Automated, vetted functionality and the potential of the composable enterprise

For most of the journey so far, businesses have been able to take a traditional approach to their vehicle maintenance: they would drive hard for a few years until the parts were well and truly worn down, by which point there were probably a few new upgrades available. Only then would that business pull their architecture in for a massive tune-up.

That’s when IT department would conduct a complete overhaul, bring their infrastructure into the present day so it could chug along for another few years. This would take a lot of time and more money, but since it only needed to happen once or twice every decade, the system worked.

But not anymore. These days, business is highspeed – and new competitors are joining industries at ever more disruptive rates.

And It’s time to consider a new, more modifiable motor – and that’s the composable enterprise.

Speeding IT up

Any organisation that wants to stand a chance at continuing to successfully navigate the pot-hole ridden path of the post-COVID world needs to become incredibly adaptable.

The pandemic may have wreaked havoc on the economy, but it has also accelerated the digitalisation of society even further. It has led to 54% of businesses to accelerate their digitalisation in a bid to support newly remote workforces and keep up with customers’ rapidly changing needs, according to Mendix research.

The scope of these digital transformation projects is just too large and time-sensitive for IT teams to build solutions for from scratch, like they used to – making the shift to a moving to a composable model so attractive.

If a firm can tack on new services, features and improve their customer experience when they need to, one application at a time, by reusing automated, vetted functionalities, they can dramatically lower their IT costs while also scaling-up their time to value.

This is what it means to become a composable enterprise – having the ability to build solutions from best of breed. This means assembling solutions from a variety of vendors and all of them working seamlessly together.

Low code path to high performance

This is where low-code platforms come into the picture.

On a low-code platform, all the functionalities needed to build out a new application can be pulled from an existing library. These components can be dragged and dropped into a visual workflow, meaning app development doesn’t even require coding experience. This reduces the burden placed on IT to be responsible for all digital transformation projects (as we can all probably agree, they have more than enough on their plates).

So, businesses can rapidly assemble new business applications like their kitting out a custom car – an accessory at a time, each one a different functionality. And even though IT doesn’t have to be

directly involved in this app development by way of assembly, they still have an element of oversight as every part is made up of tried and tested functionalities that they’ve already approved/built.

But more than that, a low-code platform can be a bridge connecting non-technical staff and IT departments and giving them a common language. So, these teams can move closer than ever before and collaborate in new, more efficient and creative ways.

Once a business is able to inspire collaboration at every level, empowering workers to create new innovations to both make their work lives easier and improve customer experience, it will have a chance of staying on track.

Because the iterative changes lead to incredibly adaptable IT infrastructures – perfectly geared for whatever conditions the world throws at them.

From old banger to hot hatch

The age of the massive overhaul is over. The businesses holding pole position use all the information they can get their hands on to make incremental and iterative changes – without even needing to slow down.

So, if you’re a driver of the old style, struggling to switch from your static IT architecture into a dynamic, composable enterprise, try starting with a shift to low code development. It may be the boost of nitro your organisation needs.