Ambitious and determined, BOA saw an opportunity to revolutionise the hydraulic hose repair industry. They saw the opportunity to develop a solution through innovative products and services backed by technology.  
 
“Our goal was simple, to make a dent in the world of highly valued heavy machinery coming to an unplanned abrupt halt due to hydraulic hose failure,” says Jorge Boakes, BOA’s Marketing Director.  
 
BOA had a vision for an off-road, safari-like mobile trailer equipped with the equipment to carry out hydraulic hose repairs. Allowing hose fitters to take the solution to the need, getting to the stopped machine fast. But there were a few snags, including trying to outsource the development of the BOApods and importing BOApods from overseas to adapt in New Zealand. There had to be a change, so they decided to reach out to Callaghan Innovation. It was the right decision to make.  
 
“The advice and guidance from both Callaghan and the University put us on the right track, helping facilitate strategic session, bringing clarity to our vision and giving us the confidence to invest in the innovation developments required to reach it,” says Jorge.  

In 2021 Callaghan Innovation’s Phil Anderson organised an innovation road mapping workshop using domain experts from Callaghan Innovation and the University of Auckland. BOA wanted to start building 1.5 portable pods per week, with a target of making five or more a week in two years.  
 
“It was clear Boa Hydraulics had ambitious goals to develop very novel products for their industry, as well as increase production capability. They just were not sure how to achieve their vision.”    
 
Phil supported BOA in accessing IP strategy support, lean manufacturing capability, and R&D funding.  He also agreed with BOA, the outsourcing of the software was leaving the company at the mercy of overseas suppliers. The decision was made to develop their software in-house, and to create new customer value through an as yet to be developed artificial intelligence engine. The University’s Dr Yuqian Lu from the Faculty of Engineering was called in as an advisor for BOA’s R&D. He played a critical role to help develop an R&D team and set the direction of BOA’s product and R&D roadmap.  
 
“We see companies like BOA have great potential in capturing market value via product and service innovation, via advanced machine learning and Internet of Things technologies. Together with talented students, we are so happy to see artificial intelligence is creating unique value in sophisticated engineering markets.”  
 
Yuqian provided consulting services to BOA to validate their R&D thought mapping and strategy from both a business and technical perspective as they look to innovate fore-front technology – machine learning, AI or connectivity services. He also trained existing internal staff to meet with development goals and helped with talent recruitment for the R&D team which has grown to eight employees, three of which are postgraduate graduates from the University who were supervised by Yuqian.  

There is overall a mindset change from relying on external out-sourcing to developing their own capabilities in New Zealand. Instead of being outsourced, the software is now fully developed by the in-house software team. They are now also looking to redevelop their hardware by themselves as well so that they have more control. Importantly, they see huge value in advanced machine learning and automation technologies in disrupting how hydraulic hose services are delivered.  
 
Fast forward to 2025, BOA has met their goal of making five portable BOApods a week and is aiming to make even more.  
 
BOA is an innovation leader in the global hydraulics market. Using technology to change the way hydraulic machinery is managed, BOA is driving significant productivity and cost savings in many sectors in New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the Pacific Islands. Thanks to their determination, and the support of the University of Auckland and Callaghan Innovation, who knows what they will achieve next?  
 
“I have no hesitation to recommend connecting with both UniServices and the University of Auckland to assist with innovation strategy and implementation, BOAs incredible journey of innovation to date is a testament to the outcomes possible,” says Jorge.

UniServices Partnerships and Innovation Manager, Luke Spencer, provided UniServices expertise in business development to the project.

“It was great to be introduced to this project through my work with Yuqian. I was impressed to see the impact the research had in driving BOA's growth and capabilities. It's a fantastic example of what can happen when a company engages with research. If you're keen on collaborating with researchers, I'd love to catch up and see how we can make it work.”