In the era of AI-driven automation, how does an organization survive and thrive without falling prey to AI? We find out at Boomi World 2025, including a chat with NZ-based HEB Construction.
AI changes everything, according to Steve Lucas, CEO, Boomi at the recent Boomi World 2025 event in Dallas, Texas.
Most organizations, from the board to C-suite, have some mandate to deploy AI, for some reason or other. However, if rushed, this can be dangerous. Noting that the average organization has 370 SaaS apps, Lucas acknowledged the increasing complexity organizations face in managing apps, data and users. And it’s growing, especially with AI in the picture.
While organizations not employing AI will lose out and fade away, “Who’s watching all the AI applications in your organization?” Lucas asked. “For agentic AI, who’s controlling the growing number of agents?”
These are not just rhetorical questions, but we will get to the answers later…
At the event, Boomi also announced the winners of its 2025 Boomi Customer Innovation Award, which recognized organizations that are not just navigating digital change, but are using the Boomi Enterprise Platform to lead it.
The Boomi Enterprise Platform is a single platform for AI-driven automation. Building an AI agent with Boomi is a no-code, speedy process – so AI elevates how we operate – to solve real-world problems and deliver real ROI.
The 7 winners were: Crane Worldwide Logistics, Georgia Department of Human Services, Lexitas, NFI Industries, Oceaneering, Penumbra, Inc, and Tactile Medical.
2024 APJ customer innovation award winner speaks out
Business Excellence winner of the 2024 Boomi APJ Innovation Awards, New Zealand-based HEB Construction chose Boomi to enable the delivery of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) modernization project in 2024 that ensures global alignment with its parent company, bolstered local governance, and established a reuse philosophy.
HEB is a major construction player with 1,500 employees in New Zealand. Founded in 1975, the company delivers road, rail, marine, land, and urban development projects nationwide. In 2015, HEB was acquired by VINCI Construction.
In 2022, HEB started the adoption of its parent company’s ERP project, marking the first deployment outside of the European Union. While the ERP platform typically replaces all in-country systems, this was unsuitable for HEB due to the maturity of existing local technology investments and the regulatory frameworks under which it operates.
With New Zealand’s regulatory and functional requirements contrasting previously deployed markets, it became clear a ‘digital transplant’ wouldn’t be suitable – HEB required a different approach,” said Mircel Van Der Walt, Solutions and Architecture Manager, HEB Construction.
Instead, my team considered a hybrid integration approach. This decision was driven not only by the necessity for a compliant governance system, but also by our imperative to uphold our existing expertise in local systems like HR. To ensure the new ERP would thrive in this unfamiliar environment, we realized HEB could only gain trust by innovating around a stable core.”
HEB implemented Boomi’s integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) to establish hub and spoke integration patterns between its local applications, including payroll, timesheet, inventory management, and equipment maintenance systems. Adopting the ERP’s data structure as its data standard, HEB mirrored its local patterns with the global ERP stack to form hub-to-hub connectivity. This approach established seamless communication between both companies and established reusable integration patterns.
Van Der Walt added: “Despite the ERP project’s complexity, our ‘slot’ in the larger global rollout was kept to the same stringent 12-month timeframe. But with the Boomi Enterprise Platform, we had a tool that enabled us to deliver on time, plus create design interfaces that had reuse value – it can effectively replicate what we achieved in other parts of the world with similar local guardrails, regulations, and operational requirements.”
