OutSystems

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

Conigent is an implementation and services company that works with Infor's M3 ERP [enterprise resource planning] system. M3 is a very wide and broad product like SAP or Oracle, but many people find it to be more cost-efficient than those products. While M3 is a great product, it's not perfect, particularly relating to user interface issues. When we come across holes in the solution, we recommend our clients use OutSystems to fill them.

What is your position?

I'm the senior partner at Conigent, in charge of operations.

For how many years has your company worked with OutSystems?

We've been a certified partner with them for about three years now.

Are you familiar with, or does Conigent partner with, any other similar solutions?

No. We've stayed exclusively with OutSystems for application development. The primary reason for that is our ownership group has another software company that uses OutSystems extensively. We definitely utilize their OutSystems engineers and vice versa when there's a need.

OPPORTUNITY/CHALLENGE

What business challenge are your clients typically trying to address with OutSystems?

Customizable business apps related to ERP that are managed and deployed across their business easily.

SOLUTION

Is there any insight you can give us into why someone might want to partner with OutSystems compared to some of the other large application development platforms?

OutSystems has an extensive API [application programming interface] library for a variety of ERP systems including M3. This makes it easy to integrate all the great features of those systems into business apps that are customizable and have an intuitive user interface.

What are the types of customers or clients that you think would be the ideal candidates for OutSystems?

In our case, anybody that uses M3. We know where the weak points of M3 are. We know that you can solve them with OutSystems, and so our business approach is to go to those customers and say, "We can use this app development platform [OutSystems] to solve your problem or weaknesses that you have with M3."

In fairness to OutSystems, I think there are a lot similar situations where OutSystems can fill in the holes of a legacy system. It's not just for M3 users.

What type of clients should avoid OutSystems or one of these rapid application development platforms in general?

We really haven't come across any that we think should avoid it. We think they should all use it, regardless of their size. OutSystems is thought of as only an enterprise-based solution typically, but I don't think that has to be the case. We're actually working with OutSystems to do more outreach to small customers and offering them starter packages as a way of showing them that OutSystems is affordable to them as well.

What are the cost factors that clients who are considering working with OutSystems should be aware of when they're making their decisions?

Typically, for our customer base, the cost of OutSystems is going to run them anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 a year for the platform. As I said, there are ways to defer some of that in year one, but that's what they're going to spend in software cost. For some, that's a lot. However, for companies building many apps, when you compare that cost to what it would take to develop each of the apps natively, it becomes reasonable.

FEATURES

Looking at OutSystems as a whole, are there features or tools in your mind that really make it stand out from other rapid application development platforms?

I can tell you that one of the major selling points for our clients is that OutSystems has a "no lock-in" policy, meaning that if you develop a piece of code with .NET or Java on the OutSystems platform, you can take that code and use it anywhere, even if you leave OutSystems. You don't have to pay the platform cost on an ongoing basis. For many of the other RAD tools like the IBM or Salesforce platforms, this is not the case, which makes people much more amenable to trying OutSystems because they know they're not going to have to stay with it forever.

Are there any features or tools that you've heard are not so great, or just areas of the software upon which can be improved?

None that come to mind.

Do you have any overall recommendations for someone considering working with the RAD platform and, specifically, OutSystems?

It's been an easy sell to our customers that have truly been interested in a better way to develop apps than just doing it themselves natively. Many of them have tried to hire a developer to do a "one-off" app, and that usually goes nowhere because they end up not getting what they want.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate OutSystems on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give OutSystems for functionality of the features available?

Four.

What would you give OutSystems for ease of use or ease of implementation into your client's business?

Five. We've never had a problem with integrations. It's one of their strengths.

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

Four.

How likely are you to recommend OutSystems to a colleague or similar business?

Five.

How would you rate your overall satisfaction with OutSystems as a RAD platform?

Four and a half. There's always room for improvement.

BACKGROUND

Can you provide a brief description of your company and the role that you play there?

Infosistema is an IT [information technology] systems integrator group, based in Portugal. We have around 200 employees, and we're a certified OutSystems partner working primarily with enterprise-level clients to help them solve their IT problems.

How does your company use OutSystems?

We've partnered with OutSystems since 2004. We are focus on the banking and insurance sectors, providing systems of engagement for them. We employ OutSystems when these clients are looking for a suite of business apps that can be developed quickly and deployed easily across their business. We currently have around 50 people in the company dedicated to OutSystems work. That will probably grow significantly next year, as our demand for OutSystems development continues to rise.

Do you partner with any other platforms? If so, why did you choose to become a premium partner with OutSystems compared to any others?

We do not partner with another rapid application development platform other than OutSystems. We decided to go with them because we can control the entire life cycle of the app. It increases the efficiency of our DevOps capabilities greatly as it houses the entire life cycle of the app on one platform. OutSystems has also helped to solve problems pertaining to the development of a clean user interface. Before our work with OutSystems, we were spending 70 percent to 80 percent of our time in building UX [user experience]. OutSystems supports both .NET and Java deployment, which is ideal for many of our clients who opt for Java and .NET systems. It makes the integration process much easier.

Can you offer some insights into the overall market opportunity for these types of solutions?

There is a lot of opportunity for deploying rapid application development platforms like OutSystems. For starters, there are a lot of legacy systems out there. Especially in the banking and insurance sectors, you have many companies working with applications that are 20-plus years old. They desperately need to be rebuilt. Also, what's happening a lot, is companies are changing the core of their IT infrastructures, and when that happens, you have to change the applications that go along with it. There is a massive opportunity in updating systems. Second is the long tail effect. The time to market for companies to deliver their apps in order to keep up with competition is shrinking, combined with the fact that they are developing more apps than ever, create a situation where a rapid application development system is crucial to business success.

Could you describe who in your mind would be an ideal client to work with OutSystems?

[The ideal client would be] anyone who is pressured to bring results to business, and whose current IT teams cannot deliver with the traditional waterfall long development cycle. What happens currently is that the business has a vision, but the specifics keep changing along the journey. Your competition and the market as a whole are changing very fast while your resources are limited. People don't have the time to actually think through all the small details and develop in a waterfall method, which requires everything to be thoroughly scoped, and can have disastrous consequences if miscalculations are made.

At Infosistema, we are using OutSystems to develop agile projects that allow for rapid evolvement while minimizing cost. Our concept of a software factory that makes our client's business analysts the architects of the projects. What we understand is that our clients – the business users – don't have the language or the time to provide the correct specs to the software factory. What we are doing internally is building vertical content on those line of business that can talk to the business at the vision level not at detailed IT specifications level. This ensures that we stay on the same page, and that our projects are able to evolve in coordination with our client's needs, as opposed to wasting time and effort.

If that's the ideal candidate who is the type of client that should avoid using OutSystems?

OutSystems is a premium rapid application development platform. OutSystems is not a good fit for small companies. Companies that are looking for a prepackaged approach versus a customizable premium product.

Can you provide any insight on the support offerings of OutSystems?

Their support is phenomenal. But, I'm biased on that one for the simple fact that my headquarters is just a few blocks away from the OutSystems headquarters. We can walk next store to get support from them if we need it. However, my team members are experts in OutSystems, so we don't need much support.

Are there any features or tools of OutSystems that stand out to you as impressive?

OutSystems best feature is how easy it is to move from a data model to a new app. In addition the DevOps, in OutSystems projects are second to none. You don't have to worry about entropy about continuous integration of your apps. With OutSystems, it's incredibly easy.

Any aspects upon which could be improved?

Their debugger could use some work.

Any recommendations for a company that is considering utilizing OutSystems, either on their own or with a partner?

The metaphor I like to use is that OutSystems is like a Ferrari. If you're on the right road and have the right driver, a Ferrari is one of the best vehicles you could use. But, if those things are not in place, you're going to crash, or at least waste a lot of money. The platform is good, but isn't magical.

OVERVIEW

We have a few quick questions and, for each question, we ask you to rate the software on a scale of one to five, with five being the best. What would you give the platform for functionality of the features available?

Five.

What would you give the software for ease of use or ease of integration into your business?

Five.

For support, as in responsiveness of the team or helpfulness of the resources available?

Four.

For overall satisfaction with the platform?

Five.

How likely are you to recommend the software to a colleague or similar business?

Five.