Supercharge Business Development initiatives with Mendix

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!

#businessdevelopment #innovation #mendix #lowcode #softwaredevelopment #software

What Is Mendix

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!

#mendix #lowcode #erp #crm #softwaredevelopment #enterprise #software

Low-code platforms like Mendix are taking over the enterprise. The benefits are hard to ignore.

Low-code is taking over the enterprise, and many companies are finding benefits from these platforms. Platforms, such as Mendix (which we use extensively in the solutions we implement), allow quicker turnaround times, higher system quality and smaller teams. These benefits are increasingly becoming clear to companies, and adoption is catching on. Forrester’s new report explains that there is adoption of these platforms driven both by business managers (independent of IT!) and by central Application Development and Delivery teams.

The report highlights a number of ways that businesses are getting this right, which include:

• Low-code tools raise the productivity and capacity of AD&D teams but also empower businesspeople to create the apps that they need but which central AD&D can’t prioritize

• Helping customers to speed delivery of specialized, purpose-built solutions for their business model. This ensures that companies can more easily tailor their solutions to suite and augment their competitive advantages (as opposed to relying on industry standard products which require expensive development to solidify competitive advantage)

• Taking advantage of decentralised purchasing authority that low-code enables, divisions and departments often implement systems independent of central IT’s involvement. This has it’s own risks, but the cost and agility benefits to this approach are clear.

The problem with low-code platforms is that they are really easy to implement (ironically). The risks attached to this are a plethora of solutions that are not fully thought through that can invade an enterprise like a cancer, and that will be difficult to maintain or eradicate once implemented. The report highlights the following approach to limit this:

• Coordinated implementation between participants. Developing common services, practices, and skills in development projects.

• Light touch governance in the form of smart processes, safety nets, and guardrails for all participants (governance more by “influence” than “dictation”)

• An actively managed application portfolio

What is clear is that enterprises can simply no longer ignore the low-code wave.

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!

#mendix #lowcode #enterprise #platform #erp #crm