From a mature organization into a young and dynamic start-up

Over the past few years, we have been providing organizations in different industries, with solutions for digital transformation to streamline processes and get to know better their customers. Over time, we created the Linnovate way, of how, in a short time and reasonable budget, the organization can make a significant difference with a high impact.

The use of digital representation and low-code infrastructure enables large and mature organizations to operate as a young and dynamic start-ups, giving the organization’s managers the ability to drive business processes independently of other departments.

Traditional industries in various fields such as hotels, insurance, transportation, communications, and real estate are challenged by innovative technologies and start-ups, who are new competitors to the old order, and organizations seeking to compete are promoting digital transformation processes. But a survey we conducted recently at Linnovate, found that most of the respondents believed that they could not meet business expectations and their ability to adapt to technological demands in the future.

Most participants believe that there is a gap between the capabilities required to assimilate digital transformation in an organization versus existing resources, including staff skills, changing business needs, and the need to update the temporary technological solutions and shortcuts that have been made over the years, and there is also a long list of updated tasks that are accumulated continuously and waiting to be performed.

However, even when these resources exist, in many organizations, moving a project of digital transformation is a slow and protracted process. Some of the reasons for this are the difficulty in translating business needs into technical requirements; The inability to maintain a common language between the various organizational departments, for example, between the Business Development Department and the IT Department; Inability to measure business results to justify or choose a technological solution to a business problem; Difficulties and lack of knowledge in adopting project management methods; As well as uniform software systems that do not allow regular updates.

Two relatively simple actions allow organizations to address this list of challenges and start significant digital processes with existing budgets.

The first step will be to focus on the organization’s digital representation. Digital representation refers to the possibility of digitally reading any data, information, or technological asset in the organization and thereby making the information accessible and straightforward. We can achieve digital representation by combining three parameters: One, the use of the API, an interface that acts as a mediator between two systems and allows them to communicate with each other. The second is the use of open architecture — it is a software architecture designed to easily add, upgrade and replace components, usually based on open source, to give control to the organization to define and access each data independently and according to its needs. Because today, information in a mature organization is found in many systems of different vendors using different technologies — the task of accessing information is often daunting and complicated. However, with innovative Open-Source technologies such as root-graph and GraphQL, a digital representation can be defined for all the organization’s assets and information without duplicating the data, at low costs, and through existing employees in the organization. Such digital representation makes it possible to reach any infrastructure or application component and to use the existing information in the organization to generate additional processes. It simplifies the processes of data extraction from the systems in the organization, as opposed to the complexity existing in the integration of several systems, and can be performed by each entity in the organization separately and according to the definition of its needs.

The second step after defining the digital representation of the organization will be the use of low-code infrastructure, which replaces the traditional code programming. It enables the use of programming infrastructure to create applications using graphical user interfaces and configuration. Elementor in WordPress (and now also in Drupal), Panels in Drupal, root lite by Linnovate, and more are examples of low-code platforms. The use of the low-code infrastructure reduces the number of hours of software developer work from the IT department and allows non-IT staff to develop applications to suit their needs. By using low-code Infrastructure, the organization accelerates the delivery of business applications by expanding the range of people who can design and implement and not just those with formal programming skills. With the increasing popularity of enterprise open source technologies and the use of low-code infrastructure, the process of creating enterprise applications by existing employees is easier than ever before, and enables the establishment of proof of concepts, quickly without having to purchase additional software for the organization or need to run a tender in public organizations. The use of low-code infrastructure reduces the installation, training, deployment, and maintenance costs of enterprise applications.

The combination of digital representation and implementation of process management technologies with a do-it-yourself interface enables the business department managers to monitor any business and operational situation. They can define, develop, and control internal and external processes across all organizational entities, based on business event analysis, to identify failures or delays in processes, independently (or with a little help from the IT department). Organizations that incorporate this combination of digital representation and low-code infrastructure will enjoy the flexibility and dynamism of a startup and will have a better position in the competitive environment.