4 Use Cases for Low-Code Application Development

Many organizations struggle with a growing demand from the business for new applications to help employees work more efficiently, serve customers better, or develop new data-driven services.

Due to a shortage of programmers and limited resources, IT departments have their hands full managing existing applications, leaving little room for innovative projects.

To still meet this demand and create room for innovation, more and more organizations are looking at low-code platforms for application development. Attention for this type of development platform has grown strongly in recent years, due to the advantages in development time, cost, quality and scalability.

Almost any mobile app or web application can be built with a low-code platform. However, that doesn't mean low-code is the best solution for every IT project.

Which type of application is best suited for development with low-code? And which low-code platform is most suitable for which application? In this blog I answer these questions by describing four use cases in which the advantages of the low-code development method are used to their full potential.

1. Customer portal
2. Innovative apps
3. Digitizing work processes
4. Modernizing legacy applications

Use case 1: Customer Portal

A customer portal lets you make information and functionality available to customers in a web application.

The information usually comes from various source systems and can be brought together and presented in a portal in a clear and personalized way. A customer portal can be deployed in various ways to create value for the organization.

• Customer service can be improved by offering 24/7 insight into relevant information such as orders, contracts and quotes. This saves you a lot of time yourself while also offering a lot of convenience to your customers.

• Revenue can be increased by offering customers specific products or additional services in the portal based on their customer profile.

• Another way to generate revenue is by rolling out new business models, for example by selling data-driven services as a subscription through the portal (data-as-a-service).

• The sales process can be simplified and accelerated with the help of a customer portal, for example by letting customers create quotes themselves in the application.

When developing this type of customer-facing application, usability, flexibility, quality and scalability are of great importance. High demands are often placed on the usability and appearance of the user interface.

The application must be developed for use on various devices (laptop, tablet and mobile) with different screen sizes. Changes and improvements must be easy to implement after the initial rollout, so new features can be added quickly.

The quality of the software is also very important, because bugs have a negative impact on the organization's image. After the initial rollout, the number of users is usually still limited, but this can change quickly afterward.

This also allows changing customer wishes to be quickly incorporated into the functionality. That's why it's important that the platform on which the application runs is scalable and resources can easily be scaled up, to allow a growing number of users to work with the application.

Advantages of low-code

The requirements mentioned above weigh heavily in the choice of technology for building a customer portal. The advantages of low-code platforms align perfectly with these requirements for the following reasons:

• With the modern UI framework of low-code tools, you can build responsive web pages, so the layout automatically adapts to the screen size of the user's device. This saves a lot of time, since it's not necessary to develop separate user interfaces.

• The colors, fonts and icons in the user interface can be fully customized through themes and custom code (CSS and Javascript), so the look and feel matches the organization's house style.

• The logic in the application is automatically validated while building, and the code is generated automatically. An application built with a low-code platform has far fewer bugs than one that is programmed manually.

• Developing screens and application logic is done in a visual environment, selecting components from a toolbox and connecting them via drag-and-drop. Changes can be made relatively easily, not only by programmers but even by business users with little or no programming experience.

• Low-code platforms offer the ability to deploy applications to the cloud. In the cloud, scalability is essentially guaranteed and resources can easily be added to an application.

At E-mergo we develop applications with Mendix and Power Apps. A customer portal can be developed with both platforms.

Mendix has existed longer than Power Apps and is therefore the more mature platform. Mendix therefore offers more possibilities for developing applications with a custom-built user interface, both for web applications and native mobile apps.

In Power Apps you work with templates for developing a portal and you have less freedom in designing the user interface.

Use case 2: Innovative apps

Innovative apps often arise from ideas for new revenue models, or efficiency improvements. The goal is to help the organization grow by standing out from the competition, or by working smarter.

Development often makes use of new technologies, such as IoT, artificial intelligence and machine learning. The development process for innovative applications is usually characterized by changing requirements during the initial development phase and many changes after rollout.

A successful rollout requires a flexible project approach and close collaboration between the business and the developers, both during development and after the initial delivery. The Scrum method fits this very well.

This is because collaboration within a Scrum team is central and working in short cyclical sprints leaves a lot of room for adjustments.

A good example of an innovative app is a manufacturer of smart lighting for greenhouse horticulture, who developed an app for its customers. The app helps growers with data-driven insights for optimizing the growing process in a greenhouse.

These insights are generated by the app based on data collected by IoT sensors in the lighting. Algorithms are used to perform predictive analyses to turn the data into valuable insights for the customer.

With the help of this innovative app, the company transformed from a pure hardware manufacturer into a digital service provider.

Advantages of low-code

For developing innovative apps, the low-code platform Mendix is in many cases the most suitable, for the following reasons:

• The agile project approach needed for a successful rollout aligns perfectly with the way applications are developed in Mendix.

• All members of a Scrum team (business users and developers) have a role in the Mendix platform. The platform supports the entire lifecycle of an application, covering more than just developing and deploying it.

• Business users can capture the requirements for an application in Mendix as user stories. The user stories are placed on a product backlog and can be ranked by priority.

• The team's progress in executing sprints is visualized in Mendix on a scrum board.

• Mendix's no-code development environment (Mendix Studio) allows business users to develop prototypes themselves, which can then be further built out by more experienced developers in the low-code development environment (Mendix Studio Pro).

• In Mendix Studio Pro, advanced functions and even custom code (Java and Javascript) can be used to extend the desired application logic.

• Testers can easily give feedback on functionality via the Feedback button, present by default in the Mendix application's user interface. The feedback automatically appears on the product backlog and is immediately visible to the development team.

• For integration with external IoT systems and intelligent web services (APIs), Mendix offers various standard components and connectors, making this type of integration relatively easy to build.

Use case 3: Digitizing work processes

Low-code platforms are ideally suited for digitizing work processes. With web applications and mobile apps, costs can be reduced by automating processes and simplifying manual steps.

This type of application is usually aimed at replacing spreadsheets and paper forms, and can be used both by an organization's own employees and by partners (customers, suppliers).

In some cases such an application is developed due to the need to comply with laws and regulations (compliance). Development often requires integration with existing systems already in use within the organization.

An example of an application for internal employees is a web application for the purchasing department of a construction company, used to periodically register supplier evaluations.

The data registered here is forwarded by the application to the data warehouse, so it can be analyzed with a BI tool.

An example of an application for customers is a mobile web app from a logistics service provider that allows the status of deliveries to be tracked (track and trace), a delivery to be digitally approved, and comments or complaints to be registered.

A mobile app offers the ability to scan barcodes on an item, or to attach photos to a complaint about a delivered item.

Advantages of low-code

There are several reasons why these tools can be used for this type of project.

• There usually isn't standard software for this type of application. If a standard solution does exist, it's often too complex or too expensive.

• Low-code platforms offer out-of-the-box connectors for connecting databases and web services, so integrations with external applications inside and outside the organization can be realized easily and quickly.

Both Mendix and Power Apps are suitable low-code tools for digitizing work processes. Power Apps is closely integrated with other Microsoft solutions, including Office 365 and Dynamics 365.

For that reason, Power Apps is particularly interesting for organizations that already use other Microsoft cloud services and want to digitize work processes with the help of applications.

Use case 4: Modernizing legacy applications

Legacy applications almost always support critical business processes within the organization. Replacing this type of application therefore carries the necessary risks.

These are applications that use outdated technology, and knowledge of this type of application within the organization is decreasing. Adapting legacy applications is often difficult.

Meanwhile, the need to modernize business processes and IT systems due to changing economic conditions and technological developments keeps growing.

Modernizing legacy applications can be approached in various ways. First, the software can be fully rebuilt with a low-code platform. The lead time for such a project can be limited if it's a small application.

However, when it comes to replacing a large monolithic application, such as an ERP system, the lead time can extend to more than a year (sometimes even several years). This carries major risks and delivers no short-term benefit for the organization.

An alternative method is creating an API layer on top of a legacy application. This lets you make data and functionality from the application available via modern REST APIs.

Adding such an API layer can be achieved in a short time and offers new possibilities for, for example, integrations with external systems, or developing a modern web interface.

Advantages of low-code

Modernizing legacy systems can be achieved with Mendix and Power Apps. When it comes to replacing simple applications, such as an Excel file with macros or an application developed in MS Access, this can be solved with both Mendix and Power Apps.

For replacing large complex applications, or developing an API layer on top of a legacy system, Mendix is far more suitable. There are several reasons why modernizing legacy systems with Mendix is a good idea:

• Mendix offers standard functionality to make data from existing systems available through APIs. The API components can therefore be delivered quickly, giving you more time to carry out innovative projects.

• In addition to the cloud, Mendix offers the option of deploying applications to an on-premise application server. This is often an important requirement when replacing legacy systems.

• Because of the visual way of developing, not only programmers but also business users can help build a new application. This means more people within the organization build up knowledge of the applications and the critical business processes they support.

This is important for the continuity and agility of the organization.

• When replacing a complex system, a microservice architecture can be chosen. This means the new application is broken up into several smaller applications (microservices), which communicate with each other via modern web services.

• With this application architecture, the microservices can be developed and deployed independently of each other, allowing parts of the application to be adjusted and delivered much faster, with a positive effect on agility.

Getting started with low-code

Curious whether low-code can help your organization with a digitalization challenge? Do you have a concrete case you'd like to solve with low-code, but are you looking for advice on choosing the most suitable development platform? E-mergo can help with this, for example with an App in a Day session. For more information about the possibilities of low-code, get in touch with one of our account managers.

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Written by Steven Samuels Brusse,
Senior Consultant