The hardest integration problems in B2B commerce don't show up in RFPs. They show up six months into a project — when a legacy catalog can't talk to a modern storefront, when a corporate carve-out leaves an enterprise with no technology stack and a hard deadline, or when years of data cleanup need to happen while a new platform is being built at the same time.
These are the problems Echidna was built for. As a certified Boomi partner with 16+ years of B2B commerce integration experience, we've seen what breaks, what holds, and what makes the difference between a transformation that delivers and one that stalls.
This article shares two of the most instructive integration challenges we've solved — and the principles behind why they worked.
The Foundation Problem Nobody Talks About
Before getting into the case studies, it's worth naming the underlying issue that connects them.
Most enterprise digital commerce initiatives are built on a flawed assumption: that you can modernize the customer-facing experience without first fixing the data foundation beneath it. You can't.
"When you are the experts that we are in commerce, we understand fundamentals are our first principle. You've got to first have the foundation of your enterprise connected and synchronized before exposing that to AI agents." -Mike Pierce, Echidna President
This is true for AI — but it's equally true for eCommerce. A storefront that can't trust the pricing data coming from the ERP, or the inventory signal coming from the warehouse, will underdeliver regardless of how well it's designed. The foundation has to come first.
Boomi is how Echidna builds that foundation. Not as a simple data pipe — but as the central nervous system of the enterprise, transforming and cleaning data in transit, enabling parallel workstreams, and making it possible to modernize legacy systems without replacing them.
Case Study 1: Building an Enterprise Stack From Scratch During a Corporate Carve-Out
The Challenge
When a manufacturing company separated from its parent organization, it faced one of the most difficult scenarios in enterprise IT: building a full technology stack from scratch, on a deadline, with no existing infrastructure to fall back on.
The scope was significant — a new ERP, a new CRM, and a new eCommerce platform, all needing to be live and connected at the same time. The temptation in situations like this is to build sequentially — finish the ERP before starting the storefront, clean the data before migrating it. But sequential builds in a carve-out scenario mean missed deadlines and extended exposure during the transition period.
The business needed a way to build everything simultaneously without the teams stepping on each other — and without launching on dirty data.
How Boomi Solved It
Echidna positioned Boomi as the central nervous system of the entire build. Rather than waiting for the ERP data cleanup to finish before beginning storefront development, Boomi ran in parallel — ingesting raw data from the ERP, transforming and cleaning it in transit, and feeding the storefront and customer service portal with data that was already structured and accurate.
This meant the ERP team, the CRM team, and the eCommerce team could work simultaneously — each connected through Boomi, each operating independently without blocking the others. Time to market dropped dramatically.
The impact extended beyond launch. Because Boomi transformed data before it reached the customer service portal, agents went live with clean, accurate customer records from day one. No manual data cleanup. No period of degraded service while the team got up to speed on inconsistent data. The customer experience was strong from the start.
The Principle
Boomi doesn't just move data — it makes data usable. In a carve-out scenario, that distinction is the difference between a clean launch and a chaotic one. And by acting as the abstraction layer between systems, Boomi allowed every team to move at full speed without coordinating every data dependency with every other team.
As Mike Pierce describes it: "Boomi provides the abstraction layer. Because Echidna works through Boomi, the IT guys can do the IT parts, marketing does the marketing parts, and the business stays informed and productive across the enterprise."
Case Study 2: Modernizing a Legacy Parts Catalog Without Replacing It
The Challenge
A leading manufacturer of specialized vehicles came to Echidna with a catalog problem that had no obvious solution. Their electronic parts catalog covered more than 60,000 custom vehicle configurations, with millions of bill-of-materials combinations. It had been built over decades and was deeply embedded in their operations.
The problem: the catalog system couldn't support real-time API calls. In an era where modern eCommerce platforms expect real-time data exchange, this wasn't a minor limitation — it was a fundamental incompatibility. A parts buyer on the new storefront needed to see accurate availability and pricing for their specific vehicle configuration. The legacy system couldn't deliver that on demand.
The conventional solution — replacing the legacy catalog system — would have taken months and cost millions. And the risk of data loss or corruption during a migration of that complexity was significant.
How Boomi Solved It
Echidna built a robust Boomi batch-processing pipeline that worked with the legacy system rather than against it. Instead of forcing real-time API calls that the system couldn't support, Boomi ingested the legacy catalog data — including flat-file CSVs that the system had been generating for years — transformed it into structured, modern formats, and fed it to the new eCommerce platform on a schedule that kept data accurate without requiring real-time connectivity.
The legacy system stayed in place. The new storefront got clean, usable catalog data. And the migration risk of a full system replacement was eliminated entirely.
This is what Echidna calls the leave-and-layer approach: As Mike explains, "with Boomi, we can ingest legacy data — like flat-file CSVs — and put it in a format that's modern and easy to use. It's a 'leave-and-layer' approach that offers a viable alternative to spending money and months on legacy platform upgrades."
The Principle
Legacy systems often work fine. The problem isn't the system itself — it's that the system can't communicate with the modern platforms being built around it. Boomi bridges that gap without requiring a replacement. For enterprises with large, complex legacy catalogs, this approach unlocks modernization that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive or risky.
What These Projects Have in Common
On the surface, a corporate carve-out and a legacy catalog modernization look like completely different problems. But they share a common root: data that isn't in the right format, in the right place, at the right time — and systems that can't talk to each other reliably.
Both projects also share a common solution architecture. Boomi as the central hub. Data transformed in transit. Systems decoupled from each other so teams can move independently. And a foundation that's clean enough to support whatever comes next — including AI.
Why the Foundation Matters More Than Ever
As enterprises begin to explore AI-powered commerce — intelligent search, personalization engines, agentic automation — the quality of the integration foundation becomes the primary determinant of success. AI agents can only act on the data available to them. If that data is fragmented, inconsistent, or siloed across disconnected systems, the AI will be too.
"Boomi is the hub of the enterprise. In this future of AI, these agents are only as good as the sources of data and systems they have available to them." — Mike Pierce, President, Echidna
The enterprises that invest in their integration foundation now — connecting systems, cleaning data, and building composable architectures that can adapt as technology evolves — are the ones that will be positioned to move fastest when AI-powered capabilities mature.
Building a Composable Enterprise With Boomi
Both case studies also illustrate a broader principle: composability. An enterprise built on point-to-point integrations is brittle — every system change risks breaking something else. An enterprise built on Boomi is composable — systems can be added, upgraded, or replaced without disrupting the rest of the stack.
This matters enormously for long-term digital strategy. The CRM you implement today may not be the right CRM in five years. The ERP that powers your operations now may need to be replaced as the business scales. With Boomi as the integration layer, those transitions become manageable — because no system is directly coupled to any other.
Work With Echidna on Your Boomi Integration
Whether you're navigating a corporate carve-out, modernizing a legacy catalog, or building the integration foundation for AI-powered commerce, Echidna brings the commerce domain expertise and Boomi implementation experience to get it right.
Meet our team at Boomi World 2026 in Chicago, May 11–14 — or reach out directly at echidna.co/boomi-partner.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Boomi support a full enterprise build during a corporate carve-out?Yes. Boomi's hub-and-spoke architecture allows separate implementation teams to work in parallel — ERP, CRM, and eCommerce — without blocking each other. Data can be transformed and cleaned in transit, enabling a clean launch even when underlying systems are still being finalized.
How does Boomi handle legacy systems that can't support real-time APIs?Boomi supports both real-time and batch-processing integration patterns. For legacy systems that generate flat-file exports like CSVs, Boomi can ingest and transform that data on a scheduled basis — feeding modern platforms with accurate, structured data without requiring the legacy system to be replaced.
What is the leave-and-layer approach to legacy modernization?Leave-and-layer means keeping a legacy system in place while layering Boomi on top to modernize how its data is used. Rather than migrating or replacing the legacy system, Boomi ingests its output, transforms it, and distributes it to modern platforms. This eliminates migration risk and significantly reduces cost and time.
How does Boomi prepare an enterprise for AI?AI agents require accurate, synchronized, real-time data from across the enterprise. Boomi ensures that data is clean, connected, and consistently formatted before it reaches any downstream system — including AI agents. Without that foundation, AI-powered commerce capabilities cannot perform reliably.
What industries does Echidna serve with Boomi integrations?Echidna specializes in B2B commerce environments — including manufacturing, distribution, and enterprise brands — with integrations spanning ERP, CRM, PIM, OMS, WMS, and eCommerce platforms.