Alpha Software provided a low-code development platform that allows inexperienced programmers to create and deploy mobile applications that can be integrated into business workflows.
Called Alpha TransForm, the platform enables citizen developers and in-house developers related to the business side of user organizations to transform paper forms into digitized mobile forms via drag-and-drop. Scanned forms can be customized using an integrated Java-like programming language developed by Dan Bricklin, CTO of Alpha, based in Burlington, Mass.
The idea for the product came from the steady stream of user requests for the ability to quickly create data capture forms that could be customized by someone who wasn’t technical and could be run offline, said Brickline.
“We’re in an opportune time now where so many businesses are digitizing what was once on paper, that’s when you get the biggest leap in productivity,” Bricklin said. “Previously, the cost of writing an app that scanned complex forms was too high, and the benefits of taking a PDF and marking it up on an iPad just weren’t there.”
While the low-code development platform is designed for citizen developers, Alpha officials realized they would have to build something that IT would be happy with as well. Additionally, they had to provide some measure of control over the applications being developed.
“IT needed something they could recommend when LOBs [line-of-business managers] would ask them for a system that could take their data and put it into the system of record,” Bricklin said. “Most importantly, they need to know the APIs that give them permission to access and control.
Glen Schild, owner of GJ Stats, a UK-based developer specializing in mobile app development, has a number of clients with field workers who rely heavily on a variety of scanned forms to collect, analyze and send information back to servers in their respective offices.
“I have a client with field surveyors who study the ecological damage caused by oil spills,” Schild said. “They have to take pictures and document everything about the incident. This [TransForm] can return all of this information directly into an SQL table. Then they can discuss with their line managers the next steps. It sped up the whole process,” he said.
Schild added that the TransForm Programming Language (TPL) has given it the opportunity to offer enhanced or new functionality to its customers’ field workers, which in some cases helps those customers run their business.
Soaring no-code and low-code development market
Analysts estimate that the low-code, no-code market will see double-digit growth over the next few years. In a recent report, Gartner researchers predicted that by 2024, low-code app development will account for over 65% of app development activity; 75% of low-code application development efforts will be limited to small to medium scale projects supporting non-critical workloads; and 75% of large enterprises will use at least four low-code development tools for IT application development and citizen development initiatives.
IT cannot remain this command and control organization over everything related to information and technology.
Jason WangVice President and Analyst, Gartner
What is fueling this growth is the rapid modernization of underlying technologies, primarily the cloud and the application development tools that come with it. IT organizations are now realizing that apps built using platforms like TransForm can help fill gaping gaps in an enterprise’s app offering, especially mobile apps. These platforms also allow IT professionals to focus on more complex application development projects.
“There is strong demand, driven primarily by business units,” said Jason Wong, vice president and analyst at Gartner. “IT now realizes that there is a new generation of low-code tools that they need to look at. What helps a company like Alpha Software here is the big skills gap in mobile apps.”
A growing number of citizen development initiatives have sprung up recently, some of which started as shadow IT projects, Wong said. But low-code offerings are now bringing these programmers out of the shadows, allowing them to contribute in a more legitimate way that could prove beneficial to IT and the business as a whole.
Wong warned, however, that more conservative IT stores might be wary of some inexperienced programmers using the platform’s built-in language, the TransForm programming language, to create poorly built or security-lacking apps. He said that in some cases, IT professionals will need to work closely with citizen developers on the most complex applications.
“The wrong side [of the TPL] is there a learning and knowledge transfer that needs to take place,” Wong said. “It depends on the talent pool you have and your willingness to invest in citizen developers. Citizen developers already have full-time jobs to occupy themselves with,” he said.
But citizen-developer projects are the new reality that IT will have to face. Citizen developers don’t necessarily need to get permission from IT to start a development project, and many have their own budget, separate from the IT department’s budget, to fund them.
“IT can’t remain this command and control organization over all things information and technology,” Wong said.
Although there is plenty of room for growth in the market, competition is also abundant. Gartner tracks some 250 vendors with low-code or no-code offerings. One such big competitor is Microsoft with its PowerApps, its new replacement for InfoPath Forms, which lets Excel users build apps. Another is Google with its web-based App Maker. On the low end, there’s Quick Base which targets business users in small and medium-sized businesses, as well as large enterprises.
TransForm is currently available as a monthly subscription in three flavors: Free for up to five users, Deploy Now, and Enterprise Rollout. Customers should contact the company for pricing.
