiple systems, which some people choose to do, it is manageable, but it is hard and it is expensive at certain times, because you do like to Rod’s point, you need to have a data team, you need to be able to manage the changes that happen to the, what’s called the schema or the table data structure of the individual PMS per solutions. If you’re on one single solution, and granted that’s what we do, it eliminates the need for doing that. So I think that’s one cost that I think standardization happens. But on the flip side, I think there’s also a challenge happening when we start to think about definitional stuff across platforms. So not just PMS, not PMS to PMS to PMS, it’s PMS to RCM and PMS to scheduling or to forms or to all the things that are happening. When you have multiple practice management systems and then multiple other type of systems and software use around the practice management system, the data becomes even more complex because you not only do you have to deal with the fact that definitions are different within the core system, you also have to deal with the fact that those systems speak differently to other software applications like patient relationship management and patient engagement stuff. Obviously, standardization is what we preach. I think it makes a ton of sense if you’re willing to do it. It’s not easy, but once you get on a single platform, the ability to scale and standardize increases immensely. And the ability to pull data from a single source that has a single source of truth is great. But it also allows you to plug in other type of applications through APIs and other things that are a lot more difficult to manage than if you’re using multiple PMS. So I think it’s just a challenge. It’s a challenge of a changing software landscape into where you’ve got a bunch of point solutions to a platform or an operating system, as we like to call, to be able to then kind of use the things you need to, you want to use in order to improve the patient experience.

Bill Neumann: So Eric, this leads into the next question about a solution that Planet TDS has called Dental OS. So can you talk a little bit about what that is? And it’s really one of the reasons we’re here today to talk.

Eric Giesecke: So when we, maybe a little bit of going back kind of the evolution of Planet TDS and where our head has kind of become or come to as part of this. So We obviously provide cloud-based enterprise-level practice management software. And so we had a choice to make as the industry evolved and switched from kind of on-prem point solutions to cloud-based PMS. Did we want to do everything and be everything to all people within our practice management software? Or did we want to build an operating system akin to like Apple’s OS that allows the clients or users to be able to pick the best in class innovation that happens outside the system? So we’ve, we think there are things that are best done within the practice management software. A good example is two-way texting. It’s so much easier to do that from the PMS that go into a separate application and text the patient. But there are also a lot of other things that are done with less frequency where the workflow is not inefficient, such that you want to be able to experiment with and try some of those folks. So a good example is the AI world, right? Over at Parola Video, other folks are building a lot, doing a lot of innovative things on AI related to images and claim submission. We as the practice management software, we don’t want to do that. We don’t want to dictate necessarily who you choose to use in order to basically do what you want and take advantage of the fact that they’re raising a ton of money and putting a ton of money into innovation. We want to be the operating system that allows you to be able to functionally take benefit from that innovation that happens outside through APIs. So that’s where we had a very important decision to make. Do we want to be all things to all people or do we want to be a platform that allows our customers and users to take advantage of innovation that we can’t necessarily do all of. Given the fact that the industry is moving to an enterprise level kind of DSO world, and we think our customers really want that, we made the decision to become an operating system.

Rod Ganjifard: Yeah, I have to say thank you, Eric. That’s something we’ve been wishing for for a long time, and I really appreciate it from a customer side. The maturity that you guys have shown over the last few years is just immense. Because someone like me sees that you care about us, right? And you’re not saying, this is my box. You’ve got to fit into it. You’re allowing us to grow in any way you want. So I can’t thank you enough, man. Thanks.

Eric Giesecke: Well, you’ve been a great partner and a super innovative partner. What Rod’s not telling you is they built some of the coolest patient-facing stuff that probably is super key to their business model. But having a customer like Facebook or Meta, I guess. Google forces you to be pretty innovative with how you present the patient experience. And it’s been fun working with you guys to do so much stuff.

Rod Ganjifard: Pleasure is on this side of the table, buddy. Right, you know.

Bill Neumann: So can you explain to me again and some people in the audience the difference between integrated data versus this single platform that’s driven by APIs?

Eric Giesecke: Sure, Rod, you want to take it or you want me to take it?

Rod Ganjifard: Go ahead. Yeah, yeah. No, APIs are your guys’ thing, you know.

Eric Giesecke: So I think the way to think about it is integrated, so you’ve got data source, right? So within a practice manager software, which is what we call the mission critical system of record, the system of point of truth for a dental DSL, that data exists either kind of in a single database within a single PMS. Derod’s original point, you have multiple PMS and that data isn’t integrated. So that the lack of integration exists kind of in that use case where you’ve got, you know, a point solution here, a point solution here, and the data doesn’t talk to each other. So that’s one element of non-integrated. Within the platform kind of OS perspective, we’ve got the dataset that you use, but we use things called APIs, which basically allow partners of ours to be able to call or grab data and be able to push data back into the platform. And the idea being is, the API is a layer, a secure layer, that then allows someone like Ascentis, for example, who does RCM, or other folks, to be able to grab data from our platform, be able to do things, use that data, present that data, build workflows outside the system, and then when necessary, through an API, post that data back to our dataset. Think about the API as kind of like a, almost a, an integrated piece, a connectivity piece that allows us to efficiently and securely pass data back and forth. That then, but from, from a user experience allows it to be next to seamless. So you don’t have to worry about connecting, translating, doing all of those things. The API layer does that for you. Rod is technical, so probably you might be able to do a better job explaining APIs than that. And it wouldn’t start, but it is more just like a connectivity piece between datasets.

Rod Ganjifard: Yeah, you got a good team over there that knows the answer to that question. So I’m just a user, right? But yeah, you know, to kind of reiterate what I was talking about, you know, a lot of the things that we see kind of, you know, like with issues, you know, just, you know, not having unified picture records, right. You know, just not being able to kind of view it all one paint. Right. So, yeah, I am. Yeah, I definitely see, you know, the inefficiencies that are out there, you know, when you kind of don’t have a demo, right. Or kind of a API. Yes.

Bill Neumann: So, you know, as far as like functionality and the efficiencies, you know, what would be expected if we’re, you know, using non-integrated data right now? We’ve got, you know, information all over the place. What are some expectations? What kind of efficiencies do you think a group practice might experience from that?

Rod Ganjifard: Yeah, you know, so I kind of break it down in like, you know, a couple of buckets, you know, one is like the cost saving side, right? You know, having those efficiencies, you know, definitely reduce operational costs, you know, cross thing, you gain other, you gain it in other places. So you’re able to kind of, be more productive, right? Then you lose. The next bucket is kind of like, you know, my technology is that kind of scale and I kind of grow it, right? You know, if I’m kind of pegged to something that’s not easily efficient, I can’t grow. I can’t make my product better. I can’t make it faster. I can’t make it cheaper. And then, you know, just simple stuff, you know, like that, you know, we look at, like, you know, we try to find ways to kind of like optimize, you know, like, you know, daily tasks. And when you have a nice integrated OS or something like this, you know, you can, you kind of jump on that stuff. And you saw it goes like RCM stuff, right? You know, like there are a lot of repetitive tasks that kind of go over and over and over again that, you know, if you had something, you know, connected, you know, then you save all that time, right? I think that can answer the question.

Bill Neumann: Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, do you see, because you hear this a lot too, there’s the data, there’s so much information out there and you have access to it somewhere, but then there’s having the data and then actually acting on the information that you get from that data. Do you feel like when it’s integrated, you have access to it much easier, that there’s more of an opportunity to actually use that data to your benefit, to actually act on it?

Rod Ganjifard: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s common sense. Absolutely.

Bill Neumann: So what about from a patient perspective? And maybe Eric, if you want to talk about this, we talked about it from the DSO group practice side, but if you have an integrated operating system, does that benefit the patients?

Eric Giesecke: Yeah, I think it does, because I think it can standardize and improve the patient experience in ways. I was thinking, Rod, as you were saying that, an interesting use case that might help articulate some of the benefit of an integrated system. So there are a couple of companies we’ve talked to who are trying to build a predictive engine around patient scheduling. So this kind of ties to kind of the patient experience, but probably more towards chair utilization and limiting no-shows. So there’s an opportunity, if you have a standardized data set, like a DENICOD, you can grab through an API all of the data you need. And it can be historical behavior of the patient itself. It can be based on credit scores. It can be based on lots of different things. And these models are all evolving. to be able to provide a predictive score to see whether that patient will show up. So everyone’s been double booked probably on an airline. Airlines do that in a very sophisticated way because they look at all of the data related to the passengers on the plane and they try to determine who’s not going to show up so they can sell extra seats. A dentistry is very much a utilization game. If you have a standardized platform and an OS that gives you a data set, you can run models on that and be able to kind of predict when people are going to come in and then potentially, and we’re not doing this today, but an opportunity to schedule in an efficient way to make sure that chair utilization is highest. So that’s not really a patient experience thing, but I think it gives you a one example of kind of some of the innovations happening. Now, if you’re not using a single data set to run those models, and you have to pull from lots of different PMS, for example, or lots of different data, it’s very difficult for a model to run on a disparate data set because the definitions are so different. I mean, even as simple as we might call something in Demicon, first underscore name, another practice management system might call it first capital name. These models are run based on identifying data trends within individual tables, and they’re not smart enough to realize the difference between first underscore and first name. I mean, they’re evolving and I think getting smarter all the time, but having a standardized data set really drives a lot of that innovation in ways that are super unique. Now, I don’t think on the patient experience side, there’s a lot of cool stuff happening to make the patient experience better. I think on-site is forefront when it comes to thinking about these things, again, given some of their customers. But in terms of making it super slick and easy for people to reappoint, making it easy for people to do some pre-visit forms and medical history stuff so that you’re not still in the world of which unfortunately we kind of are where you go to an office and you fill out a paper form, you give an insurance card, You sit down there and you wait for them to key it in. You go see the tech. All that stuff can be done in advance and scanned, input, all of that stuff if you’re on a single platform with a single data set. So there’s a lot of innovation I think that can happen from a patient experience and also from a DSM perspective with an operating system.

Bill Neumann: That’s great. Yeah. Nobody likes to fill out those forms. I feel like every time you go into the office, they’re asking you to fill out the same form that you filled out six months ago. So it does get frustrating. So that alone. So, Rod, this one’s for you. What steps have you taken at Onsite really to integrate your software and data? And maybe talk a little bit about that journey.

Rod Ganjifard: Absolutely. Yeah. So one that’s really close to my heart and kind of the last year has been our marketing kind of drive. Right. You know, being able to put seats, you know, butts in seats. Right. And and tracking that. Right. You know, we can develop this beautiful SEO campaign commercials, you know, you know, social media ads. But the problem you run into is the second that you present, they go to the site, they book an appointment, you lose a lot of that like information, right? So we’ve integrated from the very beginning of that journey, right? You know, from the start, whether it be a Google search or a social media kind of interaction, and follow that all the way through the practice management system to, you know, point of schedule, right, then to point of completion. And then, you know, after time of like a life cycle of a value of a patient, right. And then taking those things, because all that’s in one view now, right, one kind of workflow, not despaired, we’re able to make better marketing decisions and be more efficient with that dollar, right. And then the other side is just, you know, our patient engagement platform that Eric talked about before, uses a lot of pieces from DevCon, uses a lot of pieces from the outside world to kind of present to our patients a great experience, right? You know, and that, you know, there’s a communication. a part of it, right, you know, we’re able to message doctors, there’s a place to kind of, you know, pay bills and stuff like that, obviously book appointments, you know, I mean, and with the new dental OS, that’s kind of coming out, there’s a roadmap for growth of that to make it easier. And you guys brought up a great point of patient consents, we want to be able to kind of have an easy button for our teams to hit, push out some consent to the patients, they can do it on their phone, they can take pictures of their ID, of their insurance card, and that integrates, right, automatically goes in, right. So, yeah, that’s the kind of things we, you know, kind of experienced, we kind of developed into, right, you know.

Bill Neumann: So Eric and Rod talked about this a little bit. So really since you’ve launched DentalOS, I mean, what’s the feedback been? I mean, Rod seems pretty stoked about it. So from your technology partners and then also for some other DSOs, what’s the feedback been?

Eric Giesecke: Feedback’s been really positive. The partners like it because access to more data gives them the ability to provide more use cases and candidly sell more of their software. So the open architecture in the API has been received massively, positively by partners, but also by, I mean, Rod, thank you very much for the kind words. Most of the, I think your words are kind of indicative of how a lot of these larger groups we work with, how they think. They don’t, there’s so much happening in dentistry right now from an innovation perspective. And the AI stuff is just that you hear about from the imaging side is probably the most forefront and the most publicized. There’s a lot of other cool stuff happening. And so, As an organization, you can choose to either kind of close off the wall like Apple does, or did at one point, I guess it doesn’t do it anymore, and try to do it all yourself and control that ecosystem. Or you can create an open operating system that allows folks to grab the data and innovate. And I think there’s just, you know, there’s so much wood to chop. It’s so much possible within dentistry that our clients and customers are really kind of supportive and happy about the fact that we’ve taken this position. to allow them or the partners they want to work with to be able to grab the data they need in order to innovate. So it’s been really positive. It’s been received really, really well. And we just launched a new API. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say it’s in market now. And a lot of partners are are looking at it. Hopefully, Rod, you’ve had a chance to take a look at it. I’m sure we probably have. Okay, cool. Just making sure. But there’s a lot of new stuff we’re exposing, a lot of new, more modern technology, and Rod, you’ve seen it. We’re supercharging, we’re investing credibly in this as part of our core roadmap thesis. And the idea is we want to just be super modern, super available, and super good partner to all of our DSOs, OSOs, and

Rod Ganjifard: Yes. I mean, we love it. We love the roadmap. It’s only going to make me look cooler and like a big hero to do something.

Eric Giesecke: Impossible.

Bill Neumann: As we start to wrap up the podcast, where do you envision these integrations? Where does it go from here? Maybe Arik and then Rod, you can talk a little bit about that.

Eric Giesecke: I mean, I talked about the use case around scheduling, I think, and this is the cool thing that’s happening now. And I think maybe the publicity that some of the big raises and some of the AI companies are drawing more attention to dental, there’s lots of people that are coming up with really creative use cases that honestly, I don’t know if they solve problems. I mean, I know they’re keen to address problems I know exist. I don’t know if they’ll actually solve the problems. But when it comes to things like Rod mentioned, like, well, repetitive tasks related to RCM, data integrity, eligibility standardization such that you don’t ever really have to call and verify an insurance plan for a new patient. You can just basically use the data structure and some of the other things in order to get insurance plans created and be able to effectively and confidently treatment plan. There’s a lot of stuff obviously happening on the imaging side with AI in terms of treatment plan acceptance. A lot of things around patient presentation that I think is really cool associated with that. So there’s innovation. We get hit up all the time by these cool companies, usually small, that have an idea. And so they come and they meet with us and they walk through it, and it’s so much fun to sit down and talk to them. And then they listen to us tell them, oh yeah, we have an API that allows you to grab that data, and they’re super thrilled. So, I think there’s just so much innovation around EOS that I think will continue to persist across all elements of the patient journey. It’s hard to pinpoint one. I think the one that probably for recency bias is around schedule utilization, but there’s just a ton of stuff out there that people are trying to work on and it’s an exciting time to be in dentistry.

Bill Neumann: Rod, how about you? Maybe there’s something you have on a wish list.

Rod Ganjifard: Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, so a lot of our stuff, you know, is just driven around the patient, the patient experience, um, and trying to get them more engaged, um, into one place, right. Where they can kind of get all our information, right. You know, it’s, it’s, you know, we’re way in the, you know, mid 2020s, um, technology is a tool everyone’s used to, right. And being able to kind of view everything right from their schedule to their treatment plan some a lot of I love to preach a lot about patient education being able to kind of explain what the procedures are you know you go to the dentist and they say you know all these like clinical technical terms you have no idea what they mean and But then, you know, you get presented the video on YouTube. Oh, OK, that makes sense. It’s a feeling, right? You know, I get it. Right. You know, so, you know, trying to give them one source of a location where they can kind of get all that information, prescriptions. To me, that that drives them to stick with our DSL or our company because we’re not there’s no one else out there doing that. You know, you got the mom-pop dentists that don’t spend time in the technology. And then, you know, I think they’ll be left behind. But that’s not, you know, Dedekind or Plant VS’s fault. That’s the small mom-pop shops. Eric and his team are creating an apparatus where it can make the technology. There’s a way for you to get to the technology frictionless, right? So, yeah, and I think there’s, you know, the sky’s the limit, right? You know, cross-industry integration, right? You know, it could connect to a medical kind of PMS, right? You know, all that information just benefits the healthcare, you know, from the lifecycle, from the beginning to the end.

Bill Neumann: Great. This has been a great conversation. I’ll let you both have some final thoughts before we end the podcast. And then if you both wouldn’t mind, just how can people connect with you or find out more about your organizations? Rod, why don’t we start with you? Final thoughts on data integration and then also how do they connect with you if they’d like and find out more about Onsite Dental.

Rod Ganjifard: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So appreciate, you know, the path that Planet DS is going on. Without them, you know, we wouldn’t be here, right? You know, I wouldn’t be here. So I love the trajectory. And that’s to say that five years from now, Eric pivots again to the right move, right, for what its customers want. So, you know, we’re talking about this now, like it’s the future on set of technology, but this will become old hat and we’ll be on to the next thing. And I feel calm Eric will go there, right? Or the Planet DS will go there. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn, rdandreford at onsitedental.com is my email. Feel free to reach out anytime with questions. I love helping other Planet DDS members, giving them some advice, trying to drive them to profitability or better experience. And then I get it from everyone else too. I love reaching out and making new friends out there. So thanks.

Bill Neumann: Thanks, Rod.

Eric Giesecke: Eric. No, I think, I mean, Rod said it super well. I think we’re, uh, we’re, we’re kind of in this new phase of innovation in terms of where it requires you to be an operating system or a platform to, to take advantage of. And, um, and folks like Rod who have been great partner in terms of helping us develop some of that innovation thing through how we be a good partner to the DSOs and expose the data through APIs. It allows, in the case of Onsite, to be able to build the really unique software applications they need for their patient experience, but in other people and other partners. And so, I mean, then OS is really critical to what we think, how we think the industry is going to evolve and what the industry wants. And we’re committed to doing it. It’s a fun time to be in dental. There’s a ton of stuff going on and we’re excited. We’re excited to be part of it. One other thing I’ll plug for our user conference for those listening. Rod, did you go to Orbit last year?

Rod Ganjifard: Oh yeah, love it. It’s the best time.

Eric Giesecke: It’s the best time. It is a good time. It’s good. Yeah, that’s right. I think we had a space-themed party last year, but I think you were there. I think we saw you there. This year it’s in San Antonio, and I believe February or March, it’s going to be Space Galvoys. March 6th. I love it. March 6th, yeah. March 6th through the 8th. Plug for that, come out, bring your teams. There’ll be a leadership track for executives, which will be a little shorter and more focused on strategy, chance to interact with folks. The teams will have some hands-on training, which will be great. We’re going to do a little bit more of that kind of real-time training. Of course, we’ll go through the roadmap. This time I probably won’t dress up as Elizabeth Holmes because that didn’t go over so well last time. But well, it’s a good time. And then there’s a great time in San Antonio on the Riverwalk. Everyone likes San Antonio. So hopefully everyone can join there. And you can find me at egizuka at planetdds.com and obviously at planetdds.com for the website. Always a pleasure to be here. Rod, good to see you, man. Thanks for the confidence.

Bill Neumann: Yeah, that’s great. And I’ll drop your LinkedIn handles in the show notes. And also, of course, your websites and email addresses if people want to get in touch with you. And yeah, you were mentioning Orbit 2025. I can drop a link to that as well. That’s March 6th through 8th in San Antonio. And it looks like the agenda is up here on your website and you can find out all about it. So Yeah, thanks guys. Great, great conversation. Really appreciate it and appreciate everybody who’s watched or listened to this podcast today. Until next time, this is the Group Dentistry Now Show.