mrc's Cup of Joe Blog

Join us in exploring the world of modern development, evolving technologies, and the art of future-proof software

38 important low-code statistics and facts for 2022

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trendsSince the term was first coined by Forrester back in 2014, low-code software has really picked up steam. The pandemic (and the subsequent move to remote work) only furthered its adoption.

The recent spike in low-code usage got me thinking: What does the low-code market look like now? Where will it be in a few years? How are modern businesses using low-code?

To answer those questions, I did some research. I’ve found many different low-code reports, studies, and surveys and compiled those statistics into this article. One thing to keep in mind while you’re reading: Some of these surveys and statistics say similar things, especially when it comes to predictions. I included them because they help paint a complete picture. Low-code is growing and will continue to grow in the coming years. How much will it grow? That’s hard to say. But multiple studies and research firms agree on one thing: The low-code market isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
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5 important questions to ask about low-code software

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trendsIf you’re at all considering low-code software, there are a few things you must understand:

First, there are hundreds of low-code tools available these days…and new ones are constantly popping up. You can’t possibly evaluate every option.

Second, they’re all different. This is a big deal because most people think low-code tools are generally the same. They’re not. They have different features, interfaces, and development approaches. Some are great in certain areas but poor in others. Some are customizable. Others are not. As a result, comparing your options is tricky. Depending on your needs, some tools will fit better than others.

Finally, there’s really a lot to know about development tools in general. The problem is, not everything is obvious until you really get into them…some of which will come back to bite you if you’re not prepared.

The big question: What ‘not-so-obvious’ areas should you look at in a low-code tool?

We created a video to help you answer that question. We’ve compiled our best advice into 5 important questions to help you identify the ideal low-code platform for your business. You can watch it right here:

5 tips for creating a killer business dashboard

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EducationOkay, so you’ve been asked to create a business dashboard. Where do you start? How can you create a dashboard that is equal parts powerful and amazing?

Before you do anything, you must define a clear objective. You must understand who plans on using the dashboard, why they want a dashboard, and what they hope to get from this dashboard. You’ll want to pull very specific objectives out of the future users. Don’t settle for generic answers like, “We want to see sales data.” Get specific. You can’t develop a clear objective without very specific goals.

Okay, so you have the specifics, you know the objective, and you’ve mapped out a plan for this dashboard. How can you make it great? Here are 5 tips for you: …

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How to create a custom budgeting & forecasting portal

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developmentWhen it comes to budgeting, one size rarely fits all. Most businesses want budgets that work the way they work, rather than trying to adapt their processes to fit within the constraints of their budgeting software.

The problem: Creating a custom budgeting solution is time-consuming and expensive…so they make do with tools that don’t exactly fit their needs. Or, they just fill the gaps with spreadsheets.

But…what if you could create custom budgeting software easily? It’s not as difficult or time-consuming as you might imagine, and we made a video to show you how it’s done. In this video, we’ll show you how easily you can create custom budgeting and forecasting applications…without coding. In just 15 minutes, we’ll create:

  • A multi-department budget that lets department leaders add and maintain their quarterly budgets. We even add multi-tenant security so each user can only see the data they’re authorized to see!
  • A sales forecast that lets you add and maintain quarterly sales estimates by salesperson, category, and region.
  • Reports that display all budgeting and forecasting data in an easily-digestible format.
  • A secure portal where users can login and manage their budgeting and forecasting data.

This video walks you through the whole process from start to finish and explains each step along the way. Watch it below to learn how easily you can create custom budgeting and forecasting tools for your business.

Want to learn more? Set up a demo here: Set up a demo.

Top Business Process Automation Trends for 2022

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trends** This guest post was written by Jason Richardson. Learn more about Jason in the author bio at the end of this post. **
WorkflowCOVID-19, digital transformation, and rising global competition are just a few of the reasons why planning for the next financial year is essential to your company’s success. Business process management (BPM) is an excellent framework for understanding how your company operates today and, more importantly, how you may improve it in the future. BPA’s rapid growth will significantly speed up as we approach 2022.
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How to Create Composable Business Applications

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developmentComposable applications are business apps that are made of reusable, modular components. They use ‘building blocks’ which can be reused across other applications.

Now, this isn’t a new concept. The idea of modular application development has been around for years. But, why is it so important right now? Why are analyst firms like Gartner pushing the composable concept recently? According to Gartner, it’s so important because “Composability helps you keep up with the accelerating pace of business change.”

They’re absolutely correct. We’re living in a time of rapid change. Agility is more important than ever. A ‘composable’ approach to application development helps businesses adapt to change at lightning speed. It helps your business deliver new applications in hours/days instead of months/weeks.

The next question: How do you create composable applications? Is it difficult to build all of those reusable blocks? Rather than try to explain it to you, we just put together a new video that walks you through the whole process from start to finish. You can watch it below:

Want to learn more? Set up a demo here: Set up a demo.

5 Technologies that CIOs and IT Leaders Can’t Ignore in 2022

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trendsSummary: It’s been a challenging past 2 years for many businesses. CIOs and IT leaders were forced to adapt on the fly as the pandemic stretched on. Many receieved a rude awakening–realizing that they didn’t have the technologies in place to adapt. The big question: What technologies will have the biggest impact on the business world in the coming year? In this article, we explore a few more technologies that the modern CIO cannot afford to ignore.
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How to modernize a legacy application in 5 minutes

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developmentLegacy modernization. It’s such a daunting task. You must take your outdated (but functional) applications and turn them into modern web applications…without disrupting the business at all.

On top of that, many legacy applications have been in use for decades. They’ve likely been maintained and altered by different employees over the years…each with their own way of doing things. The result: Legacy applications are often a jumbled mess of spaghetti code.

Once you look at the challenges of modernization, it’s no wonder why so many organizations put it off.

The good news: There’s an easy way to modernize, using the “extend-and-surround” approach. This modernization method delivers a few huge advantages:

  • It’s fast: You’ll have modern applications faster than you thought possible.
  • It doesn’t touch the legacy applications: There’s no need to alter your existing applications, or even touch them at all. But, it still lets you include custom business logic from your legacy applications if needed.
  • There’s no business disruption: Because you’re not changing your legacy applications, you don’t need to worry about breaking anything or disrupting the business.
  • You can use your existing skills: You don’t need to be a web developer to create modern versions of your legacy applications. You can use the skills you already have in-house.

Want to see this modernization approach in action? We created a video that walks you through the modernization process for a simple legacy application. The best part: You’ll see the whole process in just 5 minutes! You can watch the video here:

Do you want to see a solution like this in your company? Setup an m-Power demo here.