Software vendors are having a watershed moment. The pace of technology and the choice of how to adapt provide different paths. One pathway adapts to innovation and change with innovation. The other continues to apply traditional development practices that have worked well.
The latter group might be able to keep up for now. But technology is only growing faster, and customer demands are getting more complex.
Meet the Mendix Solutions Kit (MSK), designed for software vendors. Mendix built the MSK on the principle of Adaptable Solutions. Adaptable Solutions incorporate modularity, composability, and reuse into low-code technology development. In short, they help meet customer demands in a fast-paced and complex environment.
Your traditional development model may be efficient and agile. Yet, the pace of change will continue to threaten its feasibility and profitability.
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Implementing solutions across environments is time-consuming and risky
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Maintaining release schedules across a disparate client base makes scaling more complex
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Software vendors must find efficiencies in their processes to stay competitive
Today’s choices will affect a vendor’s ability to create, maintain, and iterate software that meets the needs of tomorrow’s customers.
Incorporating Adaptable Solutions into software development strategies keeps vendors competitive. Adaptable Solutions help Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) meet future development requirements.
What is an Adaptable Solution for software vendors?
Adaptable Solutions leverage low-code technology to remove the hurdles of high-code, traditional development. Because they’re modular, vendors can quickly adapt and extend solutions to different use cases.
But it’s more than these building blocks that make Adaptable Solutions so efficient. Adaptable Solutions also improve implementation. Vendors can easily consume—or create consumable—software. No more lengthy implementations or risky upgrades uninformed by clients’ needs and schedules.
Mendix designed the MSK for (ISVs). The result is easier and more efficient collaboration, development, implementation, and governance.
Mendix Solutions Kit (MSK): Designed for ISVs
A Mendix Adaptable Solution is a full-fledged application with many uses adapted at the model level. Mendix Adaptable Solutions are also centralized by an industry-defining immutable core. That immutable core is the shared part of the application. Centralization improves upgrading and adaptation at every level. Logic, data, integrations, UI/UX: you name it, it’s covered. It also makes the process faster, as at least 80 percent of an Adaptable Solution is shared.
The MSK makes it easy to reuse, adapt, and upgrade software. This reduces the total cost of software ownership. With Adaptable Solutions, more time is allocated to innovation. Plus, the Mendix platform is built for collaboration internally and even externally. Mendix’s Integrated Development Environment (IDE) allows vendors to host co-innovation sessions with customers.
What makes the MSK for Software Vendors
There are three components to a Mendix Adaptable Solution:
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Common core: At least 80 percent of every Adaptable Solution is centralized and shared across all implementations.
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Adapted core: While shareable across implementations, the Adapted core provides specific modularity to accommodate a vertical or scale to a different industry while leaving space for customer specificity.
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Specific extension: This is where bespoke development would happen for a specific customer. Together with the Adapted core, the rest of an Adaptable Solution is moldable to fit the application.
An Adaptable Solutions framework reduces the time and complexity required to build software. This applies to everything from customer-facing UIs to compliant software in highly-regulated industries.
Adaptable Solutions enable software vendors to architect modular, composable software. They also speed up the implementation of each software project. Low-code is the fastest way for vendors to launch, build, and deploy Adaptable Solutions.
MSK compiles the capabilities software vendors need to create Adaptable Solutions. These include Protected Modules, Adaption Insights, and Solution Lifecycle Management. Let’s review how each benefits the software development process.
Understanding why Protected Modules are important
Protected modules keep your application’s common, immutable core protected. Your organization can easily apply the user management and security levels it needs. Protected modules also make it easier to work with third-party vendors. Partners and collaborators can’t access intellectual property or introduce cybersecurity risks.
Protected modules also simplify reuse. When your IP is private and protected, you can ensure your solutions function as designed.
Well-documented and well-designed APIs make implementation straightforward. Updating is also simplified with recognizable version numbers that reduce delivery risk.
Adaption Insights provide powerful information
Understanding a solution’s implementation and customer adaptation provides critical insights to your organization. Understanding usage helps prove software success both on a micro and macro scale. Insights into usage can drive product roadmaps and feature upgrades. With Adaptation Insights, vendors can see which APIs are most used. That insight can guide decisions on where to invest in backward capabilities.
Adaption Insights help plan upgrades during business unit downtimes with precision versioning. Better update planning helps customers enjoy cutting-edge features and functionality with little thrash. Vendors can even use insight data to check the viability of upgrades pre-release.
Mendix developed the MSK’s Adaption Insights capability to be flexible. Vendors can view metrics at the business unit level, leading to better service.
Vendors can also scale back and segment creatively. With Mendix, vendors can optimize logic flows, data availability, and presentation layer requirements. This game-changing visibility has a positive ripple effect. From innovation to governance to customer experience, better usage insight produces better software.
Solutions Lifecycle Management from start to finish
Solutions Lifecycle Management (SLM) delivers maintainable adaptations that scale. The SLM capability supports your software adaptation from ideation to future iteration.
With the SLM capability, vendors can simplify solution upgrades. Vendors can automatically merge non-conflicting changes with a solution at the customer level. They can also continuously upgrade implementations while preserving custom modifications. With the MSK, it’s easy to resolve conflicts at a fine-grained level.
Let’s say a conflict arises between a solution update and a customer’s implementation. Customers can opt to stick with their current modified solution. Or, they can choose to update to the improved version from their software partner. From there, consistency checks ensure the general correctness of the app model.
The MSK delivers Adaptable Solutions to software vendors
MSK packages Adaptable Solutions that simplify, protect, and speed up commercial software development.
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The common, immutable core approach reduces development time, application sprawl, and governance redundancies.
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The MSK reduces the total cost of ownership.
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Reduced development time increases the vendor’s capacity for innovation. Mendix’s low-code platform enables co-innovation with customers and clients in real time.
Reach out to learn more about the Mendix Solutions Kit and Adaptable Solutions.
