Raise the ROI of your software with low-code development based on business rules  

Many people think the only solutions are a lot of programming work or large expenditure for external hours. Don’t worry, though, because there’s another great solution: combining low-code development with the power of business rules.

This often results in too little time for real innovation or improvement of your systems. Things that the organization is waiting for but can’t get to because everything has to be kept running.

Business processes are changing faster than IT can keep up with. Many IT systems then become isolated islands, which are cut off from the rest of the company’s systems. That’s why it’s often very time-consuming to change any defined processes.

The result? The organization is no longer running smoothly. Employees see their workload being doubled and make more mistakes in the process. In turn, these mistakes cause more work for everybody else involved, including all kinds of workarounds from IT, so they can avoid implementing significant system changes.

If you want to take meaningful steps, increase internal customer satisfaction and keep management happy, too, you have three options.

1. Start from scratch and purchase a completely new integrated system.
   This is often unaffordable if there even exists such an out-of-the-box system without any custom coding work.
2. Have a new custom system built for your organization.
   Usually, a costly affair that takes ages to complete. 
3. Keep what you have by integrating your systems and applications, but centralize your business rules, too. The most cost-efficient option, and it’s quick to implement. 

The solution is low-code development with a back-end first approach that is based on business rules.

With business rules-driven low-code, you quickly (re)build very stable and easy-to-maintain core applications. But you can also develop add-ons for your current system or put a shell of ‘intelligence’ on top of all your different systems.

In effect, it is software development with a minimum of code. Low-code development platforms (LCDP) reduce the amount of traditional programming, enabling faster delivery of business applications. A low-code model enables developers with different levels of experience to create applications of a widely varying nature. As a result, development teams are balanced with software developers, process experts and users.

Management obviously wants to know how much time, energy and money does it cost to develop an intelligence layer over current business applications? Answer: relatively little if you use low-code.

Low-code development and working with a well-balanced team leads to a number of benefits:

Developing low-code is easy to learn

The graphical interface makes software development via low-code easier than traditional programming. Less in-depth knowledge is needed to develop software, although knowledge of MySQL, Java or .Net does make it easier. This allows you to develop faster.

Much of the traditional programming work is taken of your hands and is automatically generated by an LCDP. This saves a lot of time when it comes to basic and repetitive coding work. The possibility to program is often still supported, but especially for very specific and unique parts of the desired solution.

Low-code enables you as a developer to realize 80% of the application in 20% of the time. As a result, you have 80% of your time for the really specific and complex parts. So your time is spent much more effectively.

• You can easily add intelligence to processes
  Think of automatic alarms, for example, if a hick-up occurs somewhere that causes an event not to be handled within the specified terms.

• Events can be handled faster
  Because business rules determine which steps are taken in which order and what is applicable or not. Whereas in traditional systems, a fixed process sequence/workflow is often leading. This means that with business rules, steps that don’t add value are automatically left out of the process. Business rules provide a lot of flexibility and are only executed when they are needed.

• The employees work in a user-friendly system
  That system adapts to their needs, which is in contrast with a complex system. They have to click their way through it to find the right page and think carefully about what they do and who they need to inform when they have done a task.

Instead of embedding rules as code in multiple applications, these are described and managed in natural language by various departments within an organization using a Business Rules Management System (BRMS). All this without the help of IT or developers. As a result, the logic can be used by everyone in the organization and by multiple applications. All the while, they are always maintained in a single, central location.

Logically, every organization has its own business rules and preconditions. So, why automate everything then?

The reason is simply to be able to manage and change them from that single, central location. This prevents you from having to change one rule in different locations or systems within the organization. Working from a single location enables you to prevent errors and ensure that new rules are applied company-wide. Additionally, a business rule is always aimed at what the organization wants to happen precisely. So, if you take this as the starting point for automation, the software does the same. It always works out.

In other words, it helps to:

1. keep pace with changes within your organization
2. increase both efficiency and productivity and prevent errors.
3. ensure compliance with rules and regulations
4. improve customer service
5. gain insights and translate those into key performance indicators
6. scale your organization 

Automation doesn’t have to mean that robots or systems take over someone’s job. It ensures that the people in your organization can fully focus on creating value for the company and its customers.

By developing applications from the ‘back-end first’ and from the perspective of business rules, the software does exactly what the organization wants instead of adapting to the software, as is often the case with ERP systems, for example.

By applying low-code from the ‘back-end first’ and thus laying a rock-solid foundation, you reduce the pressure on the IT department and create room for more innovation. It is, in fact, a bottom-up approach. Start and build from the data and business rules.

You can act quickly if you start with front-end applications, but this does not change how the back-end is organized. Ultimately, the challenges at the back-end will only increase, especially in the longer term.

It is therefore much more powerful to develop low-code and approach it from the back-end first. This applies to organizations that have to respond to many events daily, such as ports, airports, transport companies, the public transport sector, retail and industry. These companies can renew their primary systems with a business rules approach. Or provide them with an intelligence layer that gives the originally rigid systems new flexibility.

With low-code applications purely focused on the front-end, you can act fast, but this doesn’t change anything on the back-end. By applying low-code from the ‘back-end first’ approach, you lay a rock-solid foundation and create room for more innovation.

Low-code with the power of business rules: how do you start?

The important thing is to choose a full-stack, end-to-end platform that replaces traditional programming. This allows you to build all necessary applications and integrate applications through APIs. You can create what you want and integrate the result according to your needs within your current IT environment.

What’s next?

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