Item: Boomi
Rating: 9
Author: Phi Hoang

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using Boomi to process B2B reports from our suppliers and input transactions into NetSuite automatically. We are also planning to have more integration (NetSuite and Namely). So far, it's only used by the eBusiness team but when more application integration is implemented, more departments could be involved such as HR. Boomi can reduce a lot of manual effort.

Pros and Cons

Drag and drop user interface. No programming language experience required.
It's all in the cloud. No maintenance effort needed except if using local atoms.
Pre-implemented connectors support a number of cloud services.

Big maps, profiles take time to load. But you need to wait for them load completely before any change. Otherwise, some incorrect thing (for example some links will be disconnected) will happen and it takes you much time to investigate.
The way Boomi processes documents may be different from the programming languages you are using. So you have to change your mindset logically when working with Boomi.
Logging and debugging is a hard process when you execute processes on Atom. Hopefully, Boomi can visualize an execution just like the way it does when running on test mode.
Number of features (shapes) are limited, you need to use them flexibly to meet your needs. Otherwise, you need to write some source code with custom scripts.

Return on Investment

From the view of a software engineer/developer, a negative impact is Boomi makes me work less with coding. I only need to implement some small lines of code for some custom script. The rest could be done with shapes, just drag and drop.
However, the above negative point is also a positive point that you don't need to be a developer to work with Boomi. Then on my team now, all other members such as QA/QC engineers also can work with Boomi.
Another positive thing is Boomi has limited shapes and you need to combine those shapes flexibly to reach your requirement, to meet what you want to do on Boomi. Then it could improve your logical thinking.

Alternatives Considered

IFTTT

Dell Boomi comes with a good user interface. That allows users to drag and drop shapes.
Dell Boomi is from Dell. That is a company we can trust more than others.
Dell Boomi can provide us ability for integration as our requirements.
We see the implementation or development plan of Dell Boomi in future.

Other Software Used

NetSuite, Bitbucket, JIRA Software

Performance

The atom sphere takes a time to load, when I open a process or when I open a log. One more slow processing is when I import objects from NetSuite.

About the performance of processing, it looks like Boomi takes a time to initialize some things such as connectors before starting the process. This is also performance we have.

Usability

First of all, as a service (cloud service), we don't need to care about server maintenance any more, no worries about incorrect configurations, about down time.
Second, for maintaining, we don't need a large team to do it.
And of course, using Dell Boomi instead of manual transaction could help us to avoid people mistake while inputting data or doing transactions.

Likelihood to Recommend

Boomi is suitable to the integration of data transformation or synchronization:

When you have to create new data on a system based on data on another system and you have to do that manually repeatedly. Boomi could help.
When you have to re-enter data on a system with information you just entered on another system, Boomi could help as well.

However, if you need to process your data in the middle of a transition, you need to review or try to implement a custom script. If your rules are too complicated, you may consider choosing another platform or creating a software by yourself.

Worth to try. You might love it.

Overall Satisfaction with Dell Boomi