Mendix Enables Chinese Businesses to Succeed in Digital Transformation with World’s Premier Low-Code Software Development Platform

  • Mendix, part of Siemens Digital Industries Software, makes its formal debut in China
  • Early adopters of Mendix low-code include SAIC Motor, CIMC Vehicles, and Foxconn affiliate Maxnerva Technology Services
  • Low-code platform boosts productivity and enables “citizen developers” to actively participate in every phase of application development

BOSTON – JANUARY 19, 2021 – Mendix, a Siemens business and global leader in low-code application development for the enterprise, has announced the introduction of its world-class platform to the Chinese market. The Mendix low-code platform brings tremendous advantages to Chinese enterprises seeking to accelerate their digital transformation in response to competitive pressures and new ways of doing business, both of which have been accelerated by the global pandemic. Siemens’ longstanding, extensive presence in China will give Mendix significant advantages in access to customers, resources, and expertise as it brings its platform into one of the world’s top technology markets.

Mendix is a recognized low-code leader and visionary

Mendix low-code is a powerful software platform that enables both professional and citizen developers to create enterprise-grade applications more than 10x faster than traditional development, using drag-and-drop components and model-driven logic through an intuitive graphical user interface. Its cloud-native, microservices-based architecture delivers unprecedented agility, flexibility, and scalability for digitalization projects of every size and scope.

As the industry’s first “all-in-one” low-code platform, Mendix is at the heart of a holistic development ecosystem that seamlessly integrates data and innovative technologies including artificial intelligence, augmented reality, IoT, and other advanced capabilities. Enterprises from startups to major multinational corporations across America, Europe, the Middle East, and beyond are using the Mendix platform to update core legacy systems and deliver innovative new capabilities to internal and external customers. Among Mendix’s tier one clients are Continental, Zurich Insurance, ConocoPhillips, the Municipality of Dubai, and NS, the Netherlands’ high-speed rail operator.

Even prior to its launch, Mendix has attracted customers in China, including SAIC Motor, CIMC Vehicles, and Maxnerva Technology Services.

Chen Jun, senior IT manager of SAIC Motor, one of China’s largest automobile manufacturers, says: “Focusing on SAIC Motor’s ‘1+4’ digital transformation strategy of its passenger vehicles business, we use the Mendix enterprise-level low-code development platform to create lean manufacturing human resource management applications and ultimately achieve reduction of single-vehicle labor costs. This project covers more than 10,000 employees across four major domestic sites of SAIC Motor Passenger Cars; shortens development time by 50%; reduces deployment and maintenance costs by 30%; and achieves two major breakthroughs in business: 1) The first close collaboration of significance between business and IT teams to develop and integrate a big data platform architecture that has applications for future scenarios; 2) Allows SAIC Passenger Vehicles to go from managing month/day cycles down to the hour in its human resources lean management application, achieving significant digitalization of the entire business process and reaching a leading level in the automotive industry in China and even the world.”

CIMC Vehicles is a manufacturer of high-quality semi-trailers using Mendix to drive its intelligent manufacturing capabilities. Dr. Li Xiaofu, CTO of CIMC Vehicles, says: “Through the practices of vehicle certification systems, we have gained a deeper understanding with regards to the knowledge and positioning of Mendix. Mendix can play a key role in the high-end intelligent manufacturing strategy of CIMC Vehicles. In the future, the digitalization of CIMC’s business systems will focus on core business capabilities, while other customized requirements can be quickly and efficiently achieved through Mendix. Furthermore, this will allow us to iterate continuously and keep up with the changes in market demands, thereby reducing the complexities of business systems and efficiently supporting the growth of the business.”

Shi Chunhao, COO of Maxnerva Technology Services, an affiliate of Foxconn whose business domains include smart manufacturing, smart office and new retail solutions, says: “Mendix is a new way that we have been looking for to greatly speed up application delivery in our digital operations. We have launched two apps within a month. Now we are developing the third app, and we believe it will be launched soon. Using Mendix not only helps our IT team improve efficiency and save IT costs, but allows them to quickly support business needs, increase productivity for tens of thousands of factory workers, address government requirements to reopen in the pandemic, manage project costs, help IT report work, and more.”

Backed by the global strength of Siemens

Recognizing the ascendance of low-code and Mendix’s leadership in the category, Siemens acquired Mendix in 2018 and brought it into its Siemens Digital Industries Software group. Mendix soon became the essential software platform for Siemens’ cloud platform; it is fully integrated with Siemens’ MindSphere industrial IoT solution and is a key technology in the Siemens’ Xcelerator digital platform.

Siemens is a global leader in industrial, manufacturing, mobility, and process industries, and has been a proud partner to Chinese industry and government since 1872. From China’s first electric tram line (1899) to power plants, high-speed trains, transformers for the Three Gorges Project (the world’s largest dam), and the world’s first high-voltage DC link to operate at a transmission rate of 800 kV, Siemens has helped to bring innovative technology all across China.

That 150-year track record continues as Siemens brings the Mendix low-code platform — the future of software development — to its customers in China, integrating the strengths of low-code for iIoT, edge computing, AI, automation, and other use cases.

Mendix will also pursue new customers in China beyond the Siemens base, leveraging the specialized expertise and solutions it has developed globally in a broad swath of industries including financial services, insurance, logistics, health care, government, retail, consumer goods, and process industries.

“China is one of the markets of the highest importance to Siemens Digital Industries Software,” says Leo Liang, senior vice president and managing director, Siemens Digital Industries Software, Greater China. “We are pleased today to introduce the world’s premier low-code technology not just to our own customers, but to every enterprise in China that wants to accelerate its digital initiatives to improve operational efficiencies and better engage with customers in every available channel. Low-code is the future of software development, and Mendix is leading the way.”

Boosting developer productivity and empowering citizen developers

Through abstraction and automation, Mendix accelerates software development by a factor of 10 or more versus traditional coding and waterfall methodologies. But speed is just one of several critical advantages Mendix brings to application development. Mendix expands the pool of developer talent through its support of citizen developers — business domain experts and non-IT personnel who can now build applications using Mendix Studio, a development environment specifically designed for non-professional developers. Pro developers use the more advanced Studio Pro environment to build large, complex, enterprise-level applications, even adding their own custom code if necessary.

These complementary environments deliver one of Mendix’s most powerful and unique capabilities: the ability for developers and non-developers to collaborate meaningfully at every stage of the development process, from business requirements to deployment. With all stakeholders speaking a common language in the Mendix platform, both business and technical details are clearly understood by all, resulting in solutions that successfully meet the business need the first time — and eliminating the rework that plagues 40% of traditionally developed applications.

“More effective applications, collaboratively developed in a fraction of the time, delivering more successful business results — that’s the essential value proposition of Mendix,” says Derek Roos, Mendix CEO. “We’re excited to have the reach and brand reputation of Siemens behind us as we launch the Mendix platform in China, and we are confident that our customers there will quickly reap the benefits of low-code application development.”

Access content free of charge from Mendix World, the world’s largest virtual low-code conference, featuring more than 60 sessions, including more than 20 by customers, and covering the gamut of low-code application development topics from strategy to practical, hands-on platform training.

For more information about Mendix’s expanded all-in-one low-code platform, visit Mendix 9.

Learn more about the Mendix Platform and Pricing and Availability

Background

In a pandemic-disrupted world, software is the new lifeblood of our daily lives and the connective tissue holding together the global economy. However, traditional software development takes far too long and very often fails to deliver the results business needs and users love. Even prior to COVID-19, there were simply not enough professional software developers in the world to build all the software currently required. The global pandemic has accelerated and exacerbated what was already a software and business crisis. Enter low-code software development. Low-code from Mendix is a powerful enterprise-grade visual development approach empowering citizen and professional developers to make cloud-native applications more than 10X faster for web and mobile using drag-and-drop components and model-driven logic – all through an intuitive graphical user interface.

    About Mendix

    Mendix, a Siemens business, is the only low-code platform designed to address the full complexity of enterprise software development challenges. Deploying point solutions to departmental problems solves things at a micro level—but if you want to make a significant impact on your business, you need to go bigger and build powerful portfolios that move the needle sustainably and strategically.

    With Mendix, enterprises can take on more complex, transformational initiatives by engaging everyone in capturing requirements, forming ideas, and embedding value assessment throughout the lifecycle of the software portfolio.

    Focus on the right problems while relying on governance and control to avoid unnecessary risk. Mobilize your organization. Build the change readiness muscle. And when the next big idea drops, turn it into an outcome quicker.

    More than 4,000 organizations in 46 countries use the Mendix low-code platform. An active community of over 300,000 developers has created over 950,000 applications – and counting.