By Mike Kiersey
Boomi and Elite Partner Slalom are announcing a new joint offering: the Boomi M&A Accelerator. The M&A Accelerator combines Boomi technology with Slalom consulting to help two companies quickly integrate their business systems in any kind of M&A transaction.
In this blog post, I’m going to take a quick look at the data-centric challenges companies face following an M&A transaction and how the Boomi M&A Accelerator addresses those challenges, making integration work as fast, smooth, and efficient as possible.
Time Is of the Essence in M&A Transactions
Speed matters in M&A opportunities. When one company acquires or merges with another, the goal is to realize the synergies and benefits envisioned by business leaders as quickly as possible.
For example, if the motivation is to acquire a product line in a growing market, you want to your combined sales teams to start selling that product line right away before market requirements change or new competitors appear. You don’t acquire a product line to profit from it starting in five years. You probably hope to be profiting from it in five quarters, if not in the next quarter or two.
One of the biggest challenges of combining companies quickly has to do with data. Unless the combined companies are very small, you probably can’t combine all their business systems at once. But you still need to share data in several key functional areas as close to Day One as possible. These functional areas include:
- Sales and customer support, so the combined companies can sell effectively and jointly support customers starting on Day 1
- Financial reporting, including reporting of sales results, cash flow, payroll, and liabilities
- “Hire-to-retire,” meaning complete HR records for all employees at both companies, including employees recently hired and those laid off
- Shipping and fulfillment, also known as “pick-pack-ship”
Getting the details about data connectivity right isn’t easy. You need to know what to connect and how to best connect to serve the business overall. The job requires a combination of flexible, scalable technology, as well as expertise in corporate strategy, project management, and enterprise architecture.
The Boomi M&A Accelerator Combines Boomi Technology With Slalom Expertise
That’s why we’re pleased to announce a new offering: the Boomi M&A Accelerator. This offering combines the Boomi AtomSphere Platform with a consulting engagement by Slalom, an Elite Boomi Partner with deep expertise in M&A consulting.
The Boomi M&A Accelerator includes:
- The Boomi AtomSphere Platform, Boomi’s best-in-class integration platform as a service (iPaaS)
- A pre-close and post-close consulting engagement with Slalom M&A strategists, integration architects, and integration developers
- Slalom project runbooks for common integration projects
- Slalom templates for common integration patterns, such as quote-to-cash and pick-pack-ship
Here’s what’s included in the M&A Accelerator, and why we think it’s exactly what many companies need as they prepare for and then undertake M&A transactions.
The Boomi AtomSphere Platform for Rapid Integration Development
As an integration platform as a service (iPaaS), the Boomi AtomSphere Platform provides a single, scalable platform for quickly building the connections and workflows two companies need to begin functioning as a single company as quickly as possible. The Boomi iPaaS helps with:
Data Readiness
The Boomi AtomSphere Platform helps companies discover, catalog, and prepare data for use in integrations with applications and services.
Pervasive Connectivity
Boomi provides ready-to-use connectors and a low-code development environment for rapidly building custom integrations and transformations, connecting data to people, devices, and processes across the enterprise.
User Engagement
Through workflow automation and other touchpoints, Boomi helps companies build integrated experiences that delight users and accelerate customer journeys.
The Boomi AtomSphere Platform includes Boomi Master Data Hub, a cloud-based data management hub for centralizing integration and avoiding the technical debt associated with myriad point-to-point connections. It also features Boomi Flow, a workflow automation capability, as well as capabilities for connecting to EDI and other business processes.
Slalom Consulting, Runbooks, and Templates
In addition to the Boomi AtomSphere Platform, the M&A Accelerator includes consulting expertise from Slalom. Let’s talk for a moment about why Slalom is the perfect Boomi Partner to help companies with their M&A integration projects.
Slalom is a $2.2B company with over 9,000 employees and an Elite Boomi Partner, having completed over 250 projects on the Boomi AtomSphere Platform. Slalom’s clients include more than half the Fortune 100 and a third of the Fortune 500, along with startups, not-for-profits, and innovative organizations of all kinds. Slalom is an experienced, fast-growing company, known for innovation and expertise in matters both strategic and technical. In other words, Slalom is exactly the kind of company you want helping you with an M&A transaction.
For the Boomi M&A Accelerator engagement, Slalom provides business and technology consulting that complements Boomi’s guidance for making the most of the Boomi AtomSphere Platform to connect systems in companies joined through M&A activity.
The M&A Accelerator engagement comprises three phases:
Enablement
A two-week engagement typically begun at least three months before the close of the M&A transaction. In this phase, a Slalom M&A strategist and an integration architect interview business and IT leaders to gather high-level integration requirements and determine business goals.
Implementation
A ten-to-twelve week engagement in which the Slalom integration architect and Slalom integration developers build out the Boomi AtomSphere Platform and establish connections with existing systems. The Slalom team helps define integration roles and responsibilities and the delivery model for the complete integration. Because this phase occurs before Day One, engineering work focuses on data models, rather than live data itself.
Customization
This phase begins on Day One and typically lasts eight weeks or longer, as needed. Because the transaction has closed, companies can share live data, not just data models. In this phase, the full Slalom team works with both companies to gather detailed requirements, finalize M&A integration plans, and define an interim operating model. They customize the Boomi AtomSphere Platform to meet the data requirements and operational scenarios defined in the project plan. They also apply Slalom template for common use cases such as Hire-to-Retire, Quote-to-Cash, Pick-Pack-Ship, and consolidated data reporting.
Once these templates are in place, Boomi and Slalom can continue to help with ongoing integration tasks.
Templates for Essential Integrations
Once Day One arrives, Slalom applies the agreed-upon functional models, which may include templates for common integration scenarios such as:
Hire-to-Retire
It’s critical that joined companies have a single, comprehensive source of HR data for hiring, payroll, promotions, reassignments, and severances. The Slalom template for Hire-to-Retire helps companies connect HR data using the Boomi AtomSphere Platform.
Quote-to-Cash
The Quote-to-Cash template provides a framework for quickly connecting systems needed for configuring and pricing products, generating quotes, placing orders, transacting sales, and performing financial transactions. Joined companies can’t begin selling effectively if this workflow isn’t in place.
Pick-Pack-Ship
Orders for physical goods need to be fulfilled quickly and reliably. Slalom’s template for Pick-Pack-Ship connects order systems, inventory management systems, and shipping and logistics systems to ensure that orders are filled quickly and efficiently.
Once these essential integrations are built, Slalom can help companies with ongoing integration work to further streamline operations and to lay the foundation for future digital transformation projects.
A Track Record of Success
Slalom has already proven its agile, iterative approach to integrating systems delivers the results newly combined companies need.
For example, Slalom recently helped a leading data platform provider acquire a 250-person, $100M company on time and with no disruption to revenue. Taking a cross-practice, cross-office, two-iteration approach, Slalom’s 25-person team aligned the two companies’ businesses processes and business platforms, migrated all the data objects for those platforms, expanded a customer base through the creation 2,500 new customers, expanded product lines, and trained all the affected internal and external users. The project, which eventually involved the management of over 1 million business records, was completed in less than 6 months.
Slalom also advises businesses on M&A strategies and performs due diligence on technologies and culture, so that business leaders can make prudent decisions about possible M&A transactions. Through engagements like these, Slalom and Boomi become trusted advisors to Corporate Development teams and executive sponsors across organizations.
Conclusion
The pace of M&A transactions continues to pick up. If your company is involved in any kind of merger or acquisition, it’s essential that you have a plan and a platform for integrating business systems quickly and efficiently.
The Boomi M&A Accelerator provides the platform, planning, and development expertise you need for building connections and realizing M&A synergies as quickly as possible.
To learn more about the Boomi M&A Accelerator, read the Boomi M&A Accelerator Solution Brief or contact a Boomi integration specialist today.