Accelerate Your Business! Successful Case Studies of In-House Production Using Low-Code Platforms

Low-code platform for faster and more visible system development

In the past, when developing a system, it was necessary to write source code in a programming language. This required a high level of specialized knowledge, often took a long time to develop, was prone to errors, and was difficult to change.

In contrast, "low-code development" is a method that allows people without programming expertise to develop systems in a short period of time. Since systems can be developed by combining icons and menus displayed on the screen, even business users can easily build the system with minimal knowledge required. It has been attracting attention in recent years as a method that can improve the efficiency and speed of system development.

Koji Ichikawa, Senior Manager of the System Engineering Headquarters, Technology and Innovation General Headquarters, NTT DATA Group Corporation, explains the advantages and disadvantages of adopting low-code development as follows.

From an engineer's point of view, the advantages are that the amount of programming work is reduced, development speed is accelerated, and design can be visualized. On the other hand, the disadvantages are that you have to learn the unique techniques of low-code development and that there are technical limitations. However, it is expected that more and more companies will adopt low-code development in the future, and engineers who cannot master it may be left behind.

So what are the advantages and disadvantages of implementing low-code development from the perspective of a manager overseeing a project?

First, since the low-code platform is cloud-based, it allows for cloud-native development and operations. The platform itself evolves, so the ability to benefit from technological evolution is a major attraction. The disadvantages are that it is difficult to explain in-house to introduce new cloud-based thinking, and even though programming expertise is not required, a certain amount of employee training may be burdensome.

In light of these advantages and disadvantages, Ichikawa continues, "According to information from analysts and other sources, the low-code platform market is expected to grow at a rate of 20-30% in the future.

Behind the growth of the low-code platform market is the current situation where the need for application development is exploding due to the DX and IoT trends of companies, while there is a shortage of engineers who can develop such applications. Another background is the growing need for speed and flexibility in business, and the need to develop applications in a short period of time.
Ichikawa said, "The initial preparation to use the low-code platform is difficult, but if you use it well, you will benefit greatly. I encourage you to consider using it to expand your business by integrating business and IT," he recommended.

Considerations for incorporating a low-code platform

There are four major points to keep in mind when developing using a low-code platform.

The first is the limitation of product specifications. The flip side of being able to develop without specialized knowledge is that there are restrictions on the target operating systems and databases, as well as limitations on customization and extension languages. In addition, modifications may be required when platform versions are upgraded.

Second, there are restrictions on licensing. In addition to the limitations on database capacity and the number of requests per day, it must be remembered that there is a risk of cost fluctuation due to the platform.

The third point to keep in mind is that application infrastructure elements need to be considered. By using a low-code platform, it is possible to easily create systems and programs using screens. However, apart from that, product transaction specifications, security settings, access control, etc. must be considered independently, just as in conventional system development.

And finally, we must know that there are limits to how well we can handle product troubleshooting. When a bug occurs in the platform itself or a user suddenly cannot log in, it may happen that the company cannot solve the trouble by itself.

Ichikawa says, "It is necessary to understand that there are limitations to what can be achieved when implementing a low-code platform and to use it appropriately.

There are three major categories of low-code platforms. These are products provided by specialized vendors, SaaS and PaaS vendors such as Microsoft and Salesforce, and business process management vendors. It is important to know the features of each and select the product that best suits your company.

Replacing legacy systems with low-code development. Case Study of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation

NTT East developed a system for rapid information dissemination in the event of an incident with social impact, in conjunction with the renewal of its crisis management system, to enable management to quickly grasp emergency information. The existing legacy system had become a black box, so it was replaced using the OutSystems low-code platform. Several employees were put in charge of development and the system was to be produced in-house.

One of the members of the project, Kazunori Kamiyama, Manager of the Software In-house Production Promotion PT, Planning Department, Digital Transformation Headquarters, recalled the following when the project started.

We started the project to try to replace the existing system with an in-house system. First, we took the training provided by OutSystems, but we felt that it would be difficult to develop the system on our own. Until now, system development had been outsourced to outside vendors. Therefore, we were faced with the challenges of not knowing how to proceed with analysis of the existing system and what kind of scheme and process we should use to develop the system after analysis.

NTT DATA has established processes in line with internal rules and provides technical support.

It was NTT DATA that decided to cooperate in the project as support. Yuto Shimakura, Deputy Manager of the System Engineering Headquarters, Technology and Innovation General Headquarters, NTT DATA Group Corporation, who participated in the project, said that he provided support focusing on two main areas: "arranging systems development process" and "support for technical issues.

First, we were conscious of the need to develop software development processes in a way that would match NTT East's internal culture and rules. When a low-code platform is implemented, we must avoid internalization efforts from becoming a bottleneck due to operational bottlenecks. We thought it was necessary to have a process that would allow our client companies to autonomously execute the software development lifecycle.

If the process is too restrictive, the degree of freedom, which is one of the advantages of in-house production, will be reduced. In order to proceed with development speedily, it is ideal to allow members to proceed at their own discretion without setting any restrictions. However, the corollary of this is that governance may not be possible in the future. Shimakura proceeded with the development process by striking a balance between discretion and governance in accordance with NTT East's internal culture.

Regarding the second, 'support for technical issues,' he reflected as follows.

One of the points to keep in mind when introducing the low-code platform introduced earlier was the 'consideration of AP infrastructure elements. In this project as well, it was necessary not only to design an architecture to ensure governance, but also to configure security settings in accordance with the internal rules of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation.

Specifically, we made a list of what is missing to use "OutSystems" according to the company's internal security rules, implemented a secure login authentication function, established a management method for application logs, and developed an application that can efficiently manage application users' implementation. In addition, in order to realize requirements that were difficult for "OutSystems" alone, we also supported integration with AWS.

When application performance problems occurred, NTT DATA identified the bottlenecks and proposed specific ways to solve them by changing the implementation.(Shimakura)

In addition, NTT DATA provided a data migration application when migrating from the existing system to OutSystems, leveraging NTT DATA's accumulated software development capabilities to provide high-level technical support in all aspects of IT that would have been difficult for NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE EAST CORPORATION alone.

Flexible development while keeping costs down by building it ourselves

As the project progressed, Shimakura was conscious of the fact that "the customers themselves should be able to enjoy the development process. By communicating closely with the customer and creating an atmosphere in which it was easy to ask questions, the customer itself could enjoy the process of manufacturing, which would lead to the next in-house production project.

In response to NTT Data's support, Mr. Kamiyama recalls, "We created the application ourselves, which changed the conversation among the members.

 

In the past, we tended to talk a lot about 'where to place outsourcing orders' and 'why the price is the way it is. But now that we are producing in-house, we have more opportunities to talk about 'how we can create this function' or 'how we can make it better. By creating the system ourselves, we now understand how it works and what to do, and we can proceed with development with confidence," says Kamiyama.

In the case of outsourcing, requests are submitted to the client, and a revised version is delivered some time later. In the case of in-house production, on the other hand, requests are immediately reflected within the company, and prototypes can be checked on the spot. While shortening the development period, the company is able to respond more flexibly and quickly to detailed internal needs. Mr. Kamiyama says, "As a result, we have been able to reduce costs by about one-fifth compared to outsourcing. The system has been well received within the company, and the company has found the significance of in-house low-

For this internalization project using OutSystems, one application has already been released. Currently, they are already in the next phase of the project.

We are currently working with NTT East to create a CoE system that further expands on the OutSystems initiative. NTT DATA plans to continue to provide a wide range of support, including consulting on organizational development.

NTT DATA uses advanced technology to achieve visionary business transformation together with our customers.