Intelligent CIO APAC Issue 21 | Page 77

t cht lk at the IT side of the equation , the IT teams are usually overloaded . There is very little collaboration that exists between the two . of external stakeholders like customers , partners and vendors . One example is a portal used by employees or customers .

t cht lk at the IT side of the equation , the IT teams are usually overloaded . There is very little collaboration that exists between the two . of external stakeholders like customers , partners and vendors . One example is a portal used by employees or customers .

With a low-code platform , we focus a lot on collaboration between these two teams so that the business teams can bring in their domain flavour , industry knowledge and customer knowledge , and that helps to make the application development process much better .
Within most enterprises today there is the concept of a ‘ citizen developer ’, which is becoming more and more popular . This is someone who understands the business and industry . With a low-code platform , we are essentially empowering the citizen developer to become a more active participant in the entire process of software development or application .
What are the key benefits of adopting low-code platforms for developing enterprise apps ?
The obvious benefits are that , with low-code , you can reduce the cost of development of enterprise applications and you can get to market much faster .
But another important and related element is application velocity , which means you can do a lot of work in a very short period of time . We have seen customers who have adopted a low-code platform successfully develop 100 + applications in just about two years . Another benefit is around the ability to build secure and scalable applications . Sometimes people think you can only build simple applications which may not be secure .
But with low-code , you can build secure , scalable applications which are enterprise grade . We have customers in the banking sector , for example , which have built online banking portals for their customers and it ’ s imperative that these are secure .
One other benefit is around building multi-experience applications . We all consume applications on our mobile phone or tablets , but when it comes to consuming applications in an enterprise environment , the experience isn ’ t great . But with low-code , you can focus on providing the right kind of experience with the applications that you develop so that they can be consumed on a mobile , tablet or any device that you have .
What are some of the solutions that can be developed on low-code ?
The solutions can be classified into three different categories . The first is around digitizing the experience
The second category is about automating business processes . Think about an incident management solution in any enterprise , for example , or anything to do with maintenance workflows .
The third category is around modernizing core systems . A lot of companies still use legacy solutions and legacy software , so when they look to move out of these , they can look at modernizing their core systems on low-code platforms .
Tell us about the low-code offering from Siemens
The low-code offering from Siemens is called Mendix . It is an acquisition that Siemens made in 2018 , though Mendix has been in operation since 2005 / 2006 .
The genesis of Mendix comes from the fact that the founders themselves identified the need for a low-code platform . As they were delivering and developing software for their clients , they realized that collaboration had to be improved . They had to look at frameworks and tools which could help to speed up the application development time .
Therefore , the fundamental pillars of the Mendix platform are collaboration and speed . Today , the Mendix platform is used by about 2,000 + enterprises around the world , across different industry segments , developing and building a variety of use cases .
Why is the Mendix low-code platform an industry leader in low-code ?
Mendix happens to be the number one local platform in the world . 2021 reports from both Gartner and Forrester identify Mendix as the number one low-code platform and there are multiple reasons behind this .
One is the focus on collaboration – we enable different teams to work together to develop and deliver software . The second differentiator has to do with the fact that we are the only low-code platform which allows customers to develop native mobile apps .
The third aspect is that you can manage the entire application journey within the Mendix platform itself .
And finally , the fourth reason is that the applications developed in Mendix are cloud-native , so as an organization if you ’ re looking to be future ready , then you should be looking at the platform . p
Sudhama Vemuri , Director , Mendix Channel Sales at Siemens India
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