Whether the goal is to modernize outdated business processes or automate workflows, development demand is intense — requiring heavy commitment from IT teams, complex programming, and system integrations.
The truth is there’s a backlog of pent-up development demand to update and create these processes.
In this context, the Mendix low-code platform brings a compelling proposition to the market: giving less experienced employees the flexibility to build simple systems through low-code development.
At the same time, it gives IT teams the peace of mind to work more efficiently, with capabilities that accelerate development and streamline daily routines.
With their visual development and user-centered approach, low-code platforms emerge as the viable answer to this kind of demand.
They reduce the complexity involved in creating a business process, smoothing the journey of building enterprise systems and services.
In this article, you’ll discover some of the advantages of the Mendix low-code platform, designed specifically to bridge the gap between business and IT and to foster collaboration across the entire application delivery lifecycle.
Keep reading to learn more — enjoy!
Mendix low-code and business process creation
Inefficient processes exist in virtually every organization.
Even when they’re mission-critical, they often deliver a poor user experience, wasting valuable time on simple, repetitive tasks.
That’s a reality that needs to change. After all, business processes are the lifeblood of an organization.
According to McKinsey, “organizations across regions and industries are automating at least some business processes, yet only a small majority have succeeded in meeting their targets.”
In practice, companies can lose a significant share of revenue to operational inefficiencies. Avoiding that kind of loss requires a change in approach.
Truly successful enterprise process applications require collaboration between IT and business owners.
By adopting a platform like Mendix low-code for business process management, you gain access to a shared central language that IT, the business process owner, and the end user can all understand.
Architecturally, the Mendix platform also delivers key capabilities, such as:
- Model-driven design and execution to support rapid change cycles;
- Flexible application monitoring;
- Controllable application extensions;
- Built-in security that meets the most rigorous standards.
Mendix and business process automation
With the Mendix low-code platform, you can go beyond iBPMS capabilities and easily integrate with third-party systems when needed.
The platform even provides separate application outputs where processes run.
This structure delivers greater flexibility and interoperability between them — and, most importantly, the ability to add UIs (or experiences) and logic on top of them.
Mendix also provides out-of-the-box functionality for visual process model support.
The platform makes development accessible to citizen developers while making life easier for professional developers.
That’s because visual business logic design and decision models are supported by two dedicated Mendix editors, Studio and Studio Pro. A workflow editor is available in both environments.
This way, citizen developers — who hold the tacit knowledge of the business process — have the resources they need to build a workflow application that truly meets user needs.
Model-Driven Development
To engage the business in application design and development to the point where users can actively participate, we fully embrace a Model-Driven Development (MDD) approach.
It’s an excellent communication mechanism for aligning business and IT stakeholders, ensuring higher quality and better outcomes.
Model-Driven Development has emerged as one of the leading approaches to enabling fast, collaborative development.
Because visual models are used to define data structure, application and process logic, and user interfaces, this approach makes application building more agile, eliminating the need for low-level, labor-intensive coding.
The team gains in productivity, since the process becomes faster than it would be with traditional programming languages like C# and Java.
Mendix low-code platform: the key benefits
Built for low-code development, the Mendix platform makes programming intuitive, with collaboration built in.
Applications are multichannel: once built, developers can run them anywhere, with no need for additional tooling or codebases.
With a cloud-native architecture, delivery speed is one of its standout differentiators.
Here are the main advantages of the Mendix low-code platform:
Faster changes
Model changes don’t require an explicit regenerate, rebuild, retest, and redeploy step. That means shorter turnaround times.
Controlled extensions
Extending the model with custom code is managed more simply through an API layer in the platform.
Cloud deployment flexibility
A runtime environment like the Mendix Business Server provides an additional layer on top of the infrastructure. Mendix low-code is built for the cloud — a PaaS solution.
Better portability
It’s easy to configure a runtime environment like the Mendix Business Server to run on multiple platforms — for example, across different operating systems and cloud platforms.
Easier deployment
You simply start the runtime server and load the model onto it. Mendix automates this process with one-click deployment.
More flexible monitoring
Application monitoring can be configured more dynamically and flexibly.
Easier upgrades
Rolling changes into the runtime engine and restarting it with the same model is simpler with Mendix. There’s no need to regenerate the code.
Greater security
You only need to upload your model to a cloud environment. In other words, there’s no need to access the file system or other software resources. Only code on the runtime server can access system libraries.
Runtime analysis
Because the model is available at runtime, you can debug your models by stepping through them as they execute. You can, for example, add breakpoints at the model level.
Given that a significant share of an application’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) actually comes after the initial go-live, Mendix’s low-code approach to MDD and Model Execution delivers substantial savings and gains in agility and flexibility across application change cycles.
By contrast, code-generation approaches like Java or .NET are more rigid and create maintenance challenges, making it harder to cover security, scalability, and performance requirements.
By now, you surely know which model to choose for developing your solutions. Get in touch with us and discover the full potential of the Mendix low-code platform!
