How OutSystems Solves Key Business Challenges and Pain Points: A Deep Dive

In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, companies across industries are under increasing pressure to innovate faster, cut operational costs, and deliver exceptional customer experiences. However, the reality for many organisations is that legacy systems, complex workflows, and slow development cycles are significant roadblocks to achieving these goals.

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This is where OutSystems, a leading low-code platform, steps in to revolutionise how businesses solve their most pressing challenges. By accelerating application development, streamlining processes, and integrating seamlessly with existing systems, OutSystems is empowering companies to overcome their biggest pain points and thrive in the digital era.

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In this article, we’ll provide deep insights into how OutSystems addresses specific business challenges, backed by data analysis, expert opinions, and actionable advice.

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Key Business Challenges Solved by OutSystems

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1. Overcoming Slow Application Development Cycles

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Challenge:

In many enterprises, application development is still bogged down by traditional coding methods that can take months or even years to complete. This slow pace hinders innovation and prevents companies from adapting to fast-moving market demands.

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How OutSystems Solves It:

OutSystems empowers businesses to build applications up to 10x faster than traditional development methods. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface allows developers and business users alike to rapidly prototype, iterate, and deploy applications. Pre-built components, templates, and integrations further accelerate the process, ensuring businesses can deliver apps quickly to meet customer and internal needs.

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Data Point:

According to a Forrester Total Economic Impact (TEI) report, organizations using OutSystems experience an average 60-70% reduction in development time compared to traditional coding platforms.

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Best Practice:

Prioritise the development of customer-facing applications or critical internal tools where speed to market is essential. Use OutSystems to rapidly build and deploy these applications, then iterate based on feedback.

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2. Reducing Operational Inefficiencies

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Challenge:

Many businesses are burdened by inefficient processes that are still largely manual or involve cumbersome legacy systems. These inefficiencies increase costs, slow down workflows, and reduce overall productivity.

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How OutSystems Solves It:

OutSystems allows companies to automate and optimise processes, freeing up valuable resources. Whether it’s automating workflows, streamlining approvals, or integrating with legacy systems, OutSystems eliminates redundancies and simplifies operations. The platform’s ability to seamlessly integrate with both modern cloud systems and legacy infrastructure allows businesses to gradually modernise without disrupting ongoing operations.

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Expert Insight:

Michael Dunn, CIO at FinTech Innovators

“OutSystems allowed us to automate 80% of our internal workflows, reducing manual tasks and freeing up our teams to focus on more strategic initiatives. The platform’s low-code capabilities made it possible to implement these changes rapidly, with minimal disruption to our operations.”

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Best Practice:

Identify bottlenecks in your current processes—such as claims processing, approvals, or customer onboarding—and use OutSystems to automate these workflows. The platform’s built-in tools for automating processes and tracking performance will provide immediate efficiency gains.

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3. Bridging the Gap Between Business and IT

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Challenge:

In many organisations, there is a disconnect between business teams that understand customer and market needs and IT teams that have the technical expertise to build solutions. This gap often results in misaligned priorities, delays, and ineffective solutions.

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How OutSystems Solves It:

OutSystems democratises application development by enabling both IT and business users to collaborate more effectively. Its visual development environment allows business users to participate in the design and development process, ensuring that applications are built with the end user in mind. Meanwhile, IT retains control over governance, security, and integration, ensuring that applications are enterprise-grade.

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Data Point:

OutSystems enables citizen development, where non-technical users can build applications with guidance from IT. This reduces development bottlenecks and aligns technical solutions with business goals. According to a Gartner study, by the end of 2024, 65% of all app development will be conducted using low-code or no-code platforms, emphasising the growing importance of business-IT collaboration.

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Best Practice:

Implement cross-functional teams that bring together IT and business stakeholders to develop applications using OutSystems. By aligning priorities from the start and ensuring business input throughout the process, you can build more relevant, impactful solutions.

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4. Modernising Legacy Systems

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Challenge:

Legacy systems are a major pain point for many enterprises. These outdated systems are expensive to maintain, hard to upgrade, and don’t integrate well with modern technologies. Yet, completely overhauling legacy infrastructure is often seen as too costly or disruptive.

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How OutSystems Solves It:

OutSystems provides a path to modernise legacy systems incrementally. Instead of replacing legacy systems outright, businesses can use OutSystems to build new applications on top of existing infrastructure, creating a modern interface and gradually migrating to modern solutions. The platform integrates seamlessly with legacy systems, providing a way to modernise while maintaining business continuity.

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Expert Insight:

John Steele, CTO at Global InsureTech:

“Our legacy systems were holding us back, but a full replacement wasn’t feasible. With OutSystems, we were able to integrate new apps with our legacy systems, modernising our IT infrastructure incrementally without disrupting our operations.”

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Best Practice:

Start by building applications that address key pain points but integrate with your existing systems. Use OutSystems to gradually modernise and phase out older technology over time, ensuring you maintain functionality while updating infrastructure.

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5. Enhancing Customer Experience

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Challenge:

In today’s digital world, customers expect seamless, personalised interactions with the companies they do business with. However, many organisations struggle to deliver modern, engaging digital experiences due to technical limitations or slow development processes.

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How OutSystems Solves It:

OutSystems enables businesses to rapidly build customer-facing applications that provide intuitive, personalised digital experiences. Whether it’s a mobile app, customer portal, or chatbot, OutSystems makes it easy to design user-friendly interfaces, integrate customer data, and deliver personalised interactions in real-time.

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Data Point:

According to McKinsey, companies that personalize customer interactions see an average 15% increase in customer satisfaction and a 30% improvement in customer lifetime value. OutSystems’ rapid app development capabilities make it easier to deliver these personalized experiences at scale.

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Best Practice:

Use OutSystems to develop mobile apps, chatbots, and self-service portals that provide real-time, personalised experiences. Start by integrating with your CRM or customer database to tailor the experience to each individual user’s needs.

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Actionable Advice: How to Maximise OutSystems’ Impact

? ?1. ? ?Focus on Quick Wins:

Identify key areas where OutSystems can provide immediate value, such as customer self-service portals or automating manual workflows. These quick wins will demonstrate the platform’s value and build internal momentum for larger projects.

? ?2. ? ?Embrace Agile Development:

OutSystems is designed to support agile methodologies, enabling iterative development and continuous improvement. Use this flexibility to rapidly prototype and test applications, then refine them based on real-world feedback.

? ?3. ? ?Leverage OutSystems’ Integration Capabilities:

OutSystems can integrate with a wide range of third-party tools, cloud platforms, and legacy systems. Use these integration capabilities to connect all your critical business systems, creating a seamless digital ecosystem.

? ?4. ? ?Enable Citizen Developers:

Encourage business users to participate in the application development process using OutSystems’ easy-to-use interface. This will help align development with business objectives and reduce dependency on overburdened IT teams.

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Final Thoughts: Solving Business Challenges with OutSystems

The modern business landscape is filled with challenges, from maintaining legacy systems to delivering exceptional customer experiences. OutSystems is uniquely positioned to help companies address these challenges with its low-code platform. By accelerating development, automating processes, and enabling closer collaboration between IT and business teams, OutSystems is empowering enterprises to overcome their pain points and innovate faster.

As businesses continue to face new challenges—from evolving customer expectations to disruptive market forces—OutSystems will be a key partner in driving digital transformation and delivering lasting value.

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What’s your biggest business challenge??

We’d love to hear your thoughts on how your organisation is overcoming development bottlenecks, legacy systems, or inefficiencies.?

Share your experiences in the comments or reach out to learn how OutSystems can help your business solve its unique challenges.