If you have technical debt then you must call us
Thinkwise bolsters its proposition to acquire a clearer position in the market.
“If you want to modernize an old application or recycle to a modern version then you should call us.”, says Pieter-Paul van Beek, Thinkwise CEO. The company has bolstered its proposition during recent months, including a new narrative: The Never Legacy Legends, where IT managers are urged to stop creating even more legacy.
According to Van Beek, this more accentuated approach was necessary because low-code has become more mainstream. “Large consultancy firms have become involved. The situation was too confusing. The association with low-code is that it is used to develop small apps, but that is not what we offer.”
The final result of this process was surprisingly simple. “We can now say: ‘This is our sweet spot’. Our development platform is for real developers, not for the business itself or the so-called super users. Of course, it all depends on what you are going to develop, but if you want to build a large logistic system, then you need to have architectural knowledge. Our customers are mid-range SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises). They always have an extensive application landscape. If you want to build a new core system from scratch there are other options, but in case of technical debt you need to call us. We are making considerable progress in this area.”
Co-creation
The most important distinguishing factor of Thinkwise is guaranteeing business continuity. The company achieves this by delivering sustainable solutions, which are constructed in co-creation, whereby it is guaranteed that no technical debt remains. Using the development platform developers can modernize and develop business critical and specialized applications. What these applications have in common is that they have a complex data structure, a high transaction volume and require a lot of customization.
Van Beek: “It mainly concerns business-critical applications, which are a black box in the application landscape. Nobody dares touch them. For example, an insurer built an application that managed the distribution of payments, claims and fraud. Such an application has tentacles in every part of the process and often there is no replacement application available. These are the sort of challenges that we relish. The spider in the web, a complex application. Nowadays, we can recycle 30 to 50 percent of such an application by means of AI. We reuse the old application so that the process is extremely sustainable.”
Awareness
Legacy software is a tremendous problem. Technical debt forms a danger for business continuity and it hinders and interrupts innovation, because a great deal of the budget is spent on maintenance. But legacy is also, literally, an attack on talent. Because it is difficult to attract the right IT talent just to do maintenance. “These companies are often active in the retail or logistic sectors, but this is also prevalent in the government. There is tremendous traction because there is a continuous stream of new legislation. IT managers must therefore be made aware that software does not need to become obsolete. Ultimately, it is a legacy problem and that is continuously on the increase”, says Van Beek.
Sustainability is closely associated with this story. The use of AI accelerates the re-development of an application. “If you can recycle 70 percent then the remaining development time will reduce. Where previously 30 to 40 people were required, we now do the same with three or four people. This provides tremendous benefits. This gives a clear mark. Choosing is primarily deciding what not to do,” decides Van Beek.