Appian reengineers low-code platform for adaptability


Bobby Hellard

14 Sep, 2021

Workflow specialist Appian announced the latest version of its low-code automation service at its European conference on Tuesday. 

The refreshed Appian Low-Code Automation Platform promises to be faster and more efficient for building enterprise applications through advancements in low-code data and improvements to the user interface.

Appian hopes its new improved platform can make it easier for companies to access and transform their data with new services to sync, store and view it. In addition to new features that aim to improve automation, connected systems and application deployment. 

Ahead of the announcement, CEO Matt Calkins spoke to IT Pro about the improvements and how low-code has evolved over the course of the pandemic. 

“We went public as the first low-code firm in the world, back in 2017, and at that time, low code meant pretty much EPM or workflow,” Calkins said. “It was drawing instead of coding your application, but we have expanded it. In the years since then, we expanded downstream into automation.

“So you can now learn about the processes in your enterprise before you automate them. You can even translate the process mining map into a process model, and then edit it. So we’ve expanded both downstream and upstream from the original workflow centre of low code and now we believe that we’ve redefined what workflow needs to be to be viable in 2021.”

This new approach to workflow is about change and the need to be adaptable and change quickly has been “reordered” by the pandemic. According to Calkins. In response, Appian has made agility “imperative” and decided that it would make sense to gather a suite of products to make it as easy as possible to build a new app, a new process and to run that process. 

“We know how important it is now, to create change, to be empowered to change, and so we’re going to give you this platform that is the best possible way to define your new patterns and execute them. And we know that that’s what the market wants right now because they’re all desperate for ways to change for the better.”