TRENDS builds Boomi data backbone to power rapid growth

TRENDS Promotional Products has overhauled its internal integration layer, linking more than 50 custom applications and legacy systems through a central data backbone built on the Boomi Enterprise Platform.

The Dunedin-based manufacturer and supplier serves the wholesale promotional products market across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. It manages more than 6,000 products and processes about 700 custom jobs each day.

Rapid growth over the past decade increased operational complexity. Revenue rose from about NZ$10 million to NZ$130 million, internal systems multiplied, and data flowed through manual processes. Reporting slowed, and teams had limited visibility across production and business systems.

Chief Information Officer Jonathan Elliott said TRENDS needed to change its approach as integrations increased.

"We've grown fast, but the complexity behind the scenes grew faster," Elliott said.

He said integrations were built to meet specific needs and then accumulated over time.

"We had dozens of bespoke integrations stitched together. Every change required effort and created new risk. Our goal was to build a foundation of data that would scale with the organisation, not hold it back," he said.

Integration rebuild

TRENDS worked with integration partner Adaptiv on the redesign, putting Boomi at the centre of connectivity between internal applications and services hosted in Microsoft Azure.

The system uses event-aware and scheduled pipelines to move data from shop-floor systems and core applications into an analytics environment in near real time. The shift is designed to reduce manual hand-offs and create a more consistent flow of operational data.

The project also standardised monitoring and error handling across connected systems. This gives IT staff central visibility into system health and data movement, helping them identify and resolve issues faster.

"One of the biggest shifts has been moving away from one-off scripts to reusable, well-governed integration solutions," Elliott said.

"Instead of reinventing the wheel every time, with Boomi we have consistent, repeatable processes we can apply across the business," he said.

Shop-floor data

Operational teams are already using the new integration layer for production-floor visibility, the companies said. One early example is the heat-press department, where machine data now streams to dashboards used by supervisors.

The data includes job information, temperature and pressure settings. Supervisors use the dashboards to monitor performance and spot issues that could affect quality or throughput.

Adaptiv Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Nikolai Blackie said the engagement focused on governance and repeatable integration practices as the number of connected systems grew.

"TRENDS brought scale and ambition, and our role was to put the right integration solutions and governance around it," Blackie said.

He said the new approach also changed how quickly the organisation expected to roll out data-driven projects.

"Once in place, they were able to move from concept to value far more quickly than expected. It's shifted the perception of integration, from something that slows the business down to something that clears the path for better insight and faster decisions," he said.

Next systems

TRENDS plans further changes built on the same integration fabric. A forthcoming project will integrate a new Product Information Management system, which it expects will improve product data quality and support alignment with emerging Australian product-data standards.

The same data backbone is also positioned as a precursor to future AI-related projects such as forecasting and intelligent scheduling. These initiatives depend on reliable, timely data across sales, production and operational systems.

Boomi Chief Technology Officer for Asia Pacific and Japan David Irecki said manufacturers running large numbers of bespoke jobs can struggle when internal systems grow in an uncoordinated way.

"Rapid growth is good, but brings its own operational pressures. When you're running hundreds of bespoke jobs a day, fragmented integrations slow the business down. TRENDS has rebuilt that foundation, giving teams timely, trusted data and a platform that can support new markets, new products, and a launchpad for what comes next," Irecki said.

Elliott said the company will continue evolving its application landscape while keeping data movement between systems consistent.

"Whatever our future systems look like, the constant remains the same - the need for reliable, near-real-time data flowing between them," he said.

"The Boomi Enterprise Platform lets us evolve without rebuilding connectivity every time. It gives the organisation room to grow," he said.