Podcast
What Counts?
Hosted by TrailBlazer Consulting, LLC · EN
Welcome to What Counts? by TrailBlazer Consulting. The hosts, Maura Dunn and Lee Karas bring over 30 years of experience consulting with public and private organizations across industries including energy, biotech, manufacturing, and technology. We discuss proven solutions developed working with companies to solve their information and data management challenges. The typical What Counts? episode is around 15 minutes long, and each episode focuses on one aspect of information, data, or records management. We provide insight into practical ways to assess, evaluate, recommend, implement, and monitor records and information management programs – and we illustrate our ideas with anecdotes and case studies drawn from our clients. Look us up on the web at www.TrailBlazer.us.com. Or, send us an email at Info@TrailBlazer.us.com.
15episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Stop Counterparty Data Sprawl: Centralize & Control Vendor Information Before Contracts Begin - E134
5d ago00:13:09Tap to summarizeWelcome back to "What Count," the podcast where information governance meets contract lifecycle management. In this episode, Lee and Maura explore the critical next step after solving your counterparty data chaos: maintaining control of vendor information across multiple systems and teams. Discover how to build a centralized counterparty database that enables operations teams, procurement, and legal to work in parallel—and why enforcing a unique persistent ID is the million-dollar strategy that keeps everything aligned, even before contracts are executed. Building on our previous discussion of counterparty data complications and contract management challenges, this episode reveals the operational playbook for managing your newly consolidated vendor list. Click the link to listen to our last episode. https://trailblazer.us.com/podcast/counterparty-data-reconciliation-case-study/ Episode length: 00:13:09 0:27 – Introducing today's topic: preventing counterparty data proliferation 0:46 – Recap: the contract data and counterparty challenges discussed previously 1:05 – The core problem: multiple data sources across teams 9:10 – Pre-contract data collection workflows 10:14 – The "prospect-to-vendor" workflow: collecting data before execution 11:40 – The million-dollar insight: why unique persistent IDs are critical 12:00 – Closing remarks and contact information What Counts is produced by TrailBlazer Consulting, LLC and hosted by Lee Karas and Maura Dunn. Learn more at trailblazer.us.com or email us at info@trailblazer.us.com. Explore compliance-ready training at the TrailBlazer Learning Academy. Read more from Maura at mauradunn.substack.com. Music by Jason Blake. Full disclaimer.
Transcribe →
Counterparty Data Reconciliation at Scale: A 350,000-Record Case Study - E133
3w ago00:21:01Tap to summarizeMost counterparty data reconciliation projects fail at the same assumption: that one identifier — usually a tax ID — can resolve who you're actually doing business with. In Episode 133 of What Counts, Maura Dunn walks through a real two-year project to reconcile 350,000 counterparty records across eight systems at a company built through acquisition: four contract management platforms, one ERP carrying both customer and supplier masters, and three trading systems, each with its own naming conventions, character limits, and overflow fields. She unpacks the 18 months of unproductive matching that came first, the rule-precedence approach that finally worked once Snowflake and Elasticsearch replaced the spreadsheet attempts, and the 10-to-1 collapse from 350K records down to 35K true entities. She also makes the case for where AI fits this kind of work today — and the one thing it still can't do unless you put deep institutional knowledge into the prompt. If you want to see what's hiding in your own shared drives right now, search TrailBlazer Insight in the Microsoft Store — it scans locally for PII, HIPAA, PCI, and other compliance risks with no cloud upload and no IT ticket required. This episode picks up where Episode 132: Data Reconciliation Before AI left off — Maura delivers the full case study we teased last time. Topics covered in this episode include post-acquisition contract data cleanup, duplicate counterparty detection across multiple CLM platforms, rule-based data matching at scale using Snowflake and Elasticsearch, and the role of AI in contract data reconciliation when source systems lack consistent identifiers. Episode length: 00:21:01 0:00 – Pre-roll: TrailBlazer Insight — local compliance scanning for PII, HIPAA, and PCI 0:20 – Show intro 0:47 – Setting up the case study: 350,000 records across 8 systems 1:52 – How growth through acquisition created 7 (then 8) active counterparty sources 3:55 – Why the same legal entity can appear differently in every system 6:22 – The small business analogy: 4 addresses in 13 years 8:09 – The first 18 months: why tax ID matching failed at scale 10:48 – Name matching, character limits, overflow fields, and legacy system formatting 12:41 – Spreadsheet-by-spreadsheet spinning wheels 13:25 – The breakthrough: contract type bucketing + multi-variable matching 15:08 – Moving to Snowflake and Elasticsearch for rule-precedence matching 16:14 – Where AI could accelerate this today — and what it still needs from you 17:41 – The result: 350K records collapsed to 35K true entities 18:13 – What came out of all that work 19:49 – Teaser: next episode covers how to prevent this from happening again What Counts is produced by TrailBlazer Consulting, LLC and hosted by Lee Karas and Maura Dunn. Learn more at trailblazer.us.com or email us at info@trailblazer.us.com. Explore compliance-ready training at the TrailBlazer Learning Academy. Read more from Maura at mauradunn.substack.com. Music by Jason Blake. Full disclaimer.
Transcribe →
Your Data Is Lying To You: Why Reconciliation Has To Come Before AI - E132
Apr 2100:26:36Tap to summarizeEpisode 132 - Most organizations are being pushed to adopt AI-powered workflows before their data is anywhere close to ready. In this episode of What Counts, Maura and Lee pick up where they left off — diving deep into the concept of data reconciliation and why it must happen before AI ever touches your records. Using a real-world example built across multiple systems — a customer database, a work order system, and a contract management platform — they break down what it means to have duplicate, overlapping, and contradictory counterparty data, and why humans, not algorithms, are the ones who can resolve it. Maura introduces the concept of the golden record, explains the role of metadata mapping and fuzzy matching, and walks through the governance framework — policy, process, and system-of-record designation — that prevents the mess from coming back. If your organization is facing an AI initiative, a system migration, or growing pressure around data privacy and right-to-be-forgotten compliance, this episode gives you the foundational framework you need to start doing it right. Episode length: 00:26:36 Learn more by visiting our website, or by sending TrailBlazer an email at info@TrailBlazer.us.com.
Transcribe →
Your Data Is Messy - Can AI Actually Handle It? - E131
Apr 600:19:21Tap to summarizeEpisode 131 - Data governance and AI readiness go hand in hand — and most organizations aren't as ready as they think. In this episode, Maura and Lee take a hard look at what an AI-powered customer support escalation workflow actually requires to function. Spoiler: it's not just a smart model. It's clean, connected, versioned data — customer records, contract terms, and executed agreement instances all properly linked. Using a real-world cable company scenario, they unpack how disconnected systems, outdated identifiers, and missing metadata cause AI to hallucinate answers instead of finding them. The episode closes with an introduction to data objects and metadata mapping — and a preview of the counterparty reconciliation work that has to happen before AI can deliver on its promises. Episode length: 00:19:21 Learn more by visiting our website, or by sending TrailBlazer an email at info@TrailBlazer.us.com.
Transcribe →
Contract Data Governance: Why AI Alone Won't Fix Conflicting Terms - E130
Mar 2300:17:12Tap to summarizeEpisode 130 - When a company acquires another business, it inherits a tangled web of contracts — each with its own payment terms, clauses, and conditions. Contract one says 30 days, contract two says 45, and contract three says you never have to pay. So what happens when you point AI at this mess? In this episode of What Counts, we explore why contract data governance must come before AI deployment. AI is a powerful governance accelerator, but only when organizations harmonize their terms, configure their systems, and maintain human oversight every step of the way. Episode length: 00:17:12 Learn more by visiting our website, or by sending TrailBlazer an email at info@TrailBlazer.us.com.
Transcribe →
Solving the Growth-Governance Tension: How to Accelerate Without Losing Control - E129
Mar 900:13:12Tap to summarizeIn this episode of What Counts, Lee and Maura move beyond diagnosing the tension between growth and governance and dive into what real solutions look like. From the “records police” stereotype to the engineering metaphor of an ungoverned engine ready to blow, they unpack why organizations struggle to balance speed with safety—and how cross‑functional coalitions can change everything. Through stories about generators, pencils, rogue sales promises, and the realities of legal, IT, compliance, and business teams working in silos, they reveal how governance becomes a true accelerator when everyone solves the problem together instead of alone. Episode length: 00:13:12 To find out more about TrailBlazer Consulting, LLC, please visit our website at www.TrailBlazer.us.com.
Transcribe →
Growth vs Governance: The Tension Every Leader Feels - E128
Feb 2300:14:26Tap to summarizeEpisode 128 - In this episode of What Counts, Lee and Maura dive into one of the most universal challenges leaders face: balancing the urgency of growth with the discipline of governance. From chasing new markets to managing real‑world information chaos—yes, even inside an information governance firm—they unpack why governance always feels like something you’ll “get to later,” and why “later” is exactly when the problems show up. Through candid stories and practical examples, they reveal how founders, operators, and executives can build sustainable growth without sacrificing control. Episode length: 00:14:26 Learn more by visiting our website, or by sending TrailBlazer an email at info@TrailBlazer.us.com.
Transcribe →
When Workflow Fails: How Misaligned Policies Break Processes and Create Hidden Risk - E127
Feb 900:18:39Tap to summarizeEpisode 127 - This episode of What Counts unpacks a problem every organization faces but few diagnose correctly: workflows fail when they don’t reflect the reality of how work actually gets done. Through real‑world examples—from delegated invoice approvals to storage and construction contracts—we explore how policy changes, unclear roles, and poorly analyzed workflows create bottlenecks, late payments, workarounds, and operational risk. The conversation highlights why modern workflow design must be grounded in process analysis, role clarity, and meaningful controls that support—not obstruct—the accomplishment of work. Episode length: 00:18:39 Learn more by visiting our website, or by sending TrailBlazer an email at info@TrailBlazer.us.com.
Transcribe →
The Maturity Mirage: Why Organizations Think They're Well-Managed (But Aren't) - E126
Jan 2600:16:49Tap to summarizeEpisode 126 – Many organizations confidently claim they operate in a mature, well‑managed environment—until someone starts examining how work actually gets done. In this episode of What Counts, Maura and Lee unpack the “maturity mirage,” revealing why teams feel secure in their processes even as undocumented steps, inconsistent workflows, and workaround‑driven habits undermine that confidence. Drawing from real‑world experiences across industries, they explore how evidence often becomes a scavenger hunt, why search‑only strategies fall apart, and how organizations can finally align their perceived maturity with the truth of their day‑to‑day operations. Episode length: 00:16:49 Learn more by visiting our website,...
Transcribe →
CLM Fundamentals: Why Readiness Matters More Than Software - E125
Jan 1200:25:32Tap to summarizeEpisode 125 - Contract Lifecycle Management touches every corner of an organization—finance, legal, procurement, operations, compliance, and the business itself. But despite the promise of modern CLM platforms, most implementations fail for one simple reason: the organization wasn’t ready for the software. In this episode of What Counts, Lee and Maura revisit a conversation recorded in early 2024, long before TrailBlazer Learning Academy and its governance accelerator templates were publicly available. With the Academy now live and widely adopted, the discussion is more relevant than ever. They explore why readiness, alignment, and governance‑ready templates are the true drivers of CLM success, and how TrailBlazer’s tools help organizations build clarity and confidence long before implementation begins. Episode Length: 00:25:32
Transcribe →