This blog post first appeared on bizagi.com (July 25th 2014)

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Forrester’s paper on New Development Platforms For Customer-Facing Applications comes as a validation of what we have been experiencing in recent years.

We have seen many enterprises switching to “low-code” application platforms to accelerate delivery of applications by radically reducing the amount of programing required.

Low-code platforms also help organizations to respond to customer requests faster. And last but not least important, these platforms affect governance and company culture by fostering collaboration between departments and bringing team members closer together.

And to put things into perspective, there are 4 main reasons why the adoption of low-code platforms is rising:

• Visual process build

Low-code platforms allow users to model a process with simple drag & drop functionality instead of coding. Intelligent wizards take users step-by-step: from creating forms by selecting simply illustrated components and dropping them into the form canvas, to Business rules & Performers predefined in component libraries, and even integration with external systems through a simple model-driven approach. In summary, users do not need technical skills to model processes in a low-code platform.

• The essence of low-code : the Process is the Application

When we say the process is the application, we mean it. The process definition is automatically turned into a web application (built using the latest web standards, no coding required), that adapts itself automatically to any process changes in real-time. The process model is interpreted rather than compiled, meaning no lengthy debugging, testing, and so on. By shortening the development cycle, low-code platform users can take advantage of the inherent power in continuous improvement.

• Lower maintenance costs

Low-code platform execution keeps long development cycles out of the picture. Each time a process is created or redefined, a web application is automatically generated or updated to support the latest process. The model is saved onto a standard database and integrated in real-time into a simple, streamlined web application – so there is no need for configuration management and other time-consuming software maintenance procedures, usually associated with traditional software development.

• Fast results!

In addition to nearly all Business Objects being reusable (forms, data model, business rules, sub-processes, and so on) low-code platform users can get results fast by using ready-made templates from community-driven libraries of models and widgets. These libraries contain a wide variety of templates: from UI building blocks, to process maps and even complete process applications, that low-code platform users can take advantage of straight away.

With low-code platforms, processes are built and automated quickly to keep projects on track, and make companies more flexible to market changes and customer requests. Compared to traditional systems, which are too complex to implement and too rigid to modify, low-code platforms offer a complete solution that automates business processes faster and more flexibly, providing organizations with the required agility to continuously improve their critical processes.

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