Build Your Own Apps (BYOA)
Blog: Interneer blog
The time has finally come where developers are not needed to allow businesses to create apps to streamline their paper-based processes. Business apps can be easily configured by just about anyone with the evolution of SaaS called PaaS. “Platform as a Service” is defined as “a category of cloud computing services that provides a platform allowing customers to develop, run, and manage applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the infrastructure typically associated with developing and launching an app.” Who builds these apps you may ask? Business Analysts, IT Departments, HR Managers, or any department head that needs transparency and efficiency added to their business or unit. These early adopters are being called “Citizen Developers,” and they are the future of business.
Automating different processes has very positive effects on the way business is run. The Citizen Developer is best suited to build an app for their own department simply because they know more about the problems and improvements needed. With simple drag and drop technology that’s available with the Intellect Accelerate Platform, anyone with a PC and an internet connection can build forms, workflows, manage documents, and have a centralized location where all business processes take place for collaboration. The once helpless manager who searched for a lost form or who continually asked staff where they were with a particular task is now obsolete and replaced with a PaaS that can monitor every interaction needed in a workflow.
PaaS systems integrate with legacy systems as they are web-based, and open APIs allow for easy integration. When multiple systems can speak to each other and workflows can be connected seamlessly, several things occur:
- Business processes happen in real-time vs. days or weeks
- Employees actions, notes, approvals, etc. are tracked and transparent
- Paper-based processes are eliminated
- Mobile phones become a tool to conduct all business processes
- Time savings are realized as ROI
- Inefficiencies are spotted and improved upon
- Additional processes are added improving efficiency further
Build Your Own App is a new industry term that defines the user who doesn’t have the budget or time to work with a programming team and who wants to build apps with their own parameters. Any updates, changes and improvements can be made at any time which greatly reduces the budget and ROI. Once a Citizen Developer is trained on the PaaS, they can easily build and launch apps to continually improve the way their business or department functions. Less time is spent shuffling paper or sending emails back and forth and more time is spent in collaboration with team members completing tasks. As more businesses implement the BYOA philosophy, speed will be commonplace for internal and customer transactions. Those are good things for any manager or CEO.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
