If you attended last week's Digital Transformation Webinar, you are now a rising expert on developing innovative business applications on a low-code platform. However, in case you missed the webinar, here's the quick rundown:
The next pressing questionÖ What happens if one of these platforms actually works as promised? What if my shiny new mobile customer service app is so effective that the CIO wants to deploy it to every region and every customer? What if I want to deputize a large team of developers to build 150 more apps that share common business rules and user interfaces? What if I want to tie hyper-efficient workflows into every legacy system for data access and reporting? Does the initial premise of "build one app really quickly" scale nicely to what an enterprise really needs?
To paraphrase Marianne Williamson: Our deepest fear isn't that low-code platforms are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that low-code platforms are powerful beyond measure, and we will end up with 1,000 hastily-built silo apps that IT has no control over.
The bad news: This is a very real concern. Some IT departments we talk to are still recovering from post-Microsoft-Access trauma. Others have accidentally built quick apps for HR, CRM, Project Management, and IT Access Management on 4 different platforms that can't even physically talk to each other. One of our current customers originally started building apps on a very popular point-and-click platform, only to realize that deploying it to over 5,000 users with different roles was almost completely impossible.
The good news: With the right platform, it's possible to combine fast development, enterprise scale, AND governance to ensure that model-driven app development is integrated properly into your overall IT strategy, not skulking alongside it in the shadows. Some important factors to consider when choosing a rapid application development platform for the long haul:
We'd love to hear from you about your good, bad, and educational experiences trying to scale model-driven application platforms across a growing business. Happy low-coding!
-Lizzie Epstein, Director of Platform Marketing
Appian is a software company that automates business processes. The Appian Platform includes everything you need to design, automate, and optimize even the most complex processes, from start to finish. The world's most innovative organizations trust Appian to improve their workflows, unify data, and optimize operations—resulting in better growth and superior customer experiences.