The Business Agility Blog

‘Tis the season to think about giving – why not give the gift of business agility? Here are three applications that have outstanding return-on-investments. Happy Holidays…

1. Single View of Customer

What if you could see all of the data about a specific customer in one convenient dashboard view? No more signing into multiple systems to gather the customer’s data manually. With a ‘Single View of Customer Portal’ you can organize data from source systems so that your systems work for the people in your organization – not the other way around.

Renew Value in Source Systems

Many organizations are forced to deal with multiple source systems that do not easily integrate. This can lead to underutilized technology and the high cost and human error that come with it. By giving employees an easy-to-use single view of a customers, they will get the most out of data provided by source systems.

With a simple web portal, you can access just the information that you need regarding a specific customer from any web browser. Pool your information resources together to make them work for you. Your CRM, ERP, and billing software can all be a part of a user friendly web app. Best of all, it will be customized to your organization’s needs, and extremely easy to expand.

Simply put, agile development tools like Mendix make small IT departments work like big ones. You can make the changes your business and your industry require, without large upfront investments. Manage data from multiple sources through your browser in an easy-to-configure web application

2. Spreadsheet and Database Migration

While spreadsheets and databases can be extremely useful, it’s easy for organizations to find themselves unable to manage tons of Microsoft Excel files and Microsoft Access Databases. Data stored in this manner can be difficult to maintain because it is not integrated with source systems, and is all too often controlled using clunky macros. Mendix makes it easy to migrate data from spreadsheets and Access databases to an online environment that can be managed quickly and easily.

• Keep your data in one centralized location in a user friendly online application.
• Add logic and workflows to automate manual processes.
• Allow multiple users access to a web application – no more email attachments!
• Manage the application with administrative user permissions.
• Integrate with source systems for up-to-date, dynamic data.
• Scalable applications mean high data volumes won’t diminish performance.

3. Flexible Front End Solutions

Front end solutions are an extremely important part of your organization’s information technology. An intuitive and easy to use interface can change the way people use software, and in doing so, change the way they do business. These interfaces become even more important when they are used to integrate multiple source systems into a single view.

By giving employees an easy to use front end system, they will get the most out of data. Legacy systems don’t have to stop providing value for your organization. Older technology can be revived with a flexible front end system, increasing ROI on an investment made years ago. Data collected in disparate systems can be managed and interpreted easily in a front end system.

Mendix was recently mentioned in a nice post on the GetApp blog about the top cloud stories in 2010. Always happy to hear from our friends at GetApp, we’re even more excited to start seeing Mendix apps populate the GetApp marketplace now that Mendix is listed as a platform. The enterprise world has gone app crazy this year, and I’m proud to hear that Mendix apps are regarded as true game-changers by their users.

If you’re not familiar with GetApp, it’s an enormous marketplace for business applications of all kinds. Talk about options – there are thousands of apps for every purpose, ranging in every possible characteristic you can imagine. The sheer number of choices here reminds me of the philosophy of the Long Tail. You think there will be a long tail of apps?

The Long Tail

In his book, The Long Tail, Chris Anderson explains the value in harnessing the web for free distribution of content. The long tail philosophy refers to a normal distribution of goods, where most merchants are selling those that are in highest demand; the aggregate value of goods not being sold is actually larger than that of the limited number of high-demand goods.

Here’s a [very] quick example: In a music store, each album takes up a certain amount of shelf space. In order to pay for that space, they must sell say – a minimum of ten copies of that album per year. In order to make sure ten albums get sold, they have to only sell albums that will sell that many –AKA: the short head. By selling a virtually unlimited number of albums online, including the ones that only get sold say, once every five years, online retailers are utilizing the long tail. The five million albums that sell once per year generate more revenue than the five thousand albums that sell 100 albums per year. Do the math.

The Long Tail of Apps

So then, if apps can now be created more quickly and easily than ever before – a world of customized applications for every possible solution is coming of age. Therefore, the need for ‘boxed’ solutions – or those that are meant to serve a myriad of industries or organizational departments with the same application – may be diminishing in the same fashion online retailers are winning business from retail stores.

Crowed-sourced by their originators, online marketplaces like the Mendix AppStore and GetApp will offer tons of apps for every possible purpose. The jury is still out on how this will change the way enterprises buy software (politics and blue chips seem to always play a role) – but if we can learn anything from past executions of this phenomenon, CIO’s may be buying apps in the future the same way they buy their MP3s today.

While entering durations and work estimates in your project plan, you will most likely find your project timeline doubled in size given the above levels of testing required when following the standard SDLC. Relief, however, is only a few mouse clicks away.  The Mendix Business Modeler’s consistency checker virtually eliminates four of these testing cycles!

Real-Time Error Checking

The Business Modeler provides a real-time error checker which verifies the completeness and consistency of your entire project, i.e. the database schema with its associated forms and business logic.  Double clicking on a warning within the viewer brings you to the exact location within your project to fix the given issue and provides suggestions and even auto-fix options.  No broken links, infinite loops, missing images, etc.  Mendix Business Modeler’s consistency checker guarantees that your project is deployed without any technical errors.

Change Request?  No problem

We pride ourselves on agility and flexibility.  If you make a change to your data model such as altering the name of an attribute (aka a column within a table), this modification is automatically persisted within your forms and business logic.  Regression testing is therefore eliminated!  Performance Testing (Load Testing, Stress Testing, Configuration Testing, etc.) is not necessary due Mendix’s optimized queries and extensive performance upgrades (like automatic gzipping of static content such as .html, .js, and .css files to allow faster response times for low-bandwidth connections).

In the event that Java actions are used (if custom Java code is chosen for integration with existing infrastructure components versus web services), traditional testing methods apply to Java code.  The Mendix Business Modeler integrates directly with Eclipse and allows testing to be completed during development, not postponed until the end of the project lifecycle.

Satisfied Customers

Of course you will need to confirm your back-end systems are working as expected (Integration Testing).   Otherwise your focus will turn to Functional Testing and User Acceptance Testing, i.e. making your end users happy!  But even these testing cycles are minimized due to the fact that with agile development end users are either directly involved or indirectly offer continuous feedback so that the end product is a custom fit.  Because your project is a visual model, documentation is automatically created, defining your entire technical and functional specifications!  Detailed requirements specs are not a necessity; requirements are defined throughout the process allowing for adoption to changing business processes and future-proofing your application.  Non-technical users will finally be provided with transparency into business logic!  Documentation is reduced to use cases which services the end users needs and defines the application flow.

Another benefit within the Modeler is related to Internationalization and localization.  Adding a new language, for example, is only 3-mouse clicks away.  No extra testing cycles or code required!

The last couple of weeks a lot of people (customers and partners) have been asking me about the main difference in features between us and our competitors. I think that`s a rather tricky question. That`s something a client or partner has to determine for himself, right? I mean, before you know it, you are stuck in discussions about features, and just as Simon Sinek said in the amazing book ‘Start With Why’ – the features are merely a proof of your belief. It`s not what you do it`s why you do it. What`s your cause or belief. It`s not that discussions about features are not important, but I think the first step should always be to investigate if the organization you are doing business with shares your beliefs and values.

At Mendix we believe in enabling our customers and partners to realize true business agility. And we prove that everyday.

What do I mean by that? A couple of things.

One: We believe in enabling our customers and partners

At Mendix, we stick to the philosophy of being a product company instead of a service company with a product. What are the benefits of dealing with a product company you might ask? Well, the main focus of service companies (without a real platform for Business & IT collaboration) is much more on services, so fixed date, fixed price is quite the discussion, that`s the complete opposite at Mendix and with our partners. We love it when a plan comes together (and dare to guarantee it)! So dear customer or partner, please check if you are dealing with a product or a service company before you sign that contract, if that`s the road you`d like to go on. My hint, if the R&D team is much smaller then the service team, you are most likely dealing with a service organization…

Two: To realize true business agility

I see a lot of companies who promise a promise of business agility. What is business agility? Business agility, we think, is changing your business technology to your business needs when you need to, how you need to. But when a project is started nowadays in most cases, it`s near impossible to change requirements. And after the project is done, the change management process is complex, and very time and budget consuming. Changes should be made on the fly, so when you have changes to laws, rules, and/or processes, or even a completely new process, you are able to change them in hours or days, not months or years. In order to do so, you should provide an organization with a platform for Business & IT Collaboration.

Three: And we prove that everyday

My advice to every customer who is thinking of buying our, or any other software platform out there on the market. Don`t believe the stories and beautiful slide-shows, check your facts. Go talk to clients who have finished projects, and are using the platform for Business & IT Collaboration in practice. Go and watch the systems in production, let your architects view the solutions in place. Check how easy it is to cope with change. That`s the only way you can really estimate if a platform and solutions work the way you need them to. At Mendix, we have a large list of customers who are eager to show you how they use our platform and which Mendix business solution they are using everyday to reach their goals.

Ok, I may have cheated a little with the third point, that`s not a why, it`s a what. It`s a result. It merely proves in everyday practice, that what we believe, we make happen. But I couldn`t resist to slide it in there!

At Mendix, we truly believe in enabling our clients and partners in realizing true business agility. Everything we communicate and do, from our slidedecks, the Mendix Business Agility Suite to the way we sign contracts and deliver projects, is consistent with that belief. So dear customer or partner, please always start with why. And do contact us if you would like to verify or share our belief.

As the big day steadily approaches, the most serious holiday shoppers are preparing their lists, checking them twice, and getting ready for the mayhem that ensues the Friday after every Thanksgiving. Consumers in the United States are known for their vigorous shopping habits and cunning ability to seek out deals – but as an international software company, we see the best deals in enterprise software happening every day of the year, in our online marketplace for apps.

The AppStore is a marketplace for applications built on the Mendix platform. Users from around the world, whether they’re implementation partners, graduates from the Mendix OnCampus Program, or just advocates of the unique technology, are continuously adding their work to the AppStore for any number of reasons. During this time of year, when retail shoppers are reaching their peak of insanity, I like to remind enterprise shoppers of all the great ways they too can save on their end-of-year purchases.

Budgets have been held tight all year, as economic unpredictability continues to rattle the global economy and its retail and enterprise shoppers alike. If they haven’t already, those of the enterprise software market are predicted to move towards the cloud in 2011. The best deals in cloud application add-ons can be found in the Mendix AppStore, where a huge community of Mendix users are adding and sharing models, widgets, apps, and themes all year long.

The deals found here are not promotional – just more cost effective than almost anything out there. They represent the Mendix philosophy of increasing business agility with agile tools and methodologies. Fundamental to this philosophy, and to the chagrin of many boxed solution vendors, Mendix allows organizations to build customized software that solves their specific problems, at black Friday prices, all year long.

So if you’re looking for ways to finish off that budget you’ve been protecting, look no further than your own organization. Do you see any operational inefficiencies, overworked IT people, or boxed solutions that need additional functionality? Are you still waiting for an ROI to surface from your 2007 software investments? Maybe you should give Mendix a try, or talk to someone who already has. What better time to think about giving your organization a pinch of agility to start the New Year.

Charlene O’Hanlon – CTOEdge

When it comes to creating business applications, Mendix believes the more agile, the better.

“Mendix is all about increasing business agility, allowing companies to react to change better and faster by increasing collaboration between business and IT,” said Eric Peters, online marketing manager at Mendix. “Rather than have a list of requirements and IT having to go in and creating code and building software, Mendix gives them the capability to visually model what a business wants. It’s a more iterative process.”

The company’s technology enables disparate systems – those that don’t play nicely together – to get along and communicate with each other to create the applications that companies need.

Mendix sits as a portal layer on top of those systems and pulls data from them to create a front-end solution with single sign-on.

“In telecom, for example, a lot of the out-of-the box systems don’t work well together, so we sit in between them and create a totally custom solution,” Peters said.

While there are plenty of business process management (BPM) offerings on the market, what sets Mendix apart is its ability to create visual models of the solution – and then deploy that solution with one simple mouseclick, allowing immediate feedback on the business application protoype.

“Rather than see the application in a static form like PowerPoint, users can see the application in action and make changes immediately if necessary,” Peters said. “That’s our sweet spot.”

The company also differs from its peers in the way it approaches the technology in general – not as engineers, salespeople or marketing folk, but as business people.

“Everyone is a business person here,” Peters said. “Even our engineers go in to a job with an eye toward business.”

That allows the people who actually will use applications being developed to have a hand in the process, which Peters noted solves so many problems up front.

What’s also interesting about the business is its ecosystem of developers – a community of partners building custom applications that are then made available to other partners via Mendix’s application store within its Partner Portal. It beats reinventing the same business process, especially in certain verticals and particular popular applications.

In this age of Band-Aid solutions and striving to do more with less, companies such as Mendix are presenting the IT space with an answer that just plain makes sense. The fact that it’s easy to deploy and use certainly doesn’t hurt its standing, either.

You know, it’s the coolest nickname I’ve ever received – but it almost sounds negative. I mean am I going in and assassinating your application? No, I go in and make the changes you request and re-deploy your application. So why give me that nickname?

Pretty easy I guess, when I’m operating strictly as the implementer of a solution, I am able to focus on functionality and how I can improve it. Typically during meetings I write all the customer requested changes down and begin implementing them once we move past that section of the conversation.

Recently during a phone call with a client I was able to test drive the new functionality I built for them in the day prior. Once we went over it all and they gave me their feedback I went to work to make it happen. The online meeting switched to talk about other status reports for members outside of our organization.

By the time they were done I had made the necessary changes, re-deployed their model, and was able to have a second round of test driving during the same meeting. The customer was astonished to see these changes happen so quickly that they dubbed me the “Application Assassin”. “Seriously, how did you do that so fast? Did you already have a different version in mind?” No, I just have the Magic of Mendix. Drag, drop, double click, and deploy…….it’s magic!  Maybe the nickname should be the “Application Magician”.

Sometimes I’m truly amazed by how quick it is to write and change full applications so fast.  But I guess when it’s all visual and no coding it’s easy. Consider this story the next time your business needs have you in a strait jacket wrapped in chains. You may want to have a magician (we still prefer Business Engineer) on your side. That way when the realization is made that your approach should be different, you will be ready.

As Mendix continues to grow its network of partners, the solutions that come about are often impressive examples of what can be achieved with the Business Agility Suite. I had the pleasure of speaking with executives from Buoyant Solutions about their new ‘Enterprise 3.0’ solution, the e-ServiceSuite.

Gidd Calden, CEO of Buoyant Solutions, Inc.  sees an enormous opportunity for customers to use the e-ServiceSuite in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Buoyant Solutions is interested in markets that are driven by ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) specifications. The e-ServiceSuite is suitable for a large variety of business verticals for which it promises to increase collaboration, communication, knowledge and issue management.

David Sanders, the Solution Architect behind the e-ServiceSuite, created the solution in only a few months. David has been involved in developing workflow based applications for over a decade now, and is hoping Mendix will be the latest and greatest in agile development tools. “We’ve always tried to do development in rapid development environments, but this is a newer generation of software. It’s based on newer server technologies and in terms of prototyping and getting a basic application up and running for testing, it is remarkably quick.”

Sanders development expertise allowed him to create the IT Service Management (ITSM) application after a two-day Mendix Essentials training class held in the United Kingdom. The speed at which Sanders re-created the application is no doubt impressive, and speaks volumes for both the development speed using Mendix as well as the efficiency and agility of Buoyant Solutions.

The e-ServiceSuite is a multi-tenant solution wherein each organization will have administrative capabilities to manage the application on the fly. In other words, customers will use the solution as a service, but will be able to control the application as an administrator. Segmenting customer population in a convenient way, with user permission roles, provides organizations a level of flexibility and customizability that is unique to the e-ServiceSuite.

Furthermore, application workflow is data and template driven. Everything is designed to have reusable workflow, from the perspective of the administrator. Calden adds, “As the organization changes, migrates, flows, they don’t constantly have to go into the marketplace and hire resources to modify the solution.”

The future-proof nature of the e-ServiceSuite is similarly aligned to that of the Mendix platform. Over a dozen additional service modules such as Change Management and Financial Management offer the opportunity to customize and extend the functionality of the e-ServiceSuite. Sanders also mentioned supporting a migration path from the SAAS model to an On-premise solution as may be required, all without loss of data.

Stay tuned for more Mendix Partner Profiles to learn about all kinds of interesting tools being built on Mendix. If you’re interested in becoming a partner or giving the Business Agility Suite a try, let us know!

Nifty title isn’t it. It also happens to be the title of the Mendix whitepaper, but I just thought it would work well for this post about, well, modeling the agile enterprise. In other words, let’s talk about bringing agile development to organizations of different sizes, and the enterprise effects (…er, business agility) of IT agility.

An Example in Telecom

So there’s a great case study by Ian Evans called Agile Delivery at British Telecom. He writes about the issues involved in bringing a large company, drowning itself in the waterfall approach, to the agile age. Eight thousand IT professionals relied almost entirely on waterfall delivery, with the exception of a few “fairly small, self-contained development teams.” Commercial Off-The-Shelf systems, changing the waterfall mindset of this IT regime, an “IT department that is not highly regarded within the business,” and legacy code for which tests do not exist – make up several of the challenges that large organizations undertake.

The Size of the Enterprise

Evans offers a few reflections for CIO’s in big business… It’s important to have a ‘critical mass’ of people who will back the idea of going agile, and the applications that going agile produce. Moving from twelve month development cycles to ninety day cycles will always be faced with some opposition, but back in 2006 (when the case originated), I bet there was more opposition than there is now. My favorite reflection: “You might expect that the business would be excited at the prospect of having regular deliveries of valuable functionality. However, the business also needs to move away from traditional waterfall practices and change how it engages with the IT organization.”

SMB’s have it relatively easier than large organizations adopting agile practices. They are used to more collaboration with their IT department. In my opinion, collaboration is the future of great software. The idea that the business people who use the software should have a steady and constant say in what the developer is building seems logical, right?

Agile Methods using Visual Models

Now back to my entirely unoriginal yet perfectly suitable title – Modeling the Agile Enterprise.

“Wouldn’t it be great if I could automatically translate business requirements into working functionality, without having to explain to someone who doesn’t know my business like I do?”

This question represents a fundamental concept of adopting agile development methodologies. Business requirements, in the waterfall approach, are of highest priority at, and only at, the beginning of the development cycle. The requirements of the application are made in conjunction with business users that will then fall out of the equation until testing and production time rolls around, many moons later.

Agile development, the number one doctor prescribed way to increase business agility, takes these business users and gets them involved. First comes modeling, that’s where our business users and IT gurus sit down and use visual models to represent the processes, use cases, and logic that are needed of the application. Now, modeling the agile enterprise involves applying this concept to the organization as a whole; a much recommended and future proof goal of any organization, especially at times of unpredictability. Visual modeling is the language of both business and IT, making it all the more capable of churning out 100% requirement-satisfying applications. Each iteration of a project involves going back to these business people and making sure that the project is on track, cleaning up or adding any new requirements, while ensuring that every single one is met.

Agile for the Future

We started with the trials and tribulations of British Telecom taking on more than a development methodology, but an enterprise philosophy, that has allowed it to increase the overall productivity of its IT department, while improving business processes simultaneously. We then saw that increased collaboration between business and IT permits companies of all sizes, whether comfortable with it or not, to translate agile IT practices into strategic business practices. And let’s not forget the common language between business and IT, visual models, which crack this veritable keg of opportunity. Finally, the idea behind business agility: the ability to be flexible and adaptable enough to change with change, rather than react to change. I leave you with a quote by Charles Darwin, “It’s not the strongest who survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most adaptable to change.”

As I have discussed in the prior two ‘Enter the Business Engineer’ posts, the business engineer is an amazing new type of human capital. These men and woman are few and far between, and seeing them in their natural habitat is a rare treat. Fortunately for us, Mendix attracts and breeds business engineers with its visual modeling tools and one-click application deployment. For part three of this series of posts, I got to spend some time with a real live business engineer. I interviewed a colleague of mine, Jornt, pictured here.

As you can tell, Jornt is a snazzy guy with a pretty cool job – he works with models. Well – business models… He takes business problems, turns them into technical requirements, and solves them – no code required. In fact, Jornt has a finance degree, and just about no technical background. The only remotely techy thing about Jornt is that he wears those sunglasses inside, but the theory that business engineers are adverse to bright light is still in its developing stages.

Anyhow, Jornt was never really interested in information technology; he likes working with people and solving their problems. He avoids code whenever possible, which made Mendix software an enjoyable coincidence when he signed on. Now that you have a bit of background, let’s get to some of the more interesting questions…

Question 1: Do you consider yourself a business analyst?

“I guess I consider myself a business analyst because I take business requirements and turn them into business applications, but if going the extra step of creating a prototype means I’m a business engineer, I suppose I am more of a BE than a BA. So, what would I be if I tell you I create complete applications?”

Question 2: What’s the most important difference between the two?

“Being able to create a working prototype of an application or a piece of functionality and get immediate feedback is extremely powerful. Having that immediate feedback loop is what saves you the most time and hassle and discussions about how the functionality should actually work.”

Question 3: In your experience, what’s the optimal work situation for a business engineer?

“Sometimes, the best situation is when an internal employee at a company, who has all of the domain knowledge, has the ability to build applications for the organization really quickly. On the other hand, it helps to have a consultant come in with experience in multiple industries. Then they can apply that knowledge when they’re building the application.”

Question 4: And how do business engineers contribute more to business agility than business analysts?

“Being able to respond quickly to a changing business environment is the key to business agility, right? The speed of building the application is what adds to this. The knowledge of the business engineer contributes to the quality of the application, but since these applications are so flexible [with Mendix at least], they become better and better over time – which makes them future proof in a way.”

Question 5: What traits best describe a business engineer?

“A BE has to be curious and willing to learn. At this point, their jobs have little to do with their academic background, so an innate curiosity for solving business problems with tech solutions is a good trait to have. Also, you don’t have to be a genius, but you have to be somewhat intelligent and have problem solving capabilities. Most of the time, we have to learn a lot about the business problem before we know which course to take to generate a solution. The faster we do this, the faster we can deliver a solution that solves the problem.”

Well there you have it folks; wise words from a real live BE. I’ll keep you posted with more news about this novel and interesting member of the SDLC club. We are sure they’re going to turn heads as they inspire more business analysts to tear up the requirement document, put on those stunna-shades, and work with models. Business models of course.