By Mark Emmons
Boomi highlights business thought leaders, the projects they’re working on, and the trends they’re seeing. And their hot takes on pizza integrations, too.
Matt McLarty’s background as a digital strategist has spanned several eras of application and data integration. It dates back to working with older legacy systems, and now he’s helping shape today’s emerging technologies.
His career-long focus all comes back to one thing: how the digital world is connected.
“I’ve always been driven by helping organizations evolve and move forward,” said McLarty, who recently joined Boomi as Chief Technology Officer. “I’ve learned in my career that the key to unlocking an organization’s adaptability and resilience – the main ingredients for success in the digital economy – is to focus on how applications and data interact. You can’t truly understand or transform your business without that knowledge.”
McLarty’s broad range of interests reflects that technical expertise: he is a software architect, published author, and self-described API enthusiast, among other things. He’s co-written a book on microservices, has another coming about the modular structure for digital business, and soon will be co-hosting “The API Experience Podcast.”
“I believe companies need to make their digital assets more composable, to be more democratic in including who builds digital systems and be ready to leverage the deluge of AI technologies that are on the verge of changing everything,” he said. “Boomi is well-positioned to help businesses do all of that.”
We spoke with McLarty about why it has been so hard for some companies to crack the connectivity code, how organizations can prepare for the artificial intelligence revolution, and about his decision to join Boomi.
We like to start with a fun question. What’s your favorite pizza integration?
Matt McLarty: Oh boy. Starting off with a tough one. I’m not too picky. No olives or pineapples. Extra anchovies and Canadian bacon (gotta represent). I’m flexible with everything else.
So, “CTO” could also stand for Canadian Technology Officer?
Matt McLarty: Ha! Yes, I am indeed a Canadian from sea to shining sea. I grew up in the Toronto area, went to university on the east coast in Nova Scotia, and now I live with my wife and two sons here in beautiful British Columbia on the west coast. Confirming the stereotype, I do play hockey in a men’s league and coach my younger son. So, I’m fine if we want to redefine the CTO role!
Why has it been difficult for many companies to adjust to this digital age?
Matt McLarty: It’s a bit counterintuitive, but in my experience, the longer companies have depended on software systems, the more they’ve struggled to modernize. That’s because we’ve gone out and built these incredibly complex, game-changing integrated software systems to run high-scale organizations with no template.
We were inventing a paradigm and borrowed what we could from the 20th-century mass-production practices. But that was untested when it came to software, data, and supporting organizations. So even though these huge, successful companies had the funding and resources to digitally transform, they were fighting the inertia of their technical debt and the lack of a proven blueprint. Then the pandemic hit, and people realized, “If we don’t go digital now, we’re going to risk going out of business.”
When doctors couldn’t meet patients in person, retailers couldn’t have shoppers in stores, and all that stuff, the only path was going through digital channels. Out of necessity, organizations came up with new ways of working. Business and IT teams that had been working separately joined forces to solve urgent business problems, using the digital assets at their disposal with an experimental mindset. It was the recipe for heroic success.
When the smoke cleared, it was apparent that many companies had gone digital in a Band-Aid way and realized that they had added more complexity and spaghetti on top of what they already had in their architectures. But there were some companies that had set themselves up for success going forward.
What lessons can we learn from those digital winners?
Matt McLarty: I’m seeing three things. First, companies need to be connectable and composable to thrive. They need to get quickly to their data and take advantage of software functionality in a way where they can plug and play new products and new customer experiences.
Secondly, there’s the democratization of development. If software and digital are at the heart of every company, then you’ve got to have everybody involved. It’s not just an IT discussion anymore. It creates bottlenecks if the IT team has to do all the work building digital solutions and they don’t understand the business objectives. The more you can bring the business people in – the front-line resources – to collaborate with the technology experts, you’ll come up with better solutions, greater quality, and higher scalability.
The third lesson is more recent. If you’ve been paying attention, successful companies differentiate themselves by harnessing machine learning and other AI technologies to incorporate data into everything they do.
Can you explain why integration enables companies to take full advantage of artificial intelligence?
Matt McLarty: I’ve been puzzled for the last few years why companies didn’t recognize just how critical AI fluency would be to their businesses. It’s something that a lot of established enterprises were just behind on. But now, ChatGPT and others are taking all the headlines. We suddenly went from an austere environment where every company’s got to cut costs to a fear of missing out on AI.
Now, there’s an arms race around companies that can harness the power of AI. But the only way companies can adopt AI technologies is to first make sense of all that digital spaghetti that stretches across the organization. Unless you’re a connectable or composable enterprise that can quickly plug and play all of your assets, there’s no way you’ll be able to take advantage of this AI boom.
Why Boomi, and why now?
Matt McLarty: I’ve always focused on how I can help organizations evolve and move forward. Boomi helps companies do that by helping them apply those success patterns we’ve seen from companies making the digital leap. Boomi enables companies to become more composable with their digital assets, democratizes the development process so the business and IT teams can co-create, and by helping organizations get on a fast track to realizing business value through AI technologies.
Boomi is perfectly aligned with my personal mission. Organizations need to innovate, and they need to be AI-ready. But while doing that, they must also be extremely cost-conscious, efficient, and scalable. Boomi is very pragmatic in helping our customers solve problems and innovate in ways that ultimately save money and time.
There’s a lot of concern about the dangers of AI. Are you worried about your family living in an AI dystopia?
Matt McLarty: I’m very passionate about technology ethics, and I’ve spent a lot of time considering what it means to be in the tech industry at this time. As with all technologies, they can be used for good and for bad.
I don’t think we have to worry about “Skynet becoming self-aware” so much as we have to watch out for misuse through bad intentions or unintended consequences. I feel that by working in the tech industry, I have a better opportunity to provide guidance on how AI can be used to drive inclusive prosperity and support human collaboration, instead of leading to economic extraction and job elimination (or worse). It’s better to be in the game than sitting on the bench, as we say up here in Canada, eh?
Up Close With Matt McLarty
Role: Chief Technology Officer at Boomi
Home: Vancouver, British Columbia
Family: Wife Chris is a hospital social worker with four university degrees; son Daniel is in undergraduate school at Simon Fraser University, and son Josiah is in Grade 3 with dreams of playing in the NHL.
Education: Bachelor of Science at Acadia University with honors in mathematics and statistics.
Career: His over 25 years of technology experience includes leadership roles at IBM, CA Technologies, and MuleSoft.
Cool Thing About Matt: He has released six albums of original music on Spotify et al.
For insights on the challenges facing technology leaders today and tips on how to solve them, read our eBook, “The Four Pillars of Excellence for Technology Leaders.”