In-house IT development teams are under extreme pressure to deliver new functionality and capabilities for the business. The processes and software they use often mean that it can take weeks or even months for new software to be written. The problem is that businesses are changing faster than IT can keep up. By the time those new features or applications are written, they are out of date and no longer what the business needs.
Users often know what they want to do their job. When they can’t get access to it, they get frustrated. However, using a low-code, no-code platform allows users to create some of those tools themselves. This is where the role of the user as a citizen developer comes in. It keeps users engaged in the business and their role and allows them to create the apps that they want when they want them.
APIs, Low-Code and No-Code changing software development
To allow users to develop their apps requires a rethink of how software vendors develop their solutions. Using Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) is a way of exposing business logic in a simple to understand format. It allows enterprise developers and citizen developers to access that logic without having to write complex code.
Low-code and no-code tools are designed to work with APIs. They make it easy and accessible for citizen developers to drag and drop API and other business logic onto a screen and create a piece of software. The low-code and no-code applications connect the APIs for the developer and speed up the pace of development.
IFS and APIs
IFS has exposed all of its back-end business logic through APIs. It means that customers can create new front-end applications at the pace required of business units. Importantly, it also means that citizen developers can build those applications. It provides autonomy, agility and increases productivity as it removes the need for the business to explain what it wants to a business analyst and then wait for a solution to be built.
What does this mean for IFS customers?
Simply put, all of this speeds up the development of new applications. It gives the customer the freedom to build desktop and mobile applications that draw on the IFS business logic. This allows customers to expand their application portfolio without impacting their core business systems.
Importantly, those core systems also continue to act as the System of Record for the company’s data. What is important is that the data and the logic are now more accessible and delivering value to the business.
Using low-code to solve problems quickly
A sales team member wants a screen that makes it easy for them to call up a customer, see open calls, and a list of invoices. This information is available in the existing client software, but it sits on several pages. They want a single screen with all that key data immediately visible.
Using the IFS client, they can build a new screen, insert the fields and then link them using drag and drop through the open API to the business logic in the IFS Cloud CRM product. They could also link to specific projects with their customers. They just need to connect to Project Management business logic and drag in the fields they want to see data from.
This is as simple as it is powerful. The ease of opening Aurena, adding fields and linking business logic has a wide range of applications across the business. A citizen developer can take a need and create a solution in minutes. It means that users are no longer working through company-wide standardised screens that often fail to deliver for anyone. Now the user can be given their own view and access to the data to speed up and simplify their daily workload.
Just the start of business agility
This approach delivers business agility to those who need it, in this case, the users. Importantly, IFS has ensured that users are not just working within the IFS ecosystem. It has created open APIs to access its business logic. Customers can use IFS’s links with other software platforms and their APIs, such as Boomi.
It means that customers can quickly build apps with data and business logic from multiple sources without the complexity of traditional software development. It helps customers get more from their existing software and data than they are currently getting. More importantly, it makes life easier for users who no longer feel they are “fighting” with software to get answers.
Some customers may want to go further. They will have existing applications that they have written. They can now expose those environments’ data and business logic to developers. It removes significant barriers to app development across the business.
Using APIs, low-code and no-code environments also helps remove any mis-alignment between IT and the business units. It allows IT to focus on running the core business software and environment that the business relies upon. Users are now freed up to build their application environments without waiting for IT to respond.
IFS develops and delivers cloud enterprise software for companies around the world who manufacture and distribute goods, build and maintain assets, and manage service-focused operations. Within our single platform, our industry-specific products are innately connected to a single data model and use embedded digital innovation so that our customers can be their best when it really matters to their customers—at the Moment of Service™. The industry expertise of our people and of our growing ecosystem, together with a commitment to deliver value at every single step, has made IFS a recognized leader and the most recommended supplier in our sector. Our team of 4,500 employees every day live our values of agility, trustworthiness and collaboration in how we support our 10,000+ customers. Learn more about how our enterprise software solutions can help your business today at ifs.com.
