The Boomi On Demand Blog

Boomi adds support for Innotas PPM

2008-06-17T09:42:00-04:00

Boomi adds support for the Innotas PPM to our ever increasing list of applications supported. Like many SaaS providers, Innotas has has made it dead simple to deliver their application. With a complete on-demand model, companies needing a project portfolio management solution can turn to Innotas and avoid installing or maintaining any software, and can subscribe to the service on a per-user basis.

Utilizing our new Innotas Connector, Innotas customers now have the ability to integrate the PPM solution with other SaaS or on-premise applications. Many organizations utilize CRM to manage their sales pipeline. As those opportunities are won, projects can automatically be created in the Innotas application. Also prevalent are timesheet applications; data from these applications can now be automatically integrated to Innotas.

Like most of our Connectors, you can login to the application from within Boomi On Demand and browse the objects that are available to be integrated. After you select the object you wish to integrate, Boomi On Demand imports all of the information needed to "talk" to this API automatically. You do not need to be a developer or learn any technical details of the Innotas API. This makes setup and maintenance fast and simple.

We are excited to support this on demand application. As always, you can try this connector for free here.

Integrate Peachtree using Boomi On Demand

2008-05-20T14:00:00-04:00

We have added support for Peachtree to our ever growing list of supported applications and data formats we can integrate. You can now integrate Peachtree from your web browser without having to learn the underlying technical API. Connect to your CRM, supply chain applications, HR systems, data warehouses, etc. to automate the exchange of data and processes between these systems.

We support the following versions of Peachtree:

Peachtree Complete Accounting
Peachtree Quantum
Peachtree Premium. Accounting
Peachtree Premium. Accounting for Construction
Peachtree Premium. Accounting for Distribution
Peachtree Premium. Accounting for Manufacturing
Peachtree Premium. Accounting for Non-Profit

Support for Peachtree appears as another connector in Boomi On Demand, and like most of our connectors, there is no manual setup. The user just points to their installed copy of Peachtree, and then can browse the available Peachtree objects that can be integrated. Our connector is based on the Peachtree SDK kit, so any object exposed through that SDK can be integrated (virtually all of the Peachtree objects are available).

If you already have a Boomi On Demand account, this new connector is available for you. If not, you can try it for free. Further documentation can be found here.

Clean up your data with new Cleanse functionality

2008-05-13T14:00:00-04:00

When integrating data from legacy systems to SaaS applications or other enterprise software it is common that the data will have any combination of problems. Things like the appearance of bad/unexpected characters, inconsistent date or numeric formats, missing mandatory values, etc. When you are looking to automate business processes that rely on this data, it can be an ongoing maintenance problem. Many companies end up dealing with ongoing manual intervention of their integration processes by fixing this data by hand and then reprocessing it. In fact, analyst groups like the Yankee Group estimate that companies end up spending more than twice as much maintaining the integrations versus the initial purchase of the integration software.

To help solve this problem, we have added Cleanse capabilities to Boomi On Demand. You now have the ability to set up validation rules for individual fields in individual records. Things like "is the field empty", "is it a date", "is it in dollars", etc. When a validation is failed, you can then explicitly handle this failure. You can choose to reject just the failed record, halt processing of the data set altogether, or define options to automatically repair the data so it can be processed. For example, imagine a scenario where you are retrieving a flat file containing several hundred thousand rows of data. You can now strip out just the rows that fail your validations, and continue processing the "clean" rows successfully. You can queue up any rejected data and handle it any number of ways; email someone, ftp that data somewhere, create log records in a database, etc.

You can try it out yourself for free here.

Integration IS the Application

2008-04-29T09:00:00-04:00

Integration Is the Application

Ok – that statement may be a little over the top but I make it in the same spirit as Sun’s vision for so many years that “the network is the computer.” Using that analogy, I absolutely believe that integration is the application in the SaaS paradigm.

I was speaking with the CEO of one of our partner companies last week. He was excited because they had an interesting prospect for their SaaS application and were very close to closing the deal. The prospect liked the functionality of the application and felt it was a good fit for their business. So, the CEO said, all we need to do is integrate them with a few things and we’re all set…

Well the few things turned out to be the prospect’s website, several online trading marketplaces, an on prem point-of-sale system, an on prem financial system, and an online third-party shipping system. Oh and of course the partner’s SaaS application. And please deliver all of that without adding any appreciable cost to my solution such that I get priced out of the deal. Sure – no problem!

In the SaaS world of APIs, web services, and interoperability, it is increasingly common to see highly specialized applications focused on solving a specific business requirement but with very deep and rich functionality. That’s the beauty of a service oriented approach. However, this approach relies heavily on the ability to integrate with other highly specialized apps to deliver a complete and holistic solution to the end customer.

We get calls almost weekly from SaaS ISVs who have built really ingenious and innovative applications for the Web assuming there would be a way to solve their integration needs. They need to get data from multiple disparate data sources both in the cloud and behind the firewall to make their application “sing” and find that traditional on premise integration software packages or hardware appliances have become a sales and implementation hurdle as well as a long term scaling issue.

Integration, and the ability to deliver integration as a service, is quickly becoming a competitive imperative. It’s not enough to just offer APIs to your customers. Increasingly consumers of software as a service also want to buy integration as a service as well. They want a complete and integrated solution that works “out of the box,” can be deployed rapidly, and begins delivering value immediately. When you buy appliances for your house, they come with cords and plugs – you don’t need to be an electrician to use them. Integration is the application…

New Features, Faster Integration Deployment

2008-04-23T09:47:35-04:00

We are happy to announce some exciting features that we've released this week. The three major enhancements have been Test Mode, Cross Reference Tables and Flat File Import. We are always looking at ways to reduce the time it takes to setup an integration and get it working. You find that as a common theme in our latest feature releases.

Test Mode

The first enhancement, Test Mode, is by far the most exciting. There is no longer the need to build a process, deploy, execute & wait for the results in the Manage tab. You now actually have the ability to test a process right from the Build tab while the process is open! You simply need to click 'Test Mode' located in the upper right hand corner of your process and the screen will transform for you. Choose your atom, hit the play button and watch it run. You'll even see each shape hilight green and red based on the status of the run. Logging also occurs at each shape, so debugging becomes very easy. There are some data & size limitations for testing, but it comes in handy during development.

Cross Reference Tables

Next is our Cross Reference Table functionality. Ever have some referencable lists that you'd like to maintain, but dont want to create a database table somewhere or write code? For example, System A may have our country code defined as "_unitedStates", while System B defines it as "US", and System C may be "United States". You no longer need to waste time on a database on your network, or write code to cross reference these values. You can just create a table in your process and use/reuse in your maps, decisions, message shapes, etc.

Flat File Importer

Last but not least is our flat file importer. We've heard the requests of our users and delivered. You no longer have to manually build out your flat file mapping structures by hand. In the flat file profile, you simply need to click the import button and pick a CSV file that is representative of your sample data. Bingo, fields get populated for you! Now all thats left is to define your length and mandatory field level rules. We have now taken the fastest-to-deploy integration service and made it even faster!

We hope you all enjoy these recent additions and there are much more to come. If you have any feedback on these, or other recommendations, please join our forums (www.boomi.com/bod_forums) and chime in. Or if you're working in the application, feel free to ping our support team via live chat with your ideas as well (8am-8pm ET) We truly welcome your thoughts!

Solving SaaS Integration for ISV's

2008-03-11T10:00:00-04:00

At last weeks SaaS Summit hosted by OpSource, Friday's big announcement by Treb Ryan again reiterates the huge problem integration can be if it is not strategically addressed. We are very excited to be such a big part of how OpSource plans to solve it.

But first, I thought the conference itself was excellent. The OpSource team continues to run one of the most important industry events year after year. Attendees get a full course of topics that matter most to SaaS ISV's or companies planning to migrate their offering to the SaaS model. Topics like security, scalability, infrastructure considerations, marketing and of course integration were addressed by industry experts during the 2 day conference.

One of the sessions was a panel called "Integration behind the firewall - Take II". Not only did this panel require a "Take II" (they did the same panel at last years conference) the OpSource execs said it was the most attended session of this years entire conference. I was one of the panelists and was amazed by the amount of questions during the panel and afterwards. I suppose the OpSource team saw this coming as Treb's keynote on Friday morning was all about integration.

As Treb Ryan (CEO) and John Rowell (CTO) we preparing on the main stage, an odd song with the lyrics "Get on the Bus" kept repeating over and over again. Treb opened by telling us that he had 6 songs to choose from, and he has no idea why he chose this one. Richard Dym (OpSource CMO) said a quick prayer to the "Demo Gods" as he was telling us that this keynote would be featuring a live demo. Treb than proceeded to highlight a strategy around integration that OpSource is calling OpSource Connect. Connect is based around the OpSource Services Bus, which is a two way communication infrastructure that today allows any OpSource client to connect to any other OpSource client or service that is made available through the bus. It solves a significant problem of standardizing the connectivity between web services, and allowing for relevant information to flow through the bus in a real-time and secure manner. (Although better served in a follow on post, the summary here is although web services are a step in the right direction, they are not nearly as standardized as they are marketed.)

With the OpSource Services Bus (OSB) now in place, an OpSource customer can now leverage the bus to expose their own API. This further separates OpSource from a generic "managed hosting provider" by delivering a critical capability that every one of their customers will need unless they have the means/time/resource to build one themselves. They call this their "Web Services Enablement Program". So now thanks to OpSource Connect you are on your way to having your app connected with every other app hosted on OpSource, and now on top of this you have a robust and scabale API for external resources to utilize for the primary purpose of integration.

So how does Boomi fit in to all this? Well as the keynote proceeds, Treb announces "Boomi for OpSource Connect" as the solution to utilize and interact with the data available through the OSB and API's exposed through the "Web Services Enablement Program". Now all OpSource customers have available to them Boomi On Demand, including a pre-built connector into the OSB. Using our visual integration technology, users can browse and choose any of the assets available to them on the bus. No coding, no learning about SOAP or WSDL. Think of this as the bridge between what is on the OSB and everything else. From other SaaS apps like Salesforce, NetSuite, Intacct, Entellium, SmartTurn, etc. to on-premise apps like QuickBooks, Peachtree, Great Plains, Oracle, SAP.

Further, as OpSource customers need to integrate their applications with data sources behind their customers firewalls, "OpSource Sockets" was also announced which utilizes technologies including the Boomi Atom that make it very easy to integrate with those data sources with no changes to the firewall required.

OpSource is adding huge value to their customer base with this new offering. If there is one guarantee, its that integration will be a challenge for any SaaS solution. By baking these capabilities into the over all "web operations" that OpSource provides, businesses will get to market faster and will have answers to the questions of integration that come up in their sales cycle. The answer just went from "code to our API's" to "we have a solution for that, would you like to see a working demo?"

Speaking of demo's, after the announcement, John did a live demo using real data to showcase a very common integration. He showed how the signup of a new customer in a SaaS app can automatically trigger an integration process to create an invoice in the finance application (QuickBooks in this case) and also create the new customer in salesforce.com. He explained the flow and showed how it was done using Boomi for OpSource Connect. The demo gods were kind to them that day as everything ran just fine.

A PDF of the presentation can be found here.

Recording of Bob Moul's PacificCrest Presentation Now Available

2008-03-10T08:00:00-04:00

Well it was standing room only at Bob's presentation of Boomi at this years PacificCrest conference.

If you happened to miss it, you can see it here.

SaaS Consumers: “Don’t Make Integration My Problem”

2008-02-27T11:44:52-05:00

The recent acquisition of Cape Clear by Workday signals the beginning of a trend that I think will have profound impact on the SaaS industry. That trend is consumers of SaaS are beginning to push back on ISVs saying in essence – “don’t make integration my problem. I am buying a service and I want integration included in that service.” This has been our view at Boomi since we began building Boomi On Demand two years ago and is why our go-to-market strategy has focused almost exclusively on partnering with SaaS ISVs and technology providers.

The tendency of ISVs has been to sell around the integration challenge in the sales cycle and to base their integration strategy around providing a set of APIs to their application. Well constructed APIs are essential but not the “Holy Grail” to SaaS integration. For one thing there are very few SMBs that have the developers to use APIs and companies at the enterprise level would prefer to put their precious R&D resources elsewhere. Then the tendency has been to sell professional services engagements to build the integrations “one off” which pretty much defeats the benefits of a SaaS offering and becomes an enormous maintenance and scalability issue as the ISV grows. I first wrote about this issue in an OpSource newsletter last September.

I believe there is growing consensus that integration is the #1 barrier to SaaS adoption and a recent survey by Saugatuck showed that the ability to integrate SaaS with on premise workflows is the #1 criterion of customers choosing a SaaS provider. And I believe integration is the #1 strategic issue for SaaS ISVs going to market once they have their application built and hosted.

The acquisition of Cape Clear by Workday makes a strong and undeniable statement in the SaaS industry about the strategic importance of integration to SaaS ISVs. It was important enough to Workday to acquire a company. I agree wholeheartedly with (former) Cape Clear CEO Annrai O’Toole who said in his blog (http://www.capeclear.com/annrai/?p=29) “…integration is at the heart of hosted applications – and not an on premise, bolt-on like other enterprise vendors believe…”

SaaS ISVs who cannot afford to buy a company have the following options:

1. Continue to put the burden of integration on their clients
2. Sell professional services engagements and build custom integrations
3. Build an integration infrastructure on their own
4. Partner with Platform-as-a-Service or Integration-as-a-Service vendors to package integration for their clients

As I’ve said before, it’s a classic build-buy-partner decision but if integration is not your core competence, I would strongly recommend taking a hard look at the partnering option.

Integration is quickly moving from a non-core offering of SaaS ISVs and technology providers to a strategic imperative and source of competitive advantage. Forward thinking ISVs will move in short order to plug the integration gap in their offerings.

The 'Salesforce CRM' of Integration: Boomi On Demand

2008-02-10T21:19:56-05:00

David Sims at TMCnet notes the comparison of what we have done in the integration industry to what Salesforce did to the CRM industry. From the article:

Andrew Leigh, the director of integration product marketing at Salesforce.com, said as companies are using Force.com and Salesforce CRM applications, “Boomi has brought the on-demand model to integration.”

After a beta customer program that included over 100 organizations ranging from small businesses to some of the largest companies in the world, Boomi On Demand is now available to the general market.

The product makes it possible to link any combination of Software-as-a-Service and on-premises applications without installing software packages or hardware appliances.

Companies such as CRM vendors Salesforce.com and NetSuite, as well as Revionics, Intacct, SmartTurn, and OpSource are working with Boomi On Demand to provide integration between SaaS applications and on-premises applications.

Mini Peiris, the vice president of product management for NetSuite, said Boomi On Demand gives NetSuite customers “the ability to tie NetSuite to peripheral applications” with an integration product allowing data transfer into NetSuite.

We couldn't agree more. Read the full article here.

Use Alerts to watch your integrations

2008-02-07T10:50:43-05:00

One of the features we released last month was Alerts functionality. Alerts allow you to subscribe via RSS to either an account level or Atom level feed of your integration workflows. You can subscribe to a "Alerts Only" feed to receive notifications of execution errors or if the Atom goes offline, or a Monitor feed which includes all of this information plus completion notifications as well. The Monitor feed is useful if you need to provide users with access to what is happening in your account/Atom, without giving them a login.

Many applications and devices now support RSS natively, so you can also serve these alerts up right inside the app of your choice.

If you are watching multiple RSS feeds, aggregators like Google Reader are great because they allow you to tag and organize large numbers of feeds very efficiently.