5 Best Practices to Kickstart Your Next Boomi Integration Project

API integration has become a focal point for every organization to enhance workplace productivity.

Along with connecting systems/applications together, it serves businesses with simplified workflows, comprehensive visibility into data, automated processes, and a lot more.

In fact, according to research^[i], 83% believe that API integration is crucial to business strategy.

But most businesses find it challenging to choose the right platform for integrating on-premise and cloud-based applications.

This impacts their revenue streams and workplace productivity.

Enter – Dell Boomi, an iPaaS that makes enterprise integration a breeze.

With advanced integration features, Boomi ensures safe, secure, and robust integration of applications, devices, databases, and more.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss how Boomi overcomes common integration challenges and how to leverage the optimum potential of the Boomi integration platform.

Understanding the Enterprise Integration Challenges

Enterprises contain truckloads of data that is often fragmented, distributed, and available in different formats.

That’s why it is pivotal to integrate data for better accessibility and enhanced business productivity.

However, there are some integration challenges that need a viable solution. Here’s a quick look at them:

• Duplicate data and data scattered over different sources

• Inefficient hybrid cloud and on-premise systems that impact workplace productivity

• Teams using different systems

• Poor quality that comes from a large volume of data

• Different integration use cases

To conquer these challenges, choosing the right integration platform is a must. And that’s where Boomi comes into the picture.

A Brief Insight into Boomi

Boomi is an iPaas (Integration Platform as a Service) tool for enterprise integration that connects on-premise and cloud-based applications.

With its drag-and-drop UI, data mapping tools, and an exhaustive library of connectors, Boomi allows you to integrate applications faster.

It sets you free from IT complexities and breaks data silos by connecting data, devices, and applications across multiple hybrid cloud ecosystems.

It comes with a full API lifecycle, allowing you to deploy integrations and manage APIs seamlessly.

With Boomi, you can make your integration project a success by following a few best practices. Also, It comes with data mapping tools, crowd source feature, three-tier full-stack security framework, etc., that offers you faster Integration, simplified workflows, and much more.

Let’s take a look at 5 best practices that make your next Boomi integration project successful.

5 Best Practices to Make Your Boomi Integration Project a Success

Integrating enterprise API applications/devices with Boomi helps you interconnect business processes efficiently. But to ensure it is done hassle-free and at warp speed, here are a few best practices that you should consider. Let’s take a look at them:

• Use Native Boomi Framework

To simplify the application’s overall efficiency and performance, it is suggested to use the native Boomi functionality instead of Java/Groovy. This keeps your process clean and reduces maintenance costs by using common framework components such as Connections, Cross Reference tables, and Map Functions.

• Establish Folder Structure Guidelines

Managing folders with multiple departments and developers can be challenging. Therefore, it is advisable to keep common folders organized by creating a ‘connections’ folder under the root folder. This avoids duplication of connections, promotes connections’ reusability, and avoids license misuse.

• Establish High-Level Implementation Guidelines

To determine whether Boomi should be deployed in the cloud or on-premise, follow these steps:

1. Group each interface based on the integration patterns such as Point-to-Point, Publish/Subscribe, API/Web Services, and ETL (Extract, Transformation, Load).
2. Analyze integration methods like real-time, event-based, batch, ELT, and asynchronous processes.
3. Define user roles and access rights, data masking for personal information, social security numbers, etc.
4. Define reusable design patterns (such as error detection, reprocessing, exception notifications, cross-referencing, look-ups, etc.).
5. Identify the need for iPaaS run-agents and install them.

• Follow a Well-Defined Execution Methodology

If you want to execute integration projects successfully, it is a must to adhere to a well-defined execution methodology and pay special attention to the MVP, speed, and time-to-value. Here are the two different methodologies:

1. Go Iterative

To execute integration projects, it is advisable to go for the iterative plans. With this, you can build MVP iteratively and deploy it hassle-free. It saves you from building all integrations once and then testing and deploying.

2. Go Hybrid

While you are working with multiple teams and following a program plan rather than just a project plan, it is advisable to go hybrid. It allows a few phases to follow a waterfall process and others to follow an iterative process. Here are a few things to consider when following a hybrid process:

• Plan the test plans and acceptance criteria

• Develop a plan for the demo and the stakeholder’s feedback

• Always identify risks, issues, and mitigation strategies for User Acceptance Testing and Support

• Build and Test the Integration Solution

To build and test the integration solution, you should follow these steps:
1. Set up your project and its related components according to naming conventions
2. Make standard components as reusable as possible
3. Develop a detailed technical design
4. Use business rules rather than decision shapes when you have multiple conditional rules
5. Make use of pre-built libraries and accelerators, and use extensions for environment-dependent fields such as user ids and passwords

Conclusion

In the digital enterprise ecosystem, it all starts and ends with seamless data connectivity. So, it is vital to get a hands-on intelligent iPaaS like Boomi that eliminates data silos, enhances productivity, and reduces the risk of data loss. It can help you connect apps, people, and things at an accelerated pace to streamline your complex digital ecosystem. And while you are at it, following best practices will ensure a successful integration project with Boomi.

Ready to Start an Integration Project With Boomi? Talk to Us!

Statistic Reference:

^[i]GlobeNewswire