What is a Low-code BPM Platform? A Complete Guide

Business Process Management systems help organizations create, manage, automate, execute, control, measure, and optimize business processes. However, traditional or off-the-shelf BPM solutions have limitations to meet the unique requirements of every organization. 

Problems faced with traditional or off-the-shelf BPMs are:

• Lack of the flexibility to adapt to unique business processes

• Customizing can be costly, time-consuming, and requires extensive manual coding

• Organizations risk becoming dependent on a specific vendor's ecosystem

• Slow adoption of technologies like AI or machine learning

Low-code development platforms facilitating BPM functionalities enable the automation of business processes and application development without coding knowledge. This method enables citizen developers to enhance the BPM lifecycle according to business requirements. 

In this article, we’ll explore how low-code platforms have enhanced BPM and discuss their benefits, features, and the differences between traditional BPMs and low-code BPM platforms. 

A low-code BPM platform is a software solution built on top of a low-code platform that allows for creating and managing business processes. These platforms offer features like a drag-and-drop interface, change management, workflow automation, and third-party integrations that help create business processes and apps. 

An open-source low-code platform that facilitates BPM features aims to simplify the creation and management of business processes and reduce the dependency on IT professionals. In other words, allowing citizen developers to create, manage, and automate processes and workflows of your business processes without manually coding every component. 

A report from AuraQuantic software provider says that the company evolved from a traditional business process management (BPM) software provider to a low-code platform for automating business processes and application development.  Businesses require modern solutions because they require flexibility, agility, and adaptability to operate efficiently and meet current market requirements. 

This is where businesses look for an alternative to traditional BPMs that allows rapid internal application development without manual coding and faster automation of routine tasks.

So, let’s now dive into the traditional and low-code BPM platforms that facilitate BPM. 

Low-code BPM platforms provide a graphical user interface (GUI) for non-technical users to create software solutions and applications by dragging and dropping components, which includes pre-built templates and components. 

Meanwhile, traditional BPM allows modeling, automation, execution, control, measurement, and optimization of business activity flows, ensuring the meeting of enterprise goals within and beyond enterprise boundaries. 

Now, we’ll explain the benefits of low-code platforms that facilitate BPM services. 

Low-code BPM platforms offer multiple benefits for businesses looking to streamline their business operations and application development requirements using a single tool. Let’s explore the advantages of using low-code BPM platforms.

Businesses struggle to keep pace with frequently evolving market demands. Traditional BPM methods require extensive coding, leading to long development cycles and delaying responses to new opportunities or challenges. 

Low-code BPM platforms allow businesses to modify processes and meet market demands without complex programming. This agility allows businesses to adjust their operations, launch new products, or enter new markets in a fraction of the time. 

Pre-built BPM solutions that didn’t quite fit the unique workflow requirements of every business. Executing customization in the pre-built BPM platforms means expensive consultations or waiting for the IT department to make changes, leaving businesses powerless. This siloed approach leads to inefficient solutions, slow implementation, and underutilized business knowledge. 

Low-code BPM platforms offer control back to business users who know the processes best. Due to a user-friendly development interface, pre-built components, and third-party integrations, business users can easily design, test, and refine workflows tailored to the organization’s requirements. 

Agility is an important part of achieving business success quickly. Businesses must adapt processes quickly to capitalize on new opportunities and adapt to changing markets. Traditional business process management involves writing code from scratch, managing an IT backlog, and addressing communication gaps. 

Low-code solutions reduce the need for extensive coding with drag-and-drop functionality and visual tools. Business users create low-code-based enterprise solutions and design and modify workflows without coding knowledge using pre-built components and templates. So, they can make business processes faster, improve agility, enhance collaboration, and free up IT resources. 

A communication gap between IT and business teams results in solutions that don't meet business requirements or take too long to implement due to technical jargon or different priorities. This disconnect frequently causes project delays, budget overruns, and frustrated end-users who feel their requirements aren't properly addressed.

Low-code BPM platforms resolve this challenge by building a bridge by providing a graphical user interface and visual modeling tools. This visual approach helps bridge the communication gap between business and IT teams, making it easier for them to collaborate effectively on process design and implementation. 

Companies struggle with fragmented and outdated processes, making it difficult to identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies. Gathering value-driven data for business requires manual effort or complex integration of multiple tools like ERP systems (low-code ERP solutions), CRM platforms, spreadsheets, and legacy databases. 

This is where low-code tools allow business users to create custom dashboards, automate reporting, and visualize process mapping. These capabilities of low-code BPM platforms enable businesses to gain clear insights into their processes and facilitate data-driven decision-making and continuous process improvement.

• Drag and drop builder

Drag pre-built components, such as forms, tasks, and decision points, onto a canvas and connect them to create workflows without extensive coding. This feature allows faster development and iteration of workflows for technical and non-technical users.  

• Workflow automation

Define rules, conditions, and actions that trigger automatically based on specific events or data inputs. Workflow automation reduces manual work, minimizes errors, and increases overall efficiency by continuously executing business processes across the organization. 

• AI and machine learning integration

Integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities into the business processes by using intelligent process routing, predictive analysis, automated decision-making, and natural language processing. AI and ML integration enhances process efficiency and provides real-time insights and automation based on historical data and patterns. 

• Third-party integration 

Integrate your business systems with pre-built connectors for enterprise systems like Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace. Advanced integration capabilities may include support for EDI and message queues for asynchronous communication. Third-party integration allows smooth data flow across business systems and automates processes at an organizational level. 

• Version control

Track and manage changes to processes, forms, and other components within the platform. This feature allows users to revert to previous versions, compare different iterations, and maintain a history of modifications. 

• Workflow customization

Create custom fields, forms, rules, and logic within workflows to tailor processes to specific organizational needs and requirements. Workflow customization ensures your unique business scenarios, industry-specific requirements, and evolving organization requirements, without requiring extensive custom coding.

• Compliance and security

Built-in features include role-based access control, SSO, data encryption, audit trails, and compliance reporting to ensure regulatory requirements within your business processes. This feature reduces the headache of manually ensuring that processes are in line with the organizational security policies and regulatory compliance.  

• Multi-channel notifications

Send automated alerts and updates to relevant stakeholders via communication channels. This feature includes email notifications, SMS alerts, in-app messages, or integration with communication platforms like Slack, Skype, or Microsoft Teams. 

Appsmith is an open-source platform for app development and business process automation. The platform offers self-hosting, usage-based pricing, 18+ native integration, intent-based auto layouts, 45+ widgets, and an in-built JavaScript editor, catering to businesses of all sizes without vendor lock-in. 

Check these stories to learn how Appsmith has helped these organizations enhance business operations.

Meet Florent B., a DevOps Engineer at Strapi, an open-source headless CMS company. Following the launch of Strapi Cloud in May 2023, Florent faced the challenge of managing and accessing customer data for their growing support operations.

Strapi was facing multiple issues:

• Scattered customer data

• Time-consuming support process

• Inefficient troubleshooting

Appsmith helped Strapi to:

• Reduce data retrieval time from 2 minutes to 10 seconds

• Consolidate customer databases into a single view

• Build a detailed dashboard in just one day

• Significantly improve support response times

• Enable easy access to customer billing history and app health information

Using Appsmith, the dashboard has become the central hub for Strapi to manage and retrieve customer and project information. This allows faster response times and improved customer support experience. This case study of Strapi describes the transformative power of low-code platforms in optimizing support operations and enhancing customer satisfaction.

Meet SCHMALZ+SCHÖN, a leading logistics group operating since 1959. With 13 companies, 795 employees, and an annual turnover of nearly $200 million, they sought to improve their digital processes and tackle data management challenges.

SCHMALZ+SCHÖN was facing these issues:

• Lack of operational visibility and disparate data sources

• Heavy reliance on manual, paper-based processes

• Inconsistent supplier address data

• Difficulties in obtaining accurate, consolidated information

Appsmith helped SCHMALZ+SCHÖN to:

• Custom apps for data visualization and tracking

• HR management application for employee data

• Project management Kanban board

• Application for standardized shipment orders

• 70% reduction in development time compared to traditional methods

• Centralized data platform with connectors to various databases

• Enabled non-technical staff to create and modify apps

Meet Boris (CTO) and Anton (Head of Marketing Engineering) from HeyJobs, a career platform for essential talent in Europe. Serving over 3,000 clients globally with over 400 employees, they aimed to modernize their legacy marketing applications and streamline operations.

HeyJobs was facing these issues:

• Legacy admin panel lacking flexibility and scalability

• High development costs for custom applications

• Difficulty in implementing new features on market requests

Appsmith helped HeyJobs to:

• Rebuilt legacy applications with improved interface and functionality

• Enabled non-technical engineers to add new features

• Reduced feature development time from weeks to hours

• Automated budget allocation for enterprise clients

• Improved user experience with a faster and more intuitive interface

• Allowed engineers to focus on sophisticated business logic

Low-code BPM platforms have changed the way businesses manage and optimize their processes. Create, modify, and streamline business processes using a low-code development platform's drag-and-drop interfaces, workflow automation, and easy integration capabilities. 

Stay competitive by benefiting from the power of low-code platforms available in the market. When it comes to low-code BPM platforms, Appsmith is a standout choice. Here are the reasons. 

• Enables rapid development of custom dashboards and applications

• Open-source platform

• Self-hosting and cloud-hosting capabilities

• Integrates with existing systems

• Open-source with no vendor lock-in

• Usage-based pricing

Appsmith could be your solution to optimize your business processes and enable faster app development within your organization. 

Yes, it's possible to integrate low-code BPM platforms like Appsmith into existing systems. These platforms offer integration capabilities through APIs, pre-built connectors, and custom integration platforms. You can connect with various enterprise systems like CRMs, ERPs, and databases to leverage smooth data exchange and process coordination.

Here is a list of issues faced in traditional low-code BPM platforms.

• Complexity and steep learning curve

• High implementation costs

• Lack of flexibility and agility

• Limited integration capabilities

• Difficulty in handling unstructured processes

• Scalability challenges

• Lengthy deployment times

• Inadequate real-time analytics

Low-code BPM platforms allow non-technical users to design and deploy business processes and applications using a drag-and-drop interface without requiring coding expertise. These platforms provide pre-built templates, drag-and-drop functionality, and integration capabilities, enabling rapid app development.

However, having some coding knowledge helps manage complex customization and integrations. Low-code BPM platforms provide a powerful tool to streamline and automate your processes.