The Business Agility Blog

What we can learn about business agility from world class hockey players.

I was sitting with a few friends watching USA and Canada fight for the gold in men’s hockey when I we started talking about the changes in hockey over the years. The sport has been played without much change for decades, aside from the laser timing and broadcasting technologies that have been introduced to all Olympic sports.

A buddy of mine, who had been a college hockey player, mentioned some changes he noticed in the way players well, play. He explained that hockey players rarely ever relied on the amount of agility they do to win these days. “None of this lightening fast tap dance to the net” I believe were his words.

Where physics meets strategy

Hockey had once been a game of force; a product of mass and acceleration that resulted in bloodied jerseys and missing teeth. Not to say this basic principle is entirely gone, but agility has become a pillar of Olympic skills that seem to have taken priority over size, speed and vigor. The truth is, every team brings their best hockey players to the table, or rink in this case. Coming away with the big W requires a plethora of variables to pan out just right, one of which is the overall skill and strategy of the team.

To the keen hockey spectator, agility scores more goals. To the Business Agility blogger, agility scores more goals. When size and speed are maxed out, players need to rely on their maneuverability at the net. Starting to see the connection? Your company is centered on three pillars, a simplistic model, but an accurate one. You have your team, your opportunity, and your resources – and guess what, agility is as important to your team as it is to modern Olympians.

Think about it… A company can grow and grow until its mammoth proportions result in its inability take advantage of new opportunities. (I’m picturing a sumo wrestler skating down the rink… no goal) On the other hand, you can be small and quick, allowing you to exploit new opportunities but at a smaller scale; your smaller scale. (An ice dancer… maybe a goal, more likely a broken spine) Then there’s a balance; the right amount of business agility – one part decision making and implementation speed and one part capital force not to be reckoned with. Now you can take advantage of opportunities, and have the strength to rebound if the opportunity flops. Now you’re scoring goals.

Balance is everything

Business agility is all about achieving the right balance. A company that wants to grow as fast as possible will need to be able to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. Just as coaches of Olympic hockey teams modify their strategy to make goal-scoring hockey teams – company leadership should be thinking about the technology they use and how fast they can use it. If you weren’t watching last night, see below to watch Crosby’s agility bring Canada the gold.

Last week, Mendix was invited to demonstrate the Mendix platform at Sogeti Engineering World, an event organized by IT service organization, Sogeti. The theme of the day was “The next step in adulthood and productivity” – referring to the fast developments within the software engineering industry. Our head of R&D, Johan den Haan, was invited to give a presentation about our vision in regards to productivity and software engineering.

As it turned out, Johan’s presentation was one of the most popular sessions of the event. During his presentation, Johan elaborated on the use of DSL’s (Domain Specific Languages), model interpretation and ways to embed custom Java code into Mendix applications. The icing on the cake was a demo using our latest release; the long- anticipated version 2.5 of the Mendix platform.

Visitors were surprised with the ease of use and the speed with which Johan was able to build up an order entry system from scratch. His demo proved to attendees that by empowering business analysts with the right tools, the business world is in for a whole new game of Business Agility Management.

For everybody who could not attend the Sogeti Engineering World, please take a look at our photostream for some impressions. If you are interested in meeting us or attending one of our live presentations (offline or online), register for one of our monthly events here.

The Mendix stand

The Mendix Crew

Johan den Haan during his presentation

Ever notice how the youngest people in an organization know all the cool tech tricks and secretly scoff at your unavoidably outdated methods? There was a time when you were the graphics wizard, making slide shows that blew clients away, but those times are long gone and an entire generation of baby boomer offspring is happy to show you why. In order to harness the genius of these bright minded, caffeinated tech-junkies, Mendix has set up the Mendix University Program.

Business Engineering 101

This program brings the Mendix platform to the classroom, allowing business information students to create highly functional applications in no time. The idea here is to find a synergy between brilliant university students and a fast growing software company. Students, in addition to class credit and real world experience, get to try a platform made with business people in mind. By cutting out the endless coding, students can focus on the business problem they’re trying to address and how they can use technology to solve it.

Tomorrow’s Business Analyst

On the other side of the equation, at Mendix we take feedback from students and professors extremely seriously. Mendix University Program manager, Chris Kober, explains: “Todays business information students are the future advocates and users of our products and our platform, their opinions are invaluable to us. Part of the reason we are located in Cambridge is that we have the smartest students in the world within walking distance.”

Ivy League only, for now

Although the program is aimed at Ivy League schools for now, the company plans to grow this initiative indefinitely. Any university offering a degree in information technology or business administration can be a part of the fun, and it usually doesn’t take very long for professors and students to become supporters.

Sign up for a whirlwind tutorial during one of our monthly Mendix Essentials or Webinar sessions, just enough to get your creative juices flowing.

A few weeks ago, we had a blog post that showed just how versatile the Mendix platform really is: almost any browser, any hardware, and even the Wii will run these applications flawlessly. The coming debut of the iPad in March will provide us with yet another fun piece of hardware to try. As usual, the world raises an eyebrow every time Apple comes out with a new product. Naturally, we’ll make sure Mendix applications run as easily on Apple’s new iPad as they do on the iPhone. We agree with much of the tech world in saying that the iPad will gain in popularity once developers take advantage of its new features.

Can’t wait to see what our business engineers come up with.

Companies using Mendix on their iPad may find that it lends itself to business processes more easily than its phone-enabled cousin. The screen is big enough for multiple people to use it – easily!

Just think of the possibilities: sales people presenting to clients on the road, inventory management in retail stores, order pickers in warehouses. Load a Mendix application and you’ve reached a whole new level of finger swiping efficiency. Whether you’re tracking inventory, customers, products, or pitches – this device will make your job easier.

There are a lot of uses for the iPad out there that do not exist for the iPhone or iPod Touch. As developers unleash the iPad’s true genius, we can look forward to applications that change the way people do business.

Since Mendix is all about increasing business agility, we see some serious potential in using the Mendix platform on the iPad. In effect, the iPad can increase business agility as well. With more information at your fingertips people can make decisions faster. The tablet vs. netbook argument still exists, and I’m not necessarily here to answer it.

Mendix customers that use the iPad, iTouch, iPhone, Mac, or host of other devices, have grown to expect top notch applications – especially when their business people think strategically.

A “What If” question for business analysts and IT professionals…

What if it suddenly became very easy for someone to do both your job and their own, at the same time? If history provides any forecast for the future of IT, we are likely to see some interesting changes in the way human capital is managed – especially for those of us involved in the emergence of cloud computing. Clouds push complexity to the background and allow users to focus on what really matters: functionality and costs.

Have you ever noticed how the education we receive often sets boundaries in our career aspirations? We are trained to do something, and do it well – but in doing so, we take for granted the fact that others are doing the same thing in a different field. Then, when we are faced with an inevitable change, we instinctively take a “That’s not what I’ve been trained to do, there are other people for that” mentality. Sure, there are the motivated few who push down boundaries and become renaissance men and women in their own right. But when everyone else is set in their ways, these people are often considered a risk… think: too many eggs in one basket.

Now, to regress from my pseudo-philosophical banter, this trend is becoming all the more apparent as business analysts become more involved in technical training. Most IT veterans would say that business analysts will never have the true know-how to implement their plans, requirements and recommendations. The modern business analyst usually considers themselves more of a problem solver than a programmer – hence the separation of labor in this function of any business. Having surveyed the blogosphere for opinions of business analysts and IT professionals, there seems to be a live (and even a bit emotional) discussion between those who say it is a natural, and therefore inevitable, progression and those who say it is a “pie in the sky” and that it will never happen.

Contrastingly, a growing population of believers has something to say about the segregation of business and IT. In a world of zeros and ones, the innumerable coding languages can only become more and more efficient. As coding languages are continuously created, survival of the fittest can account for the extinct languages of modern programming. An abstraction of these languages is an ongoing phenomenon with a light at the end of the tunnel. Some say that using abstract, visual and human-readable models instead of low-level code is a very important step towards commoditized coding.

I’ve come to think about this abstraction phenomenon as measure to increase efficiency. When our ancestors realized that making bricks was faster than packing sand, they were on to something similar. If someone else uses molds to make perfectly shaped bricks that can be built into any structure, the workers need different skills but can ultimately build more economically, the architect can plan more accurately, and the buyer can move in earlier. So, why deal with sand when we can get the bricks from vendors elsewhere. Why deal with code, when we can get software modules elsewhere? This, my friends, may be the future of today’s business analyst.  In the future, what if business analysts had the skill set and the molds to create bricks that satisfy their requirements without the need to deal with code – or sand?

What we love most, is when a customer goes home after a long day in the office, and then continues building Mendix apps for personal use. Why? Just because they can.

Last night Jeff Erno, one of our latest community members, published a nice post about his (after-hours) Mendix modeling experience:

“As a part of my job I have been learning a new software tool for building web applications called Mendix. It is pretty fascinating since it is codeless. The building of the data model and forms for user interface are done interactively and the algorithms are just visual flowchart models. The usual learning tutorial was to create a pizza delivery web application, but I had what I thought was a better idea that I could make use of and be a bit more passionate about, a workout tracker.”

Read more about Jeff’s MX-perience and see screenshots on his blog here

The Mendix client team puts a lot of time and effort into writing code that works across a wide range of browsers. Besides the obvious A-browsers on the support list we like to push the envelope by trying to run complex applications on new or interesting environments. Here are a few pictures of some recent experiments. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean any of these environments are officially supported!

Here we have a Web Client running on the OLPC XO-1, probably one of the lowest low-end machines you’re likely to find in the wild these days. Loading the app took some time and the interface response was a bit sluggish, but it loaded cleanly and without modifications.

Mendix Web Client on OLPC

Next up, Nintendo’s latest console is the Wii. It has WiFi and an Internet Channel (which is basically a highly customized Opera9 build). Can we wave the WiiMote around and control a Web Client instance? Yes we can! The app loads without a hitch and we’re waving our way through sets of data, though it’s obvious that an old CRT television screen is not exactly the best display option for these apps.

Mendix Web Client on Nintendo Wii / Opera

Last up in today’s browser hijinks, Google ChromeOS. Or Google Chrome running on Google ChromeOS, whatever works for you. Chrome is browser that just makes me happy. The new V8 JavaScript engine and isolated processes-per-tab set a new standard for performance and reliability. Google has decided that what the world needs is an OS without local storage and that just runs everything straight from the cloud. The source has recently been open-sourced and we picked up a disk image. A few clicks later, we’re logged into the Google cloud and load in our by now familiar CRM app.

Mendix Web Client on ChromeOS/Chrome

We’re still a long way from having an ecosystem where all browsers follow the same standard and implement them all the same way. But if nothing else this experiment is an indicator that modern browsers are mature enough to use as  runtimes for complex applications. Or that we’ve just bullet-proofed our Web Client enough to run on the crazy variety of browsers out there. Take your pick.

Last Friday, the 25^th of September, Mendix organized a Mendix Essentials event in Rotterdam with almost 30 participants from various companies and backgrounds. The Mendix Essentials are monthly recurring events where Mendix presents interested parties with the technology and vision of the company.

The program was packed with interesting demos, presentation and an exciting guest presentation from Atos Origin by Maarten Baas .

Visitors were very enthusiastic after attending the program and just like we hoped, this Mendix Essentials triggered a significant amount of discussion and a great deal of positive reactions from the audience.

For those who missed it, consider registering for our monthly Mendix Essentials events on 30 October or 27 November .

Here are some impressions

Beginning of the Atos origin presentation

Maarten Baas from Atos Origin presenting

Mendix CTO, Roald Kruit explains the Mendix proposition

HST groep, a transport and logistics service provider based in the Netherlands developed an award winning portal together with Mendix partner CAPE Groep. The portal informs HST’s customers about the CO2 – emission resulting from their transport orders; thereby the portal gives additional information about the ways of fulfillment of their transport orders.

Although customers of HST already used an internet portal to offer transport orders to HST, the new portal and functionality offers opportunity to choose the most sustainable transportation options, directly influencing the bottom line. The portal runs on the Mendix platform and was implemented by CAPE Groep.

With this portal HST has made a great leap forward in combining sustainable transportation and cost control. Therefore the portal was awarded with “the lean and green award”. The lean and green award is an initiative from the ministry of transport and industry organizations. The award is granted to companies that display exceptional measures that not only influence cost reductions but also enable more sustainable operations.

During the “Connekt Congress” HST Groep’s Gerard ter Brugge was presented with the award by senator, Dr. Eric Janse de Jonge.

The portal was also covered in this month’s TTM magazine.

Mendix congratulates HST and CAPE Groep with this prestigious award.

Yesterday Mendix joined the ‘BPM congres 2009’. Governmental organisations, Universities and companies shared their knowledge about BPM by giving presentations, master classes and workshops.

The day had an informative character and visitors shared knowledge about BPM and the role of BPM in the organisations of the future.

Mendix Head of R&D Johan den Haan, presented Mendix’ vision and the Mendix approach towards the development of service oriented business applications.

The visitors were very positive about this new way of software engineering.

Impression from the information market @ BPM 2009

Head R&D of Mendix, Johan den Haan explains

Mendix Partner Manager Jan-Mark Maas