{"id":5389,"date":"2015-03-05T14:56:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T12:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.alainveuve.ch\/software-development-in-transition-the-next-big-thing\/"},"modified":"2015-03-05T14:56:23","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T12:56:23","slug":"software-development-in-transition-the-next-big-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alainveuve.ch\/en\/software-development-in-transition-the-next-big-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"Software development in transition: The next big thing!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three years ago, I was sitting at a customer event at Zurich’s Paradeplatz one evening. A colleague who had just started at Appway<\/a> was hosting a launch event together with the management. The audience consisted of decision-makers and influencers from the financial industry. Appway was presented as a client onboarding solution for financial institutions and insurance companies. A pleasant event, but nothing special. <\/p>\n

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(Reading time: 4 minutes – English version here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Software development is, if I may say so, an extremely inefficient process. The fragmentation of skills among different people in the project requires an incredible amount of coordination. Misunderstandings are pre-programmed (in the truest sense of the word), the translation of requirements from the business into usable requirements runs in loops, which only allows incremental approaches to the desired software product. Fifteen years ago, the world was simpler in this respect. Bad software was simply accepted. It was quite normal that product X or product Y could not do this or that, or simply behaved in a stubborn way. This acceptance has rightly disappeared. However, the general requirements have also grown considerably as a result. Development is trying to master this pressure with various instruments: Agile methods to streamline the process and increase transparency for the product owner, the excessive use of automated testing and the use of basic frameworks such as Symfony and others to access standardized functions, just to name a few. <\/p>\n

Transition from code development to configuration development<\/strong><\/p>\n

One consequence of this development is that more and more of what used to be developed is moving to the configurative level. This development has started very slowly, is currently accelerating and I think we will see a real revolution in the development market for business applications in the next 5 to 10 years. What customers need are more cost-effective and flexible applications in order to meet the ever-increasing demands of end customers. We would see much more innovation and digitalization in business today if it were faster, easier and cheaper. <\/p>\n

The answer: “Business App Builder Platform”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Such a “Business App Builder Platform”, which can be operated by consultants without development skills, creates enormous advantages. It allows the business architect to build a solution directly with the product owner. The role of the user experience designer becomes even more important. The whole process becomes much leaner and more cost-effective, and solutions can be brought to market more quickly. So much for the vision. <\/p>\n

The revolution in the software industry<\/strong><\/p>\n

The impact on the software industry is enormous. It is obvious that many of the software companies that build, maintain and license simple niche products today have no reason to exist. Developers will still be needed. But I think that activity will continue to move in the direction of configuration\/parameterization. <\/p>\n

App-What?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back to Appway: Appway is actually just such a “business app builder platform”, but as the founders are committed to the noble credo of self-financing, a lucrative niche had to be found in the course of the company’s history. For Appway, this was and is client onboarding. Since then, Appway has been perceived as a software manufacturer for client onboarding solutions. <\/p>\n

The various speeches at the event mentioned at the beginning were all interesting, but the real highlight was the presentation by Oliver Brupbacher, who explained the basic idea and functionality of the Appway platform using only a flipchart and a sharpie (if you can draw, you have an advantage!).<\/p>\n

I had the feeling that the presentation was rather confusing for the majority of the audience. They were too focused on the topic of client onboarding and financial applications. However, what was shown later in the demo came pretty close to what I imagined a real “Business App Builder Platform” would look like. I left the event fascinated and with the feeling that neither Appway nor the attendees really understood what they were dealing with. <\/p>\n

Not a unique concept – but a unique opportunity<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are by no means the only ones working on such concepts. Various smaller providers have jumped on this bandwagon. Intrexx<\/a>, for example, has been offering similar functionality for years and I still remember a conversation with a CIO of a medium-sized chemical company in 2002, who showed me how he used Intrexx to build process-oriented applications for those employees who couldn’t cope with the ERP. A few of my former colleagues are also pursuing a similar approach with their Evola<\/a> project. There are a few more. <\/p>\n

What all players have in common is that they have not yet managed to bring about this paradigm shift. None has established itself as the standard. Both Intrexx and Appway would have a good chance of doing so, but they are currently succumbing to their own virtues. <\/p>\n

Trade-off between product and project company<\/strong><\/p>\n

Appway decided to step into a niche because they wanted to remain self-financed. Hanspeter Wolf’s, founder and CEO of Appway, mantra is “Rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond”. And he and his team have managed to grow the company to a respectable size under their own steam. It was only possible to achieve this by bootstrapping by concentrating on a niche. <\/p>\n

What has therefore been an advantage up to now is becoming a disadvantage because they are perceived as a provider of software for the financial industry and the insurance sector.<\/p>\n

However, efforts are now being made in the direction of a “platform”. On the website, for example, the platform is thematically placed at the center. As chance would have it, I met up with an Appway employee for lunch yesterday. He told me about the business with a passion that only up-and-coming companies can generate. And about the efforts to position Appway more strongly as a platform provider. That’s good. <\/p>\n

I think Appway, and by that I mean the product and the company, really has the potential to be at the forefront of this technology revolution. The window of opportunity is still open. <\/p>\n

Open source as the key to rapid market penetration<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, they can only do this if they can win over as many product users as possible in a short space of time. Doing this with conventional and license-based strategies costs a huge amount of money. Money that a self-financed company will not be able to raise. <\/p>\n

As someone who has been doing business in the open source environment for 10 years now, I naturally only see one way. To get the product ready as quickly as possible so that it can be published as open source. Accompanied by good open source marketing, it will quickly find distribution, users and ultimately a large following. The whole constellation is about finding revenue streams and creating an ecosystem that makes everyone a winner. Various companies have shown how to do this. For example, MuleSoft<\/a> or Magento<\/a>, to name just two that have since become market leaders. <\/p>\n

Such a radical restructuring is always an entrepreneurial dilemma, especially when you have bootstrapped a company. So much energy has gone into it and now that the business is flourishing, should you put all your eggs in one basket again? Basically, unfortunately, that’s it. <\/p>\n

All companies that have grown strongly in a short space of time and redefined markets have, at one or more points in their history, bet the company on a new future.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s like starting all over again. The only difference is that you now have a lot more to lose. <\/p>\n

The good thing is, however, that there are also middle ways. “As well as” models: keeping your existing business and customers and still revolutionizing the market. It always remains a risk. <\/p>\n

The alternative to this risk is that the window of opportunity is closing. I am convinced that in the next two years we will see a provider launching a “Business App Builder Platform” on the market that can be operated by averagely talented business consultants. This platform will fundamentally redefine our relationship with software. And I am also convinced that this software will be fundamentally open source. And I would love Appway to be behind it. <\/p>\n

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