Ensure ROI, TCO and User Adoption with the Right BI Tools
When a business sets out to implement BI tools or self-serve augmented analytics, it must consider the entire technology landscape of the business, the expectations of end-users, the cost of the solution, how easily it can be upgraded and integrated and, well…so much more!
‘To ensure user adoption and achieve the ROI and TCO the business deserves, take the time to do the work. Develop requirements, consider the features and functionality of a solution and compare those to your use cases and your user expectations.’
Management teams do not take kindly to poor Return on Investment (ROI ) or Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and if the business has had difficult projects in the past, the next time a software solution is presented for approval, senior managers will remember the challenges and failures of the past!
Still, when you are attempting to transition business users into Citizen Data Scientists, there is bound to be some pushback from users and that pushback, combined with senior management concerns can and WILL bring your project to its knees if you do not anticipate and address these concerns.
Here are some statistics that will help you to understand the issues faced by businesses in implementing BI tools and analytics:
The global BI adoption rate is 26%
On average, businesses use at least four different BI tools
97% of the data gathered by businesses is not used
74% of employees express dissatisfaction and are overwhelmed when working with business data
In order to assure successful deployment, user adoption, improved Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), the business should include detailed requirements in its solution selection. When choosing a BI tool and augmented analytics solution for your business, one of the most crucial concerns is the features and functionality of the prospective solution and how this solution will meet user and organizational needs. When planning for deployment of BI tools and augmented analytics, the business should take the time to work through a process, ensuring that it has considered what users need and want to ensure user adoption and the ease-of-use and features the solution will provide.
It is important to remember that there are also specific features a business should consider, like embedded BI and easy-to-employ Integration APIs, that will assure user adoption and appropriate ROI and TCO. These considerations will affect how well the solution is received, whether users will adopt it and be satisfied with the selection, and how the investment will perform when considering total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) when compared to other possible uses of the same investment funding.
With this foundation of documented features, services, skills and capabilities, the business can implement, manage, upgrade and support Business Intelligence and Augmented Analytics capacity and growth within the organization.
‘When you are attempting to transition business users into Citizen Data Scientists, there is bound to be some pushback from users and that pushback, combined with senior management concerns can and WILL bring your project to its knees if you do not anticipate and address these concerns.’
To ensure user adoption and achieve the ROI and TCO the business deserves, take the time to do the work. Develop requirements, consider the features and functionality of a solution and compare those to your use cases and your user expectations. INVOLVE your users and middle managers in planning to understand how and when to deploy the tools and how to support your business users as you transition them into Citizen Data Scientists.
To find out more about how to ensure Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) results, and enable user adoption, read our free White Paper, ‘A Roadmap To ROI And User Adoption Of Augmented Analytics And BI.’ To find out more about our Augmented Analytics And BI Tools, Contact Us. Keep pace with changing enterprise needs and support business agility. Let us help you realize your business goals and objectives with fact-based information, and flexible, scalable technology solutions that will support Citizen Data Scientist initiatives, and improved data literacy and data democratization.
The Client is a prominent engineering company in India, renowned for its extensive history. For over 160 years the Client has delivered bespoke design engineering and precision manufacturing solutions, specializing in enabling seamless motion across industries that include automotive, agriculture, marine, light construction, firefighting, and railways. The Client provides cutting-edge power solutions for critical installations and diverse applications, with expertise in fuel-agnostic engines and precision manufacturing of key engine components. It has expanded offerings in electric power train for mobility and other industrial power applications and a strengthening position in the motion control solutions space with strategic acquisitions, empowering progress across multiple sectors. The Client business is publicly traded on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and a robust distribution network including 200 distributors, 8000 retail stores and 20,000 mechanics across India.
When your business undertakes a software product or software application project, the in-house team can be overwhelmed. Even if your technology team has the skills to complete a project of this scope, it is nearly impossible to handle day-to-day and strategically planned projects at the same time. BUT, if the business decides to hire an IT consultant, that can be a challenging path as well.
Studies estimate that ‘75% of rapidly growing companies are planning to spend on software this year,’ and that ‘64% of outsourced services are related to software application development.’ If your business wishes to create a software product, a mobile app or a business application, and your team is understaffed or under-skilled, you are not alone. Many businesses are considering expert services to complete their project, and sometimes to support, maintain and upgrade the resulting software solution.
‘If you select a service provider that takes a Build Your Own Team approach, you will be assured of appropriate resources, skills and availability to guarantee timely delivery, an integrated approach to the development lifecycle and a focus on YOU as a business client.’
When a business needs software and application development help, it is often difficult to find a service provider that will satisfy all business needs and do so in a timely, skilled fashion. If a business chooses the wrong service provider, it is likely to face one or more of the following issues:
Cookie-cutter solutions and teams that provide some, but not all, of the skills required to support business needs.
Delays in achieving milestones because the right resources are not available at the right time.
Inflexible team and resource availability to address changing or evolving requirements leads to uncertain results.
Out-of-date or incomplete skillsets.
The need to find, interview and select a vendor, sign contracts and establish relationships for each new project.
Resource instability. Changes and disruption in the team demand re-training, and result in lost resource skills and project knowledge.
Failure to protect Intellectual Property (IP), Data and User Privacy.
When your business considers an offshore outsourcing relationship or a partnership with an IT consulting firm, it must ensure that the vendor offers a full suite of services AND that these services are available on a dedicated basis as and when the project demands a certain skillset or technology team focus.
Look for references and proven results in the following areas:
Timely Project Delivery
Detailed Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Cost-Effective Solutions
Proven Expertise
Team of Skilled, Highly-Trained Developers
Efficient Project Management
Application Outcomes Aligned with Use Cases and Objectives
Minimum Viable Products (MVP) to test features and customer feedback
Skills in Low-Code, No-Code Development
Experience in cutting edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions
Support, maintenance and upgrades
24/7 customer communication
A Build Your Own Team approach to ensure availability of appropriate resources
‘When your business considers an offshore outsourcing relationship or a partnership with an IT consulting firm, it must ensure that the vendor offers a full suite of services AND that these services are available on a dedicated basis as and when the project demands a certain skillset or technology team focus.’
If you select a service provider that takes a Build Your Own Team approach, you will be assured of appropriate resources, skills and availability to guarantee timely delivery, an integrated approach to the development lifecycle and a focus on YOU as a business client.
Today, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a wealth of potential and prospective application in the field of analytics and its integration within analytical products provides numerous benefits to the business. There are many ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) can augment the capabilities of existing analytics solutions, and provide additional insight, support and results.
World-renowned technology research firm, Gartner, predicts that ‘40% of application development teams will be using automated data science and machine learning services to build models and add AI capabilities to applications.’
True to this prediction, many business intelligence and analytics solution vendors have added AI capabilities to self-serve analytics to create an environment that encourages productivity, fact-based decisions and efficient business processes, approval processes, automated alerts, etc.
There are a number of ways that artificial intelligence can enhance and improve the features and functionality within an enterprise using the augmented analytics environment:
Business Intelligence (BI) – Artificial Intelligence can be used to analyze large datasets and to sort and present data to achieve actionable insight, recommendations and suggestions, spotting trends, providing forecasts and optimizing results.
Generative AI (GenAI) Applications – Using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML), AI tools can create content including images, text, video and other components to enhance presentation, interact with customers and suppliers in a targeted way and personalize messages.
Analytics Tools and Techniques – Team members and end-users can leverage self-serve analytics with AI to identify patterns and trends, gain insight, present data in a way that is meaningful to a particular target audience, predict outcomes, analyze customer buying behavior and analyze performance of products, services and other operational components.
Marketing and Advertising – The organization can analyze data from disparate data sources to identify market trends, changes in targeted customer preferences, requirements for customer relationship management, and other factors that relate to competitive advantage and customer retention.
Analytics Features and Development – Vendors and solution providers can use AI to quickly and easily upgrade analytics solutions, add features and functionality and reduce development time to keep up with client and market demands.
Current Artificial Intelligence technologies like ChatGPT, GenAI, and Agentic AI all provide specific capabilities to satisfy business requirements and inform and improve analytics with data gathered from within the organization that can be repurposed, targeted and used to solve problems, identify opportunities, present data to management, partners and customers, and communicate with all stakeholders using relevant data and information garnered from within and outside the enterprise.
Improve Data Visualization – Create interactive dashboards, graphs and charts to help users present and share data in a way that is meaningful to a particular audience, and to clearly present data for confident decision-making. It can recommend and suggest visualization techniques to improve and refine how data is presented.
Improve Analytics with Task Automation – Automate activities and tasks, using customized automation scripts, and baseline filters and rules to extract and present data that meets user parameters. It can schedule and produce repetitive reports, and scripts can be altered change parameters, thereby freeing users to perform other operational or more strategic activities.
Predictive Analytics – Create predictive models using self-guiding UI wizard and auto-recommendations for swift, effortless forecasting and predictive analytics using data from numerous data sources.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) – Expand the capabilities of text generation and human language processing. It can enhance low resolution images, recognize and synthesize images and generate images for creative presentation of data and information.
Auto Insights and Machine Learning – Automates the process of interpreting and presenting results using rich visualization techniques, and includes all salient details, so users can review, share or edit content as they please.
Automated Alerts – Analyze results and trigger and generate alerts to protect against security violations, fraud and other risks, by analyzing normal behavior and results and comparing it to current and real-world results to identify anomalies.
Reporting – Using visualization, graphs, images and combining those with summaries and details can provide reports and presentations that are clear and suitable for all audiences, including management and executives, as well as teams and staff members.
Interpretation and Summarization – Quickly interpret and summarize data without spending a lot of time creating content, editing and preparing.
Data Preparation – Improve data transformation and cleansing and help prepare data and improve the quality of that data using phonetics for clustering, identifying data types, and hierarchies, suggesting alternate values etc.
Support for Citizen Data Scientists – Use AI cutting-edge tools to support team members with sophisticated, intuitive tools that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and analytical techniques to produce concise results without requiring the skills of Data Scientists.
The analytical solutions market is moving quickly to adopt Artificial Intelligence and if your business wishes to succeed, it too must move to find and improve products and services as quickly as possible to meet customer expectations and to satisfy the ever-changing landscape of business competition.
The Client organization is comprised of a team of Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) experts who provide support for biotech and biopharma industries to help these organizations through the development process and achieve commercial success. The Client provides secure, compliant IT ecosystems, a platform and services to support positive outcomes and make a meaningful impact, contributing to innovations that have the potential to transform the lives of patients and their families.
When a business sets out to initiate data democratization and improve data literacy, it must choose the right approach to business intelligence and select an augmented analytics product that is self-serve, intuitive, easy to implement and easy for business users to embrace. Transitioning business users into the role of a Citizen Data Scientist can be challenging.
‘If the organization wishes to convince its business users of the importance of data analytics and fact-based decision-making, it must provide tools that are intuitive, easy-to-use and can be established within the parameters of the user’s day-to-day tasks as an integrated part of their workflow.’
To ensure user adoption of BI tools, optimize return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) and successfully deploy business intelligence and augmented analytics, businesses often choose Embedded BI.
Gartner defines embedded analytics in this way: ‘Embedded analytics is a digital workplace capability where data analysis occurs within a user’s natural workflow, without the need to toggle to another application.’
Embedded BI solutions differ from the typical business intelligence solution in a number of ways. Here are just a few examples:
User Experience (Ux) – In the traditional BI environment, business users must learn a new solution and interface and may be required to among other solutions and software products to use that data within the BI tool. Users with average or poor technical skills are not likely to adopt a solution that requires additional training and multiple steps to accomplish a task. In the Embedded BI environment, analytics is accessible from within a familiar enterprise solution using a single sign-on and tools that are intuitive, so the user can quickly find information and analyze it all in one place.
User Adoption – In a traditional BI environment, users must invest time to learn a new BI tool and work within data silos to try to analyze information and share that information with others. Embedded BI allows users to leverage analytics within the natural flow of their daily tasks and easily share that data with other users, so the team and the individual user adoption is supported.
Integrated Workflow – Business team members are busy, and they are often scrambling to complete tasks on time and to make decisions, create presentations and move on to the next thing. Traditional BI tools require users to interrupt their workflow, and use multiple enterprise solutions to gather and analyze data within the BI environment, so the analytics process is cumbersome and inefficient. Embedded BI allows users to work in an integrated environment, gain data insight and make relevant data-driven decisions without delay or frustration.
‘Embedded analytics is a digital workplace capability where data analysis occurs within a user’s natural workflow, without the need to toggle to another application.’
In a business environment that is more competitive than ever before, team members must have the tools they need to perform tasks and complete activities dependably, and to have a firm grasp on the solutions and tools they use without spending a lot of time in training, or in gathering and preparing data to gain insight into challenges, issues, opportunities or trends that affect business success. If the organization wishes to convince its business users of the importance of data analytics and fact-based decision-making, it must provide tools that are intuitive, easy-to-use and can be established within the parameters of the user’s day-to-day tasks as an integrated part of their workflow. This approach to BI and analytics will ensure user adoption.
You can find out more about the Smarten Embedded BI And Integration APIs solution and add powerful functionality and access to existing ERP, SCM, HRMS, CRM or any other products. Provide analytics capabilities within existing products without major Investment. Your business users and your customers will appreciate the ease-of-use and access and you will gain a competitive advantage. Read our White Paper: ‘Making the Case for Embedded BI and Analytics.’
‘It is wise to work with your IT partner when choosing a development environment to be sure that the you select a framework and platform that will meet your needs now and in the future – one that is suitable for your users and your suppliers, customers, partners and stakeholders.’
Here we consider the challenges of low-code and no-code development, and the pros and cons of Creatio to answer the question, ‘is Creatio a good LCNC platform for my business needs?’
Low-Code, No-Code Development Challenges
Integration – Complex integration roadmaps that include multiple solutions and techniques can make it challenging to integrate Low-Code/No-Code solutions. If an enterprise plans to integrate these approaches with legacy systems, the development team is likely to face some integration challenges that will require manual coding. Vendors provide their own version of these tools and if an enterprise chooses more than one of these environments for development, it can create integration challenges.
Scalability – The development team or IT consultant must carefully assess and support performance, reliability and security issues, and consider infrastructure and load testing to assure appropriate scalability and performance across all apps and systems. If your business depends on large datasets, you may have scalability and performance issues.
Solution Customization – By its nature, the low-code/no-code approach limits customization capabilities and provides less flexibility for developers when combining ‘from scratch’ code with restrictive components and tools.
System and Solution Governance – The enterprise must work closely with IT consultants and the in-house IT team to ensure appropriate oversight, and to monitor and manage the growth and changes required to stay abreast of organizational requirements and effectively manage the production and development environment and processes.
Regulated Industries and Businesses – Industry and government standards can be complex and will require specific customization that can exceed Creatio capabilities or create burdensome cost.
Scope of Solution – The Sales Creatio package is more suitable for product-focused businesses than for service businesses. While it can be customized and enhanced, the business should consider the cost of that customization in its decision-making process. Some developers report limited scope of potential applications when using the Creatio Marketplace tools.
Pricing – Creatio pricing will increase as the business grows, so it is important to forecast cost increases in your selection criteria. Creatio pricing is based on the individual Creatio products and support plans the business chooses, and the number of users. The business can choose mobile-only users, external B2B portal users, limited internal users or external B2C portal users. For small to mid-sized businesses, this cost may be a concern. Be sure to thoroughly review and understand pricing before making a decision.
Customization and Enhancements – While low-code, no-code development is generally faster and easier to accomplish, Creatio feature enhancements can take time and additional cost in deployment, so be sure to work with your IT Partner to understand your requirements and the resulting cost.
AI-Enabled Tools – Creatio Energy 8.2 incorporates unified agentic AI, generative AI (GenAI) and Prescriptive AI in a single platform AI Command Center. While the potential for this platform is promising, the toolset and platform are new (launched in October of 2024). Depending on the type of application your business plans to create and the planned use of these tools and techniques, the business may wish to consider the stability of these products.
By including the Benefits, Advantages, Challenges And Tradeoffs here, we hope to give you a more comprehensive picture of the capabilities and limitations of the Creatio products and platforms, so that you can compare this development environment to your enterprise requirements and business needs. It is wise to work with your IT partner when choosing a development environment to be sure that the you select a framework and platform that will meet your needs now and in the future – one that is suitable for your users and your suppliers, customers, partners and stakeholders. For a more detailed discussion of Creatio low-code, no-code development, explore our complementary article, ‘Creatio Low-Code And No-Code Development: What Is The Creatio LCNC Platform And When And How Can My Business Use Creatio?’
‘By its nature, the low-code/no-code approach limits customization capabilities and provides less flexibility for developers when combining ‘from scratch’ code with restrictive components and tools.’
Contact Us to find out how our skills, experience and services can benefit your enterprise, and how our Technology resources can support your needs. Our skilled, no-code and low-code development services provide support for all popular platforms with experienced developers. Hire low-code, no-code programmers, discover the many Enterprise Software Services available and get started today on your business or consumer software, web application or mobile app project.
Hire Creatio Programmers and Low-Code, No-Code IT Partners
Mendix states that 44% of organizations now have at least one low-code application in production. If your business is considering a low-code, no-code development (LCNC) project, one of the decisions you will have to make is which development environment to use. As one of the well-recognized LCNC platforms, Creatio is often the choice of businesses looking to create consumer or business applications.
‘As always, when considering your partner options, be sure you choose an IT consulting firm with experience, skill, a vibrant, ever-green training program, flexible delivery models and 24/7, responsive communication, affordable pricing and dependable reporting and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).’
If your business is seriously considering the Creatio low-code/no-code approach to development as a component of your project, or for an entire development project, you will need to focus on resource planning and ensure that the team you establish has the skills you need for this project and to ensure success for upgrades, to support and maintain your solution and to provide adequate resources to develop and deploy your solution. Choose an IT partner with the skills and resources to address your needs and to assess requirements, plan, design, develop and deploy your software product or application using a comprehensive set of skills and experience in low-code and no-code and in Creatio.
Most organizations do not have the bandwidth to staff a development project and sustain other projects, maintenance, support and governance activities at the same time. Even if your enterprise has enough resources, it is likely you will experience delays because of competing priorities. Adding resources using a flexible delivery model can help you staff and move your project forward. Whether you require onsite, offshore or a hybrid delivery model, you will want to consider a vendor that can provide appropriate access and a responsive staff to keep your project on schedule and on budget.
The Creatio low-code, no-code approaches are popular because they provide a fast, easy way to develop apps and software and that can lead businesses to believe that if they use one of these approaches, they can create solutions without any professional expertise. Be sure that the team you select has the most up-to-date skillset for Creatio products including the Sales, Marketing, CRM, and AI-enabled suites and all integration and customization techniques, etc. Whether you are creating a business application, a mobile app, a consumer website or any other software product or application, there are many facets to a development lifecycle. Using Creatio tools, techniques and platforms to develop in a low-code, or no-code environment may be appropriate, but your development team or IT consulting partner will need skills for requirements planning, and perhaps for minimum viable product development to test prototypes and concepts, and they will need to have the skills and bandwidth to design, configure, test, integrate and deploy. Choose an IT consulting partner with a full suite of design and development skills and a comprehensive understanding of Available And Popular Technology.
The need for expert, experienced software application developers and application support and maintenance skills is constant. If your business is not equipped to hire, train and retain permanent staff to satisfy the peaks and valleys of IT business requirements, it is time to consider an expert partner – a well-balanced, skilled IT team with leading-edge skills to enhance and support your business with innovative, high-value, low-cost application maintenance and support services, and timely, proven processes and methodologies. Whether you are employing low-code/no-code technology or integrating that technology with other platforms and services, you need a team that can support every component and aspect of your solution.
Upgrades
If your business plans to keep your software app, mobile app or software product evergreen, it is good to know that Creatio is invested in frequent upgrade schedules, so new capabilities are available on a regular basis. Be sure your IT partner is up-to-date on what is currently available from Creatio and can help you create a roadmap for upgrades to keep your product competitive in the market and add new features to assist your users. Change is a constant but one thing is always true, your business must adapt to changing customer buying behavior, and leverage new, cutting-edge technologies to remain competitive. Your partner will help you plan for anticipated upgrades and provide the flexibility required to keep your solution agile, so that, when you are ready, you can make those changes without expensive customization or having to start from scratch.
As always, when considering your partner options, be sure you choose an IT consulting firm with experience, skill, a vibrant, ever-green training program, flexible delivery models and 24/7, responsive communication, affordable pricing and dependable reporting and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
‘If your business is seriously considering the Creatio low-code/no-code approach to development as a component of your project, or for an entire development project, you will need to focus on resource planning and ensure that the team you establish has the skills you need for this project and to ensure success for upgrades, to support and maintain your solution and to provide adequate resources to develop and deploy your solution.’
Contact Us to find out how our skills, experience and services can benefit your enterprise, and how our Technology resources can support your needs. Our skilled, no-code and low-code development services provide support for all popular platforms with experienced developers. Hire low-code, no-code programmers, discover the many Enterprise Software Services available and get started today on your business or consumer software, web application or mobile app project.
Is Creatio Development Right for My Software Project?
Creatio is a well-recognized low-code, no-code development option that can be used for many purposes and in many industries. Let’s take a detailed look at the benefits of Creatio low-code no-code (LCNC) development for your business project.
‘Among the many other benefits of Creatio, this LCNC platform combines generative, agentic, and predictive AI into one no-code platform to enable businesses and industries to achieve market advantage, improve productivity and customer satisfaction and support business decisions and strategies.’
A recent survey of businesses revealed several primary reasons for using the Low-Code/No-Code approach.
Accelerate Digital Innovation and Transformation
Reduce Current IT Backlog and Increase Responsiveness
Reduce Dependency on Professional Technology Skills, and Increase Developer Productivity
Protect Against Technology Churn
Improve Time to Market
As with many low-code, no-code development (LCNC) options, there are some primary reasons for selecting Creatio as your LCNC choice. First, the development process supports programmers with simple tools, making it easier and faster to develop components and launch an app. Secondly, many LCNC platforms are open-source, so they can be easily combined with other frameworks and platforms to create a comprehensive solution. Creatio checks both of these boxes, and it has other benefits to offer. By choosing Creatio As Your LCNC Solution, you can achieve the following advantages:
Developers – Creatio provides an intuitive, simple environment in which to build apps with templates, connectors and apps that make it easy to get started, and its design tools allow the team to track project milestones and tasks. The platform allows for easy integration of Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), OneLogin portals, Microsoft Exchange and 365, Webitel and Google and others. Creatio also includes integration capabilities for REST API support, OData protocol, SOAP services, OAuth authentication and LDAP protocols. The Creatio support team provides responsive access for developers, and the solution can be easily customized to suit various industries and business functions.
Businesses – The Creatio environment provides the capability for customer overview from sales conversion to retention and marketing campaigns, and enables insight into planning and budgeting with analytical features to produce reports and help the business improve performance. Creatio allows the business to monitor tasks and projects and forecast outcomes, and tracks email, phone, social media and web interactions to provide a complete picture of customer interaction. Its customer relationship management (CRM) solutions include sales and customer service components and a Marketing Automation Tool. The recent launch of the Creatio Energy 8.2 platform incorporates unified agentic AI, generative AI (GenAI) and Prescriptive AI in a single platform AI Command Center, making it possible for the business to incorporate AI functions and features into its product or app roadmap.
There are many businesses using Creatio today, including:
Colgate-Palmolive
Pacific Western
Saskatchewan Blue Cross
MetLife
First United Bank & Trust
DFS Aviation Service
Namu Travel Group
Viseven
Hershey’s Ice Cream
Coca-Cola
Societe Generale
AutoPayPlus
…just to name a few. There are businesses around the world using this platform with great success.
When you consider how to use Creatio within your own business, you will find many advantages that apply to your industry and business function. Here are just a few examples of the Many Uses Of Creatio within your enterprise:
Personalizing and Automating Marketing Campaigns – The generative AI (GenAI) capabilities within Creatio can help you develop a campaign, prepare a presentation, and create campaign collaterals and materials. It can monitor campaign performance and recommend changes and improvements to improve results.
Automating Sales Outreach – Creatio can help sales managers and associates to automate outreach starting from the initial contact and continuing through the communication and connection process to create personalized messaging that will attract new customers and improve results.
Customer Service Support – GenAI features can help customer support agents to provide better service by responding accurately to customer tone and language, providing appropriate content for resolution and offering additional supporting information like user manuals, etc.
Financial Services – Creatio AI can analyze customer data to produce personalized reports and feedback for portfolios and suggest changes to improve results. It can detect fraud and suspicious transactions and produce reports to monitor and manage these issues.
Healthcare Support – Creatio can create and update medical documents, manage patient communication via email, images, phone and hand-written documents, and personalize healthcare communication and advice. It can analyze results from information related to diet, exercise, blood sugar, weight, etc. and produce customized nutrition plans, and recommend visits with healthcare providers.
Product Development and Design – Creatio AI-enabled development environs can support product design, analyze materials, trends, costs, customer buying behavior etc. to suit specific demographics or customer groups.
Process and Product Integration – Creatio supports numerous Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to help businesses create components within software applications, or add AI and other functionality to existing ERP, HR, SCM and other solutions to serve business functions, specific departments and enterprise needs.
Creatio combines generative, agentic, and predictive AI into one no-code platform to enable businesses and industries to achieve market advantage, improve productivity and customer satisfaction and support business decisions and strategies.
‘The Creatio development process supports programmers with simple tools, making it easier and faster to develop components and launch an app and it can easily combined with other frameworks and platforms to create a comprehensive solution.’
Contact Us to find out how our skills, experience and services can benefit your enterprise, and how our Technology resources can support your needs. Our skilled, no-code and low-code development services provide support for all popular platforms with experienced developers. Hire low-code, no-code programmers, discover the many Enterprise Software Services available and get started today on your business or consumer software, web application or mobile app project.
Creatio Low-Code and No-Code Development: What is the Creatio LCNC Platform and When and How Can My Business Use Creatio?
Introduction
There are numerous crucial considerations involved in the process of development of a software product for the consumer market, or an application for business users. One of the most important factors in solution development is choosing the platform upon which you will build your mobile application, your software product or your business application.
Today’s industry publications and technology journals are full of articles about low-code and no-code development technologies and techniques. In this article, we will focus on the concept of low-code/no-code and, specifically, the Creatio solution.
Gartner Defines Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms (LCAPs) as platforms for accelerated development and maintenance of applications, using model-driven tools for the entire application’s technology stack, generative AI and prebuilt component catalogs.
Before we move on to discussing the benefits, advantages, challenges and development factors within the Creatio environment, let us take a moment to further define low code and no code development.
What is low-code?
Here is a brief description of the low-code development definition. This approach supports the development team by decreasing the amount of ‘from scratch’ coding required, and creating a foundation of reusable code with components that become building blocks for future development. This development approach allows programmers to leverage low-code user interface components roughly 80% of development tasks, thereby limiting the manual coding efforts to 20% of developer time. Because low-code application development requires a knowledge of other tools and development skills, it is typically used by professional programmers with coding skills and knowledge. A Low-Code development platform allows developers to extend component libraries and web frameworks to address specific use cases. Developers can work faster and more precisely with proven tools and combine coding and programming experience with tools designed for rapid software development.
What is no-code?
Low and no code tools are not exactly the same. No-Code approach utilizes a visual workflow in an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), eliminating the need for manual coding. This technique creates a kind of ‘snap in’ system of components that developers can use and reuse to solve problems and create features and functionality. This closed system of tools restricts the developer by limiting use to pre-existing capabilities and user interface tools. The No-Code approach can provide a start-up with quick results and foundational features and allow them to enter the market and build visibility.
Now that we have a better understanding of low-code/no-code app development, let us consider how technology research firms and publications see these development techniques.
According to the world-renowned Technology Research Firm, Gartner, ‘low-code platforms will be used in 65% of application development by the end of this year.’
Gartner Suggests that, ‘the key differentiating factor between low-code and no-code development is the target audience. As low-code development still requires technical skill and coding knowledge, low-code development platforms are primarily suited to developers. These platforms help good developers code faster.’
ResearchGate provides a comprehensive overview of capabilities and limitations of these techniques to help you understand the differences between low-code and no-code development, and when it is best to use each approach.
According to Gartner, the low-code/no-code market has expanded at a compound annual growth rate of 23% since 2018 and is accelerating.
Mendix states that 44% of organizations now have at least one low-code application in production.
Salesforce reports that 69% of businesses will adopt low-code platforms within a year
As you can see, there is ample research and industry support for the low-code, no-code (LCNC) development environment. If your business is seriously considering this approach, you may wish to review the Creatio Development Environment, which incorporates LCNC as a primary driver to support programmers and developers.
What is Creatio?
Creatio is a no-code application platform that is ideal for businesses that are focused on Customer Relationship Management (CRM), marketing, sales and service, and for the banking, insurance, credit unions, retail, transportation, business services, and telecommunications industries. Its no-code, open platform environment enables custom business applications for quick results.
The Creatio platform is designed with composable architecture, and does not require coding. It provides a simple, secured environment with frequent upgrades, and good performance and reliability.
‘By including the benefits, advantages, challenges and tradeoffs in this article, we hope to give you a more comprehensive picture of the capabilities and limitations of the Creatio products and platforms, so that you can compare this development environment to your enterprise requirements and business needs.’
To understand how Creatio and its AI-enabled environment can be used in business, let’s look at some business use cases.
Process Management
Your enterprise can automate business processes to improve productivity, reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Financial Services, Loans, Real Estate, Banking – These businesses have established processes for reviewing and approving contracts, loans, business service relationships, etc. Process management automation can handle documents, emails, and approvals to ensure appropriate communication with clients and complete the cycle quickly with process automation.
Human Resource Management – There are many functions within the HR environment that can be automated: approving vacation time, submitting benefit forms, sending out recruiting emails and follow-up, scheduling onboarding activities and training, etc.
IT Support – Software vendors and in-house IT professionals can use business process automation to create support tickets and to assign tasks to personnel for follow-up and completion. The process can include calendar reminders and easily allow the team to add notes and close tickets, and it can follow-up by sending an evaluation survey to the client or team member who requested the support.
AI Automation Tools
By incorporating AI within its development environment, Creatio allows developers and businesses to create ‘smart’ components and application that will take automation and personalization to the next level.
Retail – The integration of these tools can help a retail business personalize customer experiences by gathering and analyzing customer data and purchasing behavior and suggesting products and product bundles with personalized email offers or personalized messages served on the business website. Chatbots can provide customer support and answer questions about orders, shipping, etc.
Manufacturing and Production – The enterprise can gather data in real-time to minimize equipment downtime and anticipate maintenance issues, to provide demand forecasting and improve logistics.
Transportation – AI-enabled tools can be used to manage fleets and appointments, to monitor and manage vehicle performance and maintenance, and to reduce downtime and fleet shortages. These tools can also provide real-time monitoring of weather, traffic and delivery schedules.
Why Should I Use Creatio Development for My Business Project?
Now that you have a better understanding of low-code, no-code development and the Creatio environment, let’s take a more detailed look at the benefits of Creatio low-code no-code (LCNC) development for your business project.
A recent survey of businesses revealed several primary reasons for using the Low-Code/No-Code approach.
Accelerate Digital Innovation and Transformation
Reduce Current IT Backlog and Increase Responsiveness
Reduce Dependency on Professional Technology Skills, and Increase Developer Productivity
Protect Against Technology Churn
Improve Time to Market
As with many low-code, no-code development options, there are some primary reasons for selecting this approach. First, the development process supports programmers with simple tools, making it easier and faster to develop components and launch an app. Secondly, many of these options are open-source, so they can be easily combined with other frameworks and platforms to create a comprehensive solution. Creatio checks both of these boxes, and it has other benefits to offer. By choosing Creatio As Your LCNC Solution, you can achieve the following advantages:
Developers – Creatio provides an intuitive, simple environment in which to build apps with templates, connectors and apps that make it easy to get started, and its design tools allow the team to track project milestones and tasks. The platform allows for easy integration of Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), OneLogin portals, Microsoft Exchange and 365, Webitel and Google and others. Creatio also includes integration capabilities for REST API support, OData protocol, SOAP services, OAuth authentication and LDAP protocols. The Creatio support team provides responsive access for developers, and the solution can be easily customized to suit various industries and business functions.
Businesses – The Creatio environment provides the capability for customer overview from sales conversion to retention and marketing campaigns, and enables insight into planning and budgeting with analytical features to produce reports and help the business improve performance. Creatio allows the business to monitor tasks and projects and forecast outcomes, and tracks email, phone, social media and web interactions to provide a complete picture of customer interaction. Its customer relationship management (CRM) solutions include sales and customer service components and a Marketing Automation Tool. The recent launch of the Creatio Energy 8.2 platform incorporates unified agentic AI, generative AI (GenAI) and Prescriptive AI in a single platform AI Command Center, making it possible for the business to incorporate AI functions and features into its product or app roadmap.
There are many businesses using Creatio today, including:
Colgate-Palmolive
Pacific Western
Saskatchewan Blue Cross
MetLife
First United Bank & Trust
DFS Aviation Service
Namu Travel Group
Viseven
Hershey’s Ice Cream
Coca-Cola
Societe Generale
AutoPayPlus
…just to name a few. There are businesses around the world using this platform with great success.
When you consider how to use Creatio within your own business, you will find many advantages that apply to your industry and business function. Here are just a few examples of the Many Uses Of Creatio within your enterprise:
Personalizing and Automating Marketing Campaigns – The generative AI (GenAI) capabilities within Creatio can help you develop a campaign, prepare a presentation, and create campaign collaterals and materials. It can monitor campaign performance and recommend changes and improvements to improve results.
Automating Sales Outreach – Creatio can help sales managers and associates to automate outreach starting from the initial contact and continuing through the communication and connection process to create personalized messaging that will attract new customers and improve results.
Customer Service Support – GenAI features can help customer support agents to provide better service by responding accurately to customer tone and language, providing appropriate content for resolution and offering additional supporting information like user manuals, etc.
Financial Services – Creatio AI can analyze customer data to produce personalized reports and feedback for portfolios and suggest changes to improve results. It can detect fraud and suspicious transactions and produce reports to monitor and manage these issues.
Healthcare Support – Creatio can create and update medical documents, manage patient communication via email, images, phone and hand-written documents, and personalize healthcare communication and advice. It can analyze results from information related to diet, exercise, blood sugar, weight, etc. and produce customized nutrition plans, and recommend visits with healthcare providers.
Product Development and Design – Creatio AI-enabled development environs can support product design, analyze materials, trends, costs, customer buying behavior etc. to suit specific demographics or customer groups.
Process and Product Integration – Creatio supports numerous Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to help businesses create components within software applications, or add AI and other functionality to existing ERP, HR, SCM and other solutions to serve business functions, specific departments and enterprise needs.
Creatio combines generative, agentic, and predictive AI into one no-code platform to enable businesses and industries to achieve market advantage, improve productivity and customer satisfaction and support business decisions and strategies.
When NOT to Use LCNC and/or Creatio For My Business Project
Here we consider the challenges of low-code and no-code development, and the pros and cons of Creatio to answer the question, ‘is Creatio a good LCNC platform for my business needs?’
Low-Code, No-Code Development Challenges
Integration – Complex integration roadmaps that include multiple solutions and techniques can make it challenging to integrate Low-Code/No-Code solutions. If an enterprise plans to integrate these approaches with legacy systems, the development team is likely to face some integration challenges that will require manual coding. Vendors provide their own version of these tools and if an enterprise chooses more than one of these environments for development, it can create integration challenges.
Scalability – The development team or IT consultant must carefully assess and support performance, reliability and security issues, and consider infrastructure and load testing to assure appropriate scalability and performance across all apps and systems. If your business depends on large datasets, you may have scalability and performance issues.
Solution Customization – By its nature, the low-code/no-code approach limits customization capabilities and provides less flexibility for developers when combining ‘from scratch’ code with restrictive components and tools.
System and Solution Governance – The enterprise must work closely with IT consultants and the in-house IT team to ensure appropriate oversight, and to monitor and manage the growth and changes required to stay abreast of organizational requirements and effectively manage the production and development environment and processes.
Regulated Industries and Businesses – Industry and government standards can be complex and will require specific customization that can exceed Creatio capabilities or create burdensome cost.
Scope of Solution – The Sales Creatio package is more suitable for product-focused businesses than for service businesses. While it can be customized and enhanced, the business should consider the cost of that customization in its decision-making process. Some developers report limited scope of potential applications when using the Creatio Marketplace tools.
Pricing – Creatio pricing will increase as the business grows, so it is important to forecast cost increases in your selection criteria. Creatio pricing is based on the individual Creatio products and support plans the business chooses, and the number of users. The business can choose mobile-only users, external B2B portal users, limited internal users or external B2C portal users. For small to mid-sized businesses, this cost may be a concern. Be sure to thoroughly review and understand pricing before making a decision.
Customization and Enhancements – While low-code, no-code development is generally faster and easier to accomplish, Creatio feature enhancements can take time and additional cost in deployment, so be sure to work with your IT Partner to understand your requirements and the resulting cost.
By including the Benefits, Advantages, Challenges And Tradeoffs here, we hope to give you a more comprehensive picture of the capabilities and limitations of the Creatio products and platforms, so that you can compare this development environment to your enterprise requirements and business needs. It is wise to work with your IT partner when choosing a development environment to be sure that the you select a framework and platform that will meet your needs now and in the future – one that is suitable for your users and your suppliers, customers, partners and stakeholders.
‘Creatio is a no-code application platform that is ideal for businesses that are focused on Customer Relationship Management (CRM), marketing, sales and service, and for the banking, insurance, credit unions, retail, transportation, business services, and telecommunications industries.’
How to Hire Creatio Programmers and LCNC Developers for Your Project
If your business is seriously considering the Creatio low-code/no-code approach to development as a component of your project, or for an entire development project, you will need to focus on resource planning and ensure that the team you establish has the skills you need for this project and to ensure success for upgrades, to support and maintain your solution and to provide adequate resources to develop and deploy your solution. Choose an IT partner with the skills and resources to address your needs and to assess requirements, plan, design, develop and deploy your software product or application using a comprehensive set of skills and experience in low-code and no-code and in Creatio.
Most organizations do not have the bandwidth to staff a development project and sustain other projects, maintenance, support and governance activities at the same time. Even if your enterprise has enough resources, it is likely you will experience delays because of competing priorities. Adding resources using a flexible delivery model can help you staff and move your project forward. Whether you require onsite, offshore or a hybrid delivery model, you will want to consider a vendor that can provide appropriate access and a responsive staff to keep your project on schedule and on budget.
The Creatio low-code, no-code approaches are popular because they provide a fast, easy way to develop apps and software and that can lead businesses to believe that if they use one of these approaches, they can create solutions without any professional expertise. Be sure that the team you select has the most up-to-date skillset for Creatio products including the Sales, Marketing, CRM, and AI-enabled suites and all integration and customization techniques, etc. Whether you are creating a business application, a mobile app, a consumer website or any other software product or application, there are many facets to a development lifecycle. Using Creatio tools, techniques and platforms to develop in a low-code, or no-code environment may be appropriate, but your development team or IT consulting partner will need skills for requirements planning, and perhaps for minimum viable product development to test prototypes and concepts, and they will need to have the skills and bandwidth to design, configure, test, integrate and deploy. Choose an IT consulting partner with a full suite of design and development skills and a comprehensive understanding of Available And Popular Technology.
The need for expert, experienced software application developers and application support and maintenance skills is constant. If your business is not equipped to hire, train and retain permanent staff to satisfy the peaks and valleys of IT business requirements, it is time to consider an expert partner – a well-balanced, skilled IT team with leading-edge skills to enhance and support your business with innovative, high-value, low-cost application maintenance and support services, and timely, proven processes and methodologies. Whether you are employing low-code/no-code technology or integrating that technology with other platforms and services, you need a team that can support every component and aspect of your solution.
Upgrades
If your business plans to keep your software app, mobile app or software product evergreen, it is good to know that Creatio is invested in frequent upgrade schedules, so new capabilities are available on a regular basis. Be sure your IT partner is up-to-date on what is currently available from Creatio and can help you create a roadmap for upgrades to keep your product competitive in the market and add new features to assist your users. Change is a constant but one thing is always true, your business must adapt to changing customer buying behavior, and leverage new, cutting-edge technologies to remain competitive. Your partner will help you plan for anticipated upgrades and provide the flexibility required to keep your solution agile, so that, when you are ready, you can make those changes without expensive customization or having to start from scratch.
As always, when considering your partner options, be sure you choose an IT consulting firm with experience, skill, a vibrant, ever-green training program, flexible delivery models and 24/7, responsive communication, affordable pricing and dependable reporting and Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
In this article, we have described and defined the Low-Code and No-Code approach to development, and the Creatio platform and solutions, and considered the benefits and challenges of choosing this approach for your business. We have reviewed vendor considerations and provided a summary of the Creatio environment and its uses.
Contact Us to find out how our skills, experience and services can benefit your enterprise, and how our Technology resources can support your needs. Discover the many Enterprise Software Services available and review our Software Application Development Services to get started today on your business or consumer software, web application or mobile app project.
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