Low Code and No Code (LCNC) tools are hot.* You need innovation, automation and collaboration and you need it to be affordable. You need to take advantage of your Citizen Developers. You need the stuff you build to work well, get built quickly, be secure, and work well with the systems you already have in place.
If you're automating your business workflows with IBM BAW (formerly BPM), you have probably been wondering how to get the advantages of these LCNC tools but have it work with your existing workflow tools. We've come up with something even better - the power to let you have No Code tools running inside your IBM BAW system. Our latest edition of Apex Forms now runs within the IBM BAW ecosystem and can take you from a design drawing to a fully functional user-interface in minutes.
What are the challenges to enabling Citizen Developers?
Citizen Developers are your business experts. They're the people in your business who know exactly what the business needs to solve their tech challenges and are not content until they see those needs met.
But as an IT leader, you're likely concerned with some key issues in regard to these efforts:
- Security
- Compatibility
- Reliability
- Scalability
These are all rock-solid reasons to be cautious. Let's talk about them a bit.
Security - Many an IT project has crashed and burned because the developers left security holes in their solutions. Auditing developers is hard enough - what do these business people know about best-practices with computer software security?
Compatibility - It's frequently difficult to keep a new version of an off-the-shelf software backwards-compatible with their own products. How can you trust that whatever these amateurs come up with is going to mesh with your enterprise tools? You don't want some kind of crazy siloed ecosystem where stuff doesn't interoperate.
Reliability - Do these well-intentioned and clever people know how to do their business job and also make reliable software? Is that even likely? When things break are you expecting the guys in Accounting to come fix their mistakes?
Scalability - if you're a senior IT person you probably have been around long enough to remember what happens when everyone is relying on a piece of software that turned out to be fine for one or two users but choked when ten or more people needed to use it. You can't waste time developing these in-house solutions if they're going to perform like an out-house.
IBM BAW and Apex Forms solves all these challenges
We've got a solution to this "No Code" challenge and it is going to blow you away. Our latest version of Apex Forms gives you a No Code development tool that runs inside your existing IBM BAW ecosystem.
Security? It's built on your existing IBM BAW ecosystem and comes with all the security inherent in that platform.
Compatibility? It doesn't just work with IBM BAW - it works inside IBM BAW!
Reliability? It is built using rock-solid open standards and its foundations are the IBM BAW engine you're already trusting.
Scalability? You already know how powerful your IBM BAW workflow engine is, and scaling up has never been easier.
But that's not all. Implementing Apex Forms is as easy as installing a toolkit to your IBM BAW system and following a few simple instructions.
Speed to Solutions are Incredible
Apex Forms isn't just powerful, it's also easy to use. The steps are simple.
Define a workflow using BPMN in either IBM BAW or IBM Blueworks**.
Define your business data and map your inputs and outputs on your workflow.
Discover (with one click!) all the activities in your process and Apex Forms generates user interfaces.
(Optional) Customize your new user interface with our drag and drop designer.
You can create all kinds of rules and validations with our easy to use logic interface.
Deploy your new fully functional workflow. Apex Forms is an amazing add-on to your powerful IBM BAW workflow engine. Now there's no excuse for not automating all of your company's workflows.
Turn your backlog into innovations
Chances are you've got a ton of processes that you haven't had the resources to implement. It's not unusual for a traditional IBM BAW development project to take weeks or more. Apex Forms is going to turn those weeks into days and unleash a flurry of improved efficiency and automations at a time when many companies are struggling to just keep things going.
You need to try Apex Forms to see what we're talking about. You're going to be amazed what it can do in your IBM BAW ecosystem today.
* See Business Insider, Tech Republic, ZDnet, Inc., etc…
** You will need an IBM BAW or IBM BPM installation to use Apex Forms.
