How the role of finance changed, and how to lead through it. A conversation with a CFO
"Today, employees come to us with ideas on where we can automate inefficient, repetitive, and tedious processes that don't add value but take up time," says former CFO at Fraikin. Krzysztof Brzeziński shares the story of how finance drove the change and delivered real results. Learn how the role of finance is changing, and what it means for the way teams work, budget, and measure success.
RESULTS
What Fraikin gained from digital transformation?
- 9 months to 95% touchless invoices
- 97% smaller team required to manage the process (people can focus on more creative tasks)
WEBCON: How has the role of the CFO evolved in the context of digital transformation?
Krzysztof Brzeziński: The role of the CFO has changed significantly over the past two decades. From being someone tasked with implementing an IT solution already chosen by the owner (typically ERPs, which were considered “one-size-fits-all” solutions), the CFO has transitioned into a role that supports management, organizes business processes and, following those, structures the software infrastructure. Above all, the CFO now provides the business with tools that enable timely and informed decision-making. This is a fundamentally different responsibility. The CFO has moved from being the recipient of a mandated, ready-made system to being the one who signals how IT infrastructure should be designed. Today, they are trendsetters, shaping development roadmaps.
To meet these new expectations, the competencies of the CFO have also changed significantly. A modern Chief Financial Officer must be an adept manager. In the context of digital transformation, they should also be the main architect and sponsor of the solution – which means, in practice, planning, expecting, verifying, and, most importantly, taking responsibility.
Today CFOs are trendsetters who are shaping development roadmaps.
What are the key priorities for a CFO regarding business process automation and digitization?
Beyond those mentioned above, I think one of the key priorities for CFOs today is data security, which wasn’t given nearly as much attention a decade ago. Back then, we occasionally heard about hacker attacks on banks or other institutions, but who would be interested in hacking a regular company? Today, however, it’s one of the primary concerns.
Another key priority is the stability of the entire application infrastructure. Here, aside from the system itself, people also play a significant role. When a modern CFO “buys” a solution, they also take responsibility for choosing the implementation partner. I chose well. The applications on the WEBCON platform are implemented for Fraikin by people I trust. I know they can solve my problems (if they even arise) almost in real time, without the need for filing out a ticket and waiting for it to be resolved. A system failure means the business grinds to a halt – and a business that’s not running isn’t making money. No CFO can afford that.
What are the main challenges related to budgeting and financing tools for business process digitization and automation?
In my opinion, the days of budgeting and implementing large IT projects are over, because they are usually underestimated from the start, generate many issues, and often take years to complete. In the end, these implementations usually don’t meet business needs, which may have changed several times along the way, and yet the systems remain in the organization simply because a lot of money has already been invested in them.
I believe a much better budgeting method that avoids these problems is to prepare a continuous roadmap of smaller deployments. Today, thanks to the capabilities of the WEBCON platform, I can flexibly adjust the list of needed applications to my budget instead of planning a budget around large, rigidly structured solutions. Knowing that implementations take no longer than 1.5 months, I address the most important, current needs. The result? After a year, I have several fully automated and several significantly improved processes. This perspective is gained only when you experience firsthand just how efficiently automation can be implemented based on a single, unified platform.
What are the key success indicators for automation and digitization projects from the CFO’s perspective?
An obvious indicator of success in digital transformation projects is achieving the KPIs related to increased efficiency through the implemented tools. At Fraikin, we have processes (such as lease invoice processing) where these indicators reach 95-97%. However, for me, two additional aspects are crucial. The first is striving for absolute precision in calculating financial metrics. Take, for example, application for the fixed assets registry. Due to the nature of our business, this process is both critical and highly specific. And I can confidently say that there’s no off-the-shelf solution on the market that would meet all our needs in this area. Step by step, following the principle of continuous improvement, we built an application that, for instance, individually adjusts the depreciation curve for each vehicle in Fraikin Poland's portfolio, which in practice means it can handle an almost infinite number of depreciation models. I consider this level of precision to be a key success indicator in automation projects.
The third extremely important aspect is, of course, time. With a low-code platform, I no longer ask how much something will cost, but rather how long it will take to implement. What’s more, I can be sure that the promised time frame will never disappoint me, so I don’t have to worry about the cost of lost alternative benefits. With such a solution, you start playing on a different field – the field of your own possibilities, because the only limit is your ambition, not standard market conditions.
How do you assess the impact of automation on the organization and workplace culture?
First of all, automation has changed the way we think at Fraikin Poland. Today, employees come to us with ideas on where we can automate inefficient, repetitive, and tedious processes that don’t add value but take up time. The second thing – everyone feels that their work efficiency has significantly increased, and employees can now take on more interesting and ambitious tasks. So, it’s safe to say that automation has become a real lever for their development.
Today, employees come to us with ideas on where we can automate inefficient, repetitive, and tedious processes that don’t add value but take up time.
Another thing that has changed is trust in data. It’s no secret that companies have been gathering data for years. Often, these are massive data funnels congested with a sea of useless information that offers no value. However, when processes are built at the source (where the data is generated) using the right technology, and when a trusted project team oversees the implementation, you can be sure that the data will be of the highest quality. On that foundation, you can genuinely conduct analysis and make strategic decisions.
Krzysztof Brzeziński
former Chief Financial Officer at Fraikin
Krzysztof Brzeziński had been serving as Chief Financial Officer for six years. With a diverse background, he has acquired extensive experience in senior financial and IT positions at international companies, as well as in auditing with one of the Big Four firms. His expertise lies in leading both strategic and operational business transformation initiatives.
Artificial intelligence’s influence is broad, from personalized shopping recommendations to automated home temperature management and summarizing search results. However, these kinds of applications pale in comparison to the benefits AI can bring to organizations, including bespoke business process solutions.
The WEBCON platform undergoes continuous evolution, with a significant focus on utilizing artificial intelligence. We apply AI where it delivers the highest business value, meaning providing greater opportunities without incurring greater risk. It would be easy to randomly add AI features for technology’s sake, but WEBCON’s approach involves aggressive investment in low-code development scenarios where the return on investment is clear and observable.
Examples of Artificial Intelligence Applications in Business Process Automation
We hope the following examples will illustrate what we mean by a clear and observable return on investment:
Effective Document Registration with OCR and AI
Documents are crucial in business processes, whether they’re electronic or paper-based and whether they’re internally authored or received from outside parties. Many intelligent automation processes involve shepherding these documents from receipt to disposition, including scanning and archiving.
When documents are received on paper or as graphics-only scanned images, the need for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology is obvious, but that isn’t enough. Interpreting recognized text requires elaborate neural networks that extract crucial data from scanned documents. You need to combine OCR with AI.
For example, consider registering cost invoices. An OCR engine such as ABBYY FineReader overlays a text layer on the scanned document and recognizes each character. Neural networks then automatically identify and populate key header information into forms, including amounts (net/gross), dates (issuance, sale, payment), bank account numbers, the contractor’s VAT identification number, and other relevant details.
WEBCON provides its clients with a pre-trained neural network for cost invoices, which can be further trained and improved with each use, enhancing the efficiency of automation based on the specific invoices received by the organization.
A universal neural network is used for most documents, and WEBCON provides the ability to handle exceptions when the layout of any given scanned invoice differs significantly from established expectations. Training the neural network is very simple and requires no coding or specialized knowledge. Users only need to identify the correct data from the scanned preview image and indicate its target field on the form.
Applying AI to OCR within a low-code business process allows for the mass registration of documents in WEBCON, leading to a reduction of up to 90% in the time employees spend on data entry.
Using AI for Anomaly Detection and Suggestions
Frequently executed business processes build up large repositories of historical data—a gold mine for inferential AI. Patterns can be gleaned from that data and used to examine each new unit of work for irregularities. WEBCON employs machine learning techniques to detect anomalies, analyze information, identify inconsistencies with historical data, and provide actionable suggestions.
How does this work in practice?
AI flags payment anomalies
The system reports when an entered payment amount significantly deviates from the usual range.
AI detects an unfamiliar bank account number
The system flags a bank account number that hasn't been previously used by a particular contractor.
AI identifies duplicate payments
Algorithms catch duplicate payments and warn against making the same payment again.
These examples are not limited to invoice processing or fraud detection. AI tools can also be applied in scenarios such as:
- Monitoring production machinery: AI can monitor equipment to prevent major breakdowns by detecting early signs of failure.
- Analyzing patient medical data: AI can detect potential health issues and errors in medical documentation.
- Providing process instance suggestions to users:
The system generates reports based on data and process actors, identifying elements that require employee attention. This feature allows users to easily review the most important tasks and issues across the system in a single place.
Low-Code and Generative Artificial Intelligence
The potential of generative AI in low-code platforms lies in lowering the entry barrier for application development. It’s advantageous to use generative AI selectively, where qualitative improvements are most noticeable.
Even low-code environments use some code for specific tasks, and when they do, generative AI can be a big help. When a form’s behavior needs to be enhanced, and WEBCON’s graphical form rules aren’t sufficient, advanced rules can be authored using JavaScript. The fact that this is possible is useful, but for many low-code developers, it is not second nature, and properly trained generative AI can be a big help.
For example, very few low-code developers enjoy crafting regular expressions. A power user configuring a validation for a form field, such as a VAT number, needs to enter a regular expression that specifies the required format. Instead of manually crafting this expression, the user can have ChatGPT (for example) quickly provide the desired expression.
Continuing in this vein, while a great deal of logic and data access can be accomplished using data sources and rules in WEBCON , sometimes it’s necessary to query process data using Transact-SQL. For many low-code developers, this can be daunting. Generative AI can assist in both creating and optimizing these queries.
While WEBCON prides itself on delivering a world-class low-code platform, “low-code” does not mean “no code.” When code is (hopefully only occasionally) needed, generative AI like ChatGPT can be invaluable. As good as generative AI has quickly become, it’s a very good idea to maintain a “trust but verify” approach, where any generated code is manually validated.
Low-Code and Conversational AI
Another application of artificial intelligence is in communication, known as conversational AI. This technology enables devices or applications to interact with humans using natural language. WEBCON clients also use the capabilities offered by conversational AI to optimize case management, both within the organization and in interactions with external parties (clients and stakeholders).
For example, consider a chatbot that answers user questions about ongoing issues. This interactive agent relies on a database populated with specific information related to a particular specialty, such as legal documents, contracts, or process descriptions. By combining machine learning with a chatbot, you can create a versatile and user-friendly knowledge base. This supports internal users in making informed decisions and provides external users with easy access to desired information without searching through various data sources (websites, documents, regulations).
The Perfect Duo: AI + Automation in WEBCON
If you want to find out how AI and the WEBCON low-code platform can help your organization, feel free to get in touch!
Looking for low-code examples that can give you added insight into what these types of tools can do? You’ve come to the right place.
Across industries and organizations, businesses are using low-code app development platforms to create, modify, and manage custom apps. The sky’s the limit when it comes to what those apps can do and achieve, which is why it’s no surprise that low-code development technologies are expected to power more than 65% of all new app functions in 2024.
One of the biggest benefits of low-code development is its inherent accessibility, which means it’s accessible to individuals regardless of previous coding experience. If you want to know whether low-code tools can make a difference in your own business, the best place to start is with examples and use cases that highlight who’s really using low-code development platforms – and how.
What is Low-Code Application Development?
Low-code application development is a method of app design and management that requires very minimal hand coding. Instead, low-code app development platforms use visual methods to help users create and modify apps, including drag-and-drop tools, pre-built templates, and intuitive graphic interfaces. The result is speedy app development without complex coding requirements, with simple tools that both citizen coders and professional developers can put to use.
Low-Code Application Examples
Your tech stack is as unique as your organization. Still, there’s a use for low-code development out there for almost every business, as evidenced by these low-code application examples.
Financial Processes
Low-code app development platforms are a common tool for managing financial processes in a wide range of industries, offering up the ability to do everything from managing budgets, investment plans, and purchase requests to automate invoices and purchase order processing with ease. They can also be used to develop apps that remove the manual tasks inherent in things like payment and business travel approvals, saving time and ensuring that all approvals meet company standards and protocols.
Operational Processes
Consistency is key in operational management. That’s why businesses are using low-code development to create workflows that help maintain consistency around quality managing and auditing, approval of legal agreements, and product lifecycle management. Many businesses are also increasingly relying on low-code tools to optimize their workflows and stay more organized with claims, complaints, returns, and other complicated operational processes with a lot of moving pieces.
HR Processes
Human resource teams get a boost from low-code applications geared toward everyday tasks like leave and holiday requests and employee on- and off-boarding. Low-code apps are increasingly being used in other essential HR processes as well, such as streamlining employee assessments and the management of employee health and retirement plans.
IT Processes
Obviously, IT plays a big role in how low-code application development platforms are utilized within an organization. They also enjoy some big benefits, thanks to the low-code creation of useful tools like project management apps, IT asset and system registry support, and automated helpdesk and ticketing workflows. And because low-code platforms are significantly less time-intensive than their hard-coded alternatives, IT also frees up more time to focus on better and more efficient ways to get stuff done in their department and others.
Sales & Marketing
There’s a lot of software involved in modern sales and marketing. Low-code capabilities can be used to integrate these tools and build on their assets, providing supportive workflows that help make the most of CRMs and other valuable platforms. Many companies are also using low-code tools to level up their marketing automation efforts, simplifying their metric analytics and making more informed ad purchasing decisions.
Low-Code Use Cases by Industry
While it’s useful to see what low-code platforms can do on a departmental basis, these platforms are powerful tools for streamlining demanding industry-specific processes as well. No matter your industry or location, there’s almost certainly a use for low-code development tools at your business.
- Finance and Banking – Financial service companies benefit from low-code platforms that allow employees to make more informed, less risky decisions. They also help things get done faster, with one WEBCON client in the financial services sector seeing an 87% improvement in process handling time over a three-year period.
- Transport and Logistics – Companies in the transportation industry can drive innovation with ease with the help of low-code tools that help update supply chain operations and adjust to disruptions on the fly. This is a must in an industry that’s increasingly reliant on process digitization and offers increased speed and cost-efficiency on both the company end and the consumer end for better overall operations.
- Manufacturing – In manufacturing, low-code development tools drive innovation, increase work quality, and get products to market faster. At global food packaging leader Huhtamaki, WEBCON’s low-code platform supported the development of 50 business applications in three years, with digitized processes applied to everything from complaint management pipelines to product sale forecasts.
- Construction – Custom workflows backed by low-code development are a huge boon in the construction industry, where they maximize day-to-day outputs and help with the juggling of numerous task-related processes and job sites. Construction innovator Josef Rädlinger used WEBCON to automate processes related to construction management and respond to change requests in record time, all while boosting agility across their organization.
That’s not all. Low-code application development can be found in pretty much any industry, including retail, healthcare, energy and utilities, food and beverage, and education. Check out additional industry use cases to see just how much of a mainstay low-code tools have become in modern industrial operations.
WEBCON: The Easiest-to-Use Low-Code Development Platform
If you’re feeling inspired by the low-code examples listed above, then it’s probably time to dive into low-code development yourself and see what it’s truly capable of.
At WEBCON, we’ve built a user-friendly low-code platform that lets you rapidly deploy new apps for all sorts of relevant use cases. Our platform is designed to grow with your organization, featuring built-in scalability and the ability to update your tech stack without disruptions. Streamline workflows, automate processes, and integrate new apps with existing data sources, all for the purpose of benefiting your business and bottom line.
Modern businesses run on low-coded tools. Get started with WEBCON today with a free trial, and learn more about how our low-code solutions can accelerate your digital transformation journey.
In the world of IT, a low-code app development platform has become a must-have for creating, modifying, and maintaining proprietary apps. But if you’re new to the concept, you may be wondering what role low-code app development plays in your tech strategy – and whether it can really deliver on its promises of more productive, more cost-efficient app development.
Low code applications take a visual approach to coding, allowing users to create and manage apps regardless of their coding skills (or lack thereof). This helps maximize productivity in IT departments and minimize development costs. Used well, low-code applications can also increase agility and innovation, providing businesses with collaborative tools for creating apps with ease.
Here’s what to know about the basics of a low-code business application development platform, including what it is, who can use it, and the many features and benefits it can have across your organization.
Table of Contents:
- What is Low-Code Application Development?
- What is a Low-Code Platform?
- Low-Code vs. No-Code vs. Rapid Application Development (RAD)
- Benefits of Low-Code Application Development Tools
- Who Can Use a Low-Code Business Application Development Platform?
- How to Use Low-Code Platforms to Create Applications
- Types of Apps You Can Build with Low-Code Platforms
- Popular Low-Code Application Development Platforms
- Features & Benefits of WEBCON Low-Code Development Platforms
- Choosing and Implementing a Low-Code App Development Platform
- Explore the WEBCON Low-Code Development Platform
What is Low-Code Application Development?
Low-code application development is the use of specialized tools to create and/or modify applications and processes without the need for extensive hand coding.
Unlike traditional app development, low-code uses drag-and-drop templates, domain modules, user-friendly interfaces, and other visual tools to guide users through the process of building IT solutions. Today’s best low-code development platforms also make use of features like built-in AI and machine learning concepts, further simplifying app development so that citizen developers and professionals alike can easily build apps for their needs.
At the heart of low-code app development is its visual coding approach. The shift from textual to visual coding is a lot more accessible for users and requires less background knowledge on how code actually works. The result is application development that is more accessible and inclusive of various skill levels, including not just seasoned pros but novice developers, subject matter experts, business stakeholders, and decision-makers.
What is a Low-Code Platform?
A low-code platform is a software application built specifically for low-code development.
There are quite a few top-tier platforms to choose from. While they differ in some key ways, all of them offer users the ability to make that shift from textual to visual coding without a steep learning curve. This is due to built-in components that let you develop a custom app off of mostly pre-existing parts. You end up doing a small percentage of the overall work, but the final product is 100% yours.
Low-Code vs. No-Code vs. Rapid Application Development (RAD)
Businesses need applications. How they create them, however, depends on a lot of factors, from widespread operational goals to budgetary concerns.
Low-code and no-code platforms are both examples of smart solutions for making apps for your business with minimal coding requirements. Where they differ is in who they’re for and how they work. Low-code tools use visual coding to cut down on programmer work and make app development quicker and more efficient. No-code tools require no coding at all and are useful for citizen developers without any coding background.
Then, there’s RAD or rapid application development. This is an umbrella term that defines the methodology behind low-code and no-code app development tools. This agile approach to app development prioritizes action over planning, encouraging coders to build prototypes and troubleshoot from there.
Benefits of Low-Code Application Development Tools
Low-code tools help you work smarter, not harder, at developing custom apps. Features like visual modeling and drag-and-drop workflows are widely effective at streamlining the app development process, providing benefits that help your business innovate, scale, and engage in new and better ways.
Consider some of these major benefits to low-code applications, all of which help businesses establish a strong competitive edge.
- Cost efficiency – Low-code cuts back on spending in some major ways. Most notably, it reduces development time and gets apps launched in record time. It also requires fewer resources and maintenance costs than traditional app development platforms, resulting in immediate cost savings and additional savings down the road.
- Accessibility – Because low-code applications are built for users of varying skill levels, these tools increase accessibility and allow for more user participation in the app development process.
- Scalability – Your apps need to be able to keep up with organizational growth. Low-code helps you do that, letting you modify and optimize performance as your needs and your customers’ needs change.
- Productivity – Coding is a time-intensive process. By reducing the amount of original code that needs to be written and automating key tasks, low code helps programmers do their jobs more efficiently and frees up time for other value-adding tasks and initiatives.
- Collaboration – The visual language model behind low-code app development opens up the door to greater collaboration, simplifying app building and deployment for more users. Many low-code platforms also offer tools that are specifically geared toward increased collaboration, such as revision tracking and workflow synchronization.
Who Can Use a Low-Code Business Application Development Platform?
In a word, anyone. After all, what is low-code development if not a tool for leveling the programming playing field in efforts to boost efficiency?
From a corporate perspective, low-code dev platforms offer a big payoff on their initial investment since they can be used across the organization and not just by the IT department. For professional developers, low-code software provides useful capabilities for extending apps and integrating data. For non-technical business users, they offer a jumping-off point from which to build basic applications and workflow processes.
Beyond individuals, low-code application development platforms also provide the ability for multiple users to collaborate on projects and co-develop apps. Think of them as the happy medium between no-code tools and standard high-code tools, offering a visually-driven environment that significantly more users can engage in at any one time.
How to Use Low-Code Platforms to Create Applications
The more you use low-code platforms, the more you’ll figure out a step-by-step process that works well with your business. But in the meantime, here’s a general blueprint that you can follow if you’re just getting started with low-code app development.
- Step One: Define Your Audience and/or Intent – Be clear and concise in defining who your app is for and what pain points it’s addressing. Better yet, take a cue from your marketing team and create user personas that tell you exactly what end users need from the finished product.
- Step Two: Build Your Prototype – As dictated by RAD, you want to minimize planning and dive right into prototyping. There will be plenty of time for feedback and troubleshooting later on.
- Step Three: Test and Optimize – Test your app to make sure it’s hitting the mark from all relevant angles, including overall utility, user-friendliness, and security. If changes are required, there are plenty of low-code features to help you do it.
- Step Four: Deploy – Your app should now be ready to face the world. Manage your new application through your low-code platform and continue modifying in real time based on user feedback and internal improvement goals.
Types of Apps You Can Build with Low-Code Platforms
Front office. Back office. Internal systems. There is no limit to the types of solutions you can develop with low-code platforms.
Financial Apps
Your financial department has a ton to gain from low-code app development. For example, applications that streamline budgeting, purchasing, and investment planning requests or apps that automate workflows for invoice approvals and payroll. Do your teams do a lot of traveling? You can also use low-code app development to create a solution for business trip approval and reimbursements that requires little to no manual involvement.
Operational Apps
The use cases for operational apps are incredibly varied. Plan and approve legal agreements, manage project lifecycles, and create a better system for claims, complaints, and returns. You can also create low-code apps for document organization and correspondence, a big win considering the complexities of modern-day business communication.
Human Resources Apps
Use low-code development to provide your human resources team with all the tools they need to do their jobs more efficiently. This includes apps for employee on- and off-boarding, remote worker management, and leave and holiday requests, among other necessary tasks and workflows.
IT Apps
No one understands the utility of custom, low-code app development quite like your IT department. Your programming pros can build and innovate to their own needs, designing apps that enhance utility in project management, ad-hoc tasking, trouble ticketing, and so much more. These and other apps can mitigate tech-related errors and miscommunications and are integral to fostering communication between IT and other departments.
Sales and Marketing Apps
Need a more effective system for customer relationship management (CRM)? Struggling to connect the dots between social media marketing and your wider content plan? There’s an app for that and for loads of other essential tasks within your sales and marketing departments.
Popular Low-Code Application Development Platforms
No matter the industry, low-code platforms are quickly becoming indispensable tools for getting new apps off the ground. As for the platforms that can help you do it, you’ve got several top options, each of which has a little something special to offer users on the back end.
Some of the most popular low-code application development platforms right now include
- Mendix – A longstanding industry innovator that uses model-driven engineering (MDE) to build apps off of existing conceptual models.
- Kissflow – Fuss-free low-code tools for businesses that want to take a quick and simple approach to new app development.
- Appian – Low-code development backed by generative AI for apps that are easy to modify and manage.
- Microsoft Power Apps – Smart capabilities, including language detection and translation, make this platform a good pick for businesses in need of low-code basics.
- Nintex – Low- and no-code support rooted in centralized mapping and modeling.
- WEBCON – A one-stop shop for businesses that want to not just design low-code tools but that are in need of a centralized dashboard for managing apps after deployment.
Features & Benefits of WEBCON Low-Code Development Platforms
It’s impossible to answer a question like what is low-code development and why is it important without referencing the unique features and benefits of the programs themselves. To narrow things down, we’re taking a look at some of the multitude of tools available in our own WEBCON low-code platform, including the top features that set us apart from others in the field.
Features of the WEBCON Low-Code Development Platform
- Visual Modeling – Visual modeling in low-code development uses graphical representations rather than complex coding to design systems that are deceptively simple and concise.
- Enterprise-Ready Approach – A low-code platform needs to be able to grow with its users. For enterprise businesses, this requires inherent flexibility, scalability, and adaptability, plus a secure platform that’s able to handle large amounts of data at once.
- Extensive Integration Capabilities – Our low-code platform integrates seamlessly with other programs in a user’s tech stack to improve data sharing while minimizing system disruptions.
- Advanced Analytics Framework – An advanced data analytics framework provides a necessary safeguard for speeding up app development and pulling out key insights without sacrificing data security.
- Effective Business and IT Collaboration – Built-in tools support cross-departmental collaboration, making it easier than ever for various users to contribute their skillsets and knowledge toward a common cause.
- InstantChange™ Technology – InstantChange™ from WEBCON helps future-proof apps by allowing users to instantly adapt them to changing needs and environments.
Benefits of the WEBCON Low-Code Development Platform
Agile App Delivery:
- Fast-track app development and boost productivity
- Streamline workflows, automate processes, and improve the customer experience
- Achieve goals in days or weeks rather than months or years
- Easily integrate apps with existing data sources
- Securely scale solutions across all devices
Versatile Use Cases:
- Automate a wide range of processes across an organization
- Improve everything from simple workflows for teams to complex enterprise scenarios
- Create solutions tailored to real business problems
Simple App Development:
- Build and continuously improve an entire catalog of applications
- Deliver hundreds of apps to thousands of users on a single platform
- Easily manage apps without compromising quality
- Get security, auditing capabilities, and measurement tools all built into a single platform
Choosing and Implementing a Low-Code App Development Platform
The better suited a platform is to your needs, the better the results you’ll get. For that reason, businesses need to do their due diligence when selecting low-code application development software, keeping key considerations top of mind and looking at multiple options before deciding on a final fit.
The first step in doing this is to define your evaluation criteria. Know what your short- and long-term goals are, and set up your expectations around collaborative IDE, data integration, application lifecycle management, user experience, productivity, and cloud support, among other major factors.
Next, look at the bigger picture, paying attention to things like use cases and the vendor’s vision and reputation. Avoid vendor lock-in if at all possible by reading the fine print, asking the right questions, and resisting the urge to rely on a single vendor for multiple types of software solutions.
And finally, test it out. A free trial or demo is a fantastic way to put a low-code platform to the test and make sure it checks off the right boxes for your business.
Explore the WEBCON Low-Code Development Platform
The future of application development is here, and it’s rooted in low-code platforms.
If faster, easier, and less confusing app development is your goal, then low-code can help you do that and more, providing a visually-based alternative to traditional text coding. The result is custom apps that only look like they took a dedicated team of expert developers many months to create, plus unbeatable opportunities to boost your productivity and profit potential. Sounds like a win-win to us.
At WEBCON, we’ve made it our mission to deliver an enterprise-ready low-code solution that fast-tracks app development for a wide range of use cases. Unlike our competitors, we’ve put as much effort into making sure it’s as easy to manage the apps you’ve built as it is to create them in the first place, whether you’ve got a dozen apps running or several hundred.
If you’d like to see WEBCON in action, get started with a free trial.
The ability to efficiently manage workflow processes has become a cornerstone of success for organizations in a variety of industries. This increased focus on enhancing productivity and optimizing processes has caused the adoption of workflow management solutions to grow exponentially. However, there can be a number of challenges facing team members working on complex processes and projects, with everything from coordination and communication to resource allocation and risk mitigation requiring a cohesive plan for successful execution. Leveraging the best workflow management software is pivotal to overcoming these hurdles and streamlining operations.
In this article, we’ll be diving deeper into the realm of workflow management software, with a particular focus on low-code automation platforms like WEBCON and how they empower both IT professionals and business users by boosting workflow productivity and overall operational efficiency.
How to Increase Workflow Productivity
More and more organizations looking to increase workflow productivity are adopting workflow management solutions. At its core, workflow management solutions (or workflow management software) are designed to optimize, streamline, and automate complex business processes understood as a series of consecutive activities. It serves as a centralized platform that enables teams to define, execute, and monitor tasks in a systematic and efficient manner. From automating routine tasks to orchestrating intricate workflows involving multiple employees, teams, and departments, workflow management software helps organizations achieve better communications, effectiveness, and company-wide governance and transparency.
How the Best Workflow Management Software Can Help Support Organizations
Workflow automation software offers a number of advantages for both IT professionals and business operation teams. For example:
Advantages for IT Professionals
Simplified task management – With the ability to organize and manage tasks more effectively, IT professionals are able to improve their productivity and reduce task-related overhead.
Automation and Integration – By automating routine maintenance tasks, system updates, and data integrations, mature, unified workflow management solutions allow IT professionals to free up valuable time to work on more complex and strategic processes. They would not be able to do that automatically if there were many different systems and apps automating many different departments’ tasks within the organization.
Benefits for Business Operations Teams
Streamlined Business Processes – Some of the best workflow management software give organizations the possibility to create made-to-measure tools that perfectly fit their teams’ needs – even when it comes to very unique, business-specific processes.
Increased Transparency – By giving employees the ability to view the operation of the entire process, they are able to see where they’re at in the process in real time, providing a useful guide to keep them on task and working efficiently.
Enhanced Collaboration – There’s nothing more important in executing complex processes than collaboration and communication between the IT professionals and the business operations team. Workflow management software provides a common platform that allows for clear communication and seamless collaboration. Some of such systems support the cooperation between IT and business during the process of implementing the new solutions – thanks to that, business teams can describe and show what they need, and IT departments can verify their requirements using read-to-use prototypes.
Building Efficient Apps and Processes with Low-Code Automation
Collaboration goes beyond task assignments. With low-code workflow automation solutions like WEBCON , the IT and business operations teams are enabled to develop efficient applications in a single environment, accelerating the process of building, viewing, analyzing, and deploying applications by reducing the complexity and coding required.
Here’s a closer look at how low-code application development facilitates collaboration and user-friendliness while improving cross-functional teamwork on organizational productivity:
- Visual Interfacing – Drag-and-drop components make it easy for non-technical team members to contribute to the design and customization process, empowering them to take a more active role and reducing the communications gap between IT and business operations.
- Easy Documentation – Too many applications go undocumented. You won’t have that problem with an enterprise low-code platform like WEBCON . With just two clicks, it can generate comprehensive and user-friendly documentation for applications, including details like rules, connections, data sources, forms, workflows, constants, and field definitions.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration – Low-code platforms enable teams from different departments to collaborate on a single platform and design, test, and refine workflows in real-time, eliminating the need for wasteful back-and-forth communication. Citizen-Assisted Development is a prime example of this kind of efficiency, authorizing contributions from users, IT teams, and development professionals alike. It’s also less risky than standard citizen development.
- Real-Time Feedback – Whenever changes are made, both IT and business operations team members can immediately see the impact it has on the workflow, creating a real-time feedback loop that enhances communications and understanding between the two departments.
Security and Data Privacy with Workflow Management Software
Workflow management software often includes a range of security features to ensure data privacy, maintain compliance with regulations, and protect sensitive information. These features can include:
- Authentication and Authorization
- Encryption
- Audit Trails and Logging
- Compliance Templates and Workflows
- Data Segregation
- Secure APIs
- Data Backups
- User Training and Awareness
In an era where agility and efficiency are paramount, the significance of workflow management solutions are unquestioned, standing as a catalyst for driving productivity improvements across organizations. Its ability to bridge the gap between IT professionals and business operation teams through streamlined collaboration and low-code application development brings about a transformative impact. As businesses embrace these tools, they pave the way for more efficient processes, empowered teams, and a competitive edge in the dynamic business landscape.
WEBCON is a low-code, future-proof automation platform that facilitates workflow automation and productivity by streamlining your core processes and promoting communication and collaboration. Try our online demo or sign up for a free 30-day trial today!
How to address today’s challenges related to developing business in a competitive landscape? It surely requires a strategic approach to optimizing processes, enhancing collaboration, and driving continuous improvement. That’s where an adaptive Business Process Management (BPM) system comes into play. The increased operational efficiency that’s among the main BPM benefits ensures that a company can keep pace in an accelerating business environment.
BPM involves a comprehensive approach to handling an organization’s business processes, seeking to optimize them for a seamless flow, reduced waste, and improved outcomes. In doing this, BPM empowers organizations to achieve operational excellence and maintain a competitive advantage.
While Business Process Management is the foundation for organizational optimization, to get all the BPM benefits that are available requires the support of dedicated software tools. BPM software, in effect, acts as a digital bridge connecting the theoretical with the practical, offering a range of functionalities that can provide a number of benefits to organizations as they navigate the complexities of modern business.
In this article, we’ll be looking closer at the benefits of business process management — such as streamlining processes, improving efficiency, and boosting business success — that can be gained by a BPM platform. Take a look below at the immediate advantages that BPM software offers.
BPM Advantages
Faster and More Agile App Delivery – You can quickly turn application prototypes—simple or complex, supportive or business critical—into MVPs and continue to evolve them while taking advantage of shortened time-to-value.
Better Collaboration Between Teams – Facilitate communication and coordination between the business process teams, stakeholders, and IT by keeping everyone involved in the process.
Set and Track Business Process KPIs and Monitor Progress – BPM software allows you to keep track of process progress and analyze process-related data, enabling you to gain valuable insights and respond proactively to enhance process efficiency.
Continuous Process Improvement – By providing tools to analyze process performance over time, BPM software supports continuous improvement and gives organizations the ability to make incremental enhancements and stay adaptable.
Compliance & Governance – For organizations operating in regulated industries, BPM software’s ability to enforce compliance with industry standards and regulations, as well as adhering to legal and regulatory requirements, can be a great benefit.
Auditability and Self-Documentation – WEBCON’s low-code BPM software offers an audit trail built into every application, and every app also comes with thorough documentation. This real-time visibility into ongoing processes provides transparency to managers and stakeholders, allowing them to make more informed, data-driven decisions.
Experience the Benefits of Automation of Processes with a Low-Code BPM Platform Powered by WEBCON
Developed by a team of experts with years of experience in project development and delivering IT solutions for the largest market players, WEBCON is the low-code BPM platform that truly sets itself apart. With everything contained in one application — all the forms, reports, schema, designer studio, and process logic — you can make changes to anything and implement immediate updates as needed, giving your company unprecedented agility in an ever-changing business world.
If you’d like to learn more about BPM benefits and what WEBCON can do for your business, check out our free trial version to start creating and testing your workflows today!
In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, business applications are not just convenient tools but vital instruments that sharpen the competitive edge of modern enterprises. As industries strive to stay ahead, this article delves into the substantial role that low-code development has in accelerating app delivery. Low-code solutions help businesses maintain agility, innovate faster, and respond promptly to dynamic market needs.
The Growing Necessity of Accelerating App Delivery in Today's Enterprises
Low-code was a breakthrough in the world of software, enabling rapid application development with minimal coding. By employing visual interfaces, easy-to-understand logic, and intuitive drag-and-drop functionalities, it has both accelerated and democratized app creation, making it easier & faster for professional developers and accessible even for non-technical users. This approach is becoming increasingly relevant as it accommodates the need for speed without compromising quality.
Advantages of Low-Code Development for Business Applications
- Accelerated Development Timelines: By leveraging low-code application platforms that facilitate rapid application development tools, businesses can bring products to market faster than ever, dramatically reducing development time.
- Enhanced Collaboration Between Business and IT Teams: Low-code platforms may serve as a bridge between business stakeholders and IT professionals, fostering a culture of collaboration and co-creation. This ensures that the developed applications are in line with organizational goals and customer needs.
- Increased Productivity and Efficiency: Through the use of rapid application development software within a low-code platform, development teams can produce and adjust applications quickly. This increased pace supports innovation, boosts overall efficiency, and empowers teams to respond swiftly to emerging opportunities or challenges.
The application delivery platform market is a hub of innovation, teeming with opportunities for businesses to expedite their app development processes. Low-code app builders, with their versatile capabilities, stand at the forefront of this transformation.
Features to Look for in Low-Code App Development Software
- Flexibility and Adaptability: Low-code app development doesn’t have to be rigid. For example, WEBCON offers its InstantChange™ technology, which enables organizations to quickly adapt according to evolving requirements, market trends, and user feedback.
- Comprehensive Integration: Mature low-code platforms facilitate application delivery management and enable seamless integration with existing enterprise systems. This enhances data flow and functionality, paving the way for more cohesive and streamlined operations.
- Empowering Business Users: One of the key strengths of low-code platforms is their ability to enable business users to participate in app development actively. This ensures that applications are built with a deep understanding of business needs.
These attributes collectively establish the significance of low-code platforms in today's complex and rapidly changing business environment, and help companies meet the demand to accelerate app delivery.
Embracing the Future with Low-Code Platforms: A Closer Look at WEBCON
In a world where business agility is paramount, embracing a low-code application platform is not merely following a trend; it's a strategic necessity. WEBCON, a leader in low-code application development, is at the forefront of this revolution. WEBCON provides a unified low-code application development platform that allows organizations to build their own solutions with one tool.
WEBCON's InstantChange™ technology is a standout feature, allowing organizations to make immediate modifications to workflows and forms, thus providing unparalleled flexibility. From drag-and-drop form designs to seamless integration with other enterprise systems, WEBCON's low-code application development platform is meticulously crafted to help businesses stay nimble, responsive, and aligned with strategic goals.
Your Competitive Edge in a Digital World
Adopting a low-code application platform isn't just a choice; it's an essential strategy for thriving in a landscape where speed and adaptability define success. By harnessing rapid application development tools and platforms, businesses can transform their processes and stay ahead of the curve. WEBCON's unique InstantChange™ technology epitomizes this flexibility, enabling organizations to adapt, innovate, and accelerate app delivery like never before. The future is low-code, and the time to embrace it is now.
For some time now, we’ve observed systematic growth in both interest and adoption of low-code and no-code platforms among organizations. Łukasz Wróbel, Vice President and Chief Business Development Officer of WEBCON, talks about what low-code platforms are and why their adoption continues to increase.
The terms low-code and no-code often appear side by side. Are they two labels for the same thing or two different things? How would you rate their size and potential?
LW: They’re two things targeting two different audiences. No-code tools enable the creation of simple applications, usually by business users – they fit into the Citizen Development trend.
Low-code platforms, on the other hand, offer greater customization options for drag-and-drop solutions, and greater control over the solution being created. They’re intended for users with greater technological skills, and they’re often used by IT departments and development teams who want more productivity and flexibility.
The market for both of these is definitely growing; the pandemic has accelerated the demand for business applications – and hence such tools – even more. Gartner forecasts, confirm this trend, they forecast 30% year-over-year growth for the low-code platform market .
Low-code platforms are in use building a wide range of applications, from simple to business-critical. Are there particularly common use cases for low-code?
LW: Our clients most often start their low-code adventure by creating applications to support back-office processes. Examples would be electronic document and form routing, such as invoice approvals, contract management, or leave requests. But it’s important to note that launching this first set of low-code applications platform changes the way companies think about process.
On one front business user demand increases because they finally see applications being delivered quickly – and being updated quickly when needed. Elsewhere, IT departments have been becoming less focused exclusively on curating technology and more focused on how to use it to support business, and a big part of that is delivering new applications supporting processes. And since low-code makes developing and maintaining custom-built applications easier, it’s being used formore and more important solutions and being integrated into the architecture of their transaction systems. Some of our clients have built low-code systems for managing product launches, opening retail stores, accepting loan applications, and even comprehensive CRM solutions.
Are there companies and institutions for which low-code platforms are a particularly good fit?
LW: A low-code platform is a tool you use to build applications for clients. They tell you what they want it to do and what problems it needs to solve. It’s completely independent of things like industry or company size. We have clients from the manufacturing, retail, service, and financial sectors. We have government agencies and educational institutions as clients. Client needs and wants determine what is built, not the platform’s capabilities. A good low-code platform is flexible enough to be used to build just about anything.
What are the biggest limitations of low-code platforms?
LW: Many clients come to us having worked with other low-code platforms. The most painful, and most common, limitation for them is change management. Most low-code platforms focus on building an application and moving on to the next one; the implicit mindset is that if it’s low-code, it’s disposable. A lot of low-code projects hence follow what amounts to a waterfall approach. If rapidly responding to requests, new business conditions, etc. isn’t built into a low-code platform, code starts to look appealing in some ways.
There’s another thing we see all the time, and sometimes it can be as much about application builders as the low-code platform they’ve chosen to use. Such tools and builders tend to focus on the obvious, visible parts of an application and ignore whole categories of professional due diligence in areas like auditing, metrics and monitoring, security, documentation, scalability, etc. Such efforts work fine for one or two users, but the moment it needs to be used by a wider audience the user and builder see cracks appear in their applications until they eventually break.
Corporate IT has architecture plans and practices for a reason, and it’s essential to choose a low-code platform that sees to it that both users and IT get what they need. Flexibility without stability amounts to fragility.
That said, these limitations aren’t inevitable – they’re just common. Low-code platforms can be extremely robust – but most offerings simply aren’t. There are low-code options that are mature, handle evolving requirements, and handle stability, reliability, security, and everything else.
How are security issues resolved on low-code platforms? Is there a risk of data leakage? Prying eyes? Sovereignty concerns?
LW: It’s easy to imagine that, in 2021, low-code platforms are only available as cloud-hosted, multitenant SaaS offerings, and you’re at the mercy of the vendor’s infrastructure choices. It’s still very possible, though, to use Enterprise-scoped low-code platforms that can be deployed and secured according to corporate preferences, which could be on-premises data centers, cloud-hosted Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), or a hybrid of both. You can find options that give you the control you need.
As for security, maturity matters. If a low-code platform assumes that applications are simple one-and-done efforts, they’re likely also leaving security to individual application builders, who have to figure out what they should restrict. When that happens, your application is only as secure as its developer. Mature low-code platforms, in contrast, build security into the platform so application builders can rely on it without having to think through security issues with each new low-code application they build. And they default to zero privileges and add them on an as-needed basis. They consider not just who’ll build low-code applications, but who’ll deliver and manage them, too; building an application is only about 10% of the total amount of effort needed to deliver and support it.
You can evaluate a platform and pretty quickly assess its design DNA; whether it’s built for an individual citizen developer, an IT department, outside consultants, etc. When its target audience includes IT, you’ll see security, rights management, and data access requirements being addressed from the outset. Our solution, for example, is in use by financial institutions that operate on the sensitive customer data, and in regions of the globe with strict privacy laws. Its continued growth might be the best testament toward our low-code platform’s commitment to security.
What role can large companies like Microsoft or SAP play in the low-code market segment?
LW: Due to their recognition and their ability to reach a wide audience, they’re helping to popularize low-code and increase awareness, interest in, and demand for low-code tools. Both companies have made low-code an important element of their development strategy. It’s a testament to the growing potential of this market.
Can low-code platforms significantly reduce the need for developers in the near future (2-3 years)?
LW: One of the main reasons for creating and adopting low-code platforms has to be the huge shortage of programmers. It’s a worldwide problem; even areas known for having plentiful talent pools are finding it hard to find staff. Low-code means you can create advanced, secure, efficient, and scalable business applications without coding skills. For example, one of our clients decided to hire a person with experience in accounting and entrust them with the task of creating an initial prototype of the application they had in mind. It went well; she delivered that first prototype in under two weeks from the day she was hired. Low-code platforms can be mastered by a much wider number of people, and that can help address the shortage. The most important thing is knowledge of the specific process that you want to digitalize and the ability to think logically. Some technical skills might come in handy, especially when it comes to integration, but IT can help with that, not programming competences. It’s a technology designed to remove technological barriers from the path to digitization.
Should resellers or integrators be interested in low-code platforms? If so, why?
LW: Gartner predicts, that by 2024, 75% of large organizations will be using at least 4 low-code solutions to build applications. This is not a coincidence. Creating applications with their help is simply faster, cheaper and allows you to build solutions in an iterative way. This way of working with clients allows integrators to focus less on solving technical problems and more on understanding their clients’ business. It helps cement long-term relationships, and it can transform tactical vendors into strategic partners. As low-code platforms enable quick application building and easy maintenance at a low cost, integrators can provide and support more solutions to clients without an increase in personnel. It really can lead to bona fide digital transformation.
How do you rate the awareness of resellers / integrators and customers about low-code and no-code platforms?
LW: We’ve started developing a partner channel in Poland back in 2011. Today we have more than 70 partners all over the world. A few years ago, we had to demonstrate and prove the value of a low-code investment. It’s a lot different now; there’s been a permanent change to the market, where integrators actively look for reliable low-code/no-code partners with whom they can build internal competences and provide their clients with solutions. Our partners include companies that have based their entire business on building tailor-made business applications using low-code technology. It’s not a coincidence.
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