CIO Influence Interview with Ed Macosky, Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) at Boomi

Ed Macosky, Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) at Boomi, highlights the critical role of collaboration between IT and business leaders to ensure that AI and integration solutions align with real business objectives and deliver tangible results.

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Tell us about your role and the lessons you have learned over the years that have helped you drive Boomi’s innovation.

As the Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) at Boomi, I am responsible for product management, engineering, product development and cloud engineering. This requires a good balance of customer input, market input, gut feel, and drawing on my experience as an expert in the field of our product lines in order to drive innovation. Being customer-centric is a priority. I’ve been an integrator my whole life and have spent a lot of time in the applied areas of our technology, working side by side with our customers to implement our integration solutions. This enhanced my understanding of their viewpoints and the business challenges we strive to address. It also guided our investment decisions in developing new products and services for our customers, meeting them where they are. This customer-centric strategy helped us get Boomi’s roadmap on track to match what our customers expect and what the market expects from Boomi, and over a few years, put us in the leadership position in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integration Platform as a Service.

Also Read: How CFOs and CIOs are Collaborating to Drive IT ROI

What are the top challenges businesses face today around data integration, and how do Boomi’s solutions/offerings address these challenges?

The biggest challenges in the market today are the pace of technology advancements and keeping up with rapid changes. This is especially evident in the current AI-dominated world where organizations are expected to innovate at a rapid pace, all while adopting new technologies and processes and often undergoing budget cuts. This puts a lot of pressure on companies to stay relevant in their fields and achieve a competitive edge. In this scenario, doing more with less becomes an imperative. At Boomi, we provide low code solutions to enable organizations to do just that. We offer the widest breadth of integration, automation, and data management capabilities in the market today, including iPaaS, API management, Master Data Hub, and Boomi AI agents. We help organizations streamline integration of applications across cloud and on-premises environments, while also ensuring security, data reliability, and scalability.

What top misconceptions would you bust about the role of the modern CPTO in the B2B tech industry?

There is a prevailing belief that a CPTO should either be a seasoned product manager who has climbed the ranks, or a proficient engineer or developer with a solid foundation in computer science. However, my journey deviates from these traditional paths. I ascended through the ranks of professional services and support and then became an engineering leader, building a team along the way. This was my role as an individual contributor. As I transitioned into leadership, I found myself at the helm of engineering organizations, despite not being a peer engineer. Similarly, I led product management organizations without having been a product manager.

My leadership skills, coupled with a broad understanding of the industry – particularly the integration, iPaaS, and connectivity sectors -– have been instrumental in my role. Although I have not directly performed the tasks of most individual contributors in my organization on a daily basis, I have been able to lead effectively.

Data orchestration and integration are crucial for modern enterprises. How does Boomi navigate the evolving landscape of data management and integration to meet the needs of its customers in various industries?

Navigating the complexities of our field involves several facets, but a key approach is maintaining a customer-centric focus. This doesn’t necessarily mean catering to individual feature requests, but rather understanding and staying attuned to the problems our customers face daily. In the realms of integration and data management, it’s crucial to keep abreast of emerging technologies, discerning what is being adopted versus what is merely hype. This pragmatic perspective is vital in directing our strategic decisions, ensuring that we deliver solutions that genuinely align with our customers’ needs, and identifying and implementing technologies that provide real value to our customers.

Also Read: Top Misconceptions Around Data Operations and Breaking Down the Role of a VP of Data Ops

How does Boomi integrate AI into its product offerings and technology stack to enhance customer business outcomes?

Currently, we have 15 different projects on our roadmap, each focusing on integrating AI into our platform and enhancing our offerings for our customers. We are heavily investing in a wide range of areas to ensure we stay at the forefront of technological advancements.

At present, we are focusing on two primary tracks. The first involves our AI Agents, which are designed to enhance the user experience of our product. By leveraging AI technologies, we aim to make our users’ interactions with our platform more efficient, allowing them to accomplish more with less effort and making their tasks more enjoyable and easier to perform. The second track involves using Boomi to integrate what we refer to as “context pipelines” and “orchestration pipelines,” referring to the integration of AI technologies into your business operations, and their orchestration.

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Boomi recently introduced six dynamic AI agents designed to empower IT developers with the ability to autonomously design, manage, and orchestrate digital cohesion. Central to this experience is Boomi GPT, our conversational user interface, which facilitates multi-agent collaboration. This innovative approach underscores our commitment to harnessing the power of AI to streamline and enhance our offerings.

Lastly, what strategic advice would you give to business leaders looking to leverage integration platforms and data orchestration to drive growth and efficiency in their organizations?

The advice I would offer is specifically for IT leaders and line of business leaders. It is crucial for these two groups to collaborate closely in defining the goals, business outcomes, and efficiencies they aim to achieve to enhance their business. This collaboration should not be skewed towards an IT-centric or business-centric solution. When teams work together, focusing on true KPIs and real business objectives, rather than being solely development-centric, they set themselves up for success. This becomes particularly important when incorporating new AI projects. AI has become a buzzword, and individual projects can still go astray if organizations approach it as a standalone science project without a real business objective. This can lead to significant financial investment with little return.

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