Low Code Platforms A Key Factor In Modernising Legacy Applications

CIOs and IT leadership are always under constant pressure to modernize legacy applications, and that's a big challenge. That is where low code firms can help in boosting efficiency, an expert said.

“In almost every enterprise, there's a huge backlog of requirements coming from the business that are not being fulfilled today. This backlog problem makes time-to-market critical, and traditional development methods, regardless of the technology, don't really help. That's why enterprises are turning to low-code and platforms like Kissflow-because what used to take months can now be done in weeks,” Prasanna Rajendran, Vice-President, EMEA, Kissflow, said.

There's also a clear distinction between Kissflow and other input platforms when it comes to time-to-market. Kissflow is simple yet sophisticated, and that makes a big impact in accelerating digital transformation. Another reason is cost efficiency. Enterprises want to reduce development costs. Traditional development requires large teams, whereas with low-code and embedded products like Kissflow, those costs come down significantly, he added.

Usage of Kissflow solutions has yielded high returns on investment for customers, Rajendran said.“One of the best ROI examples is from one of our leading FC customers, who achieved about 450% return on investment within the span of their agreement. They achieved this through three main factors. First, the elimination of costs related to infrastructure and the people required to support that infrastructure-this was fully reduced, leading to significant savings. Second, they were able to redeploy their people into the right projects, replacing routine support roles with more strategic initiatives. And third, they achieved an overall productivity and efficiency improvement of around 10%, which is quite significant. This is one of the highest outcomes we've seen. On average, customers are able to achieve returns within 8 to 15 months, depending on the size and scope of the project,” Rajendran said.

The key element separating Kissflow from the competition, Rajendran stressed, is centricity.“It's very simple, yet at the same time very sophisticated. You can build a simple application, but you can also go very complex. Some have implemented loan origination in banking-which is one of the most complex processes. Every loan approval involves hundreds of parameters, with multiple validations before approval. We also have customers who are using it for end-to-end property management-right from final exception to fund dilution. So the platform supports both simple and complex use cases,” Rajendran said.

There's a growing thought process now that with AI, the days of coders are over and the days of prompters have begun. As a result, even the way teams are now being structured has changed. Earlier, they were made up entirely of technical people. Now, it's a mix of both technical and functional people.“Prompting has become the new language. One of the main challenges for business users in the past was that, although they knew exactly what they wanted and were closest to the problem, they couldn't build applications due to a lack of technical skills. Technical people, on the other hand, didn't always understand the problem as well. Now, with prompting as a rational language, we're seeing smaller, mixed teams of technical and functional members. There's also a clear trend of business people being able to build applications on their own without constantly relying on IT,” Rajendran said.

Around 35 to 40% of Kissflow customers are from its home market. The next largest is APAC, including Southeast Asia, followed by India, the Middle East, and other regions. 'We are seeing consistent growth across all regions. In the Middle East, the last two years have been particularly strong for us. We have built a solid foundation and are seeing growth in verticals like real estate, retail, and FMCG. We are now also focusing on oil and gas, both in the UAE and KSA. On the market and product side, we are already working with AI, aiming to further develop and evolve it. We're adding capabilities like an autonomous agent, making the platform smarter and more intelligent,” Rajendran said.

Kissflow is moving toward Agentic AI.“With the agent, you will define only the outcome you want to achieve, and the agent will handle the process to get there,” Rajendran said.

Kissflow currently have around 600 enterprise customers, primarily large organizations, and its goal is to expand further into the enterprise space, Rajendran said.

Kevin Neogy, Group Head – Digital Transformation, AI & Robotics, Kanoo Group, said:“What we especially like about Kissflow is their approach: they want companies like us to succeed on our own. What we were looking for in a platform was not a vendor who would come in and do everything for us, but rather a platform that provides the right tools for us to do things ourselves. We know our business better than anyone-many of our people have been here for 20, 30, even 40 years. They know our processes inside out. We didn't want to be dependent on an external professional services team. With the tools available now, especially with AI, it's become much easier for business owners and teams to lead their own transformation. This way, the people who know exactly where the problems are can address them directly. That leads to faster transformation, stronger business buy-in, less resistance to change, and ultimately, better and quicker ROI.”

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