The ability to create low-cost, portable, and high-fidelity end-to-end solutions is imperative for any business that needs a fast and easy way to add value from a single source. It’s also essential for companies looking to reduce their overall cost of doing business by enabling greater agility and customization.

A BPM platform manages these benefits by enabling faster development cycles, easier communication between parties, and more flexibility in meeting needs than ever before. It does this by enabling businesses to adopt best practices from other industries while eliminating the need for specific skills within an organization. 

This article will review seven of the most common characteristics of a low-code BPM platform.

How Do Low-Code BPM Platforms Work?

A low-code BPM platform can be described as a software solution that empowers businesses to adopt best practices from other industries while eliminating the need for specific skills within an organization. 

The BPM platform itself is code-free software that runs on any system that allows for programmatic access, such as a mobile device or an application server. The platform provides a complete end-to-end solution from start to finish, from requirement collection and definition through design and implementation.

Features of a Low-Code BPM Platform

Visual Interface

With the growing popularity of low-code technologies, the need to create an integrated visual environment is a critical factor in any BPM platform. By using platforms that encourage rapid development, organizations can avoid the need to invest in customizing their software development process. 

These types of software development environments (SDEs) allow organizations to create applications using a combination of software components and tools. The visual nature of these platforms encourages collaboration through visualizations, graphs, and graphs that incorporate data from other systems. 

This promotes internal communication through visualizations, graphs, and visual reports. It also promotes business impact through visual indicators that visualize key performance indicators.

Document Management

The way business processes are implemented today is through applications that use software tools to manage content and data. These tools often have poor documentation and limited collaboration capabilities. As a result, organizations end up spending time trying to track the right things, acquire data, and integrate systems that have little connection or collaboration between them. 

A BPM platform that encourages rapid development allows organizations to create mission-critical applications quickly. This reduces the need for frequent documentation and allows organizations to integrate existing systems more easily. Document management is one of the core pillars of a BPM platform. 

By encouraging collaboration between systems, a BPM platform helps organizations efficiently track content and manage access to data. For example, an organization may have a production system that manages content such as customers, products, and orders. 

Another system may manage content related to employees, such as job titles, departments, and pay periods. An organization may have a third system that manages data like employee data or procurement documents. With a BPM platform, the content and data are connected across systems through a single source of truth. This source of truth promotes transparency and facilitates collaboration between teams.

Convenience

Convenience is another important factor that sets apart low-code BPM platforms from other options. The basic concept is that by eliminating specific programming skills, organizations can reduce their costs and gain more functionality with less effort. 

With a low-code BPM platform, the developer does not need to be an expert in all areas of programming to create a custom application. This is possible because the software is written in a specific type of code. For example, when building an eCommerce platform, the developer need only know how to programmatically access the Shopify API and integrate with the application.

Security

Another important factor that sets apart low-code BPM platforms from other options is security. BPM platforms employ security features to help organizations manage their data and secure their systems. For example, an organization may require access control that restricts who has access to which system or what they can do with the data. 

With a low-code BPM platform, organizations can create drop-in replacements for existing applications that support authentication and access control. An organization may also want to employ encryption to help secure sensitive data during transmission. A low-code BPM platform may enable encryption without a special tool.

Analysis

With a low-code BPM platform, the user does not need to know the code that runs the platform. Instead, the user only needs to know how to access data and create reports that the platform management software supports. Low-code platforms also enable analysis features that help speed the discovery of issues in an organization’s systems. 

For example, an analytics platform enables data discovery through an API-based discovery engine. This engine helps identify issues with ease and speed. By connecting data discovery with analysis and visualizations, an organization is empowered with insights that promote continuous quality assurance.

Reporting Tools

Another important feature of a low-code BPM platform is the support for reporting and analytics tools. With a low-code BPM platform, organizations can create reports and visualizations that work exactly as they do in their current applications. They can create reports that integrate data from other systems, export data in different formats, and include charts and graphs. They can also integrate existing reporting tools with the platform through a drop-in replacement.

Integration with Other Technologies

Many organizations are already using hybrid models that integrate low-code and high-code solutions. This article will focus on hybrid BPM platforms, but the discussion applies to any type of platform where data communication and transformation are common activities.

Choosing Your Low Code BPM Platform

BPM is one of the most requested features in the software development lifecycle. It promises to improve the efficiency of business processes by automating repetitive tasks, creating individualized experiences for customers, and efficiently managing work within an organization. It also offers the opportunity to reduce the overall costs of doing business by enabling greater agility and customization. 

To date, there is no perfect solution for all businesses. To reach this ideal, businesses must choose the right solution for their needs. There are many different types of BPM platforms, and while many of them promise similar things, they do it in different ways. 

In choosing the appropriate solution for your business, it is important to carefully evaluate the costs and benefits of each option, as well as the capabilities of the platform. It’s also important to test the platform to ensure that it meets your needs.

Tips for Using Low-Code BPM Platform

Depending on the needs of your business, you may wish to adopt certain best practices from other industries that have already proven successful. This can allow you to save time by automating processes related to stakeholders, content, and workflows. 

For example, if you are already using a Content Management System (CMS), you may wish to automate the process of creating landing pages from the same source. You can also use a low-code BPM platform to create novel experiences and products that were previously only possible through a deep integration of MRP, ERP, and CRM systems.

Caution About Low Code Automation Platforms

A low-code automation platform should be used with caution. Some organizations may wish to develop custom software that is specific to their needs. This is a perfectly valid decision, but everyone needs to be aware of the associated risks. 

If someone within your organization knows how to work with low-code BPM platforms, but another team member does not, you may find it more difficult to achieve some of the key goals of your business.

Conclusion

All these features make a low-code BPM platform an attractive option for businesses looking to ease the process of adding value from a single source. The ability to create low-cost, portable, and high-fidelity end-to-end solutions is imperative for any business that needs a fast and easy way to add value from a single source. 

It’s also essential for companies looking to reduce their overall cost of doing business by enabling greater agility and customization.

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