Superapps in the Enterprise: Up, Up and Away!

By -


 “We think these applications are so compelling that we don’t just call them apps, we call them super apps… Super apps are applications that once you start using them, you’ll wonder just how you lived without them” - BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis.


What is a Superapp? 

In the early days of the smartphone revolution, BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis first coined the term “super app” (or “superapp”) in a MWC 2010 keynote speech. He defined them as “a closed ecosystem of many apps that people would use every day because they offer such a seamless, integrated, contextualized and efficient experience.”

According to Gartner®, “a superapp is like a Swiss army knife with a range of component tools (miniapps) that the user can use and remove as needed”.  We consider superapps to be a single platform where miniapps are integrated, thus providing a seamless experience to its users.

Here are some statistics and predictions from 2022 Gartner Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2023: Superapps research on superapps:

_____________________________________________

>2.68 billion   

Number of monthly active users that use 15 popular superapps globally.

_____________________________________________

>4.6 billion 

Downloads of 15 popular superapps globally.

_____________________________________________

>50% 

Global population using multiple superapps daily by 2027.

_____________________________________________

In our opinion, Superapp adoption has boomed especially in Asia due to a thriving mobile-first culture. Providing diverse services (digital payments, insurance, online shopping, ride-sharing, food delivery, and more) superapps such as WeChat and Alipay in China, Grab in Southeast Asia and Kakao in South Korea have mainstream appeal among consumers. 


Why Superapps for the Enterprise?

Consumers love the convenience of superapps, which afford them multiple services at their fingertips in one package. However, superapps are not limited to the consumer space, and there is huge potential for forward-looking enterprises to expand the superapp concept into enterprise mobile and desktop experiences. 

Superapps can generate a transformative impact not just for an enterprise’s customers, but also to its partners and employees. There are many benefits of using superapps for enterprises, including:

  • Improved customer experience - Superapps can help enterprises to improve the customer experience by providing a more personalized and seamless experience.
  • Increased sales and loyalty - Superapps can help enterprises to increase sales and loyalty by enticing customers to stay engaged within its ecosystem.
  • Increased employee efficiency and productivity - Superapps can help enterprises to improve efficiency and productivity by providing a single platform for employees to access a range of applications and services.
  • Improved partner collaboration and integration - Superapps can help enterprises to improve collaboration and integration between vendors and suppliers, helping to increase efficiency between organizations.
  • Reduced costs - Superapps can help enterprises to reduce costs by consolidating multiple applications and services into one platform.


How Superapps Work

So what constitutes a superapp platform, and how does it work? According to Gartner, superapp platforms exhibit 5  key capabilities:


  1. Core features - A superapp offers core features to entice users
  2. Miniapp Development - Platform provides developer tools for the miniapps
  3. Miniapp publication - Platform provides a publication mechanism for miniapps
  4. Data sharing - Data sharing between superapp and miniapps
  5. User activated - User discovery and activation of miniapps

The presence of all 5 key capabilities is what makes superapps different from traditional web/mobile apps and composite app/portal, which only offer a subset of these capabilities.

We believe that superapps are a culmination of composable applications and architecture, where applications are built and assembled from business components just like Lego blocks. A composable architecture allows multiple teams to develop modular miniapps that share data, while also allowing end-users to select their miniapps to personalize their user experience. 


No-code and Low-code Platforms for Superapps

No-code and low-code platforms are application platforms that allow developers to rapidly build applications with zero or little code. It will not come as a surprise that enterprises are embracing LCAP, because there is a critical need to solve business challenges quickly due to macroeconomic factors such as pandemics and global conflicts, compounded by the global shortage of technical resources.

By nature, LCAP offers faster and more agile application development and deployment, while utilizing less resources. This matches the requirements of a superapp platform to facilitate miniapp development and publication, hence making LCAP an ideal platform for enterprises to build superapps.

Benefits of LCAP include:

Rapid development - Allows developers to build complex applications quickly and easily, without the need to write extensive amounts of code. This makes it possible to rapidly deploy new features and services as miniapps, and scale them as needed.

Improved collaboration - Often comes with built-in management and collaboration tools to help business and IT teams to work more efficiently and effectively.

Enhanced customization - Typically offers a range of tools and features for customizing the look and feel of applications, such as drag-and-drop UI builders. This can help enterprises to quickly create custom applications that are tailored to their specific branding and needs.

Easier integration - Often includes features for easily integrating with external systems and data sources, which can help enterprises to more seamlessly incorporate new features and services into their apps.


Joget as a Superapp Platform

Joget DX (Joget) is an open source no-code/low-code application platform combining the best of business process automation, workflow management, and rapid application development. Designed as a convergence of both no-code and low-code in an open platform, Joget offers a unique combination of simplicity, flexibility, and openness. 

Joget caters to all developer personas starting from simple citizen developer apps and scaling up to sophisticated enterprise solutions built by fusion teams of business and IT on Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift.

For superapps, the next generation Joget DX 8 supports all the 5 characteristics out-of-the-box:


1. Core features - Joget offers flexible, end-to-end enterprise app development capabilities (forms, lists, UI, process automation, workflows, reports, APIs, integration, mobile and more) that meet a wide range of enterprise use cases. Dynamic plugin architecture and seamless integration with the Joget Marketplace provide extensibility to customize features and functions that adapt to business needs and facilitate immediate changes.

2. Miniapp development - Joget’s simple and intuitive no-code approach empowers citizen developers, while also offering low-code and pro-code features for power users and professional developers alike. Certified by the Project Management Institute (PMI) as a Gold Tier partner in the PMI Citizen Developer™ Partner Program, Joget enables non-technical business experts to collaborate with IT to build applications significantly faster at a fraction of the cost.

3. Miniapp publication - Apps built on Joget are responsive and accessible from any desktop or mobile device, with automatic Progressive Web Apps (PWA) compliance that offer native-like mobile functionality such as app installation, offline support, background sync, push notifications, and more. The main superapp can also be published as a native mobile app to mobile app stores. The apps can be easily deployed and published to the platform running on a multitude of environments, whether on-premise or multi-cloud deployment (On-Demand Cloud, Certified OpenShift Operator, Red Hat Marketplace, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud Foundry, Google Workspace Marketplace, AWS Marketplace, Azure Marketplace, Google Cloud Platform Marketplace).

4. Data sharing - Joget allows the underlying data in the platform to be shared between apps in a variety of ways, whether through database connections, web service APIs, or any custom integration through the extensible plugin architecture. The API Builder introduces a visual drag-and-drop approach to design and manage custom APIs that are automatically compliant with the OpenAPI Specification, facilitating the use of microservices and composable business applications.

5. User activated - Joget is bundled with multiple App Centers for users to access the apps available to them, with simple UI configuration to enable end-users to discover and activate miniapps of interest. Many configurable UI themes are bundled, and additional UI themes are available in the Joget Marketplace while custom themes can be developed as plugins.


________________________________________________________________________________________________

Get Started with Superapps Using Joget

Superapps offer enterprises an opportunity to consolidate many apps into a single, unified platform along with higher rates of user adoption. Start building superapps using the Joget platform:

Get Started - Experience the Joget DX platform.

Video Tutorials - Quick overview and build your first app.

Knowledge Base - User and developer reference, samples, and other documentation.

Community Q&A - Ask questions, get answers, and help others.

Language Translations - Translations for more than 20 languages.

Joget Mindshare™ Series - Information sharing and educational content ranging from whitepapers, webinars, video tutorials, customer success stories, and more.

Joget PM-CD Evaluation Tool - Download Project Management-Citizen Development Cheat Sheet to evaluate the key considerations for bringing in Citizen Development tools for project success.

Joget Academy - Self-paced online learning and certification.

Joget Marketplace - Download ready-made apps, plugins, templates, and more.

Joget Events - Upcoming and past Joget events & webinars.

Joget Press - Joget press releases.

Joget Reviews - Joget reviews and customer testimonials.


GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Building a No-Code Blockchain App with IBM Blockchain Platform and Joget on OpenShift

By -
Image
1. Introduction In this article, we will look at using a no-code approach to integrating blockchain technology, specifically an IBM Blockchain Platform network, into a full-fledged web application on the Joget application platform running on Red Hat OpenShift . 1.1 Blockchain and Digital Ledger Technology (DLT) In recent times there have been many predictions on blockchain technology revolutionizing the world , transforming everything from banking to supply chains and even government. Even if you are not familiar with the term, you would probably have heard of the rise of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin which utilizes blockchain technology. So what exactly is a blockchain? To start, it’s best to understand a broader term called digital ledger technology (DLT) . DLT is simply a decentralized database, where data is stored by a network of computers with no central authority. Blockchain is a specific type of DLT, where records in the network are linked using cryptography and
Read more

No-Code, Low-Code and Pro-Code: Why Flexibility is Essential for Digital Transformation

By -
Image
Introducing Business Reporting and API Management Addons for Joget DX The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic will be viewed in history as a significant point in human history. In the post-pandemic world, digital transformation can no longer be delayed and organizations need to adapt quickly, or perish, as the old ways of working no longer apply in the new normal. Based on Forrester’s Q1 2020 Digital Process Automation Survey , over 70% Of organizations still have paper-based process dependencies, as shown in the figure below. With a modern open source no-code/low-code platform like Joget DX , organizations can rapidly build, deploy and adapt applications to cater to ever changing needs. In this article, we will talk about the need for flexibility in application platforms to meet digitalization needs, and how the extensibility of Joget DX enabled the introduction of new add-ons for business reporting and API management . No-Code, Low-Code and Pro-Code: Flexibility and Extensibility There mi
Read more

DISINI™ Vehicle Inspection & Insurance App

By -
Image
The DISINI™ Vehicle Inspection & Insurance App is an application that can be used standalone or in a composable application environment on the Joget DX low-code platform. Enterprises will be able to use the application to manage their fleet of vehicles, track insurance policies expiry and conduct regular vehicle inspections. Summary of the App features are: Track your vehicles' insurance policies and set email reminders of the renewals. Assign inspectors to conduct scheduled vehicle inspections. Supervisors will be able to set reminder notifications for the inspectors of upcoming vehicle inspections. Inspectors will be able to check their calendars for scheduled inspections that have been assigned to them. Create and manage inspection checklists templates for the many vehicle types. Inspectors will be able to update and check their Dashboard for inspection tasks. Supervisors will be able to keep track of all assigned inspection tasks and follow up accordingly. The following ar
Read more

How to Solve Your Enterprise App Performance Problems

By -
Image
Enterprise applications are inherently complex, and performance problems are unfortunately a common phenomenon. This article describes some of the most common performance issues, and provides insights to help you identify problems and eventually optimize the performance of your apps. The content here is tailored for the Joget platform, but the information provided can be applied generally for any enterprise environment. Joget is an open source no-code/low-code application platform that empowers business users, non-coders or coders with a single platform to easily build, deliver, monitor and maintain enterprise applications. Getting apps built and deployed quickly is important, but having them perform well is essential. At the platform level, Joget has been optimized and streamlined as outlined in the article Need for Speed: How We Optimized Performance in the Joget Workflow v6 Platform . The Joget platform already takes care of a lot of things under the hood for running your apps. H
Read more

Enterprise Integration and Low Code Applications: A Practical Tutorial with MuleSoft Anypoint Platform and Joget Workflow

By -
Image
Need to integrate SAP, Salesforce or Microsoft SharePoint? Most organizations run many disparate systems, and information typically needs to be shared between them. As organizations undertake their digital transformation journey, demand for integration becomes increasingly complex with requirements from cloud, mobile, workflow, business automation (including robotic process automation ), analytics and other emerging use cases. Enterprise integration platforms connect various applications, systems and technologies within the cloud or on-premise. Integration platforms provide ways to manage these connections, typically by consuming and exposing these systems as APIs (application programming interfaces). Integration platforms also provide ready made connectors to many modern and legacy enterprise systems. According to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS), there is huge growth in the interest and adoption of integration platforms by both
Read more