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How To Use Low-Code To Speed Up Innovation In Financial Services

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Financial services form the backbone of the world economy. Most organizations require the assistance of banks to launch and carry on their operations.Ensuring efficiency and accuracy in all operations of finance services hence becomes imperative not just for individuals but for the economy as a whole.

As rapid innovations in digital technology and low-code solutions continue to evolve at an exponential rate, it is crucial for modern businesses to understand the significance of speeding up innovation in various financial services.  It has been proven that organizations that prioritize the acceleration of software development and innovation have been proven to experience significantly higher competitive advantage over their counterparts that don’t.

However, innovation in financial services can be an extremely difficult process due to a lack of financial and human resources, competent digital systems and time. Furthermore, many financial institutions are often so focused on meeting short-term goals that long-term innovation seems impractical and unrealistic. However, low-code technology may be able to help financial institutions speed up innovation in financial services.

A recent study conducted by Microsoft anticipates that 450 million out of the 500 million applications that are expected to be developed and distributed over the course of the next 5 years will be created using low-code platforms. Therefore, the rise of low-code technology presents an extremely valuable opportunity for modern businesses.

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What is a low-code business process management platform?

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Every business depends on a set of repeatable processes that a low-code business process management (BPM) platform can standardize and automate.

Every business depends on a set of broadly similar processes to facilitate the coordination of people and assets to produce information. Digitization is the key to enabling a smooth flow of that information in order to continuously enhance mission-critical operations, and this is where business process management (BPM) comes in.

That said, BPM is a commonly misunderstood term. Despite the widespread misconception, BPM is not a technology itself, but a discipline concerning how businesses analyze, measure, improve, and automate their business processes. Every business department has its own set of processes covering a diverse range of areas from product or service delivery to conducting regulatory compliance checks to handling billing and payments.

While not a technology solution in its own right, efficient BPM does rely heavily on digitization. As such, it often involves the use of intelligent approaches to automate and standardize tasks and workflows. For example, a business-critical process like fulfilling a product order is usually a repeatable and standardized operation, and that means it can be automated with the right software. Read more

What are the three steps of low-code app development?

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Gone are the days when traditional coding was the be-all and end-all of app development. Today, with low-code, anyone can build apps from scratch with just a little coding knowledge.

Low-code is a visual app development technology that uses pre-built modules and drag-and-drop editors to facilitate app development. Low-code reduces the time it takes to develop a platform by letting developers focus on complex coding areas.

Low-code platforms can potentially bring down development times by almost 90%. Low-code also encourages citizen development which is a low-cost alternative to traditional app development.

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How To Solve Technical Debt?

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Technical debt: Part 3

One of the most in-demand commodities today is software. Both businesses and end-consumers seek advanced platforms that can make their lives easier by carrying out various processes. Software vendors and SaaS providers hence are always in a rush to deliver their products on time.

Sometimes, in order to deliver the product within the deadline, the development team fast forwards through certain software development processes. These parts often become the reason for errors and glitches in the final product and require refactoring. Technical debt for a company is all the code they have written that will need future modification.

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How To Avoid Technical Debt

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Technical debt: Part 2

Technical debt is any code written for a product or functionality that is set to require rework and modification in the future. It happens because development teams are forced to expedite deployment owing to strict deadlines and a shortage of resources.

A widespread occurrence in the software development industry, technical debt is seldom welcome by developers or clients. While it isn’t outright harmful, technical debt can cause a lot of problems if not paid on time and efficiently.

Technical debt can prolong building times and can hog the resources that would otherwise go to new projects and innovation. Taking short-cuts during software development results in volatile, often low-quality software. This can also lead to a dip in the brand value of the software vendor or developer. Technical debt can also come when you are not expecting it in the form of an outdated design.

While it may feel like technical debt is omnipresent and undefeatable in the software industry, thankfully, there are various ways through which technical debt can be avoided.

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Why low-code is the perfect learning tool for software developers

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While low-code development is known for its drag-and-drop simplicity, the ability to view and edit the underlying code also makes it the perfect learning tool.

Most professional software developers agree that it takes several months just to get familiar with the basics of coding, and that assumes having a high level of general technical knowledge to begin with. Given the rapid pace of advancement in the software development space, skills in problem-solving, attention to detail, coding concepts, and the ability to adapt to constantly evolving technologies are also vital. These factors partly explain why there is a growing skills gap in software development.

Fortunately, low-code software development presents something of a shortcut, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a valuable learning tool in its own right. What low-code does do is remove many of the more repetitive elements of software development by allowing professional and citizen developers alike to leverage the full potential of reusable components. Moreover, since low-code removes the need to code in such cases, it allows non-developers to quickly deploy standard business logic, regardless of their level of programming expertise.

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How low code helps software developers embrace rapid change

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Low-code software development has proven instrumental in facilitating innovation at scale in today’s constantly evolving and unpredictable business environment.

Until the widespread adoption of modern software systems, most routine business processes remained largely unchanged and, indeed, unchangeable over short timespans. In those times, innovations often took many years to enter the mainstream, and organizations could afford to rely largely on traditional processes and monolithic technology architectures.

Today, however, change is the only constant in the business world, which faces unprecedented disruption as it tries to tackle rising instability and unpredictability across global supply chains and constantly evolving customer demands.

In light of these growing uncertainties, business leaders face enormous pressure to adapt with the times in order to stay relevant. Continuous improvement is essential for keeping customers happy, employees motivated, and for satisfying the need for operational resilience. Thus, the ability to accommodate rapid change has become a universal business imperative.

More than ever, these factors rely on software. A few years ago, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella claimed that every company is a software company. Technology is increasingly embedded in everything we do, both at home and in the workplace. Back-office teams have become reliant on tailor-made customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions to handle increasingly vast amounts of digital information at scale. Customers expect a responsive service and a persistent presence from the companies they do business with. Furthermore, these demands change and evolve all the time, thus necessitating an agile approach to software development and maintenance.

It is for these reasons that low-code software development has been gaining more and more ground over the years. Read more

7 ways low-code solutions accelerate digital transformation

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By making software development less burdensome on resources, low-code contributes to the acceleration of digital transformation and business-wide innovation.

It is often said that every company is a software company. Computers play a key role in almost everything we do. They are becoming embedded in everything from the cars we drive to the homes and cities we live in.

For organizations, computers and software have become critical for handling everything from customer relationship management to supply chain management. At virtually every customer touchpoint, there are digital interactions that leave a trail of data, from which they can unlock valuable insights, provided they have the right software solutions.

Digital transformation is the driving force behind these innovations. It is the process we use to create new business processes and customer and employee experiences or improve existing ones. It is the reimagining of business in the digital age, and software naturally plays a central role in that process. This is why the pressure is constantly growing on organizations to ease the burden of software development and, in turn, accelerate digital transformation.

Organizations that fail to embrace digital transformation face a very real and growing risk of losing their competitive positions and becoming irrelevant in today’s fast-changing world. One of the main causes of such failure is the difficulty in overcoming the inherent complexities of software development and the lengthy project lifecycles that come with it.

To overcome the challenges, organizations must be able to develop and integrate new tools and capabilities quickly, scale their applications in the cloud, automate routine workflows, and continuously modernize customer experiences.

To accomplish these tasks, software teams need a way to quickly deliver applications and iteratively improve them based on user feedback. Traditional software development is wholly unable to keep up with the need for speed and scale, which is why organizations need low-code software development to accelerate digital transformation.

Here are some reasons why low-code matters in digital transformation:

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Is Cloud Computing Really Safe?

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Cloud computing is defined as the delivery of various technological solutions such as data storage, databases, servers, and analytics through the internet. As digital technology continues to evolve, many businesses are beginning to integrate the use of cloud computing into various business processes and functions.

Cloud computing can help businesses reduce operational software costs, facilitate cross-departmental collaboration, automatically update software, increase data accessibility and ensure that different types of software are compatible.

Although many businesses may be highly concerned about shifting towards cloud computing, studies have shown that it is extremely secure and can even help businesses implement advanced data security features. 94% of businesses stated that they experienced significant online security improvements after moving their data to the cloud.

How To Make Cloud Computing Safe?

1) Real-Time Data Monitoring

One of the most effective methods of protecting digital security and encryption is carefully monitoring usage patterns and user activity to identify deviations and digressions from normal acceptable patterns. The irregular patterns usually indicate a data breach or a vulnerable aspect of your system.

However, unless this data is monitored in real-time with minimal delays, security threats may already significantly impact the security of your digitally stored organizational data and information. However, many cloud-based solutions provide users with constant real-time data activity monitoring and identity authentication management.

 

2) Data Security Features

According to IBM, the estimated approximate global average cost for a data breach is $3.86 million. Therefore, before choosing a cloud-based platform, it is crucial to ensure that it contains all the required security features that your organization may need. An effective cloud solution should be equipped with activity monitoring features, authentication access modification, and encryption controls.

Planet Crust’s 100% open-source, cloud-based solutions have numerous security features and can even be privately hosted on your business’s firewall.

 

3) Data Backup Support

Studies have shown that 40-60% of small businesses will not reopen after a significant data loss. Therefore, modern businesses must ensure that they have adequate data backup storage at regular time intervals.

Cloud-based data backups have numerous advantages, such as saving scarce financial and organizational resources, providing comprehensive data protection in the event of a data loss, ensuring a high level of data accessibility, and facilitating scalability.

 

4) Monitor Authorization Access

Although cloud solutions can ensure that employees can easily access organizational data, information, and resources, many employees do not require access to certain sources of data. Therefore, it may be beneficial to carefully monitor and refine user authorization access of certain sensitive types of data to ensure that your business’s data security is protected.

Planet Crust – A Secure Cloud Destination:

Planet Crust’s open-source, low-code solutions are the perfect secure, cloud-based solutions for your business. Your business can help make its cloud computing initiatives more secure by monitoring data in real-time, taking advantage of various data security features available with cloud-based platforms, and monitoring authorization access.

Planet Crust’s CRM solutions are equipped with role-based access tools, multi-factor authentication, identity management, instant deployment features, advanced chart building tools, flexible data modeling, scalable architecture, and much more. Try a demo so that your business can take advantage of the various benefits of secure cloud computing technology.

What is the difference between SAAS and ISV?

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SaaS (Software as a Service) and ISV (Independent Software Vendor) are both services that enable users to access certain software. However, they are fundamentally different in their function.

An ISV is an organization that creates, publishes, and sells software. They usually use the cloud as a means of delivering this software to the users hence using the SaaS method.

SaaS is the method through which vendors share their products with the market. It is one of the most popular services in the world right now. According to BMC, 99% of the organizations will be using at least one SaaS solution by the end of 2021.

SaaS allows users to access the software via the internet as a service by using a subscription model. It eliminates the need to install and maintain software locally hence liberating the users from managing complex hardware and software.

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