Omoda opts for strategic deployment of the Thinkwise low-code platform

Omoda is a family business with a history that goes back to 1875. Since 2007 the company has grown rapidly by opening more and more successful branches and webshops. Over the years the company increasingly incorporated its distinctive strength into business software that ran on AS/400 servers. In 2017, Martijn van der Maas became IT manager with the task of bringing the management and maintenance of all software solutions in-house and modernizing and optimizing certain systems and processes. He initially did this with a team of twelve Java developers, but around 2020 the demand arose for faster and more efficient methods to develop software.

“Standard software was not an option for us,” says Martijn. “We want to be as autonomous as possible in everything we produce. The Thinkwise Platform entered the picture as a means of developing a hybrid solution, with which we can combine the benefits of our Java development team with those of low-code development.”

Robust platform

Thinkwise turned out to be the perfect choice for Omoda, because the low-code platform is extremely suitable for building large business software solutions.

“Thinkwise has a very robust back-end, with which in principle you can develop complete ERP solutions. There are few other low-code platforms that can achieve this. Furthermore, we can easily connect Thinkwise with our existing Java applications,” says Martijn.

In addition, the Thinkwise cloud-independent model better matches the requirements of Omoda. Many low-code software platforms only offer their services in the cloud, whereas Thinkwise users can choose for themselves where they want to host the platform. Martijn van der Maas: “Another important argument was that with Thinkwise we are far more in control of our own data. For example, for a database-export it is not necessary to apply all kinds of vague methods. With many low-code platforms you cannot directly access the database, and that is a requirement for our developers. This is possible with Thinkwise. And the fact that the platform does not exclusively run in the cloud, but can also be deployed on-premises, was a major benefit for us.”

Proof of Value

The cooperation with Thinkwise started after a successful Proof of Value project, during which a purchase order system was developed in only six weeks.

“With this project we successfully validated various aspects of the platform, including the speed of development, being able to easily export databases, the performance and the possibility to use applications on a mobile device without the need for modifications.”

Meanwhile, Omoda is training a junior and two senior developers to work with Thinkwise. They will take the earlier Proof of Value project to production. After this is completed, Martijn wants to focus on phasing out the AS/400 systems: “We are currently drawing up a strategic plan, in which we describe the parts of the development where we can achieve the most added value from Java or low-code.”

He is completely convinced about the value of the Thinkwise software platform and about Thinkwise as a partner: “Thinkwise is a very accessible software company, and it is not a company that only consists of consultants and sales people. They provide a unique low-code platform, which is very robust and well designed in terms of user management methods to get code from development to production. In the coming years, we also want to completely focus on the Progressive React GUI, to make all our staff mobile enabled. This is a must for our store assistants. All these possibilities save us a tremendous amount of development time. This is really the strength of Thinkwise.”