We know how much our customers depend on the Boomi AtomSphere Platform to connect their critical systems and automate workflows. But you know what? It’s also the foundation of our own business.
We even have an expression for that: Boomi on Boomi.
We use our product every day to solve common problems – and save ourselves a boatload of money. For us, the ROI of Boomi isn’t just theoretical. We constantly measure it internally. And we’re always thinking about new ways to use our platform to overcome challenges.
For instance, we use Boomi for our job candidate referral program, employee onboarding, return-to-worksite protocols, and so much more. The idea of being our own “test kitchen” has always been a fundamental part of Boomi. But it’s even more critical now.
As you may have heard, we’ve become a standalone company again. That means we’ve had to break away from the systems we used at Dell Technologies and quickly ramp up our independent processes in HR, IT, and other departments. We’re constantly confronting that age-old “build vs. buy” question as we evaluate our new technology landscape.
At Boomi, the answer usually is “build” because the flexibility of our platform allows us to do it better and at much less cost.
So, over a series of posts, I and my team will present some examples of how we use Boomi internally. Why? Well, I think they’re pretty darn cool. But I also want to demonstrate what’s possible with Boomi, and maybe that will spark some ideas of what you can do with our platform.
I’ll start with one of my favorite ways we use Boomi — helping our team members give credit where credit is due.
High5 Internal Recognition Program
We’ve built a unique culture at Boomi. We want to preserve that as we navigate change. At the top of that list was recognizing our people who do great things. You did something fantastic! You deserve kudos! Now, there are plenty of employee recognition platforms on the market. But they also aren’t cheap. Besides, the best way to quickly create and implement a process that highlights the sheer awesomeness of our colleagues was with our own Boomi platform.
Hello, High5!
Three elements of our platform make up High5. (The name, of course, comes from giving your colleagues digital High 5 celebration hand slaps.) Boomi Flow created a front-end application that employees can interact with – such as leaving comments and seeing a leaderboard. Boomi Master Data Hub provides trusted information about our employees from numerous sources. Finally, Boomi Integration – the bread and butter of what we do – instantly moves data back and forth between our internal hub and High5.
Let’s pull back the curtain and see how it works.
I like to use an automobile analogy to explain all of the things Boomi can do. Boomi Integration is the engine that drives everything. Boomi Master Data Hub is the gas tank. It’s where all the fuel – your data – resides for the automobile to move forward. And think of Boomi Flow as the paint to the car. It’s the beautiful exterior – the interface – that everyone can admire.
People often think of workflows as simply moving data from Point A to Point B. But Boomi Flow is more. It enables you to create a whizbang user-interactive experience. You can create anything you want – almost without limits. In the case of High 5, we wanted employees to have the ability to write something short about a colleague’s great work, have the post seen by everyone, and record “points” on a leaderboard. Let’s just say we gave High 5 a cherry red paint job.
We have a full “fuel tank” of employee information. Boomi Master Data Hub gives us a 360-degree view of our employees by pulling information via Boomi Integration from numerous internal sources such as Workday, Salesforce, Pendo, Jira, Absorb, Slack, and more. Once there, it synchronizes that information into a single “golden record” of each employee. And anytime one of those outside sources updates information, our internal hub automatically gets updated, too.
The Boomi Integration engine is always purring along in the background. With High5, it continues the role as the always-on middleman by instantly passing information back and forth between our centralized employee database and the application. For instance, High5 says, “Hey, I need to see an updated leaderboard.” So then Boomi Integration is told, “Go ask for everyone who has gotten a High5.” Boomi Master Data Hub then responds to the request, and the information is sent back through Boomi Integration back to High5, where it’s immediately updated.
Easy-peasy!
But wait! There’s more! When someone gets a High5, it can also post to a dedicated Slack channel so that everyone knows about the recognition. (Another Boomi integration, thank you.) That can launch even more company-wide conversation because Slack is something we all use at Boomi. Also, an email gets automatically sent to the recipient’s manager to keep them in the loop and perhaps become a discussion point in the next performance evaluation.
High5 contributes to a sense of being part of the Boomi team and knowing that our hard work is making a difference and being recognized around the company. Our new HR leaders love the camaraderie it creates. Our new CIO is thrilled to save money building this ourselves and reducing our software spend.
And the best part? It’s 100% Boomi.
Interested in other real-world use cases for Boomi? Check out Discover to see a selection of our pre-built solutions that install directly into your Boomi platform account.