Alexander R. is a developer at a large German company with a focus on technology and electrical engineering. In the past, he was exclusively involved in programming
Although he is a passionate pro coder, he still appreciates the benefits of low-code technology and tells us how the technology and approach support him in his day-to-day work. Especially now, because Simplifier is based on web technology and relies on open web standards, which brings decisive advantages in the current situation with remote work.
(Reading time: approx. 4 min.)
(Mobile) applications are a key aspect for the implementation of any digitalization measures. One tool that can be used to create these are Low-code platforms .
Someone who has been working with a low-code platform in his company for some time is Alexander. Although he is a “pro” coder himself, Alexander sees the advantages that low-code technology brings for creating applications and thus for driving digitalization processes forward. He and his colleagues in the team work together on various applications with the support of Simplifier.
Web-based
Alexander needs a platform that he can work with from home. In this respect, it helps him that Simplifier is web-based. Because even without his work laptop and without being tied to his office and the associated infrastructure, he can create apps and expand existing ones. If he could only create the much-needed apps for his employer at his workstation within the company, everyone involved in the process would have some shortcomings. In this convenient case, however, work can continue.
For example, a small MES system that provides employees with plans and the like in digital form can be created entirely in-house. “We have the opportunity to create everything the way we want it and don’t have to rely on others. We can also use the other interfaces,” says Alexander.
But what other advantages Alexander sees and what he thinks the Simplifier features (especially those that Release 5.0 bring with them), we would like to take a closer look.
Save time during creation
First of all, there are the time savings: the redesigned UI Designer with the WYSIWYG editor means a drastic acceleration in application creation. “Thanks to the UI Designer, I can immediately see what I’m implementing on the screen,” explains Alexander.
This way, it is significantly faster – especially as the app does not have to be deployed first to see a change. This in turn has another advantage in the current situation: “The larger the app, the longer the deployment process takes. If – as is currently the case – the networks are overloaded, even more time is lost”.
What is a help for him as a professional is an introduction to the topic of application development for others. Thanks to its simple and intuitive usability, even people who have had little contact with the subject so far can help create applications and support Alexander and his colleagues. They can really use this help. There are not even ten employees developing apps – but 15 apps are already live after just a few months.
However, these also need to be continuously developed and optimized.
Expandability
One of Alexander’s colleagues is working on project management issues, another on an incident management app that can be used to record and process incident reports. Changes and functional enhancements are constantly being made here.
With low-code technology, existing apps can be adapted and expanded at any time. In this specific case, the information columns of tickets could be doubled so that problems can be investigated much more precisely. As a result, the information content and filter functions are significantly higher and the application is even more versatile.
Database Designer
The app itself has grown considerably in recent times due to constant expansion. More and more tickets and ticket columns have been added, which means that the database behind it has grown accordingly.
For this reason, Alexander and his colleagues are thinking about rebuilding the app. “That would significantly improve performance,” says the pro coder. The large number of tickets can be processed. However, they are always loaded in full. “That’s why we need a sensible database structure with which you only receive data when you actively want to receive it. The current long loading times of between five and six seconds are unacceptable, especially on a tablet,” says Alexander.
Of course, this makes successful digitization more difficult. This is where the new database designer comes in. This makes it possible to create your own database quickly and easily. Using a graphical interface, you can design your own database diagrams that allow deployment for different database types.
Conclusion
“All in all, I can say that the work of me and my colleagues has not fundamentally changed through the use of low-code technology. However, it has simplified many things for which we didn’t always have a suitable solution before. Starting with the integration of existing systems, which we could not easily connect and therefore could not use the data, through to the faster and simpler implementation of interfaces (mobile-capable) and the associated application logic. Above all, the real-time preview on different end devices that are to be used saves us an enormous amount of time by eliminating many iterations.
I don’t work exclusively on a low-code basis. I love programming far too much for that, but that’s the good thing about Simplifier: the simple things are quickly implemented with low-code and prefabricated elements and when it comes to more complex topics or extensions where you can’t do without programming, I have the opportunity to dive into the deeper code level, just like before,” says Alexander.
