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We visited Rotterdam citizenM hotel and were struck by the business lessons to learn from this hotel chain. This is at the core of Comotion's ethos - which is driving technology that brings truly sustainable change to business models. citizenM is a great example of innovation and technology that is woven into the fabric of the client offering. The key lessons we learnt from citizenM are:

- The importance of integrity of experience

- Execution, Execution, Execution

- The human touch: Humans need to do what humans do best, and computers should do what computers do best

- Brand consistency: Your brand needs to be woven through the experience

Check out the video for more:


Eric Ries, a custodian of the silicon valley lean startup movement stresses the importance of any business to test assumptions in their respective business models. Once certain of a business plan IT expenses can be largely justified, anything before that level of surety is normally a waist. Putting money into testing assumptions has, up until this point, typically been tested via a messy combination of unmeasured conversation and vapourware.

One of the key strengths Mendix brings to the table is the combination of rapid development and, what I call, ‘pivotability”. Pivotability is essentially a system’s ability to pivot based on business direction. This is something that traditional IT systems handle really poorly, but something that businesses have to do, especially in the early development phases.

In Mendix the application logic is captured within an activity flow-like interface making it simple for business domain experts to both understand and change business logic. This process makes pivoting on a technology platform possible.

Mendix then takes further steps to ensure rapid development. The platform contains an open market allowing users to add functionality such as graphs, captcha, usage calculators, financial calculators, Sales Force integrations etc. at drag and drop speeds. Mendix then allows the logic to be exported in both desktop web and mobile interfaces increasing the number of channels business can offer the application through. Scaling the solution is handled through the Mendix cloud platform meaning that businesses can make the most out of successful assumptions. All it takes is one click!

A diagram of the workflow you would follow during a typical Mendix assisted business development process.

The ease at which applications can be developed, changed and deployed allows businesses to create and soundly test assumptions. Allowing potential target markets to have a functional and scalable solution at the time duration it takes other businesses to build vapourware.

Comotion Business Solutions specialises in helping companies to reinvent key aspects of their business models using solutions like these. Talk to us today about unlocking the benefits that low code can bring!

  • Jun 17, 2018
  • 1 min read

Comotion is, at heart, a technology company that builds connected systems. Our focus is and always will be creating business value through the leveraging of relevant technology. We therefore often review technologies focusing in on mainly the data analytics and operational development space. One technology has stood out far above the others in the operational development space: Mendix.

Mendix is a rapid development platform as a service (PaaS) businesses use to quickly create enterprise grade applications via a small developer overhead.

Or, as Forrester puts it:

“Mendix provides a PaaS dedicated to the rapid developer. Mendix is focused solely on providing rapid developers with a time- and effort-saving alternative to conventional development platforms.”

The Mendix Approach is Visual

One of the key difference in the Mendix approach is the use of activity flow diagrams to capture system logic. Modellers (Mendix developers) essentially model the solution in a notation that business experts can visually understand. It is possible to construct an entire solution without even seeing a line of the Java code underpinning the platform.

The Forrester report continues:

“Mendix includes extensive visual, declarative development and delivery tools, prebuilt application components, and support for both web and mobile application creation.”

The effect is that little time or confusion is waisted in the communication of the solution between business and IT resulting in a unifying of those departments as well as a more accurate and lean solution.

Comotion Business Solutions specialises in helping companies to reinvent key aspects of their business models using solutions like these. Talk to us today about unlocking the benefits that low code can bring!

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