White Paper The Best Low Code Platform To Use In 2017 WaveMaker platform helps a leading US insurance company build apps faster , easier and at lower costs ,thus transforming their ideas into innovative custom apps affordably. Challenges : A leading provider of personal, commercial property, casualty insurance and long-term retirement savings products in the US , known as one of the largest and most successful insurance companies was facing the challenge of managing their long tail apps. They were finding it difficult to build apps that were independent of internal IT intervention which involved additional operating investments. Their major challenge was : Budgets for long-tail apps: While on one hand the insurance company needed innovative apps to run their business, high development and support costs were imposed by IT, even for non-critical apps. Building apps with allocated budget was the need of the hour. Dependency on IT for app delivery: Creating a minimal IT dependency channel for infrastructure provisioning, support, data access and app maintenance was a major challenge that the company faced. Internal IT team wanted to focus on core business applications and spend minimal effort to maintain long-tail apps. Solution : By adopting WaveMaker platform, the team was able to achieve significant operational effectiveness in creating and maintaining apps without any additional investments into skilled resources. More importantly, the team had successfully sowed the seeds for an innovation infrastructure that can quickly transform ideas to apps. After a series of evaluations, the insurance company decided to use WaveMaker custom application development platform to modernize apps for achieving greater operational 1. Whitepaper : The Best Low Code Platform To Use in 2017 Future of Apps, beyond code Low Code Platforms - bringing value to business The inherent value of a low-code development platform is that it brings IT and the business together, enabling more rapid, iterative and collaborative development. Applications can be rapidly built, seamlessly deployed and easily changed—all without the need for low-level coding. In addition, these platforms provide an excellent communication mechanism to align business and IT stakeholders, thereby ensuring greater software quality and more successful business outcomes. It’s clear that businesses need a faster way to deliver applications—and low-code platforms offer some much-needed light at the end of the tunnel. For IT and business leaders, it’s important to evaluate platforms carefully and choose the approach that will deliver the most business value to your organization, now and in future. Top Five Reasons to Choose a Low code Platform for your Business Time to Market : One of the biggest benefits of visual development platforms is the speed at which sophisticated apps capabilities, can be built, tested and rolled into production, end-to-end. Traditionally, enterprise app development & delivery take anywhere from 3 to 6 months. With low code platforms, the development time can be taken down to days and weeks. The speed gains are achieved through two things: visual tooling and an integrated app platform. Cost effective : Many organizations are dealing with shrinking IT budgets. Low code platform is the solution for business needs without additional investment. IT leaders are focussing on re-examining the application delivery ROI in terms of both, dollars spent and effort. Low code platforms provide the ease of customisation, low maintenance costs and faster delivery cycles Focussed on Business Imperatives : One of the biggest benefits of low code platforms is is the business-focussed development. With low code platforms business stakeholders are completely plugged in during the app development process. This is completely different from the traditional development process, where business stakeholders are plugged in during the initial requirements gathering phase and then only in logical intervals of task completion. 2. Whitepaper : The Best Low Code Platform To Use in 2017 Future of Apps, beyond code Delivery Iteration possibility and speed : When it comes to quick iteration, visual app development tools are by design far superior to traditional development methods. The first minimum viable version of an app can be put together in hours, after which field testing can be initiated via over-the-air distribution methods. There is also possibility of real time prototyping . The visual tooling makes the incorporation of changes in an iterative manner way easier than with traditional methods of development. When you’re working with code, the developer has to always spend a certain amount of time performing chores, no matter how small the requested change is. The componentization of software in visual tools, and the separation of concerns between user interface, client app logic, integrations and backend logic makes testing and changing software dramatically faster and easier. Adapt to the automation & digital era : Beyond the need to eliminate or reduce application coding, Low-code Platforms are expected to streamline and speed up the application delivery process itself. One key characteristic is the ability to instantly deploy an application with zero DevOps. Such platforms also offer a single point of control for app maintenance and updates. While other low-code app development platforms extend the capabilities to security, governance, version control, infrastructure autoscaling and more. What to look for in a good Low Code Platform Look carefully before you choose a Low code Platform for your business, Here are some key consideration you need to look for in the delivery capabilities of future partners when choosing a Low-code platform. Built on Open Standards While most Low-code Platforms claim “No Vendor Lock-in”, the reality is that most of them use proprietary technologies and application stack. Choose a Low-code Platform that is based on proven open source technologies in order to ensure an open and extensible approach to application delivery. Also, the platform should use best-of-breed application stack for developing full stack applications. Integration Simplified While most vendors offer decent visual development capabilities, it is extremely important to look for building custom software stacks and deploying microservices-based apps, and orchestrates IT infrastructure effectively. 3. Whitepaper : The Best Low Code Platform To Use in 2017 Future of Apps, beyond code Ease of Use, Reuse and Business Friendly Today, APIs are at the front and center of business applications and architecture. Most Low-code Platforms support APIs at best. However, one must choose a platform that takes an API-first approach to application delivery. It should be easy to import data from any service and bind it to UI components. Moreover, the platform should allow developers to create, publish and discover APIs with ease. Zero or Minimal Coding With most Low-code Platforms, even the most experienced developer would not understand the code generated by the platform. Maintainability is a critical aspect of application delivery and is overlooked by many these platforms. Verify that the code generated follows design patterns, is well-organized, uses standard naming conventions and generates. Enable Cross Platform Development Ensure that low-code platform vendors don’t get away with merely providing a hosting and release management solution. Check for the ability to scale applications and handle private cloud needs. Look for solutions that allow for rapid and continuous provisioning, deployment, instant scalability and maximum utilization of resources. Verify whether the platform supports documentation that developers can understand and maintain. Enable citizen developers Business are frustrated with having to wait for months in the IT queue and then getting something that was not what they asked for. They are looking for platforms that reduce cycle times and improve organizational agility by delivering applications at the pace of business. Enterprises should use low-code tools that use rapid application development model, which supports visual (drag-and-drop) development and incorporates user feedback iteratively using rapid prototyping. Competition and challenges As Businesses move towards digital transformation , the Low code platform market is becoming more and more competitive. Competition in this market comes from infrastructure providers, platform providers, B2B software and services companies, and a variety of independent public and private companies. The market has a number of innovators trying to break into the model-driven and deployment-centric PaaS spaces. Major players like Salesforce, Progress Software, OutSystems, Wavemaker, Caspio, Zoho, Intuit, and TrackVia and Mendix.Vendors in 4. Whitepaper : The Best Low Code Platform To Use in 2017 Future of Apps, beyond code this space also compete with business process management players . The need of the hour is to innovate and differentiate and provide cost effective solutions to customers The platform should be easy to deploy and is likely to be used to develop customer-facing "systems of engagement." Considering WaveMaker WaveMaker is an well known Low Code Application Platform for building and running custom apps. WaveMaker, Inc. is a portfolio company of Pramati Technologies (est. 1998), a business incubator and enterprise software company with a combined workforce of nearly 1200 engineers. WaveMaker was acquired by Pramati Technologies in 2013 from