Integrate beautiful, extensive SAP data with other systems

Laura Cepeda, E3: How is Boomi positioning itself in the EMEA region to better support SAP customers in the future? 

Ann Maya, Boomi: We have a technology, a part of our service called Boomi for SAP, and that is the ability to connect SAP to something. We've used that a lot with our customers. We're able to help those customers integrate their data from their beautiful, rich data in SAP with other systems. That means they don't have to program specifically in Abap. 

Cepeda: The EMEA region is incredibly fragmented, which must be a challenge for you.
is a challenge. So there are different countries, different levels of SAP maturity. How do you manage to develop a uniform integration strategy in this chaos? 

Maya: I think that digital fragmentation is not only happening in the EMEA region. I think it's the case pretty much everywhere. Many companies have the problem that data is everywhere. Their APIs are everywhere and their applications are everywhere. Trying to find a way to unify all that data into a trusted foundation is something that Boomi is really good at. Once you have the data sorted, the business will follow. So I think if you have siloed companies, that's part of the business. But you can bring the data together to get insights about the whole business. That's something we do within Moving itself. So I don't think that's a big problem. When you talk about fragmentation and the fact that we are talking to people in different regions and dealing with different cultures: That's a human problem that I don't think is a problem.

I think it's actually quite nice that there are different cultures and different languages and that we can all find a common language in the AI. It's actually even a side job for Boomi to just communicate and use an AI translator, which is also pretty fantastic. So bridges can be built. And the gaps that exist between different countries can be bridged.Anyway, there are some differences in the EMEA region, for example in some regions where people are more concerned about data sovereignty and data residency, for example in Germany or also in Saudi regions. So these are things that we are tackling together with our customers and partners. And we've had great success in finding solutions that allow them to keep their data entirely in their own domain.

Cepeda: Compared to the US, cloud adoption in EMEA is slower and more cautious. How does this affect Boomi's SAP integration business in this region?

Maya: I don't think it has really had that much of an impact. I think the big challenge has always been that different systems can communicate with SAP data. People have been using SAP for many years to store a lot of really valuable business data. 

The challenge is to use this data externally and then, conversely, to bring external data back in if it is not compatible with the SAP system. If it's not, they use it. So we were able to help them overcome that problem. And that has opened a lot of doors for them. 

Cepeda: What are the biggest concerns that companies have when it comes to the cloud?

Maya: There's the EU law on artificial intelligence that's coming into force soon, but it's basically just a GDPR plus, and I think a lot of agencies or countries out there are maybe a little bit scared that they might be exposing their data if they're using cloud software. I think that's the main point. It could just be a concern about personal data or GDPR compliance. One thing we have is we have a compliance page on our website. We publish all the compliance certifications that we have on our website. We have a whole team dedicated to improving that page and making sure that the latest information is there. I think the latest security certifications are Cyber Essentials one and two. So this site is constantly being updated and kept up to date.

Cepeda: Which EMEA-specific innovations are you personally most excited about when it comes to SAP integration?

Maya: That's a good question. I'm not sure if we have specific innovations for EMEA. Our team is global. Maybe I will briefly talk about the internal processes. For all our sales engineers and sales people in the EMEA region, we have a special meeting with the product team to discuss what we need in EMEA. So we don't necessarily have innovations. But Ed Macosky, our Chief Product & Technology Officer, announced in his keynote that we are going to provide a dedicated Move Instance in Europe, and that's something we've been pushing for as part of the Product Interlock. And we have made it a priority. Now they will deliver. This will address any concerns about data sovereignty in the EMEA region. So we have gathered information about what kind of customers want this and what countries are concerned about this. We have used this information to prioritize this roadmap. 

Cepeda: Apart from Boomi, what trends are you currently observing in the area of SAP integration and hybrid IT landscapes?

Maya: The trend we're seeing everywhere is the move towards AI agents. I think it's a pretty global trend. There's a lot of excitement. I have to say that based on conversations in certain regions, I feel like innovation is not moving as fast as it is in the US, but the excitement about it is still there. People know they have to deal with AI and AI agents. We see that our customers have developed some cool things. I think they're more in the advanced search space, but there's a lot of enthusiasm. I was at another conference recently that was basically focused on logistics. 

Cepeda: What about robotics?

Maya: There is a lot of enthusiasm for robotics. It was interesting that we saw a robot on stage in the keynote. The reason I'm talking about AI agents and AI is that this is now manifesting in the physical world. So there are a lot of systems that need to be supported if you want to move into the physical world. So the Trust Data Foundation is critical in all of this. We're not necessarily moving towards robotics, but I think that's a cool area that's trending at the moment.

But the solid thing - the one thing that's really important - is a trustworthy data foundation and making sure that that data stays up to date and any new things that are inputted continue to be absorbed. Because that's going to be important for GDPR or AI Act compliance. Data will play a key role in this. How to protect what needs to be protected and how to make sure that you also have guardrails around that data.

E3: What key challenges do you currently see for companies working with SAP systems?

Maya: I think it's the same thing we've always seen. The migration to S/4 Hana is still happening, isn't it? That's something that a lot of our customers are facing right now. One of the things we're thinking about is the amount of resources that are needed to get the migration to S/4 Hana up and running, but also the resources that are needed to keep it running. Some of those resources are expensive, so they need to make that process more automated and less customized so they can support those services in the future.

And they will not have a high bill for resources, skills and manpower later on, as programming skills are very expensive. So it might be interesting to move to a more agnostic model. But you know, our SAP customers are quite happy. So they are using the technology. And I think there will be further investment in the SAP side of the product team. Last year we invested heavily in further developing Boomi for SAP, and we'll continue to do that. I think the addition of event-driven features will also be important.

Cepeda: This means that SAP's clean-core approach is compatible with SAP's approach to integration.

Maya: Yes, it is compatible. That's why we're embracing it. We're working with our customers to help them close that gap, because the ecosystem of tomorrow needs to work in an agnostic way. We are moving towards agent-based systems. These systems need to be able to communicate with each other. If you can't unlock the really valuable data you have in SAP, then you're really missing something. And that's what Boomi is focused on.

As we can move across the different data streams, we will be able to introduce AI capabilities into them. And it's closely linked to our data management solution. One of the things that we may be able to push forward is the approach to data profiling. We've already mentioned that there are agents for data profiling in our data hub: At some point, we should be able to connect these to SAP functionality as well, so that we can bring all of this together. n

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"If you can't unlock the really valuable data you have in SAP, then you're really missing something.“