We use Boomi’s award-winning integration framework every day, and all the brochures and marketing blurb say it’s wonderful. But is it really?
Here’s what we honestly think.
This is what we love about Boomi
It’s an industry-leading product, no doubt about that. In the recent Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service, Boomi was again in the Leader’s quadrant. Boomi, a Dell Technologies business, is consistently highly ranked and has been a successful solution for many of our clients.
In terms of connecting your systems, Boomi has done an excellent job of providing and supporting plethora connectors to a wide array of cloud, SaaS, and on-premises applications. And there are more to come. If you can’t find what you need, Boomi provides the tools you need to build a custom connector using their Connector SDK.
It comes with options. Boomi isn’t just a cloud platform; it works with on-premises and in hybrid systems too without degrading the user or performance experience. (Check out our Fulton Hogan and CCL case studies to see how we’ve leveraged this capability).
It’s geared up to overcome limitations. When edge cases begin to arise, Boomi’s capabilities allow the ability to customise connectors and add scripting into processes which lets you squeeze that extra bit of functionality out of Boomi.
We also especially love that Boomi supports fast-track development and deployment, making it an efficient way to respond to your business needs.
The pricing model also provides our clients with budgetary certainty as they only pay for the connector, not the load going through it. So there’s no change in cost even if the usage of the integration changes dramatically over time.
And lastly, as an integration platform, we find it’s easy to learn. (But then, we use it every day.)
This is how we think you can get more value out of Boomi
As mentioned in the last section – Boomi is easy to learn. The platform and tools support citizen integrations all the way up to large-scale enterprise solutions. Boomi’s low-code visual development environment enables just about anyone (with training) to build up integrations and business logic quickly.
However, it’s important not to confuse your ability to integrate Boomi in-house with the knowledge necessary to manage challenges in enterprise environments like legacy systems and complex security. Those require some serious hood lifting, and that’s where a Boomi partner like Adaptiv comes in.
To avoid potential pitfalls, meet more complex business requirements, and drive true value, you’ll find the input of experienced solution architects and developers invaluable.
Why and where a Boomi partner can help
Boomi is a licensed platform. To get the most out of your licenses, maximise real business value, and realise the potential efficiencies it can and will deliver, can require additional experience and expertise than a citizen developer will generally have.
For example, Fulton Hogan already had a substantial Boomi deployment when they engaged us to provide architectural and development assistance. We reviewed the overall environment and enacted changes to improve reliability and performance in the production environment. We also reviewed connector usage and recommended they consolidate their licensing. By freeing up these licences, we were able to make additional integrations within the existing connector count, but without breaking the budget.
CCL was keen to get off on the right foot with their new Boomi platform. We provided them with design expertise and development mentoring in the delivery of their first integration project to ensure that Boomi was used efficiently. Thanks to the effective knowledge transfer by Adaptiv, CCL’s development team were able to deliver subsequent integrations without needing to engage external resources.
In summary
Boomi does what it says on the packet – and more. It is a hugely capable integration platform, comes with masses of ready-to-go connectors, and from our perspective as integration specialists, allows us to meet our client’s needs quickly and efficiently.
But if your goal it to realise a faster ROI, you may really want the services of an experienced Boomi integration partner to maximise your investment, overcome hurdles in the build and design process, and help to avoid the headaches when complexity quickly stacks up. However, that’s a small price to pay if you are serious about accelerating your business results.
Author: Philip Durrant (Principal Consultant) / Co-author: Mitch Abel (Consultant)
