Monday 11 October 2022
A note from Optimation’s new Managing Director, Warrick Flower on joining the company and his vision of the tech industry.
Often digital initiatives start with the idea of business transformation but take on a life of their own. Teams can have good intentions but struggle to deliver on the promises – bogged down with traditional platforms that are slow to implement or trying in vain to leverage one-size-fits-all products that sound great in a sales pitch but fail to flex to the needs of the organisation.
Last week I was talking with a specialist in food technology whose job is to deliver complex technical solutions: the science that makes your kombucha or protein shake possible. It turns out dealing with froth in drinks is more complex to control than just ‘not shaking them’.
They had specialist expertise and world-leading solutions, but the digital systems they relied on to enable their business were more like a hindrance than an accelerator of their success. Their comment was that they were sure there was value in the global systems they had adopted to someone somewhere, but it was hard for them to leverage when it wasn’t relevant to what made their business special.
The pursuit of creating the right solution – something that will truly provide value to the customer, not the vendor – has always driven me in my career. And this is what attracted me to this role at Optimation; being able to work with a team that has the mix of existing IP valuable to the local market, a focus on OutSystems’ low-code development platform that accelerates delivery, and the genuine customer focus and nimble nature that comes with being a specialist provider. Optimation stands out in this sector with the focus on low-code and the team’s strong motivation to deliver results fast.
Low-code is an emerging technology that gets talked about a lot in the tech sector these days. However, it can mean different things to different people, and not every business that talks about low-code development actually delivers the benefits it promises. I was excited to see that Optimation takes low-code seriously and has established itself as the leading Australasian partner for delivery, with the track record to prove it. The team’s experience with, and belief in low-code, is one of the key factors that captured me since it aligns so well with my own vision for the tech sector.
Traditionally, organisations had two options when it came to software:
1 - They could either buy off-the-shelf applications
2 - They could invest in costly and lengthy custom developments.
Both of these options come with significant limitations.
Buying off-the-shelf products can offer a sense of security since it is a ready-made solution. However, there is usually minimal opportunity to tailor functionality to the specific use cases in the organisation. Unfortunately, this means you end up paying for features and functionality you don’t even need and bearing large change management costs forcing your organisation into someone else’s model. Custom developments, on the other hand, offer the opportunity to build exactly what is required. However, the added cost is substantial, and it takes a long time to develop the application with significant risk. In an age and industry where things change at lightning speed, this slow development process is often not sustainable as it risks your solution being out of date before you’ve even finished building it.
Low-code is the solution to these challenges. It allows for fast, cost-effective development of custom solutions that do exactly what you need them to do. Low-code has come a long way over the last few years and can now genuinely offer quicker time to market. And it will get your users and customers a solution they love, rather than a barely functional MVP.
Although it is our passion, Optimation is more than just a low-code developer. Instead, we combine low-code technology with our expertise in design, traditional platforms, rapid prototyping and agile techniques. The team’s experience with all development platforms means we understand the legacy solutions that any new applications need to integrate with or sit alongside. We can integrate low-code solutions with legacy systems as well as apply traditional development modules to further extend the customer outcome when required.
Another factor that attracted me to Optimation, which links inherently with our belief in delivering customer value, is the team’s motivation to make the most of existing technology before investing in replacement systems. There is this strong belief across the Optimation team that delivering value to customers means making the most of what’s already there, instead of always starting from scratch, wasting useful capabilities, resources or time. With every project, the goal is to find the best and most effective way to deliver the outcomes that the customer needs – nothing more, nothing less.
Optimation is an innovator, weaving modern technology and design around the best of what makes organisations unique and different. I am incredibly excited to have joined this team, and am driven by the purpose of delivering true value for our customers.