Arguments in favor of Low-Code

Five problems that the tools Low-Code or code under have been solved for one of the biggest sellers of books in university in the united States.

This is the story of a digital transformation of four decades in duration.

MBS Textbook Exchange is one of the largest sellers of textbooks and university courses in the united States. The company, with 40 years old, has a long history as an “early adopter” of technology that started with the System 38 of IBM, a “mini-computer” multiuser of the size of a washing machine that was sold for the first time in 1980. Then made the transition to the system mainframe, AS400 and IBM made their first sale Online in 1998.

During this process, they trained their own internal development team to create business applications.

However, being an “early adopter” has a secondary effect, as it leads to adopt often new technologies.

Many people would like to think that digital transformation is binary; that is to say, a company that was not leveraging the power of digital enters suddenly the space of e-commerce with a set of new and eye-catching toys. This concept ignores the scenario is much more common, where venerable companies began to use computers when they were a rarity in the world of business, people are looking for ways to evolve their core business applications without losing its effect.

This is the situation in which it was found MBS. For years, MBS used the platform Low-Code GeneXus to continuously adapt to a changing world. With this in mind, there are five ways in which the solutions of code under resolved specific problems of MBS, which demonstrates the broad applicability of these tools.

1. Development of applications to meet specific needs

In the early days of computing, many of the software programs used in the business –who would grow up to become the ERPs modern– had a limited value in certain industries. The industry of the text books was one of them. Wholesalers, for example, often buy and sell materials to the same customer, something that confuses many accounting systems. With GeneXus, MBS developed internally by your own application's main business. The development of their own applications had some additional benefits significant. On the one hand, could offer management applications of text books to college bookstores, thus creating a close relationship with their customers.

2. Quick-change management

The business of the textbooks because it is not only to sell textbooks. Some books are not sold, rented, and some contents are not available in book form. There are ebooks for sale, but some programs of study consist of content that can be accessed only through special portals. The use of a platform of code under allowed MBS to evolve with their key business applications to the speed of the market.

3. Combat quickly counterfeit

The high cost of text books physical has given rise to a great number of fakes. The detection of books fake takes too much time, and the company has full-time employees dedicated to them. When a consortium of the industry began to look for ways to counter this measure, the developers of MBS created quickly a mobile application that allows bookstores to scan books for fakes when bought to the students.

4. Cover a deficit of talent due to the great demand for good developers

Some companies are located in places where there are few developers, and when these are available, they tend to have specialized knowledge in a single language software. With a code platform low as GeneXus, MBS not only was able to identify the employees with talent and train them in software development, but was also able to train them to work with mobile apps and their key business applications.  

5. Keep the main applications of business without interruption

For many companies in the situation of MBS, when a central system has been in operation for decades, there are dozens or hundreds of other processes that depend on it. Some of them are made by people, and others are automated, while some of these dependencies arise out of third-party integrations. Therefore, important changes have effects down that are difficult to predict. The use of a platform of code allows MBS to continually update its battery technology –including major renovations, updated with new frames– with less risk of disruption.

It is difficult to find statistics on how many businesses rely on old technology and legacy. But there is one thing we do know: COBOL, the first programming language, is still used today, more than 60 years after its invention. Every few years there are new headlines about his disappearance, but somehow, COBOL continues to live.

True digital transformation is not like turning on a light switch. In many companies, it is a continuous evolution, and sometimes this evolution includes legacy technology that is decades old. The tools of code under are well suited to keep businesses continually updated, at the same time that they also resolve hundreds of business problems in real time.

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