Boomi World 2026 | Suzanne McIvor, RSM & Justin Tapp, Shearer's Foods

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Suzanne McIvor

Director of Strategic Business Alliances

RSM

Justin Tapp

Integration Architect

Shearer's Foods

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Suzanne McIvor, RSM & Justin Tapp, Shearer's Foods

Suzanne McIvor

Director of Strategic Business Alliances RSM

Justin Tapp

Integration Architect Shearer's Foods

In this interview from Boomi World 2026 in Chicago, Suzanne McIvor, director of strategic business alliances at RSM Canada, joins Justin Tapp, integration architect at Shearer's Foods, to talk with theCUBE + NYSE Wired's Gemma Allen about how mid-market enterprises are moving from ERP modernization to AI-ready integration. Tapp details Shearer's Foods' decision to replace a 20-plus-year legacy ERP system and how RSM's recommendation to use Boomi as the integration layer proved a critical accelerator. McIvor frames RSM's role as connective tissue across mid-ma... Read more

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What was Shearer's Foods' process for selecting a new ERP and choosing RSM (and Boomi for integrations) for the implementation? add

Can you describe RSM’s focus and capabilities—especially how you work with mid-market clients and use technologies like NetSuite, Microsoft, and Boomi in ERP and digital transformation projects? add

Is there likely to be more budget and opportunity for AI initiatives, and how are organizations (and firms like RSM) addressing this—for example through AI workshops to identify high‑impact use cases, set ROI goals, and handle data activation and governance? add

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Suzanne McIvor, RSM & Justin Tapp, Shearer's Foods

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Gemma Allen

>> Welcome back to theCUBE coming to you live from Chicago where we are on the ground at Boomi World 2026, and we are talking all things modernization and the future of connection enterprise. I am super excited for this next segment, because we've heard a lot about the opportunity, but not a whole lot about the real-life case stories. So joining me now is Suzanne McIvor, Director of Strategic Business Alliances at RSM. And Justin Tapp, Integration Architect at Shearer's Foods. Welcome folks.

Suzanne McIvor

>> Thank you.

Justin Tapp

>> Thank you. It's good to be here.

Gemma Allen

>> I mean, it's close up on the end of day two. How are you both feeling?

Justin Tapp

>> Good. This was an amazing event. It's been a while since I've been to one of these, but yeah, it's been a blast so far.

Gemma Allen

>> Oh, great.

Suzanne McIvor

>> My energy has been like going in waves, but I'm riding them.

Gemma Allen

>> I love it.

Suzanne McIvor

>> Yeah.

Gemma Allen

>> Well, Suzanne, you said just before we came on camera that this is a great story, right? This is a real true Boomi opportunity that came to life with realized value. So maybe let's start with you, Justin. Talk to us a little bit about your own Boomi journey, the relation with RSM, and what really, I guess, has fundamentally shifted for you in your tech stack.

Justin Tapp

>> Yes, absolutely. So Shearer's Foods, we are a salty food, salty snack manufacturer. We make chips, we make crackers, we make cookies, and we have several plants across the Northern America area, and we were ready for an ERP upgrade. It had been 20 plus years on our current ERP, our previous ERP and we were just in the market for a new one. We did a three or four month process trying to find what was going to fit us best. And from there, we landed on RSM as our implementation partner for the ERP we selected. And we weren't really sure what to do with our integrations. We're a group of developers in IT that have been writing code for years and years. We know what we do really well, but RSM came to us and said, "This is going to be a huge accelerator if you allow us to use Boomi." For us, that took a minute to process just to look through all of the documentation, understand Boomi itself, as well as kind of look at the cost of it to really justify, is this going to be as much of an accelerator as RSM promises it will be. And so from there, about a year and a half ago, we jumped in head first with RSM implementing and Boomi at the forefront and it's been a great experience so far.

Gemma Allen

>> Wow. And Suzanne, I mean, that's so interesting. I'll be honest, I didn't actually know RSM did this type of like IT service integration work. So it's a fascinating story really. We hear a lot of the big banks, big insurers, right? But this is like a real life, real value case come to life. Talk to me about what sorts of opportunities you see for Boomi in the field, similar to Justin and the team at Shearer's. And I guess you mentioned there's an element of assessment and understanding and what has taken folks through that process?

Suzanne McIvor

>> Well, so at RSM, we are a global tax audit and consulting firm, and we really focus on serving the mid-market. And so I think that our brand is a little bit less recognized than maybe some of the big brands as you mentioned, and mostly because of that real true focus on the mid-market. We really believe that the mid-market is the backbone of the economy and so we love working with companies like Shearer's and people like Justin through their ERP transformations. That's a really big part of our business. We have a really large NetSuite practice, a really large Microsoft practice. That's where we see a lot of our Boomi work coming through, as Boomi sort of is that connective tissue to all of our ERP projects and our digital transformation journeys for our clients. So it's really exciting for us to work with people like Justin who are exciting businesses thriving in the mid-market. Justin, I'm still waiting for my swag bag and my treats in the mail.

Justin Tapp

>> I forgot to bring those with me today, but maybe next time.

Gemma Allen

>> Well, of salty snacks, I hope.

Justin Tapp

>> That's right. Absolutely.

Gemma Allen

>> What sort of salty snacks are we talking, Justin? Can you give me some examples of brands?

Justin Tapp

>> Maybe not brands, but I can say we make a lot of potato chips. We make a lot of tortilla chips, corn chips, saltine crackers, cream sandwich cookies, or wafer cookies, that kind of stuff.

Gemma Allen

>> I love potato chips. So when we think about the few days we've had here, we've heard a lot about the next wave of modernization of enterprise integration. We've heard about Agent Garden, and Orchestrate and Companion, all these great technologies, right? But Suzanne, you make a really good point in that mid-market is a very important industry. It's a very important part of the economic story, and sometimes it does get a little bit lost, because we hear Fortune 50. We all know how these things play out, but there is probably a lot of opportunities right now for companies like yours and many more, I'm sure, to avail of technology in a way that maybe they couldn't in the past. Like maybe, Justin, talk to me a little bit about how this AI era is shifting your opportunity, but also how you think about and even due diligence things.

Justin Tapp

>> Yes, absolutely. It has been quite a journey. I wouldn't say we were completely averse to AI, but it was something that wasn't really at the forefront for a long time. And in the last probably six or eight months, it's been something that's been put a lot of focus on even from our CIO all the way down and we've done a lot of investigation prior to rolling that out just to make sure all of our ducks were in a row from a security standpoint. And then even using that from internal users for simple day-to-day tasks, but then also getting that involved in our coding practices is still new to us, but really, really phenomenal, the results that it's given. I mean, just being here and seeing all the capability that is being built out in the Boomi platform just gets me excited to purchase more of the products and utilize more of the products. So we'll have to see where that goes from a budget perspective, but yes, very, very excited for what's coming, and I think the expediency with how we're going to be able to work with the future.

Gemma Allen

>> And Suzanne, are you excited to hear? There could be more budget and more opportunity on the horizon?

Suzanne McIvor

>> Absolutely. And I think that it brings up a really great topic that RSM has really invested with Boomi in the AI workshop format. So we have a lot of our mid-market clients. Actually, almost up to half of our clients are private equity backed companies. And so what we're seeing is there's a lot of pressure coming in from the board for AI initiatives coming into IT. There's really specific use cases from different lines of business, but bringing kind of those conversations together with the different lines of business and then the IT leadership team to have a workshop that we can execute to help them say, "Okay, let's identify some high impact use cases. Let's put some ROI goals around it, but then let's work with Justin and his team to really think through some of the data activation, data governance pieces to really make sure that we're doing this in a really responsible, sustainable, scalable way."

Gemma Allen

>> And what sorts of findings and lessons are you guys seeing from these workshops? Like are there, again, a consistent pattern of challenges that can be potentially unrealized opportunities in this space that maybe repeat across particular sectors? Like you're an FMCG, it's a very interesting space, but we know that retail has had a challenging time in the world of AI and agentic. What are you seeing, Suzanne? Are you seeing anything that you think is maybe even something that could potentially could be a missed opportunity?

Suzanne McIvor

>> That's a great question. I think what we're finding really is that when we get under the hood, while there are business use cases, they don't always come with business impact. So it's really important that we narrow in on the ones where there can be a demonstrated ROI, but really finding the big finding and the big sort of motion that we're getting into following the workshops. It's really around the data activation, the data governance and getting the house in order and getting the readiness and the foundation laid so that you can be successful with those use cases.

Gemma Allen

>> And you mentioned like pressures coming from boards of private equity firms and everyone is caught up with this narrative of speed, speed, speed, don't get left behind, right? When you had those conversations with your CIO, Justin, you said that you guys thought about this. What were the kind of real, I guess, conversation points that maybe caused an element of inertia? Like what were the true blockers do you think in making this deployable even sooner?

Justin Tapp

>> I mean, some of the blockers I would say were more fear-based than anything. I think in the news you hear all of these horror stories of this large company accidentally leaked all of their data or put all of these things out there for the world to see. And that was definitely something for us to overcome. I know many members of our team walked through demos and understanding sessions with vendors to just really get a hold of what do we need to put in place before we roll this out and then we're going to start with a pilot group from there. And we're just starting to roll it out more so to the organization just to, once again, kind of slow roll it but not super slow. We want to get out there, we want to be at the forefront and make this impactful and, like you said, find the best use cases that are giving back ROI, not just as somebody said earlier, making funny cat pictures all day long, but actually providing value to us.

Gemma Allen

>> I think that's an important message, right? Is against this backdrop of a lot of hype and a lot of narrative, there is still a walk before you run requirement here, right? We're not all truly in the world. We're not authentic wizards. There hasn't been a magical spell casting anybody overnight. These challenges are very real and they're still very much in existence. So I think that's key. So what's ahead for you both? I mean, we've heard a lot about the technology and the opportunities and all the great stuff coming down the pipe. When you both go back to your offices next Monday in Vancouver and Ohio, what will you guys be focused on from these couple of days? Is there anything that you think, "Okay, this could actually be a little bit of a game changer for me and how I think about my own planning process?"

Suzanne McIvor

>> Well, I'll be waiting for my snacks in the mail.

Justin Tapp

>> I'll get that right out.

Suzanne McIvor

>> And as soon as I receive those, I think I'm really interested in digging into a lot of the new product announcements. I've never been to an event like this where I've seen so many exciting product announcements at one time and in one place. I think that there's a lot of learning and a lot of education and real application. I think the Claude Companion is something I really want to wrap my arms around and understand how that will benefit my own business as well as Justin's and our other customers.

Gemma Allen

>> I love it. And what about you, Justin?

Justin Tapp

>> Yeah. I mean, that's top of my list, honestly. I've already talked with a couple of RSM folks about if they have any experience with Boomi Companion so far. I think I have every picture of every slide that talked about it that I've seen so far. So very excited to get out there and see what that can do. From our perspective, RSM did a fantastic job coming in with a plan and supporting us really well. And me and my team are going to be really focusing on taking ownership of what we have in Boomi thus far and really managing that ourselves so that we can move on to other, I guess, green pastures of area that we want to work in. But, yeah, Boomi Companion is the top of my list, really seeing all the capability that Agent Studio has to offer with governance and all of the different agents and capability, and Orchestrate and Connect. I mean, I'm hyped about all of it right now, so there'll probably be a lot of investigation for the next few days. And then, yeah, see again, what's going to make the biggest ROI for us.

Gemma Allen

>> Well, listen, I love to hear it. I love stories like this. Like I said, I think these opportunities are so important and such an important part of the overall economic story. I hope that you get those salty snacks and that goody bag in the post. And Justin, yeah, I hope you spend some of that budget with Suzanne.

Justin Tapp

>> I sure will.

Gemma Allen

>> Thanks so much for coming on theCUBE.

Justin Tapp

>> Thanks everybody.

Suzanne McIvor

>> Thank you.

Gemma Allen

>> I'm Gemma Allen coming from theCUBE here at Boomi World 2026 in Chicago. It is coming up to the end of the day. We still have some great guests coming up, so stay tuned.