Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - An update from Mendix

Low-code platforms are changing the way businesses build and deploy software.

This was the view shared by Ewan Borland, Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific at Mendix, during a recent interview about the company's expanding presence and growing market for low-code application development in Australia and across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.

Mendix, a pioneering low-code platform, was founded in the Netherlands in 2005 out of what Borland described as a "pure frustration that delivering software is extremely hard and fails more often than it succeeds." The founders, Roald Derk and Turgon, believed in the need for a paradigm shift in software development – a vision that has underpinned the company's growth from strong roots in Europe and North America to its rapid expansion into APAC, especially following its acquisition by Siemens.

"We established our presence here in Australia in late 2020 with a small local team and have been expanding ever since," Borland said. He explained that Mendix now boasts an installed base of more than 20 companies in Australia spanning diverse sectors including banking, financial services, insurance, energy, public sector, logistics – and even a household name like Coopers Brewery.

A distinguishing pillar for the company's regional approach is its commitment to ecosystem development. Borland noted, "We are investing heavily in our partners. Currently, we are closely working with Deloitte, Accenture, Capgemini, and an ever-growing list of channel partners." This strategy extends to nurturing future talent, with the University of Queensland using Mendix in a curriculum that gives more than 500 students each semester hands-on experience in designing and building applications.

The 'low-code' approach is designed to address some of the most critical issues facing the software industry. Borland highlighted how "the global demand for new application development is expected to grow five times faster than the capacity and ability for IT teams to deliver on this." In Australia, this shortfall is starker, with "for every eight software engineers needed, only one is graduating every year."

Traditional application development, Borland explained, has simply become too slow to keep up with "ongoing business needs," resulting in backlogs and stifled innovation. "On top of that, there's all kinds of new technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, that are adding additional complexities to businesses."

He pointed to the COVID-19 crisis as an example: "The companies that had a strong digitalisation strategy actually flourished, whereas those companies that treated it merely as a call centre...experienced a lot of challenges."

Against this backdrop, Borland made the case for low-code technology as a solution to the "perfect storm" many companies face. "Low-code in its very essence is a visual way to define and express what software should do, using a visual drag-and-drop approach to develop these applications. It opens the door to a much bigger developer pool that can build applications faster," he said.

However, not all low-code platforms are created equal, Borland warned. "A lot of existing technologies are introducing low-code merely as an add-on feature to their offering and the moment you step out of that low-code, you resort to high-code again and you don't have the flexibility anymore."

Borland described Mendix as "an all-in-one low-code platform for the enterprise that covers the complete application lifecycle – all the way from ideation to requirements management, application development, and automated deployment." He underlined the platform's ability to serve everyone from "citizen developers to hardcore developers," allowing teams to build solutions encompassing front-end, native mobile, augmented reality, data modelling, and even one-click deployment to any cloud.

Security is paramount, especially for heavily regulated industries. "We're highly secure," Borland said, referencing Mendix's FedRAMP certification, which enables it to work with critical players in the US and UK defence sectors.

The conversation turned to common use cases for low-code application development, which Borland segmented into four categories: innovative experiences, customer engagement apps, operational efficiency, and modernisation of core systems.

For innovation, he offered the example of Zurich, one of the world's largest insurance companies, which built a "facecode" application on Mendix. "You take a selfie, and based on your selfie they estimate your age, and based on your age you immediately get a life insurance offer on your mobile phone that you can directly close. They built it in two weeks and after launching, it became an overnight hit," he said.

Customer engagement is another area where Mendix shines. Borland pointed to mobile banking apps built by institutions such as Al Baraka Bank in South Africa and another European bank active in Australia. "They built their mobile banking applications on Mendix, serving over 500,000 users on a daily basis using those apps."

Internal process automation and workflow improvements are also key operational efficiency drivers. In the automotive industry, Continental, a global original equipment manufacturer, has used Mendix to extend and differentiate processes on top of its core SAP ERP system, "keeping the core clean or extending the lifetime of the investment."

Adopting new technology like Mendix can be daunting for organisations, Borland acknowledged. "The challenges with adopting a new technology is typically not so much related to the technology itself, it's much more related to the organisational challenges that come along with it."

To support this journey, Mendix has developed a "3S framework," focusing on starting small, structuring for growth, and scaling, underpinned by a "4P model" addressing portfolio, people, process, and platform. With this "holistic approach we make the adoption and the transition of existing talent to our low-code platform much more digestible, we increase the velocity of IT and, perhaps most importantly, we significantly reduce the risk of adopting a new technology in your organisation," Borland said.

As low-code adoption accelerates, Mendix is expanding its outreach through online events, webinars, and in-person meetings, with plans to attend major industry events such as the upcoming Gartner Symposium in the Gold Coast this September.

Borland concluded, "We are very passionate people about our mission and we love to work with you to support you in your digitalisation journey."