Business
Tech Tuesday: 11 low-code and open-source tools that can help move the needle in your business
Dynamic Business’s Tech Tuesdays column is dedicated to the businesses and products that have made great contributions to the tech industry, are pushing the boundaries of technology, and are redefining the future.
With technology’s ever-increasing presence in our lives and businesses across all industries becoming digital, there is a steady demand for IT skills. The task now is to close the skill gap and make it possible for people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who lack higher education to compete.
We’ve gathered a list of low-code solutions that can be game changers for developers and organisations that now need to spend less time on time-consuming manual coding processes, more time-solving business challenges, and provide faster answers for this week’s edition.
SnapLogic
SnapLogic is a low/no-code platform designed to help transform businesses from the inside out while driving operational efficiencies at scale. As a self-service, easy-to-use integration platform, SnapLogic allows non-technical departments such as marketing, HR, finance and business development to quickly and easily integrate systems and automate processes without relying on IT. As Gartner notes, citizen integrators can help organisations democratise IT, take the load off of busy IT teams, scale technology capability across the enterprise and speed up business outcomes.
SnapLogic is helping to pioneer a simpler journey to digital transformation for companies around the globe, regardless of their technical acumen, with this game-changing low/no-code integration solution. “Fast, agile organisations understand that integrating disparate systems and automating core processes are critical to accelerating business growth and success. This was true before the pandemic but is even more so now. The market for application and data integration continues to evolve and grow — Gartner has projected that the iPaaS market will grow to over $5.6 billion by 2024,” says SnapLogic VP of Products Mark Gibbs.
Kissflow
Kissflow is a unified work platform for enterprises to fast-track digital transformation. The platform combines the entire work management spectrum into a unified experience for enterprise-wide users by embracing the low-code/no-code paradigm. Whether it is automating processes, digitizing your operations, managing requests, or building custom applications, with Kissflow you can do it all within an integrated platform. Business users can take control of their digital needs while IT leaders can continue providing a secure and scalable platform for digital growth.
Hundreds of global and Fortune 500 brands such as Airbus, Pepsi, McDermott, Comcast and Danone rely on Kissflow to simplify and optimize their work. Kissflow has been featured and recognised as an industry leader by Gartner, Forrester and G2.
More here.
Smartsheet
Smartsheet is the no-code work management platform that enables your team to innovate without bounds and truly deliver business value. No-code is the software revolution sweeping through today’s tech-driven world, empowering anyone to create advanced applications without needing to write a single line of code. The keys to scaling and innovation used to sit primarily with software developers, but now, they are universally held by those with a pulse on the business: the workforce.
From simple tasks to complex projects, Smartsheet’s no-code solution accelerates modern business innovation by connecting teams, automating workflows and unifying activities for faster time-to-value and team efficiency. One such solution is Smartsheet’s WorkApps, which lets you create easy-to-navigate web and mobile applications in minutes without the need for coding expertise.
Companies like Uber showcase how no-code can be leveraged to save time and streamline communications. Uber used WorkApps to solve workflow inefficiencies for teams within the performance marketing group, saving 1,000 staff hours on planning and increasing customer lifecycle development by 40-45%.
Servicely
Servicely is an AI-Powered low code platform with an embedded self-learning AI capability that observes and learns how work is done to be able to augment staff and automate work in machine time across the enterprise. Servicely’s low-code platforms enable customers to rapidly turn manual processes and workflows into digitally transformed automated workflows using a single system of record to capture and track work across the enterprise. The Servicely self-service portal functionality includes an intelligent virtual agent to help solve issues and requests instantly and autonomously using the latest natural language understanding technologies.
An application example for service desks and call centres is the ramp time for new agents to come up to speed and be proficient in handling calls. The Servicely platform learns from the best agents how tasks are handled to provide augmented assistance to newer agents on how to deal with calls. Over time Servicely gets smarter and can automate diagnostics in machine time, reducing call handle times by over 50 per cent.
The product was launched in August 2021.
More here.
SYSPRO
Low-code/no-code tools are designed to make it easy for non-technical people to design, build, and launch applications quickly.
Manufacturers can use low code supported platforms to address internal business challenges such as changing a business process, the improvement of operations across the shopfloor, and enhancing supply chain efficiencies.
It is vital that low code tools can connect with a system such as SYSPRO Cloud ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. It is a functionally-rich cloud ERP system that provides a scalable and adaptable business solution. It can be securely accessed via a web browser on any device, from anywhere.
Specialising in the Manufacturing and Distribution sectors, SYSPRO ERP (https://au.syspro.com/) helps to manage data and gain business insights by providing a full view of all business activities, including financial, warehouse and inventory management, across the supply chain and business operations. Manufacturers can also make decisions based on real-time data and improve customer satisfaction due to improved productivity.
A product video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xDnAwleGgQ.
PRIME BPM
PRIME BPM is a powerful cloud-based, low-code, no-code Business Process Management Platform designed to meet the requirements of both—business users and business process experts. The plug-and-play software comes with an inbuilt methodology to empower organisations to easily and accurately map, analyse, improve and automate their business processes. Combining the power of methodologies, including BPM, Lean, Six Sigma, and Value Stream Mapping, the intuitive platform helps organisations derive the maximum output from their improvement journey.
The software comes packed with best-in-class functionalities, including process prioritisation as per criticality; automatic insights on process efficiency, cost and value; and inbuilt governance, risk and compliance module. It also helps organisations simulate scenarios to understand the potential cost savings of the improvements.
“At PRIME BPM, we believe in not just providing software but are committed to ensuring BPM success. We work closely with our customers to understand their pain points and create a bespoke journey to help them achieve their business milestones and put them on a growth path,” says Mark Khabe, Co-Founder, PRIME BPM.
More here.
monday.com’s Work Operating System (Work OS) enables the technical and non-technical workforce to meet business goals and objectives by using no-code, low-code technologies. This approach helps departments from sales, creativity and marketing through to HR focus on high-value work, giving employees the independence to build apps that improve overall business results.
A robust, scalable foundation that you can build on to create your ideal workflows, no-code, low-code gives power to the people by democratising the software’s capabilities. As organisations search for unique ways to help employees step outside their comfort zones into new technology territories, monday.com’s no-code, the low-code platform provides the entire workforce with access to applications, forms and integrations through a robust low-code framework.
Through this model, employees are empowered to create new unique applications designed to solve the toughest of business challenges while automating core business tasks that boost profitability.
The monday.com No-Code, Low-Code Work OS platform is available via https://monday.com. 
Asana Flow & Asana Rules
Asana is a leading work management platform that’s pioneering the future of work. More than 126,000 paying customers and millions of free organisations across 190 countries use Asana to orchestrate their work, from small projects to strategic initiatives.
Earlier this year, Asana launched Asana Flow, a new suite of offerings democratising the ability to build end-to-end workflows in just a few clicks – no coding required. Powered by the Asana Work Graph’s unique ability to capture how work fits together up, down and across an organisation, Workflow Builder enables customers to build and automate connected processes, giving teams real-time visibility and improving cross-functional collaboration. With Template Library, teams can leverage best practices, including creative production and product launch templates, inspired by the world’s most innovative companies using Asana.
And with Rules, teams can quickly streamline processes and automate routine tasks, freeing them up to focus on the most critical, high-impact work. In fact, teams using Asana report Rules save everyone more than 70 manual steps per week.
GitHub Copilot
Dedicated no-code tools typically make it easy to get started with coding, but you quickly hit the ceiling when doing more advanced tasks. GitHub Copilot – an AI pair programmer that helps you write code faster and with less work – removes the entry point into normal programming, but there is no ceiling: you are working with the same powerful tools as the experts. We believe that GitHub Copilot has the potential to lower barriers to entry, enabling more people to explore software development and join the next generation of developers.
In a survey distributed to 17K developers during GitHub Copilot’s technical preview, over 75% self-reported that when using Copilot, they spend less mental effort on repetitive programming tasks, focus on more satisfying work, and stay in the flow.
Ultimately, Copilot takes the ‘boring’ out of coding – learners can focus on timeless concepts instead of struggling to learn the details of today’s APIs. The work can now focus on the truly creative parts of the job. Programming is now about design – decomposing a large problem into smaller ones – and then specifying what the smaller blocks should do. The AI will fill in the details. It’s so exciting to imagine all the amazing apps that the next generation will build, powered by unbridled human creativity, and aided by AI. A career in coding has never looked so bright!
Unit4
“Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is one of the most useful workflow platforms for businesses today. In the wake of a potentially looming recession, where businesses across all industries are trying to cut costs and do more with less, ERP helps organisations increase productivity and generates cost savings.
“Unit4’s state-of-the-art cloud platform, ERPx, brings together the capabilities of Financials, Procurement, Project Management, HR and FP&A onto a unified cloud platform that shares real-time information and is designed with a powerful, people-centric approach, so employees can benefit from the better insight and become more effective and increasingly engaged. Not only does it support rapid and continuous change while delivering an individualised fit for customers at scale, but it also delivers the right tools to unify the processes across your organisation and connect your people. We’ve also recently acquired Scanmarket, our new Procure to Pay solution that helps ensure companies are getting the most out of their supplier relationships.
“By implementing ERP into your business, employees can optimise workforce efforts effectively, increasing productivity, execute informed business decisions through data-driven insights and ultimately save your organisation valuable time and resources.”
Zoho Creator
Zoho Creator is an all-in-one solution that bridges the gap between business users and IT teams by providing a low-code solution-building experience regardless of technical know-how. Organisations currently face a soaring need for new software, but global inflation and local interest rates and a cost-of-living squeeze are putting pressure on business budgets. However, Zoho Creator provides an affordable, accessible option for businesses, departments and users with little or no coding skills to create, deploy and scale powerful, custom-built solutions with ease.
Addressing the needs of both business users and IT teams, Zoho Creator Platform supports all levels to build, manage, integrate, and analyse for a complete low-code experience, enabling 10X faster deployment than any other solution on the market.
Democratising access to low-code development tools allows IT and business users to work in tandem to create and deploy apps that are highly customised while minimising common interoperability, permissions, and governance challenges. Zoho Creator’s intuitive drag-and-drop user interface incorporates cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Intelligence (BI) and has already helped six million users build seven million apps worldwide.
For more information, visit Zoho Creator.
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Transport providers, businesses and governments on Saturday are rushing to get all their systems back online after long disruptions following a widespread technology outage.
The biggest continuing effect has been on air travel. Carriers canceled thousands of flights on Friday and now have many of their planes and crews in the wrong place, while airports facing continued problems with checking in and security.
At the heart of the massive disruption is CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm that provides software to scores of companies worldwide. The company says the problem occurred when it deployed a faulty update to computers running Microsoft Windows, noting that the issue behind the outage was not a security incident or cyberattack.
Here’s the Latest:
Microsoft: 8.5 million devices on its Windows system were affected
Microsoft says 8.5 million devices running its Windows operating system were affected by a faulty cybersecurity update Friday that led to worldwide disruptions.
A Saturday blog post from Microsoft was the first estimate of the scope of the disruptions caused by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike’s software update.
“We currently estimate that CrowdStrike’s update affected 8.5 million Windows devices, or less than one percent of all Windows machines,” said the blog post from Microsoft cybersecurity executive David Weston.
“While the percentage was small, the broad economic and societal impacts reflect the use of CrowdStrike by enterprises that run many critical services.”
Weston said such a significant disturbance is rare but “demonstrates the interconnected nature of our broad ecosystem.” Windows is the dominant operating system for personal computers around the world.
Austrian doctors’ group calls for better data protection for patients
In Austria, a leading doctors organization said the global IT outage exposed the vulnerability of health systems reliant on digital systems.
“Yesterday’s incidents underscore how important it is for hospitals to have analogue backups” to safeguard patient care, Harald Mayer, vice president of the Austrian Chamber of Doctors, said in a statement on the organization’s website.
The organization called on governments to impose high standards in patient data protection and security and on health providers to train staff and put systems in place to manage crises.
“Happily, where there were problems, these were kept small and short-lived and many areas of care were unaffected” in Austria, Mayer said.
Germany warns of scams after major IT outage
BERLIN — The German government’s IT security agency says numerous companies are still struggling with the consequences of a far-reaching technology outage.
“Many business processes and procedures have been disturbed by the breakdown of computer systems,” the BSI agency said on its website.
But the agency also said Saturday that many impacted areas have returned to normal.
It warned that cybercriminals were trying to take advantage of the situation through phishing, fake websites and other scams and that “unofficial” software code was in circulation.
The agency said it was not yet clear how faulty code ended up in the CrowdStrike software update blamed for triggering the outage.
European airports appear to be close to normal
LONDON — Europe’s busiest airport, Heathrow, said it is busy but operating normally on Saturday. The airport said in a statement that “all systems are back up and running and passengers are getting on with their journeys smoothly.“
Some 167 flights scheduled to depart from U.K. airports on Friday were canceled, while 171 flights due to land were axed.
Meanwhile, flights at Berlin Airport were departing on or close to schedule, German news agency dpa reported, citing an airport spokesman.
Nineteen flights took off in the early hours of Saturday after authorities exempted them from the usual ban on night flights.
On Friday, 150 of the 552 scheduled inbound and outbound flights at the airport were canceled over the IT outage, disrupting the plans of thousands of passengers at the start of the summer vacation season in the German capital.
German hospital slowly restoring its systems after widespread cancellations
BERLIN — The Schleswig-Holstein University Hospital in northern Germany, which on Friday canceled all elective surgery because of the global IT outage, said Saturday that it was gradually restoring its systems.
In a statement on its website, it forecast that operations at its two branches in Kiel and Luebeck would return to normal by Monday and that “elective surgery can take place as planned and our ambulances can return to service.”
Britain’s transport system still trying to get back on track
LONDON — Britain’s travel and transport industries are struggling to get back on schedule after the global security outage with airline passengers facing cancellations and delays on the first day of summer holidays for many school pupils.
Gatwick Airport said “a majority” of scheduled flights were expected to take off. Manchester Airport said passengers were being checked in manually and there could be last-minute cancellations.
The Port of Dover said it was seeing an influx of displaced air passengers, with hourlong waits to enter the port to catch ferries to France.
Meanwhile, Britain’s National Cyber Security Center warned people and businesses to be on the lookout for phishing attempts as “opportunistic malicious actors” try to take advantage of the outage.
The National Cyber Security Center’s former head, Ciaran Martin, said the worst of the crisis was over, “because the nature of the crisis is that it went very wrong very quickly. It was spotted quite quickly and essentially it was turned off.”
He told Sky News that some businesses would be able to get back to normal very quickly, but for sectors such as aviation it would take longer.
“If you’re in aviation, you’ve got people, planes and staffs all stranded in the wrong place… So we are looking at days. I’d be surprised if we’re looking at weeks.”
Germany airline expects most of its flights to run normally
BERLIN — Eurowings, a budget subsidiary of Lufthansa, said it expected to return to “largely scheduled” flight operations on Saturday.
On Friday, the global IT outage had forced the airline to cancel about 20% of its flights, mostly on domestic routes. Passengers were asked to take trains instead.
“Online check-in, check-in at the airport, boarding processes, booking and rebooking flights are all possible again,” the airline said Saturday on X. “However, due to the considerable extent of the global IT disruption there may still be isolated disruptions” for passengers, it said.
Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates have canceled hundreds of flights
DALLAS — Delta Air Lines and its regional affiliates canceled more than a quarter of their schedule on the East Coast by midafternoon Friday, aviation data provider Cirium said.
More than 1,100 flights for Delta and its affiliates have been canceled.
United and United Express had canceled more than 500 flights, or 12% of their schedule, and American Airlines’ network had canceled 450 flights, 7.5% of its schedule.
Southwest and Alaska do not use the CrowdStrike software that led to the global internet outages and had canceled fewer than a half-dozen flights each.
Portland, Oregon, mayor declares an emergency over the outage
PORTLAND, Ore. — Mayor Ted Wheeler declared an emergency Friday after more than half of the city’s computer systems were affected by the global internet outage.
Wheeler said during a news conference that while emergency services calls weren’t interrupted, dispatchers were having to manually track 911 calls with pen and paper for a few hours. He said 266 of the city’s 487 computer systems were affected.
Border crossings into the US are delayed
SAN DIEGO — People seeking to enter the U.S. from both the north and the south found that the border crossings were delayed by the internet outage.
The San Ysidro Port of Entry was gridlocked Friday morning with pedestrians waiting three hours to cross, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Even cars with people approved for a U.S. Customers and Border Protection “Trusted Traveler” program for low-risk passengers waited up to 90 minutes. The program, known as SENTRI, moves passengers more quickly through customs and passport control if they make an appointment for an interview and submit to a background check to travel through customs and passport control more quickly when they arrive in the U.S.
Meanwhile, at the U.S.-Canada border, Windsor Police reported long delays at the crossings at the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel.
U.S. filings for unemployment benefits rose again last week and appear to be settling consistently at a slightly higher though still healthy level that the Federal Reserve has been aiming for.
Jobless claims for the week ending July 13 rose by 20,000 to 243,000 from 223,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It’s the eighth straight week claims came in above 220,000. Before that stretch, claims had been below that number in all but three weeks so far in 2024.
Weekly unemployment claims are widely considered as representative of layoffs.
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark borrowing rate 11 times beginning in March of 2022 in an attempt to extinguish the four-decade high inflation that shook the economy after it rebounded from the COVID-19 recession of 2020. The Fed’s intention was to cool off a red-hot labor market and slow wage growth, which it says can fuel inflation.
AP AUDIO: More Americans apply for jobless benefits as layoffs settle at higher levels in recent weeks
AP correspondent Shelley Adler reports filings for unemployment benefits have risen.
“The Fed asked to see more evidence of a cooling economy, and for the most part, they’ve gotten it,” said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade. “Add today’s weekly jobless claims to the list of rate-cut-friendly data points.”
Few analysts expect the Fed to cut rates at its meeting later this month, however most are betting on a cut in September.
The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits rose after declining last week for the first time in 10 weeks. About 1.87 million Americans were collecting jobless benefits for the week of July 6, around 20,000 more than the previous week. That’s the most since November of 2021.
Continuing claims have been on the rise in recent months, suggesting that some Americans receiving unemployment benefits are finding it more challenging to land jobs.
And there have been job cuts in a range of sectors in recent months, from the agricultural manufacturer Deere, to media outlets like CNN, and elsewhere.
The four-week average of claims, which evens out some of the week-to-week volatility, rose by 1,000 to 234,750.
Strong consumer demand and a resilient labor market has helped to avert a recession that many economists forecast during the extended flurry of rate hikes. As inflation continues to ease, the Fed’s goal of a soft-landing — bringing down inflation without causing a recession and mass layoffs — appears within reach.
While the labor market remains historically healthy, recent government data suggest some weakening.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1% in June, despite the fact that America’s employers added 206,000 jobs.
Job postings in May rose slightly to 8.1 million, however, April’s figure was revised lower to 7.9 million, the first reading below 8 million since February 2021.
Darden Restaurants is adding Tex-Mex to the menu.
The parent company of Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Yard House and other chains, said Wednesday it’s buying Chuy’s for approximately $605 million.
Darden said it will acquire all outstanding shares of Chuy’s for $37.50 per share. Those shares closed at $25.27 apiece on Wednesday, then soared past $37 in after-hours trading once the deal was announced. Darden shares fell 1% in after-hours trading.
Darden said the boards of Darden and Chuy’s have unanimously approved the acquisition. The deal is expected to close later this year, if it’s approved by Chuy’s shareholders.
Chuy’s Holdings Inc. was founded in Austin, Texas, in 1982. It now operates 101 restaurants in 15 states and has 7,400 employees. It’s known for its eclectic decor and fresh food, including handmade tortillas and sauces.
Like Darden, Chuy’s owns and operates all of its restaurants. Darden President and CEO Rick Cardenas said Chuy’s is a differentiated brand with strong growth potential that will expand Darden’s dining options.
Darden, based in Orlando, Florida, operates more than 1,900 restaurants and has 190,000 employees. It also owns Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Eddie V’s and Bahama Breeze.
“Based on our criteria for adding a brand to the Darden portfolio, we believe Chuy’s is an excellent fit that supports our winning strategy,” Cardenas said in a statement.
Chuy’s Chairman, CEO and President Steven Hislop said the acquisition will accelerate Chuy’s business goals and expand the brand to more communities.
The deal comes as both restaurant companies have been struggling with a downturn in customer traffic due to consumer concerns about inflation.
In Darden’s fiscal fourth quarter, which ended May 26, same-store sales — or sales at restaurants open at least a year — were flat compared to the prior year. Chuy’s same-store sales were down 5% in its first quarter, which ended March 31.
Investment bank Jefferies downgraded shares for both restaurant chains earlier this month, saying they’re being squeezed by price promotions at fast-food chains like McDonald’s as well as at casual dining peers like Chili’s and Applebee’s.
