With more than 700 stores across four countries, Bakers Delight needed to add new platforms without re-engineering its systems each time. Keng Ng, Chief Technology Officer, Bakers Delight, explains how a reusable integration foundation built with Boomi has cut rollout times and helped the business respond quickly when costs shifted.
Boomi, the data activation company for AI, has announced Bakers Delight has modernised its digital marketing systems using the Boomi Enterprise Platform, significantly reducing new system rollout times and giving the business the agility to respond faster to changing market conditions.
Bakers Delight is an Australian-owned multinational bakery franchise, trading as Bakers Delight in AN/Z and as COBS Bread in Canada and the US. The family-owned business has grown to more than 700 stores across the four countries, employing more than 10,000 people throughout its franchise network. Operating at this scale across multiple regions and brands generates large amounts of customer, pricing, product and location data across front-of-store, ecommerce and loyalty systems. To support day-to-day trading and rapid decision-making with shifting market needs, the data needs to flow consistently between systems and platforms.
With a major technology renewal approaching in early 2027, Bakers Delight wanted to replace rigid, point-to-point integrations with a composable architecture that could connect new marketing platforms quickly and cost-effectively to support future growth.
“We required a foundation that could support rapid, low-cost deployment of new systems – removing the cost and complexity of re-engineering integrations every time we added a new platform,” said Keng Ng, Chief Technology Officer at Bakers Delight. “This laid the groundwork for the business to adopt new systems and capabilities quickly, without disrupting what’s already in place.”
Bakers Delight implemented the Boomi Enterprise Platform Data Hub and API Management capabilities across its customers, products, store locations, promotions, coupons and orders processes as the business rolled out new platforms. Boomi now orchestrates data integration across the company’s digital marketing stack, acting as the backbone that connects new platforms without requiring costly changes to core ERP and POS systems, including Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce.
When deploying Talon.One for loyalty and promotions and Shopify for ecommerce, Bakers Delight was able to reuse its existing customer, product, pricing and location integrations, significantly reducing the time and cost of each implementation.
“Because core integrations were built once and reused, every new platform was deployed significantly faster than expected, with Klaviyo live in just three months, Shopify in four and Talon.One in nine, across our global franchise network,” said Ng. “Having centralised integration and master data has also proven critical when the business needs to act quickly across multiple systems.”
In early 2026, as geopolitical events in the Middle East created rapid cost fluctuations, Bakers Delight was able to revise pricing across systems quickly and consistently, a direct result of the centralised architecture now in place.
While Bakers Delight has built up its own internal integration and data engineering capabilities, support from Boomi Consulting was key in getting the program off the ground. The blueprinting process quickly demonstrated its value, producing a stable and reliable system. Vendors of the new systems, including Klaviyo and Talon.One, provided their own internal resources to support implementation, while external partners were engaged for Shopify and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce.
“What started as a need to modernise quickly and affordably has become a platform that gets stronger with every addition, giving the business the agility to move faster and with more confidence each time,” said Ng.
This integration capability will remain central to how quickly Bakers Delight brings new systems into the business. As more of the organisation becomes connected, this will enable the capture of richer enterprise data, laying the groundwork for AI and AI agents to function effectively across the business.
“Bakers Delight has demonstrated how treating integration as a strategic business capability enables organisations to innovate faster and respond with greater agility,” said David Irecki, Chief Technology Officer, APJ at Boomi. “By building a reusable integration foundation, Bakers Delight can bring new digital capabilities to market faster while creating the trusted data foundation needed to support future innovation.”
Ng shared more on the project, his view of where retail technology is heading and his advice for other CTOs.
What major technology shifts is the retail sector seeing currently and what do you predict the next year will bring?
AI doing the shopping. The adoption and development of AI are phenomenal and inevitable, and I feel it is going to keep going. It’s a bit like when Google rose from obscurity in the late 90s to be a dominant way of accessing information.
With more than 700 stores across four countries, what role does technology play in keeping such a large franchise network running smoothly?
Tech is key to operating efficiently at scale. From the basics of processing sales in-store to personalised loyalty experience and AI-powered analytics, technology is the key operational and growth enabler.
What were the biggest challenges you faced with your previous systems and what drove you to act ahead of your technology renewal in early 2027?
It is the usual story of replacing systems while minimising business disruption, the clichéd analogy of ‘changing the tyre on a moving car’. Technology platforms such as Boomi iPaaS are immensely helpful in supporting system transition and transformation.
What technical trends or nuances do you notice in the A/NZ market compared to other regions?
The most profound for me is that most technology vendors are based in the wrong hemisphere and with a relatively limited and static market, choosing the right vendor to partner with in A/NZ is crucial.
How has centralised integration and master data given you a competitive edge, for example during periods of fluctuating costs?
Centralised integration enabled us to ‘loosely couple’ systems. This means we have the leverage of when it comes to commercial negotiations, knowing that we are not concerned with vendor lock-in.
What advice would you give other CTOs looking to modernise their systems without disrupting day-to-day operations?
Design flexibility from the ground up. Don’t rely on out-of-the-box integration.
What’s been one lesson you’ve learned from this project that you’ll take forward?
Understand and meet the business requirements first and avoid making projects a technology experiment.
