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Why Hire A Boomi Partner? And More Specifically, Why Hire XTIVIA?

by | Dec 16, 2022 | Blog, Boomi, Perspectives

Why hire a Boomi partner (or Boomi Consulting Services firm) to help with your Boomi strategy, architecture, development, and ongoing operations and support?

And why write a post explaining why you should hire any Boomi partner at that?

When you choose a Boomi development and implementation company, you want to get to know them before signing on. You want to understand who they are, their Boomi expertise, their Boomi experience, their engagement methodology, and their value-add as your Boomi partner—ultimately, why you should work with them.

It is essential to vet the fit between you and your Boomi partner during the initial assessments and meetings, as choosing the right Boomi development and implementation company is critical for the long term success of your Boomi initiative. Especially when it comes to your enterprise-wide integration or master data management or B2B/EDI integration or API strategy/management, you need a partner that you’d be thrilled to stay with for the long run and trust. And we all know how crucial a seamlessly integrated technology landscape is crucial for digital enterprise today.

So you surely don’t want just any Boomi Systems Integrator. And since every Boomi Systems Integrator firm out there is going to advocate for itself as being nothing short of fantastic, how can you possibly know which one is the best for your company?

In this article, we’ll answer the questions, “Why hire a Boomi partner (or Boomi Consulting Services firm),” “What to look for in your Boomi partner,” and “Why hire XTIVIA as your Boomi partner,” so you have the details to make an informed decision that can set your company up for successful outcomes.

Why Hire A Boomi Partner: Table of Contents

Why Hire A Boomi Partner: Boomi Expertise

The main reason why companies need to hire a Boomi partner is that setting up your Boomi initiative for success involves making a number of key architecture and development methodology decisions and making educated decisions requires Boomi expertise that comes with real world project implementation experience.

What do we mean by educated decisions?

Well, Boomi is the leading integration platform (iPaaS) in the marketplace and offers you amazing flexibility and a number of choices/options. And making choices involves trade-offs based on your specific needs, your technology landscape, your team size and process preferences, and more. While it is important to make the right choices, we also strongly believe that it is just as important, if not more, to understand the why behind the what.

Some of these decisions are macro-level decisions; examples include:

  • Do you need only a cloud atom or an on-premise atom or a hybrid?
  • Do you need a molecule or an atom?
  • What folder structure makes sense for you?
  • What naming conventions will you establish for your Boomi components?
  • What error handling methodology do you want to follow?
  • What is your logging strategy?
  • What tool will you use for monitoring your Boomi atom and integrations?
  • And many more …

And once you make your macro level decisions, there are multiple design patterns for you to consider and other micro-level design decisions to make as you start implementing integration processes in Boomi—whether it is moving customers from Salesforce to Netsuite or orders from SAP to your Order Management System or employee records between Workday and Active Directory, all of these integrations have nuances. Having the right implementation approach and guidance can be crucial for the long term health of your Boomi implementation—from maintainability and extensibility to how easy it is to operate and troubleshoot errors. All of this factors into the TCO of your integrations, and getting this right can result in huge positive differences versus significantly higher TCO and possibly loads of frustration.

Boomi Platform Overview Version 2
Figure 1: Boomi Platform Overview

Why Hire A Boomi Partner: Bandwidth Constraints

Another common reason for partnering with a Boomi Systems Integrator is that your IT team simply does not have the bandwidth to support your Boomi initiative, at least not to the level needed. You might have no or limited availability of business analysts that understand your systems and business processes to define your requirements adequately. Or you may not have an architect that can truly understand all the ramifications of the key Boomi architecture decisions associated with implementing Boomi. Or you may not have the developer capacity to get all your integrations built in the desired timeline. Or you may not have analysts and developers that understand EDI or master data management, and you need expertise in specific areas.

Some organizations may be able to allocate all the required resources and be willing to learn through trials and tribulations even though their team is new to Boomi (though we highly recommend against it—see above).

However most organizations are bandwidth-challenged, and need external firepower, whether that is an entire team or a Boomi Architect or Boomi developers or something in-between. Different companies will have different needs, and we make sure to fill in the gaps.

Why Hire A Boomi Partner: Mentor Your Team and Set Up For Long Term Success

As described above, a Boomi implementation program involves a number of key decisions about architecture, choosing the right design patterns for specific integration scenarios, and design decisions in implementing specific integration processes. While you can (and should) train your team in Boomi using the excellent Boomi training and certification resources, that can only go so far.

Boomi training cannot and does not take into account the specifics of your business and technology landscape. This is where you need a seasoned Boomi partner with certified Boomi architects and developers that have been through real-world Boomi implementations with the right mentorship to support your own architects and developers with making the right choices and getting the right experience.

As mentioned above, it is crucial for your team to not only understand the what and the how, but also the why. Once your team learns the how and the why, they can extrapolate and make decisions down the road whether you are still working with your Boomi partner or whether you are on your own. And these decisions will be consistent with the foundational architecture and patterns you establish in conjunction with your Boomi partner.

Why Hire A Boomi Partner: Successful Outcomes

And bringing all this together, at the end of the day, you want and need successful business outcomes. And you want to reduce the risk of not achieving that success, as a failed or flawed implementation leads to frustration all around, and worse, a lost opportunity of gaining an edge on your competition. And you may just need to start over with the right Boomi partner after all that.

And Now Another Crucial Question: Can I Hire A Boomi Contractor Instead of a Boomi Partner?

You have the option of working with an established Boomi Partner or hiring an individual Boomi Contractor for your Boomi initiative/program. Both have their pros and cons, and simply speaking, you need to go with what works best for you and your business. However, one thing is clear—you are going to need Boomi expertise and experience on your team to get your Boomi program off the ground right. And you are going to need it from day one. In fact, you possibly need that even as you finalize your Boomi subscription purchase to ensure that you size your Boomi subscription correctly. So, don’t shortchange yourself, and definitely get some help, whether that is a Boomi Partner or a freelance Boomi Contractor.

Some factors to consider in this decision-making process include:

  • Boomi Consulting Pricing—Individual Boomi Contractors have to be priced competitively to get new clients, but they can charge much less than a Boomi Partner (that is typically a larger company) because they have no overhead costs beyond paying themselves. Advantage: Boomi Contractors.
  • Specialized Boomi Skills and Experience—Individual Boomi Contractors may have stronger skills in specific aspects of the Boomi platform—core integration but possibly not Boomi EDI or Boomi MDH or Boomi Flow. This may be adequate if your Boomi project only involves those aspects of the Boomi platform that the Contractor is well-versed in. But if your company needs a broad range of skills, you may need to hire multiple Boomi Contractors. A Boomi Partner typically has a team of Boomi Consultants from Boomi Architects to Boomi Analysts and Boomi Developers that cover the whole Boomi platform, ensuring that your Boomi project is handled effectively regardless of what Boomi components your project leverages. Advantage: Boomi Partners.
  • Project Leadership and Management—With individual Boomi Contractors, you will typically have to manage the Boomi implementation program yourself, which may be good for you if this is what you want. However, typically, if your project is complex enough, then you want to have Boomi Project Leaders that are experienced in running Boomi projects to ensure that they can identify and manage risks and issues before they impact your project significantly. Advantage: Boomi Partners (most of the time).
  • Resource Replacement—One of the biggest challenges of working with freelance Boomi Contractors is “ghosting.” You go through the whole process of finding, hiring, and educating a Contractor on your business, only to have them disappear without a moment’s notice. This can leave you in the ugly situation of not only having to replace them all over again but worse, with an incomplete project that falls behind. When working with a Boomi partner that has a team of Boomi Consultants, you will likely be better off since the Boomi partner will take care of replacing the resource with another one off their bench. Advantage: Boomi Partners.
  • Process—An individual Boomi contractor is unlikely to bring you a repeatable Boomi project execution process (or methodology) with Boomi best practices and patterns that a Boomi partner has. Advantage: Boomi Partners (typically).
  • Long-term Relationship—Over the course of time, your Boomi outsourcing needs may change. You may start off needing a full-time Boomi expert to hand-hold your team and get your Boomi project going (in fact, you might need a team of Boomi Consultants), but as your internal resources ramp up or as the “big buildout phase” ends, you may no longer need a full-time Boomi Contractor, and you may only need a fractional Boomi resource. In a situation like this, an individual Boomi Contractor may not have the flexibility to support you part-time, while a Boomi Partner may be able to provide Boomi managed services. This translates to a single Boomi partner being able to effectively and efficiently support you on your Boomi journey for the long run. Advantage: Boomi Partners.

And Now Another Crucial Question: Can I Hire Any Certified Boomi Partner?

I am sure at this point, some of you are smiling and are bracing yourself for the hard sales pitch! Of course, I am biased but I will stress that not all Boomi partners are equal. It is not just about selecting the highest level, top tier Boomi partner—a Platinum Boomi partner (previously called Elite Boomi Partner) or Gold Boomi partner.

It is important to understand their Boomi engagement delivery track record and the percentage of successful Boomi projects. While all of them will have some successes, they may not be as common as they might want you to believe.

Another important factor to consider is whether the Boomi Partner has certified Boomi Consultants—from certified Boomi Architects to certified Boomi Integration Developers and certified Boomi Administrators. Additionally, the breadth of Boomi expertise that can be demonstrated by certifications in API Management, Flow, EDI, and Master Data Hub. More important than just the number of Boomi certifications that the Boomi Partner has is whether the assigned Boomi Consultants have the requisite Boomi certifications.

Next, you need to understand whether the Boomi Partner has Consultants that are experienced in projects similar to yours or whether they only have theoretical knowledge. And while we are on this topic, there is often an issue of bait-and-switch where you may talk with A-team players during the sales process but then be saddled with C-team players and newbies for your actual project.

Next (and this is often a key differentiator), it is important to feel comfortable that the Boomi Partner you pick will provide you with the thought leadership and consulting/mentoring that you need for a successful Boomi implementation project. Some Boomi partners may only be doers and not thinkers, and what you need are “thinkers and doers”. There are many key decisions you will need to make in your Boomi project, and it is crucial that you receive well-considered guidance, and that your team receives the mentoring that will support good decision-making in the long run.

Another key factor is the Boomi project execution methodology/process used by the Boomi Partner.

Lastly, and very importantly, how does the Boomi partner invest in up-leveling its Boomi Consultants and growing their technical and project execution skills. The Boomi platform is constantly evolving and adding new capabilities, and the surrounding technology landscape is evolving as well—it is imperative that the Boomi Consultants at the Boomi partner under consideration keep educating and growing themselves.

So, Why Hire XTIVIA As Your Boomi Partner?

As I said above, I might be somewhat biased in answering this question but I will start with our people—the XTIVIA leadership team (and many of our consultants) have been XTIVIANs for a long-time, celebrating 5-year, 10-year, 15-year, 20-year, and even 25-year anniversaries (for example, I started at XTIVIA in the year 2000, and have celebrated my 20-year anniversary at XTIVIA).

And we, XTIVIANs take a ton of pride in “happy customers” and “a job done right”. We are not exactly small (~400 team members in 2022 and growing), but we certainly are not big enough to have failed engagements—each and every XTIVIA customer is important to our team, and we are highly motivated to deliver successful outcomes for each of our customers.

To be more specific, the following are some of the reasons why we believe that you should hire XTIVIA as your Boomi partner:

  • We are small enough to provide personalized delivery and large enough to take on your enterprise scale programs.
  • We have a team of certified Boomi Consultants with over 40 Boomi certifications:
    • Professional Boomi Architect
    • Professional Boomi Integration Developer
    • Professional Boomi Operations Administrator (Linux and Windows)
    • Professional API Design and API Management
    • Associate EDI for X12
    • Associate Boomi Flow Developer
    • Associate Boomi Master Data Hub
  • Our Boomi Consultants have expertise across the full range of Boomi platform capabilities including Integration, B2B/EDI Management, API Management, Flow, and Master Data Hub.
  • We are Thinkers AND Doers! We have created a library of Boomi best practices and patterns, and have a repeatable methodology that helps us deliver success for you, our customer. You can and should check out some examples of our thought leadership content:
  • We provide you strategic advice beyond the framework of a single project setting you up for long-term success. As an example, it is crucial to establish the right Boomi folder structure and Boomi component naming guidelines upfront to avoid chaos down the road. As another example, you have to always think about data integrity and may need to consider mastering your data using Boomi Master Data Hub.
  • We specialize in delivering successful Boomi engagements from large-scale project implementations to managed services where we help you with new ongoing integration needs or operations. And we have done so across 15+ years of real world application/data integration, API development, BPM/workflows, and master data management project delivery with market leading organizations.
  • And when you zoom back out and look at the collective industry knowledge at XTIVIA, we have experience working with companies from a broad range of different industries between us. Some of these industries or verticals include E-commerce (B2B and B2C), Manufacturing, Technology, Legal, Professional Services, Retail and we are constantly adding more all the time.
  • Our project lifecycle follows an agile, iterative, scrum-based process with complete transparency. Every project has challenges, and we believe in illuminating and resolving risks and issues at the earliest.
  • We continually challenge ourselves to improve our people, processes, and tools. A key mantra at XTIVIA is—“Keep getting better to avoid going the way of the dinosaur”. Our team is constantly pushing the envelope and learning, and sharing our learning through our technical brown bags—whether that is through sharing new Boomi platform capabilities or new best practices or even brainstorming a particularly interesting design problem from one of our client’s projects. When you go with XTIVIA, you don’t just get the expertise of the Boomi Consultants specifically assigned to your account, but the expertise and experience of our entire team.
  • We don’t expect our people to know everything there is to know. We expect them to be hungry to grow and we expect them to develop themselves all the time once they start with us—we are strong believers in “continual improvement”. For us, the learning never really stops and “mastery” is an aspiration that never really gets met as we keep moving the “mastery” yardstick further once you reach there. Our motto is “leave people better than you found them,” both for our team members and for our clients.
  • We mentor and help grow our client’s team members. We don’t just teach the “what” and the “how”, but also the “why”. This fits in with the old adage “teach a person to fish and they’ll never go hungry”. As an example of following this adage, we produce 2-4 page, agile design notes that capture the pros and cons of our design choices, and when we have multiple design options, we document the pros and cons of each option, and why we recommend (or chose) a particular design option.

If you have gotten this far in this article, you probably are thinking “this sounds GREAT, but can I really believe this?”. I get it—if I were you, I would have a healthy dose of skepticism. Give us a shot—reach out for a no-pressure, no-obligation exploratory conversation with our Boomi experts, and decide for yourself whether you can trust us. We are confident that you will not regret it.

XTIVIA is an all-encompassing plan for success in your Boomi implementation journey—you better believe it!