If you think it has to be a pro developer, think again.
There’s no doubt that organizations demand more business apps to run, innovate and grow the business. With that, there’s as increasing need to enable business professionals, who typically cannot code, to build well-designed, useful apps – fast. The kinds of apps businesses need the most are ones that run seamlessly wherever their teams work – on the desktop, on the road, in the field, or across the ocean.
Leading research and analyst firm Forrester looked at the market for app-building platforms specifically for mobile apps and segmented them according to the “target buyer and vendor ambition” in its recent report, Now Tech: Mobile Low-Code Development Platforms, Q1 2018 (access requires subscription or purchase) published in March.
Mobile apps are built by not only pro developers but also by business developers, in other words business professionals with no coding skills. Business developers build apps using tools especially designed for them. Only nine of the 31 vendors included in the report actually target business developers. As a platform helping business professionals to solve problems fast by building apps, Quickbase is one of those few vendors; it’s also the only business-focused vendor in its revenue category (large companies).
Quickbase is a platform that helps business professionals to build apps that are instantly accessible on mobile devices with no extra effort and no need for specialized knowledge about mobile app development practices. The platform automatically optimizes apps for mobile layout and interaction, and builders can even fine tune how much data is presented to mobile users. So, with a platform like Quickbase, if you can build an app, you can build a mobile app.
What does it take to be an app builder? The most important thing we see across a base of 6,000 customers is deep understanding of an organization’s business challenges, processes and data. And access to a platform optimized for business professionals. With such a platform, anyone can:
- Build apps
- Automate workflows
- Aggregate data
- Collaborate
- Share insights
– all with no need for specialized skills or education. Understanding coding, database administration, user interface design, or computer science is not required. However, solid experience with spreadsheets pays off; those skills are easily transferrable to building apps in a platform like Quickbase. Here’s an example of a project management app built by a business developer and automatically optimized for mobile devices. On the first screen, you’re seeing the key components of an app called Complete Project Management including project and tasks tables. On the second screen, you’re seeing a dashboard for the project manager role which displays charts relevant to this role.
Figure 1 Searching the Complete Project Manager App
Figure 2 The Complete Project Manager App – Manager Dashboard
Not only am I pleased that Quickbase was included in the Forrester report, I’m thrilled that our app-building model has been delivering value to organizations over the past 19 years. This model builds upon 3 key principles:
- Build it yourself – makes app building so intuitive that a non-developer can create a successful app. In fact, the best apps are built by those closest to the work who know the customer and process the best.
- Build once, access from anywhere – enables you to create a desktop app which is automatically optimized for mobile use, with no extra effort of the builder. So, all your users can seamlessly access the same data from mobile and desktop to get insights and manage work on the go, from any device.
- Collaborate safely – ensures that people in different roles, inside or outside the organization, can work on the same set of data and see just the information that is relevant to their role. Setting fine-grained access control is so easy that business professionals can do it themselves.
So, if you’re searching for the builder of your next mobile app, start by looking in the mirror. Or a colleague sitting next to you. What do you know!
