Tushar Makhija, Co-Founder and CEO of TeamOhana, founded his company in 2021 when he saw an opening appear in the market. Workforce Planning software had for a long time been dominated by stodgy, legacy products. Tushar realized this software was built for an "era of non-agile businesses" that had budgeting and forecasting needs that played out over quarters and years. But with the pandemic, he saw an opportunity as more agile companies began "hiring globally, with inflation-driven compensation changes and lean teams."

This reality of more agile business and the teams that they employ meant that up-to-date HR data was paramount for a new generation of Headcount Management Platforms. Tushar explains that while in the past, "HRIS integrations weren't as important," the need for real-time data means that "integrations are now table stakes for the headcount management business." 

Tushar started TeamOhana with the knowledge that HRIS integrations would be at the heart of the application. And he saw the launch of Merge's HRIS Unified API as the perfect way to accelerate product development ahead of competitors. As he summarizes it, "I'm starting TeamOhana because Merge now exists."

TeamOhana is a Headcount Management Platform, with the core of the product built on top of HR data, such as employees, and ATS data, such as open positions. By syncing data from the ATS and HRIS systems that TeamOhana's customers use, the product provides team-wide visibility into both current and future headcount, based on recent hiring trends. Unlike legacy software, TeamOhana accomplishes this without the need for manual spreadsheet updates, instead using Merge's Unified APIs to sync real-time data for each of their customers.

As Tushar sees the market, "HRIS systems don't make it easy to find out employment history, including titles and promotions and compensation history. TeamOhana makes it discoverable, searchable, and makes recommendations about equity and future changes."

TeamOhana also offers ATS integrations which automatically pass along candidate data—including title, description, and compensation—that powers TeamOhana's real-time headcount forecasts. 

The combination of HRIS and ATS also enables another killer feature: a Dynamic Org Chart. By combining current team titles and structure from HRIS data with open roles from ATS data, TeamOhana shows both current and future org charts that are invaluable in organizational planning. Tushar describes the product as "ATS data in a sandbox on top of HRIS data, which together enables org planning that is transparent and up-to-date." These features transform what is possible for HR teams, not just saving time via automation, "but forecasting accurately to make proactive changes to your business."

With integrations core to the value proposition of a Headcount Management Platform, every one of TeamOhana's customers use integrations built on Merge's HRIS and ATS Unified APIs. Tushar notes that integrations are "the first question our customers ask about." 

Integrations are a huge competitive differentiator. He sees that TeamOhana's "ability to close a deal is increased exponentially if our customers can integrate with an HRIS in a week." TeamOhana's customers notice these integrations right away. HRIS and ATS integrations "cuts down to almost nothing the time it takes to onboard customers."

Not only do customers expect these integrations to sync quickly and easily, they also need them to fit their custom data. For integrations where TeamOhana's customers have additional custom fields beyond the ones synced by Merge's Common Models, TeamOhana uses Merge's Remote Fields and Field Mappings to sync and standardize this disparate data.

Tushar finds Merge to be critical to TeamOhana's success and believes that it is outstanding at data integrity. "Merge enables us to guarantee to our customers that they'll have their data within 60 minutes of the Unified API sync. That is worth a lot." In addition, he stresses how important it is that Merge is "very open to customer feedback" and has "great customer service. It is not just a nice to have: this is critical to our business."