We’re about to spill the beans on everything you need to know about low-code in financial services. Buckle up; it’s gonna be a fun ride!

Rapid App Building

Low-code platforms are like the turbo boost for financial institutions. They come with a user-friendly, drag-and-drop playground and a treasure chest of pre-made components, making app development a walk in the park. Even folks in suits, like financial analysts and operations managers, can roll up their sleeves and get creative. With this speed boost, new solutions hit the market quicker, cutting down on wait time and ramping up how smooth things run behind the scenes.

Bend It Like Beckham – Agility and Flexibility

Finance is a dynamic game, with rules that change as often as the weather. Low-code platforms let you pull off those fancy agile moves and keep up with shifts in the market, those never-ending legal requirements, and the constant chatter from customers. Thanks to low-code’s magic, you can prototype and tinker with your apps at lightning speed, making it a breeze to adjust to whatever curveballs the business world throws your way. Whether it’s adding new features or tying into your existing systems, you won’t need an army of coders or disrupt your core operations.

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

In the old days, IT teams and business folks used to speak different languages, and that led to some pretty epic misunderstandings and delays. But low-code is like the United Nations for business and tech. It brings them together, lets them hash things out, and builds apps that everyone can agree on. No more lost-in-translation moments, just smooth sailing toward those big goals.

Plug and Play

Financial institutions have a pretty tangled web of IT stuff going on. Low-code platforms are like the master key that fits all the locks. They’re pros at connecting with your existing systems, databases, and even those third-party apps you can’t live without. This seamless integration means data can flow like a river, manual tasks can vanish, and your whole operation can get a fresh boost of energy. Plus, they speak the same language as the hottest new tech, so you’re ready for whatever buzzwords come your way.

Playing By the Rules – Compliance and Security

The finance world has some pretty strict rule-makers, like the data privacy gurus and the financial regulation police. When you bring in low code, you’ve got to make sure it plays by the book. Look for low-code platforms that follow the rules, pack a punch with data encryption, let you set the right permissions, and give you a watchful eye with audit features. This way, you can keep the important stuff safe and stay in the good books with the regulators.

Roadblocks and Things to Think About

Even though low-code development brings a ton of perks, you can’t just jump in without a plan. Here are a few speed bumps to keep in mind:

1. Learning the Ropes: Introducing your team to low-code might require time and training investment.

2. Picking the Right Partner: Not all low-code vendors are made equal. You’ve got to be picky and look for the ones with a track record of awesomeness, top-notch security, and the ability to scale to your needs.

3. Tech Debt Pileup: Building apps faster is great but can lead to messy code and a mountain of technical debt. You’ve got to set some rules and keep things in check to avoid this pitfall.

4. App Life Support: Once you’ve got your shiny new apps, you’ve got to look after them. That means managing different versions, testing, and getting them out there into the world. You need processes and tools to keep everything running smoothly.

Digitalization takes center stage: Almost two decades ago, major financial institutions established separate units to explore e-commerce. Today, 70% of BFSI executives consider digital transformation essential (McKinsey & Company). The sector now focuses on payments, retail and online banking, and wealth management, extending into institutional banking. Despite progress in 2020, the insurance sector lags in digitization. To thrive, insurers must shift to a digital-first approach, offering personalized services to boost customer loyalty through unified views.

Replacing Legacy Systems with Modern Infrastructure: Change is vital as modern platforms offer superior benefits at lower costs. 79% of banking, fintech, and insurance CIOs recognize the influence of real-time, hyper-relevant experiences on customer expectations.

Rethinking Emerging Payments: Emerging payments are consolidating, not slowing down. It’s the right moment for the BFSI industry to develop frictionless, embedded, and native solutions for customer interaction, setting the stage for success.

Low code is like a superhero for financial institutions looking to make big digital changes. It hands the power to the business folks, speeds up app creation, and makes teamwork between business and tech a breeze. But there’s a catch. You’ve got to be ready for these challenges and always keep an eye on the rules and security stuff. If you do it right, low-code can change the game in finance, bring in some cool innovations, and give your customers the best experience they’ve ever had.

Exciting News! We’ve Got an Exclusive Ebook Coming Your Way – Stay Tuned and Follow Indium Software on LinkedIn

The post Spilling the Deets: Low-Code in BFSI Made Simple! appeared first on Indium.

This is because of the visual development environment offered by low-code platforms that allows developers to use the drag-and-drop feature to develop the apps. While this has proved to be a great advantage in accelerating development speeds, it has also generated a general view that low-code development is for simple apps and that complex software still needs a traditional development approach.

Benefits of Low-Code Platforms in Developing Complex Software Low-code platforms such as Mendix and OutSystems help developers build complex software by simplifying the development process. Some of the advantages of using a low-code platform include:

Automating Processes: Manual coding takes time and is prone to human errors. In low-code development, flexible apps can be created by automating processes. The tasks can be broken down and integrated to simplify even complex processes.

Device-Neutral Apps: It enables the creation of apps that can be used on any device, making it easy for users to access data and collaborate from anywhere, anytime.

Optimizing Resource Utilization: The fact that even non-technical users can develop apps using low-code platforms lowers the cost of development while improving productivity. As it speeds up the development cycle, it also is time-effective and allows faster time to market.

Improved Customer Delight: Low-code development allows users to respond to changing market trends quickly and improve customer service.

Better Risk Management and Governance: Businesses can cope with changing regulatory environment better as low-code development facilitates greater responsiveness.

Greater Adaptability: Keeping the apps up to date and meeting newer requirements is easy as low code does not require complex coding.

Mendix is available in free and pro versions, with the Pro enabling complex workflow management and external integrations through either low-code modeling or Java code.

It is cloud-based and makes IT project management and native collaboration easy.

OutSystems allows the creation of native apps at the click of a button. Once the app is configured and the keys/certificates added, the platform generates the native builds for Android and iOS along with the required content and plugins. It does not even need the installation of Java and Android Studio to build for the mobile.

5 Best Practices for Low-Code Development

To effectively leverage the low-code development platform for faster development of apps, implementing the following 5 best practices will be beneficial:

Best Practice #1 Understand Your Platform: Though low code needs very little coding skills, some basic technical skills are still essential to use the platform effectively. Some time spent understanding the platform capabilities will improve the quality of the apps being developed. Some of the key features the developers and users must be familiar with are platform integration, UI design, API generation, and so on.

Best Practice #2 Reuse Components: Low-code platforms such as Mendix and OutSystems also offer several out-of-the-box components that can help developers jump-start their app-building process. Focus on developing unique features and use the pre-existing features for the rest of the common functionalities.

Best Practice #3 Connect with the Community: Low-code platforms have a vibrant community that can help with developing robust apps. Reach out to the community to solve issues, have questions answered, and collaborate where needed to improve customer experience.

Best Practice #4 Ensure Good UI/UX: Low-code platforms such as Mendix and OutSystems provide easy and ready-to-use UI frameworks and come with standardized components. They enable customizing the user interface and speed up the development process.

Best Practice #5 Improve Security and Governance: Regulatory requirements make security and governance essential. Therefore, developers must ensure that apps developed using low-code platforms are compliant and secure. Permission-based access to data and protection of personalized identifiable information (PII) or sensitive IP must be ensured with sufficient management and oversight policies and rules put in place.

Indium to Facilitate Low Code Development

Indium Software is a leading low-code development company whose team of expert’s custom-develop complex systems with low-code/no-code solutions at low cost. Our low-code development services provide businesses with the tools and expertise they need to quickly and easily create powerful software applications without extensive coding knowledge.

We work with a variety of low-code development platforms including Mendix, Microsoft PowerApps, and OutSystems, leveraging the unique features and capabilities of these platforms to provide end-to-end solutions and low-code platform recommendations based on unique business needs. The use cases range from optimizing the sales process, to automating business operations, improving customer relationship management, and building web/mobile apps. These include business process automation to data analysis, workflow management, and IoT applications, across industries such as healthcare, finance, and retail. We work with cross-functional teams, especially Advance Analytics and data engineering teams to include AI in the solution.

Our services cover selecting and implementing the platform best suited for our business needs; and customizing and integrating the low-code platform with other systems including APIs and databases. We also provide low-code QA services, maintenance, training, and support for the low-code platform.

FAQs

The post Low-Code Development & High-Performance Software: 5 Best Practices for Building Complex Software appeared first on Indium.

Mendix is a low-code platform that enables users to create and deploy custom applications without extensive programming knowledge. It includes a visual modeler for designing and implementing business logic, as well as several pre-built modules and integrations to help speed up development.

One of the technologies that Mendix uses is React, which is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It is often used in conjunction with other JavaScript libraries or frameworks, such as Mendix, to build modern, interactive web applications. With React, developers can create reusable components that represent the UI of a web application and manage the state of those components in a declarative and efficient way. React is well-suited for use in Mendix because it allows developers to build reusable, interactive components that can be easily incorporated into Mendix applications. These components can be used to create dynamic and responsive user interfaces that can be easily customized and updated as needed.

Read this interesting Blog to learn more about Low-Code development: Top 10 Skill Sets for Low-Code Developers

To do this, you can create a custom widget that wraps a React component and integrates it into the Mendix platform. You can then use the custom widget in your Mendix application just like any other Mendix widget.

Widgets that can be plugged

The Dojo framework was previously used to create custom widgets. Without going into specifics, I am happy to report that it has now changed. Mendix Studio Pro 8.0.0 includes a new custom widget creation method.

The React library is used to build what are now referred to as pluggable widgets. Mendix claims that these widgets make use of Mendix APIs that are both simpler and more powerful. This includes the powerful ability to use external dependencies and instal them with npm.

React

Another significant advantage is React which has a lower learning curve than the Dojo guideline. React has a small API to gain knowledge, and everything else is just Java. Writing a personalised widget is comparable to writing any other React aspect. Because Mendix now uses the React under the hood, learning React is a worthwhile choice for any low-code front-end developer. Furthermore, React is well-known for its performance and scalability, making it well-suited for use in enterprise-level applications such as those built on the Mendix platform.

How React is used in Mendix

There are several potential use cases for using React in a Mendix application:

1. Building custom UI components: You can use React to create custom UI components that can be used in your Mendix application. This can be useful if you need to create a specific look and feel that is not possible with the built-in Mendix widgets.
2. Enhancing the performance of your application: React is known for its performance and efficient rendering of UI elements. If you have a Mendix application with a lot of dynamic content that needs to be displayed and updated frequently, using React components can help improve the performance of your application.
3. Integrating third-party libraries or services: React has a large ecosystem of libraries and tools that can be used to add additional functionality to your application. You can use React components to integrate these third-party libraries or services into your Mendix application.
4. Creating reusable components: Reacts component-based architecture makes it easy to create reusable components that can be shared across multiple Mendix applications. This can save development time and improve the consistency of your applications.
5. Adding interactivity to your application: Reacts declarative approach to UI development makes it easy to add interactive features to your Mendix application, such as drop-down menus, modal windows, and more.

Use cases

In this blog we are going to see the use case of how react date picker helps in filling up the various short comings from the default in built Mendix date picker widget.

Before we begin learning how to make a custom widget, we must first complete the following installation, which includes Mendix widget generator and yeoman:

• Open the NodeJS command prompt from the start menu. 
• Install the Yeoman with the following command in the command prompt. 
  • $ npm install -g yo 
• Install the Mendix Pluggable Widget Generator with the following command: 
  • $ npm install -g @mendix/generator-widget. 

In addition, you’ll need Visual Studio Code, a JavaScript/TypeScript IDE.

Following the creation of the widget, we must instal the react packages for the date picker. After installing the packages, we must create a date picker with features that are not available in the Mendix default date picker. These characteristics are as follows:

1. To disable weekdays and weekends of the calendar.
2. To disable the past or future days of the calendar.
3. To disable a custom list of days (for example holidays of the year) on top of the default Mendix Date picker features.

In addition to the above features, we have implemented the on-change activity will trigger the action items in Mendix. So, whenever a date is selected the event will be triggered and based on your requirements you can call either a microflow or nanoflow.

Conclusion

Overall, the use of React in Mendix allows developers to build rich and interactive UIs that can be easily customized and updated as needed, helping to streamline the development process and make it easier for users to build custom applications that meet their specific needs.

The post Custom Widgets and React in Mendix Platform Development appeared first on Indium.

Monolithic architecture has unorganized code that makes updating difficult and time-consuming for developers. In modern times, where businesses need to constantly evolve their systems to meet their customers’ needs, legacy systems cannot evolve as quickly. Even making small changes or updating just one part of the application can be difficult.

Must Read:  Diagnostics Management Application Development Using Mendix

From Monolithic to Microservices Using Low-Code

Migrating the legacy system to a modern system is challenging for another reason. Since businesses are still using these systems for mission-critical operations, any disruption will affect business continuity and operations. Therefore, replacing the entire system with a modern one may be risky.

The incremental move of legacy applications to a modern architecture using microservices can enable pacing to ensure minimum disruption with optimal performance. Furthermore, low-code development platforms such as Mendix can facilitate easy migration based on the unique needs of businesses.

With low-code development, businesses can create a streamlined path facilitating visualization and collaboration. Low code reduces the dependence on the IT team as even non-technical users can use drag and drop to build apps efficiently and increase the business value of the app.

Mendix’s low-code platform allows businesses to decentralize and simplify the system, improve the efficiency of the applications, and become more agile to meet changing business and user needs. This increases the resiliency and also enables the updation of individual services without impacting the entire system. Mendix low-code also allows the IT and business teams to speak a common language, thereby simplifying the process of app development. With microservices, organizational complexity can be reduced as smaller groups of stakeholders can be assigned specific responsibilities.

7 Benefits of the Mendix Platform

Modernization using the Mendix low-code platform for modernization offers many benefits, including:

Prioritizing App Modernization

The modernization effort can be gradual, thus improving the return on investments of the existing systems while building mission-critical apps on priority. This ensures that the most important requirements get addressed first, while the rest of the operations continue unhindered.

Enhancing the Capabilities of the Legacy Systems

It can extend the capabilities of legacy systems by automating processes, building web and mobile apps, and developing new functionalities.

Leveraging Mendix Features for Faster Development

Mendix offers a variety of reusable components, collaboration tools, developer toolkits, technology, and resources necessary for developing cutting-edge solutions that seamlessly integrate with the existing systems, leaving the core foundation intact. Mendix Data Hub facilitates connecting and integrating microservices with existing systems using industry-standard protocols and interfaces like SOAP, REST, JDBC, and OData.

You might be interested in: The Benefits of Low Code and What It Means for Your Business

Easy Management and Upgradation

Mendix is a future-ready technology that facilitates easy maintenance, upgrades, and modernization to ensure app agility, flexibility, and scalability. It enables the proactive monitoring of apps to ensure their performance quality to reduce technical debt and enhance maintainability. The Mendix Control Center provides a centralized view of the application architecture, such as UIs, data models, and user bases.

Focus on Usability

Mendix allows developers to take a user-centric, design-thinking approach to app building with new capabilities and the removal of redundant features. With greater focus and user engagement, app success can be enhanced, leading to increased revenues, customer loyalty, and brand reputation.

Using a Microservices Approach

When migrating using the Mendix low-code platform, business-oriented microservices can enable the development of individual components for specific functions. There could be several microservices that integrate to form a single application, making it easier and quicker to develop, test, and deploy new apps without disrupting the entire system.

Extensibility

Mendix allows businesses to have access to data and applications and export them when needed on its open and extensible platform. It also allows the replication of functionality, allowing the continuous evolution of apps on Mendix. Apps can also be reused and automation can lower the total cost of ownership.

Modernize on Mendix with Indium

Indium Software is a cutting-edge software development company that helps businesses break barriers to innovation by providing bespoke solutions to accelerate growth. As a Mendix expert, we enable the continuous iteration and improvement of enterprise apps, introduce new ideas, and speed up delivery to reduce time to market and self-actualization.

Indium helps businesses leverage Mendix low-code platform to build a variety of solutions including;

• SaaS-based apps
• Customer portals
• Smart apps with IoT enablement
• Mobile interfaces and apps
• Automation of internal processes

The Indium team of Mendix experts works closely with our customers to analyze the existing infrastructure, and identify mission-critical apps that need to be updated, replaced, repurposed, or reused. This streamlines migration, thus modernizing businesses quickly to minimize disruption and maximize resources.

Indium in short:

• Mendix practice of 6+ years
• More than 50 active customers
• Developed nearly 350 customized applications

Indium has one of the largest number of certified low-code communities globally and is an end-to-end solution provider. We also have a dedicated low-code academy, constantly training and retraining our team to meet the needs of our customers.

FAQs

The post <strong>Using Mendix to Modernize your Legacy App</strong> appeared first on Indium.

Various factors are driving the need for application modernization, with COVID-19 limitations remaining one of the most important. Organizations are struggling to maintain a smooth workflow as a result of COVID-19 regulations forcing their employees to work from home. Under the great burden of rising app-based digital business transactions, businesses’ old programmes and software have given up, compelling businesses all around the world to update their legacy apps.

Read More about: Application Modernization with AWS

In a very dynamic market, companies should have an application modernization strategy in place to maintain business continuity and growth. The greatest strategy to exploit current capital and minimise unnecessary technological investments is to modernise your existing apps or systems.

Modernizing legacy applications might help to avoid accruing technical debts and business immobility. This article explains how application modernization enables businesses to digitally shift and scale up during a pandemic.

What is application modernization?

Application modernization entails rewriting existing software to accommodate new computing methods. New languages, frameworks, and infrastructure platforms are among the updates. In this digital world, data becomes the primary business driven force to study and analyse the in-depth business dynamics in terms of sales, revenue, expenditure and proftis etc. The IT industry matured a lot in recent years and the latest technology advancements have made the giga bytes of data processing possible quicker which helps to forecast the business well in advance. Modernization process takes care of application security in greater width by enabling / enforcing multifactor authentication process which was not possible with older technologies.

Some businesses are ready to phase out older applications in favour of the most up-to-date. However, both financially and operationally, this can be expensive. As a result, “the most reasonable strategy to exploit newer platforms, technologies, and frameworks is to modernise applications.”

Benefits of Application Modernization

Cost reduction: Because of the pandemic’s limited resources, “cost” has been the most crucial motivator for application modernisation. For example, the more data you collect, the more you’ll have to pay for your on-premise data centre, requiring businesses to replace storage systems more frequently. It is costly to own and maintain infrastructure since additional costs for cooling, space, and electricity are incurred. Besides these costs, maintaining a large data center would necessitate a specialised IT team to manage the same. As a result, investing in timely application modernization is both reasonable and advantageous, as it helps to avoid all of the costs listed above. The recent cloud platforms (PaaS) offer zero dev-ops it means no manpower is required to maintain and manage the application with respect to deployment. Keeping all these factors like machine, manpower and other infra resources taking into account, enterprises would reduce the recurring expenses significantly.

Improves customer experience: The market has become a battleground for enterprises that cater to similar products and services. At a time like this, it is the customer experience that will give a company the needed competitive edge. Customers preferred with minimal clicks to get things done. Using an obsolete technology will be difficult attain this client experience. Legacy software has an impact on productivity and the time taken to complete the integration.

Furthermore, outdated software’s security flaws can easily jeopardise your business and consumer data, harming your brand. By altering the end-user interface, automating laborious procedures, and adding new features, application modernization can improve your customers’ experience. Essentially, more stable systems, faster updates, and improved security will make your business operations more efficient. All of this, taken together, distinguishes your company and ensures that it flourishes. Without investing extensively in all new technology, your company may get up to speed via application modernisation. In the long term, application modernization will increase revenue, efficiency and security of the applications.

Application modernization strategies

An effective application modernization strategy can minimise the resources needed to run an application, increase the frequency and dependability of deployments, and improve uptime and resiliency. As a result, a plan for application modernization is a standard component of a company’s overall digital transformation strategy.

Legacy application support is difficult for a variety of reasons. These old and difficult-to-maintain systems are becoming progressively obsolete making it less effective at fulfilling their intended goal as they age, also posing a cybersecurity risk. While application modernization is not without its difficulties, the advantages are substantial. Here are five best practises to keep in mind when you create your approach:

Rehost: This strategy, often known as the ‘lift and shift’ concept, entails migrating your application’s fundamental resources from an on-premise data centre to the cloud in their current state. The application codebase is kept the same, but the infrastructure, which includes cloud-based storage, compute, and network resources, is transferred to cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). Attempting to migrate current systems, particularly monolithic legacy apps, to a cloud architecture will prevent them from taking advantage of key cloud-native capabilities such as PaaS, multi-cloud, microservices, agile methodology, containers, CI/CD, and DevOps processes. However, this approach is good if you re trying to utilize the cloud benefits to save cost and as a disaster recovery option.

Refactor: The applications are expected to be on cloud nature in digital era. It includes modification of the application itself and part of code to avail all the benefits of a public cloud. Developers can take advantage of the organization’s strategic code by repurposing investments in languages, frameworks, and containers. It is a time and resource intensive, but the advantages that it brings outweighs the earlier said issues. Organizations take advantage of developing independent services for some of the functional features and make it useable for both internal and external users.

Re-architect: The legacy monolithic application is re-architected using the microservices model, containerized, and current DevOps processes in this option. This involves breaking down or dividing your monolithic application into a set of services that can be written, deployed, and managed separately. Rather than a complete rebuild, it entails fundamentally modifying or deconstructing the application into services. This divide-and-conquer approach to design gives you more control and offers advantages like business agility, faster time to market, lower costs, and the ability to reimagine the customer experience. Cloud-based PaaS (if desired), microservices, serverless, containerization, and current DevOps approaches are among the technologies used.

Rebuild: It’s comparable to a re-architecture, only that instead of remodelling, you’re flattening it and beginning again. And, as with a home, starting from scratch can be more cost effective and usually results in a much better outcome than a renovating effort. The programme is redesigned as a cloud-native application during the rebuild, which helps to speed up innovation, release value sooner, and lower overall operational expenses. Given advancements in technology, languages, frameworks, and other efficiencies, the effort necessary to construct the old programme in the first place could be far greater than the effort required to replace it today. Lower-level programming is now frequently abstracted.

Replace: You can sometimes replace a legacy programme with a more flexible cloud-based solution if it offers certain functionality that is still relevant. Replacing an on-premise version of Microsoft Exchange Server with the cloud-based Office 365 is a simple example. These services are now available as a pay-as-you-go subscription rather than a purchased licence.

The advantages of software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions include always running the most recent version without the need for updates, significant cost savings, perhaps greater security, and moving the support responsibility outside of the business.

The post Application Modernization Strategies: A step-to-step guide appeared first on Indium.

Within the overall low-code ecosystem, the market for low-code application platforms (LCAPs) is expected to see a growth of 30% from 2020 to reach $5.8 billion in 2021.

Though initially looked down upon as not being capable of creating usable applications and considered more as a short-term fix used by business users, low code today has become a platform of choice even for developers and the IT teams. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2024, at least four low-code development tools will be used for IT application development.

With Covid-19 compelling employees to work from home, businesses have had to transform their manual, office-based processes to digital ones using low code. In fact, businesses have also had to improve ways to interact with their customers and low code has enabled them to come up with solutions to make this transition quickly.

Learn more:- How Indium can help you start a 100% Remote Mendix Project

Advantages of Low Code

Some of the key reasons for low code’s popularity in driving business transformation include:

• Drag-and-Drop Application Development – The use of a visual modeling application facilitates a visual representation of processes. As a result, developers can drag-and-drop interfaces and do not need to write too much code. This way, ideas can be converted into apps quickly. Businesses do not have to struggle to hire talent, which is hard to come by given the demand due to widespread digitization, and improve productivity.
• Aligning with business goals – Low code facilitates greater collaboration between the developer and the user, thereby improving the outcome.
• Simplifies Complex Processes: A low code platform like Mendix comes with many features such as storyboarding, component reusability etc. which simplifies the development process. Iteration of apps and releases is made possible because of the agile environment in low-code development that also permits cross-platform functionality without much extra effort
• Update Quickly: Implementation of declarative tools using visual models and business rules makes it simpler and faster to make changes or add features.
• Secure and Scalable: A low code platform such as Mendix is enterprise-grade, secure, and scalable, thereby making it ideal to keep pace with your business transformation needs.

Low code can help to quickly automate paper-based processes for greater efficiency, reduce the time-to-market and improve governance.

Use Cases

Low code has a wide application potential. We list a few as a quick reckoner to highlight the business transformation that it enables efficiently and effectively. These include:

• A waste management company built an eCommerce portal using the Mendix Platform to empower customers with self-service features for performing routine tasks such as finding services, getting a quote, and paying bills. This enabled the company to provide a uniform customer experience cost-effectively as well as generate new revenue streams. The portal was developed in a fraction of the time taken by traditional development and with collaboration between the developers and IT using consumer-grade UI. A key advantage was that the interface was developed once but can be reused several times for different devices and purposes.
• A bank catering to entrepreneurs was trying to speed up its lending process and failed to achieve much progress with the traditional development method for its lending system. By adopting the Mendix low code platform, they were able to initiate rapid development and deployment cycles. In the next eight months, they released a fully integrated core lending system that meshed new functionalities with its existing applications, achieving a business transformation.
• A provider of grow light systems built IoT-enabled apps using Mendix low-code to generate actionable insights and transform themselves from an installer of grow lights to a total light solution provider.
• A healthcare solution provider developed a software product to automate the billing processes for the purchase of medical devices in 9 months as against the estimated 12 months in the traditional method. The software provides transparency to the billing process, which was missing earlier, and delivers multi-million dollar savings for its clients. It also enables ease of audit and compliance.

Transform Your Business with Indium

Indium Software, with its two decades of experience in cutting-edge technologies, is a Mendix development partner and has successfully created many business transformation stories for its customers. We work closely with the users understanding their needs and collaborating on app-development for the desired outcome. Innovative solutions for complex problems have been a hallmark of Indium’s approach to development, drawn from its cross-domain expertise and cross-platform experience.

If you wish for rapid business transformation, contact us now:

The post Using a Low Code Development Platform (LCDP) like Mendix for Business Transformation appeared first on Indium.

To be able to achieve this, the development process needs to be well-orchestrated from the time of planning to product roll-out and needs modern digital technologies and agile development environments to be able to achieve it. 

Low-code development solutions is fast emerging as the ideal methodology that empowers developers to reduce TTM.  

Related: Low-code in 2021: 5 Key Trends to Watch out for

A research report from Forrester shows that spending in this area will touch $US 21.2 billion by 2022, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 40%. This is driven by a desire to become market disruptors rather than react to market trends and therefore leverage data-driven digital technologies for greater agility and faster TTM. Low code fits into this overall IT strategy by enabling rapid build and deployment of applications by reducing the TTM from months to weeks. 

Features of Low Code Development 

One of the key features that makes low code development platforms (LCDP) such as Mendix ideal for speeding up TTM is its graphical user interface that lets developers use visualization and drag and drop techniques for app development rather than write millions of lines of fresh code. This makes the process more efficient and allows apps to be built faster. Apps can now be created in days which used to take months earlier.

Mendix low-code platform is cloud-native and built on open standards because of which it integrates legacy systems with third-party applications using a bot-friendly interface. This creates automatic workflows to model real business processes. Also, this enables getting the development process started without the need for additional resources or infrastructure.  

Mendix also offers no code tool for web based visual app-modeling studio for business domain experts and robust support for project.

Low code development also enables remote collaboration between teams by facilitating secure access to company data. End-users can be more involved in the development process, thereby aligning IT with business objectives more closely.  

Low code platforms are agile and enable every feature’s look and flow to be tested and any changes are made if required before being moved into production. Changing course and adding or removing a feature without affecting the rest of the app is also possible as a result. 

Virtualization is another key feature of low-code platforms that speeds up development by virtualizing development and test environments or using a cloud service and can be deployed quickly. 

Benefits of Faster Time-to-Market 

Being a disruptor and introducing a feature quickly can in itself be an advantage for the app. However, there are other benefits too that a business can experience by speeding up the time to market for their app and features. These include: 

#1 Lower Cost of Development 

Faster development lowers the cost of development. In addition, it reduces the need for more developers, thereby reducing resource cost as well. This improves productivity while keeping the costs low. 

#2 Improved Productivity 

Due to faster development cycles, more apps can be developed in a shorter duration. From months, apps can be built in weeks or even days, improving resource utilization. 

#3 Improved Customer Experience 

While faster development enables additional features in shorter periods, low-code platforms also help create features with good usability and user interfaces for better customer experiences. 

#4 Better Risk Management and Governance 

The regulatory environment is constantly changing, requiring businesses to keep pace and adapt quickly. With low-code development, changing to meet the deadlines and become compliant becomes easier. 

#5 Keep Pace with Trends 

As low-code development does not need complex coding and is data driven, businesses can quickly add or modify features to suit the changing needs of its customers. 

#6 Transform Quickly 

To benefit from the digital technologies, businesses can opt for low code development to transform quickly. Its ability to integrate legacy systems with third-party applications enables existing businesses to come up to speed and compete with start-ups and more agile businesses quickly. 

#7 Increased Business Agility

Mendix low-code platform is extensible, providing direct integrations with major vendors and enabling IT to turn APIs, web services. This accelerates the time it takes to integrate and deploy new tools and technologies, helping businesses stay ahead of market trends and consumer demands. 

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#8 Easy Deployment Access 

Mendix low code platform allows us to deploy the application in an easy manner. Mendix offers an option to deploy the application in its cloud as well as in Private cloud.  On-premise deployment option is also available in Mendix Low code platform. 

Working with Indium to build an app with Mendix LCDP  

The low-code platform Mendix enables a close collaboration between business-IT teams, enabling faster innovations and reducing the risk of failure. By integrating emerging technologies and core systems quickly, it provides insights for improving business results. Its open and flexible architecture also future-proofs your investments. 

Its visual modeling and building blocks enable even citizen developers to get involved and improve the productivity of professional developers for faster development. One of the key strengths of this platform is that it enables story-boarding and tracking, sprints and feedback, all in one place, facilitating transparency and efficiency. Automated testing, tracking, and analytics along with role-based platform access ensures governance without compromising on the speed of development. 

Indium Software, a key Mendix partner with more than two decades of experience in cutting edge technologies, offers technology and domain expertise to empower businesses with fast app developments and gain competitive advantage. We have recognized capabilities in the innovative implementation of Mendix development solutions. 

If you would like to speed up your TTM for apps, contact us now. 

The post Time-to-Market — A Key Measure for App Development appeared first on Indium.

Low-code is the new, widespread evolution happening in software development.

Its definition, according to low-code platform Mendix, is this: “Low-code is a visual approach to software development. Low-code abstracts and automates every step of the application lifecycle to enable rapid delivery of a variety of software solutions. It breaks the traditional silos of business and IT to promote continuous collaboration.”

Amid the prolonged economic uncertainty caused by the global health crisis, tech leaders will depend on agile low-code software development platforms in 2021 to launch solutions critical to their business and expand the digital channels.

According to an estimate from analysts at Forrester, 75 percent of enterprise software is set to be developed using low-code development platforms in 2021.

Here are five key trends driven by low-code that you should watch out for.

Evolution of low-code beyond app development

Low-code and enterprise SaaS are significantly reducing the bottleneck of IT development projects and minimizing the need for specialized technical skills. In addition, they are helping accelerate digital transformation and innovation. According to App Developer Magazine , the estimated annual growth for these platforms in the next four years is anticipated to be more than 28 percent.

Mendix CTO, Johan den Haan, says business innovation will be underpinned by the evolution of low-code.

Increased adoption of edge computing

In 2021, over 50 percent of business IT infrastructure are set to embrace edge computing in place of centralized data centers. This will allow for real-time decision-making, avoiding the potential delays in cloud computing, whose centralized nature makes it challenging to process data instantly and effectively.

Den Haan says applications that extract actionable information and business intelligence enable industrial enterprises and those with connected, smart physical systems to explore innovation opportunities while optimizing all operations.

AR to drive success for businesses

In 2021, Augmented Reality’s capacity to visualize information will go beyond enterprises to transform retail experience and live entertainment, which have been largely restricted during months of lockdown.

With movie theaters, shopping malls, storefronts largely empty for much of last year, low-code will be an enabler for the shift to AR to digitalize physical spaces and bring in-store and cinema experiences to wherever people are.

Multi-experience beyond mobile and web

Multi-experience in 2021 will extend consumers’ overall experience throughout all touchpoints and devices for a seamless, cohesive experience on web application, mobile, in-person and chat bots. This, in turn, will help achieve customer loyalty and retention.

Organizations must, however, break down the silos, automate across business functions and communicate between departments to optimize employee user and customer experience.

Low-code to drive workflow automation

This year, business process experts will play a more active role in building process solutions by using drag-and-drop integration and workflow editors to drive automation and achieve operational efficiency.

Nick Ford, VP of product and solutions marketing for Mendix, says: “This year, we’ll increasingly see workflow enablement embedded in the fabric of every tailored application built by low-code developers.”

Final thoughts

It is important to note that low-code is not a means to replace the engineering talent available to enterprises. Instead, it helps them concentrate on more complex tasks, to achieve company-wide innovation.

Organizations that weren’t completely digital must embrace the new normal and build software internally and drive automation. In addition to their inherent benefits such as reducing time-to-market, low-code platforms will encourage technical non-engineers and aid them with security, deployment, review and testing capabilities.

How Indium can help

Indium Software is a certified Mendix partner leveraging the Mendix low-code development platform to design applications and to integrate with existing applications with the use of OpenID, Twilio, Jetty Server and more.

With the help of Mendix, we help accelerate time-to-market for your applications by 6x-8x and build applications with modern UIs and integrations. Our Mendix development capabilities help our clients fulfill their key business requirements. 

The post Low-code in 2021: 5 key Trends to watch out for appeared first on Indium.