Data drives CX for Toyota Financial Group with Boomi integration

⇨ Toyota Financial Services Group New Zealand (TFS) successfully centralized its data operations by implementing Boomi's integration platform, addressing the challenges posed by numerous application integrations and data silos.

⇨ The use of Boomi DataHub has allowed TFS to create a secure, single repository of customer and fleet data, significantly improving real-time access for customers and enhancing overall service delivery.

⇨ The partnership with Adaptiv has enabled TFS to automate manual processes, freeing up the applications team to focus on strategic initiatives and improving customer understanding through enhanced data connectivity.

In the era of composable ERP, businesses are expanding their technology stacks beyond SAP and other big vendors, creating a convoy of solutions that best fit their needs. It’s inviting businesses to a revolution of IT capabilities, but in a tangle of application program interfaces (APIs) and integrations, many firms are wondering how they can keep a tight hold over their data too.

Such was the challenge for Toyota Financial Services Group New Zealand (TFS), as it sought to drive towards becoming a data-led organization and grow its customer service capabilities.

Since its first automotive finance operations in 1989, TFS has grown to revenues of $1.58bn and become a multi-brand organization, with its business engine now ticking alongside Toyota Fleet Management, Mazda Finance, car-sharing service Cityhop, and the recently acquired Ezi Car Rentals.

With hundreds of terabytes of data stored across multiple systems used by its brands, and featuring details on customers, employees, products, and operations, TFS set out to “open up” the business and order its data-scape. The goal was to centralize this data, providing a trusted view of the business, boost its decision-making abilities and, therein, provide a greater level of services to customers.

TFS’ technology stack featured a plethora of direct API-to-API integrations across an SAP S/4HANA ERP, an in-house customer relationship management (CRM), an Alfa asset finance system, a UiPath RPA platform, Miles and Ridecell fleet management systems, and Cars Plus registration telemetry system, alongside various additional on-premises and cloud-based operational systems.

As the business continued to expand, the ongoing maintenance required to connect its technology ecosystem and utilize the data therein was placed under increasing strain and ultimately proved untenable. Information silos were building and, despite all its data, TFS was finding it increasingly tough to understand its customers’ needs, from website inquiries and product purchases, all the way through to managing customer support tickets. Customer profiles were then becoming isolated between the brands, delivering a truncated experience.

Partnering with New Zealand solutions provider, Adaptiv, TFS chose to implement the Boomi enterprise platform to bring its integrations back under control.

Boomi’s integration platform as a service (iPaaS) allowed Adaptiv to connect all TFS’ core systems using highly repeatable integration patterns. Plus, leveraging a Boomi DataHub created a secure, single repository of customer and fleet data. Bringing TFS’ finance and fleet data together, the company can now more easily maintain “golden records” moving forward, with all data migrated and mastered.

Philip Durrant, principal consultant at Adaptiv, said: “We’ve helped TFS automate processes they used to have to do manually, which means the applications team can focus on moving the needle with time back for more strategic work.”

Now, TFS can provide customers with real-time access to their data through the Miles fleet management portal, significantly lowering customer service tickets with users able to amend their own customer profiles and, in turn, drastically improving staff productivity.

With its data synchronized by Boomi DataHub, the business is next looking to further reduce administrative duties and remove personalization barriers for branded customer profiles by providing its contact center agents with a consolidated view of each customer.

Moving forward, a Cityhop customer will soon be recognized in Toyota Finance’s Fleet Management, allowing sales teams to offer additional services to align with customer habits.

Doug Matthews, information technology application manager at Toyota Financial Services New Zealand, said: “We will never go back to direct APIto-API integrations – that was like dealing with a tangled phone line of connectivity. With Boomi and Adaptiv, we’ve consolidated communications, creating a whole new world of customer understanding through data.”

Removing these data silos with a secure integration framework, the open data environment enabled by the Boomi platform will also help Toyota Finance introduce new systems and data. It’s particularly helpful, as the broader Toyota group looks to merge and continue its expansion in the future.

It’s a great example of how businesses don’t necessarily need to limit composability in their stacks. Rather, organizations can make the most of their solutions by creating stronger connections between their systems – for SAP and beyond.