Building apps that fix real problems without code

Most large companies have a well identified backlog of mobile applications that promise to transform the way their business runs. At the same time, traditional waterfall methods of planning and execution, as well as conventional thinking about risk versus return of investment, do not align with the rapid iterative innovation that’s required for these initiatives to succeed. Visual enterprise app development platforms, such as AppGyver Composer 2, promise the best of two very different worlds: speed and ease of prototyping combined with the quality of a native-built, enterprise-grade app.

Apps Are Top Priority, But There Wrongly Perceived Barriers

Digitalization and mobilization are top priorities as companies look inward at ways to improve operations and gain competitive advantage. The problem is that execution on internal digital fronts – namely mobile – often lags behind due to the huge amount of resources required to build applications from scratch. Today’s visual app development platforms can accelerate mobile development exponentially. As a result, backlogs are tackled.

Yet leveraging such platforms represents change to developers, and as we know, the discomfort of a familiar problem is often more comforting than facing the unknown. The benefits of rapid app development with visual tools, however, are too impressive to ignore. With them, business critical enterprise app projects are routinely reduced from what has historically been multiple months down to just days or weeks. The accelerated time-to-market also makes app iteration easier – something that is always needed when crafting truly high-quality experiences. A rapid and/or visual mobile development platform will also streamline other aspects of app development like maintaining and updating devices and OS’s over time. Often these maintenance activities represent hidden costs that become increasingly taxing as apps multiply and become successful.

Now it’s Possible That Everybody With an Idea Can Build an App

One interesting benefit we’ve observed among adopters of Composer 2 is that entirely new classes of employees with lower development skill levels are becoming a part of the app building process. This helps in two areas. First, it ensures the needs of business users are more closely aligned with the application features, as they are included the design process from the get-go. Second, it eliminates the dependency on high skilled developers for every digital and mobile B2E or B2B app experience.

...entirely new classes of employees with lower development skill levels are becoming a part of the app building process.

This reduces cost, effort and developer skills required for the backlog of projects. It has been a design principle of Composer 2 that technically savvy people without prior experience in building mobile applications can deliver business critical apps from start to finish. A fine example of such a scenario is a forklift manufacturer Rocla, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi, which recently used AppGyver Composer 2 platform to build a critical business application. For Rocla, this was their first mobile application for B2B customers, and the entire app was built without mobile app developers.

Instant Access to Custom Apps Brings Totally Different Thinking

The promise of visual app development may appear too good to be true. As companies decide to embrace visual app development and bask in its benefits, there's no turning back. For Rocla, AppGyver Composer 2 completely transformed their thinking in regards to mobility and innovation. Before using AppGyver, the only option for Rocla was to outsource mobile apps from a third party. This meant big investment and high risk, which in turn prevented the company from trying out the ideas they considered potentially groundbreaking for their business. With Composer 2, Rocla was able to turn 3 month outsourced project into a 2 week development effort without any third party developers. The iteration speed and the flexibility of AppGyver's platform has made execution of mobile app strategy much easier and risk-free for the company.

If you're interested in Rocla's success story and how they were able to build an application in-house in a fraction of the time without professional app developers, read the white paper “Rapid Application Development in Action” here.