LAS VEGAS – Dell Boomi took advantage of the partner summit at its second annual user conference, Boomi World, to announce its enhanced Technology Partner Program.
Designed for ISVs, SIs, and other developers under the Dell Boomi Global Partner Program, it serves partners who are developing connectors on the Dell Boomi Platform, those who are creating interoperability with it, and those helping customers validate compatibility of software solutions with it.
With 74 per cent of digital transformations failing, according to McKinsey, there’s a huge opportunity for Boomi’s partners to help their customers beat the odds, David Tavolaro, vice-president of global business development told summit attendees. The company is redefining iPaaS (integration platform as a service) to reflect that new reality, taking it beyond integration to providing connectivity and workflows across the entire business ecosystem.
“Partners are implementing larger and more complex transformations,” he said later in an interview. “Customers and partners realize that the digital transformation journey needs more than just integration. As the market confirms this key business need, customers are investing more.”
Boomi is investing more as well, providing additional tools for partners including a solutions playbook for multiple use cases and industries, technical, sales and marketing support, a 100 per cent increase in training courses available, an enhanced partner finder, and a software development kit for building connectors, solutions, and even bots. The company has also added support for Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric blockchain platforms, an API gateway, and Data Services for Pivotal, which allows Boomi deployments in Pivotal Kubernetes (PKS) and Pivotal Application Services (PAS) environments.
Boomi announces Connect Now
Another newly announced product, Connect Now, allows partners and customers to provide self-service to business users for simple integrations, freeing developers to handle the more complex situations while still giving IT appropriate controls.
Boomi’s chief product officer Steve Wood told partners that opportunities for them exist in two main areas: connected applications, which he called “your application centre of the universe for data”, and connected solutions built on top of the Boomi platform or created to extend it.
“Build on Boomi, build in Boomi,” he said. “Build stuff around us.”
One of those building in Boomi is Vancouver-based Traction on Demand, one of the top ten global partners for Salesforce. A big piece of its business involves integrating other data sources with the Salesforce platform. It has been a Boomi partner since 2012, and director of marketing and alliances Kevin Murray sees the relationship growing.
“Boomi is the type of partner we want to go with,” he said. “It views partners as part of the team.” And despite Salesforce’s recent acquisition of Mulesoft, which also provides integrations for Salesforce, he sees no lessening of his Boomi business, noting that the two products will suit different customers.
Boomi’s platform extends beyond integration to data management and workflow automation, all required for digital transformation. To get started, said Mychelle Mollot, CMO at Ottawa-based data movement specialist Solace, you need integration and transformation, then must be able to do something intelligent with the data and move to real-time responsiveness through event-based communications. Boomi handles the first two pieces of the equation for Solace, while Solace’s PubSub+ Message Brokers are the event traffic cops.
“Everybody wants actions in real time,” she noted. “Event-based communication is de rigueur in IT; in the Internet of Things, it’s pushing events.”
Boomi customers agree. The Town of Cary, North Carolina is using it to integrate data from its traffic signals into its CRM, so when a signal malfunctions, action is taken automatically. Manufacturer Alleantia integrates robotics data from the edge with its CRM to speed resolution of issues, and integrator and developer Hathority has partnered with the City of Phoenix, Arizona to help it streamline garbage collection by monitoring the fill level of garbage bins at commercial locations and triggering pickups only when necessary.
“Device data is making its way into everything,” said Boomi CTO Michael Morton. “Nearly every business will need to produce and consume data from devices to be competitive, and nearly every business will need an integration platform.”
He sees that as yet another a growth opportunity for Boomi and its partners.