The cloud-based SaaS tool is billed as a way to reduce the time and costs associated with building in-house applications.

Aldrin Brown, Editor-in-Chief

August 5, 2016

2 Min Read
Firm Pushing LowCode Software Development Platform for Citizen Developers

A Cambridge, Mass., firm is marketing a software development platform they say can help companies create applications without skilled coders.

The QuickBase Inc. Low-Code Platform for Citizen Development is designed to allow line of business (LOB) employees to build applications with little to no coding skill.

The cloud-based SaaS tool is billed as a way to dramatically reduce the time and costs associated with building applications.

“Most enterprise applications can take two months to two years,” said John Carione, head of marketing for QuickBase. “We have enterprise applications that can be rolled out in two weeks.”

The platform is designed to allow employees with only basic computer skills to have an active hand in developing business software solutions.

“The interface is … you can think of it as low-code ability, no-code ability,” Carione said. “It’s drag and drop and point and click; similar to (Microsoft) Excel, but it’s wizard-driven.”

He offered one example of the interface in which a user imports a spreadsheet into the platform.

“It auto-generates a schema and can create dashboards and reports, using wizard-like workflows,” Carione said. “There’s a complete spectrum of the ways that (LOB employees) can contribute to the process.”

Using midlevel LOB employees can also improve efficiency, he said.

“Versus using an IT pro coder, you can get these apps built a lot cheaper,” Carione said. “Also, we really feel like the apps get built better – exactly to specs.”

The vendor believes that citizen development and the growing trend toward DevOps can be used together, depending on an organization’s specific software development needs.

“DevOps tools are more for Tier 1 applications,” Carione said. “We think citizen development is really a different approach that is ideal for the less mission-critical apps and that’s what our platform accomplishes.”

 

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About the Author(s)

Aldrin Brown

Editor-in-Chief, Penton

Veteran journalist Aldrin Brown comes to Penton Technology from Empire Digital Strategies, a business-to-business consulting firm that he founded that provides e-commerce, content and social media solutions to businesses, nonprofits and other organizations seeking to create or grow their digital presence.

Previously, Brown served as the Desert Bureau Chief for City News Service in Southern California and Regional Editor for Patch, AOL's network of local news sites. At Patch, he managed a staff of journalists and more than 30 hyper-local and business news and information websites throughout California. In addition to his work in technology and business, Brown was the city editor for The Sun, a daily newspaper based in San Bernardino, CA; the college sports editor at The Tennessean, Nashville, TN; and an investigative reporter at the Orange County Register, Santa Ana, CA.

 

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