How to Streamline the Development Process with Low-Code

Organizations are accelerating their digitalization efforts to keep pace with the rate of change. This essentially means companies are relying on applications to drive business outcomes. Perhaps these applications enable work from home or open up digital avenues as more consumers move to online consumption. Whatever the reason, you need more custom apps, but this creates more pressure on you and your IT teams to increase delivery and time to value.

The development process

On average, software projects take anywhere between 4 to 9 months to complete (from ideation and design to deployment). The size and complexity (i.e. what the solution requires: integration, logic, external services, etc.) tend to be the primary contributors to delays and shifts in timelines. Another large factor in these long development cycles is the lack of close business-IT collaboration. It’s hard to build the right application quickly and accurately when the people that will be using it aren’t involved in its development.

To streamline existing processes and quicken the time to deliver apps and deliver value — without acquiring cost and putting additional strain on development teams — companies are increasingly exploring low-code development platforms. Through low-code development, organizations are able to remove the bottlenecks and inefficiencies for their teams and reduce the risk of delayed or lengthy delivery of roadmap items.

The ability to deploy enterprise, multi-channel applications that include data integration and business logic within weeks is a critical capability of a low-code platform, one that Gartner uses to evaluate low-code vendors found in the Gartner 2021 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms.

Application complexity =/= reduced development speed

According to Gartner, “by 2025, 70% of new applications developed by enterprises will use low-code or no-code technologies.” That’s up from less than 25% in 2020.

The reason why many leaders are turning to low-code is due to the nature of development. By empowering both citizen and professional developers to co-create, the development process is drastically reduced (in terms of time). Most platforms are aligned with the Agile development methodology, so each iteration is between two to four weeks in length and has a fixed completion time.

Additionally, low-code platforms empower developers with diverse backgrounds and varying developer experience to build applications in a governed manner. This includes all aspects of development, from business logic to integration. Teams can essentially develop multi-channel applications without specialized skills that integrate with key systems and data sources to better serve end users, all under IT’s watchful eye.

Ultimately, the right low-code platforms can dramatically speed up the creation of sophisticated enterprise-class applications that incorporate complex business logic, automate workflow and case management activities, integrate with existing information systems, and enable a slick user experience.

Streamline the development of multi-channel applications

The “Business Unit IT Application” category listed in the Gartner Critical Capabilities For Enterprise Low-code Application Platforms report measures the strength of capabilities provided to users looking to build new enterprise applications for web, mobile, data, business logic, and external services. And it specifically targets B2B and B2E scenarios with an intended goal of delivery in and around eight weeks.

Mendix stands above the rest of the vendors on this report because it supports holistic low-code development. Mendix is an all-in-one platform that:

  • gives you an actionable understanding of your data landscape
  • enables you to create fit-for-purpose applications across channels appropriate for your users
  • supports developers of all skillsets
  • allows you to infuse business logic into applications to create end-to-end business processes
  • lets you choose the cloud or deployment type that best matches and scales to your organization’s needs
  • is imbued with artificial intelligence to speed up development

Each facet of our all-in-one approach is designed to simplify what has become a complex landscape and to accelerate an application’s time to value. To further support this, Mendix runs hand-in-hand with agile development by way of an integrated project management application. While agile sprints culminate in work and feedback over a period of time, Mendix feedback mechanisms promote iterations during sprints increasing development speed and accuracy and reducing time to value.

Additionally, with visual development, one-click deployment, reusable components, and easy integration capabilities, Mendix empowers development teams to develop and deploy enterprise multi-channel applications faster.

At Mendix, we understand the value applications bring to your digitalization efforts. This is why the Mendix Platform equips you with the tools you need to address change as it hits, and why it hits the mark on all the critical capabilities you need to consider when searching for the right low-code platform for your business. Read the Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms below to find out more.

This blog post was originally published April 16, 2021 and has been updated.