idea for review

[jklondon]

Something for the group to think about...

I am working with an startup that has built a product that allows
users to create "applications"
without necessarily writting code. Think of a business user creating a
flowchart/visio diagram then
clicking a button and the application has been built and is usable.

I think this concept has serious legs in the financial world in the
Middle / Back office space
where a lot of the applications are "workflow" driven. The cost of
building these are high
but whats usually expensive is modifying them as the business drivers
change (which they do
frequently).

With this product the modification costs would be drastically less and
could be delivered much
faster to keep pace with Front Office developments.

Interested in general feedback (with the limited info I have given)
but if anyone could see
a use for this in their businesses or wants to know more then happy to
progress futher perhaps
through a demo initially.

Best
Ravi

[Charles Wyble]

This is very interesting.

I've been using Netbeans and BPEL to do this. It has a pretty cool gui.
It's not 100% automated and requires some code.

However there is a huge need for this type of product.

[Bankfit]

Ravi,

Your application sounds good. I have a few questions and may
be if you are organizing a general demo/presentation to the barcampers
i would be happy to join. Since i keep interacting with bankers it
would be nice to know and talk the availability of such tools. I have
a few questions though.

1. How will the interfacing work ? what are the challenges?
2. How do you build the business logic in the process of
transaction processing?
3. Does it have to work along with the data pool like a data
ware house ? What are the sources of data ?

[monkey]

Sorry for the belated reply but here it is...

1. Interface is UI driven, its literally like putting together a
flowchart in VISIO, the challenge is educating users to learn the UI.
This can be overcome with example applications,
videos and good old consultancy.

2. The business logic is event-based. So you use the interface to
specify an action that should take place
based on rules which reference objects. Its like code except you build
this using the graphical interface.
These "processes" can then be re-used in new processes as well.

3. As for data - the application has its own internal SQL DB and user
front-end
but can take feeds from files/emails/call a webservice. An API might
follow perhaps.

The way I like to look at this is like an engine, you define the
inputs (user inputs, data from other system),
the engine does a function (which you can create without coding) and
then it gives you an ouput (which could then feed another
sytem or go back the client).

The real-life pilot problems this application has solved, to date,
involve humans interacting with the UI but
no reason why it couldnt handle machine to machine i.e. thing of a
middle/back office environment where
there are number of apps/scripts hacked together to translate data
from one form to another.

Happy to take futher questions / potential use-cases even...