TAdviser: Low-code Day 2025

We will have to develop artificial intelligence

Aleksei Borisov, Director of Consulting, Research and Analytics, Skolkovo Foundation, presented the results of market analytics for Russian developers of low-cost platforms in 2025. He recalled that this is the second such study, and the first was carried out last year.

Aleksei Borisov, Director of Consulting, Research and Analytics, Skolkovo

The study methodology included three stages: in-depth interviews with end customers of low-cost platforms, a survey of developers to obtain an initial assessment, demonstration of platforms (expert assessment) to confirm the initial assessment. Format of work: demonstration sessions via video conferencing system.

A total of 30 developers were interviewed. Their platforms were analyzed by 410 parameters. The conclusions of the study are as follows. Companies need to create their own solutions due to a lack of standard tools for solving specific industry problems. Low-cost platforms are well suited for automating internal processes, reducing the cost of creating software and fast development (with a qualified team), as well as for integrating various systems.

In general, Russian low-cost platforms have developed functionality in terms of configuring business processes, interfaces, object model, access rights management, logging and auditing, Aleksei Borisov said. - Integration tools with third-party applications are less developed, and least of all functionality in terms of mobile applications, artificial intelligence, application testing tools.

It is inappropriate to use low-cost platforms for complex tasks, for interactions with external parties outside the system loop, for unique processes and in the absence of centralized control over development. Not all platforms on the market allow business users to develop applications on their own, without the participation of specialists.

Lowcode on procurement and in the bank

Together, representatives of the New Quality of Roads company Elena Kudelina, head of the documentation support group, and Galia Pepelnitsyna, a specialist in process management of the organization and control department, presented their report. They shared the experience of successfully using the ELMA platform in the procurement activities of the toll road operator.

Elena Kudelina, Head of the Documentation Support Group, "New Quality of Roads"

The ELMA system has been implemented and operates in the company since 2014. During this time, they managed to assess its flexibility, process approach, ability to maintain standard functionality. Now the system has 215 users. Integration with EDM and e-mail is implemented here.

We analyzed the problems of the procurement process of inventories and outlined the goal - to optimize this process on the basis of the ELMA platform, - said Galia Pepelnitsyna.

Galia Pepelnitsyna, Process Management Specialist, Organization and Control Department, "New Quality of Roads"

We developed the requirements and realized that it was necessary to allocate a new process - small purchases, - Elena Kudelina added to her colleague. - Development based on ELMA was carried out by one internal specialist within one month.

As a result of the product implementation, the number of purchases for which there is no information about the delivery of assets to the warehouse decreased by an order of magnitude. It was - 92%, it became - 8%. Now 98% of invoices for the new purchasing type are paid on the basis of an agreed request. The company plans to expand the received functionality to intangible assets, for example, licenses and certificates.

Svetlana Ovchinnikova, Head of IT Development and Management, Project Procurement and Methodology, Renaissance Bank, devoted a report to customer requirements for low-cost products, supplier selection criteria.

Svetlana Ovchinnikova, Head of IT Development and Management, Project Procurement and Methodology, Renaissance Bank

Customers want flexibility to deliver rapid change, lower implementation costs, and lower cost of ownership. They need both the ability to scale horizontally, and compliance with the technological stack, information security requirements.

Svetlana Ovchinnikova noted the importance of qualitative criteria when choosing a low-cost platform. With this choice, the bank evaluates the vendor, his experience working with credit institutions, compliance of the project with the profile of the company, experience in introducing functionality. They look here at the technological stack used, and at the low-cost platform itself: the flexibility of its development, the ability to configure it through a configuration without coding, and compliance with functional requirements.

It is advisable to use a low-cost bank to create business support class systems and processes, where the price of an error is low and where there is a dynamic process with a large number of exceptions, "the speaker explained.

Renaissance Bank has successfully created a product catalog, a banking product lifecycle management system, and EDMS on various low-cost platforms .

The speaker also outlined the pitfalls on the way to using the low-cost platform: the difficulty of transferring customization, low user literacy, and the data model. A description of the process at the start, user training, consistent and documented approaches will help to safely bypass these pitfalls.

How beautiful is your platform?

Anton Sluchenkov, Director of the Data Development and Visualization Department, PEC, shared his experience in integrating a low-cost solution with other systems. He recalled that the purpose of using low-cost is to reduce the volume of traditional manual coding and accelerate the development of business applications.

Anton Sluchenkov, Director of Data Development and Visualization, PEC

An important advantage of the low-code approach is that a wide range of people with domain knowledge and understanding business logic, not just programmers, can contribute to design. The speaker outlined the ways of integration in the general case:

1. API is a standard way of interacting modern systems, supported by most low-cost platforms. It allows you to create microservices and endpoints APIs.
2. Data Base - support for various types of DBMS (MS SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle), the ability to execute SQL queries, transactionality.
3. Integration bus - asynchronous data processing, guaranteed message delivery, scalability at high load.

First of all, you should pay attention to the performance, download speed, how quickly the platform shows the result of the work, - suggests Anton Sluchenkov. - It is also important how beautiful and user-friendly it is.

Konstantin Reznikov, Head of the Department for Development of Omnichannel Systems at Azbuka Vkusa, spoke about the experience of creating his own low-cost BEROOK platform to solve the problems of optimizing computing power in the cloud.

Konstantin Reznikov, Head of Omnichannel Systems Development Department, ABC of Taste

From its own data centers, the company switched to cloud computing, this provided good scalability when you need a jump in performance in high sales seasons, "explained Konstantin Reznikov. - But additional computing power also requires additional investments in the cloud, so we began to monitor how many resources each service consumes from here.

The speaker spoke about the architecture of the BEROOK low-cost platform. It is based on nodes, each of which is responsible for a separate direction, for example, for working with databases, for a certain process, and so on. During the report, Konstantin Reznikov cited an example of creating a low-cost solution for calculating demand forecasting for pricing purposes.

He paid attention to the development of the platform in the areas of code generation (obtaining code that can be modified without binding to the platform), patterning, introducing an AI-based assistant, integration with Yandex Functions. In conclusion, the speaker said that a beta release of the platform is planned for July this year, and for October - the complete completion of codogeneration of both the front end and the API. At the beginning of next year, they are going to come close to developing an SDK for creating mobile applications.

Avoid unnecessary customization

Maxim Vasiliev, head of the data architecture department of the Center for Strategy and Initiatives, IC Rosgosstrakh, spoke about how to use the low-cost application for working with data, explaining that this project is now at the implementation stage in Rosgosstrakh.

Maxim Vasiliev, Head of Architecture, Data Center for Strategy and Initiatives, Rosgosstrakh

The advantage of low-cost applications lies in rapid deployment, it will take a small amount of time and resources. Such applications are flexible, easily adaptable to changes in business requirements. They are simple in settings, users must demonstrate only minimal programming knowledge. Low-cost applications are widely applicable and suitable for different industries. It is convenient to work with data and receive interactive reports.

Preparatory work on the creation of low-cost applications includes:

• database deployment, DBMS configuration, table creation, test data;
• Setting up the development environment: low-cost platform access, role models, data integration
• DataOps automation: CI/CD for data, quality control, change monitoring;
• creation of interfaces: input forms, dashboards, built-in business rules;
• Security and resiliency: backups, access control, scalability

As an example of such software, the speaker cited applications for maintaining a list of clients, a system for accounting for applications and tasks, and directories. He outlined what he would like to see in the low-cost platforms of the future. We need integration with AI for the emergence of smart recommendations in the interface. Business logic automation and lowcode convergence with classic ERP and CRM systems are required.

However, avoid unnecessary customizations, - advised Maxim Vasiliev. - The business is always satisfied when IT adjusts to it, but only until the moment when the developer suddenly quits.

Yulia Belokon, Senior Engineer, Programmer, Business Process Control Systems Development Group, Biocad, shared her experience in integrating EDMS with enterprise accounting systems using low-cost tools.

Julia Belokon, Senior Engineer, Programmer, Business Process Control Systems Development Group, Biocad

The company was tasked with creating a single entry point for all users through the EDM system, which is integrated with all other systems:

• with SAP on directories, counterparties, contracts;
• 1C for individuals, integration with Jira is implemented in case of error;
• with Kontur. Diadoc "by machine-readable powers of attorney.

The main low-cost tool for solving these problems was Webreports. The speaker called the simplification and acceleration of development, simple support for the implemented systems, but also noted the disadvantages as advantages in using the low-cost approach.

The low-cost approach really simplifies and speeds up development, the solution is easily integrated into the IT landscape, says Yulia Belokon. - There are also disadvantages. For example, there is limited functionality. But still, the disadvantages are covered by wide possibilities of customization.

Twice as fast, four times cheaper

Maxim Voloshinov, Director of Business Development at Lanit B.P. Em, recalled the background of the company's current low-cost business: the departure of Western BPM vendors with whom they had previously collaborated, the lack of knowledge of the Russian market for systems of this class.

Maxim Voloshinov, Director of Business Development, Lanit B.P. Em

This may seem surprising, but many Russian companies still use Western low-cost platforms, despite the lack of support and the inaccessibility of updates, - said Maxim Voloshinov. - This is partly understandable - the habit of users, unwillingness to bear the costs of the new system, distrust of domestic manufacturers, but the situation is gradually being corrected.

Listing the areas of the economy where the low-cost approach is actively used (finance, production, retail, logistics and warehousing), the speaker gave six recommendations for choosing a low-cost platform:

• Resource-intensive processes are a priority;
• step-by-step problem solving;
• Both functional and non-functional requirements should be evaluated;
• fast start with MVP;
• It is worth paying special attention to data and the system environment;
• you need to choose a reliable partner in the implementation of the project.

Maxim Voloshinov spoke about this case: analyzing the market for low-cost systems for a bank from the top five in order to replace the Pega platform. The project was implemented in three months. The results of the project: the bank's requirements for the target platform were prepared, a request for information to suppliers was organized and the results were processed, a methodology for quantitative assessment of platforms was created, finalists for the pilot project were determined.

In conclusion, the speaker listed the services that the company provides to those who have a need to migrate to another low-cost platform. Here they help to form requirements for the solution, prepare a project plan for migration, analyze the platform for compliance with the requirements, and then carry out a "move" and will grow the customer's internal competencies on the new platform.

Anton Simuni, Head of Development, RTK IT Plus"," spoke about the developed Noukod Platform (NC) and expressed confidence that Noukod platforms will change approaches to developing and implementing applications, make creation software faster and cheaper.

Anton Simuni, Head of Development, RTK IT Plus

The company has already introduced a method of development by small teams. These groups have a number of advantages: flexibility, high manageability, efficiency, and lower development costs. So, one small team of five developers and two analysts developed 20 products in a year and a half.

The Noukod platform, according to Anton Simuni, should allow you to customize any database structure and develop the product by the team. It's good if you can create any algorithms in the product, any user interface and product API.

The use of nookod platforms allows you to develop applications twice as cheaper and four times as fast, - Anton Simuni is sure.

It's time to separate concepts

Together spoke Viktor Fogelson, Development Director, Sakura PRO, and Vadim Stepurin, Chief Architect, Sakura PRO. They outlined the advantages of code-free programming and, accordingly, the advantages of nookod platforms over low-cost products. Pros are a complete cycle of creating software without programming, a set of ready-made processes, as well as the presence of pairing mechanisms.

Victor Vogelson, Development Director, Sakura PRO

It's time to separate the concepts of low-cost and noukod approaches, - urged Victor Fogelson. - Today there is a trend to do without programming. In the case of code-free product creation, the real work on creating software is done, relatively speaking, by two people instead of ten.

The speakers listed the advantages of the transition to the Sakura PRO platform: compliance with the requirements of Russian legislation, support from the vendor, integration with Russian ecosystems, data security.

Vadim Stepurin, Chief Architect, Sakura PRO

They paid attention to the technology of migration to the Noocode platform from the western platform IBM Domino/HCL Domino. At the same time, if the source codes are written in interpreted languages ​ ​ (JavaScript, Java, Python, Ruby, PHP, SQL), then using AI technology, the source code is automatically translated into one that the Sakura platform will understand.

Thus, the code is directly transferred to the platform storage and executed by a static kernel. Compiled languages will require development. In terms of convenience for a user who is used to the interfaces of the previous solution, they can be transferred to a new system.

The noukod approach assumes that the final product can be created without changing the platform core, - added Vadim Stepurin. - The vendor supplies the core. It is the same for all customers, while the specifics are created at the parameter level. Each customer can take and refine, reconfigure the solution for himself - without programming.

Pavel Berman, Director of Business Development, Nobilis.Team, shared his thoughts on when it is advisable for a large business to use a low-cost platform. To begin with, he listed the problems of using low-cost systems: insufficient flexibility, low performance, high cost, low trust.

Pavel Berman, Business Development Director, Nobilis.Team

The speaker considered each issue in more detail, presenting its possible solution at the platform level. So, in the context of unsatisfactory flexibility, limited customization, the complexity of integrations, dependence on a specific platform, insufficient analytics are named. The solution of these issues at the platform level is provided by the expansion of functionality through embedded code, microservice architecture, availability, API open architecture.

Pavel Berman listed what business needs to know about low-cost. A balance is required between low-cost development for rapid change and programming for complex, loaded processes. It is important to choose a platform that is flexible and resistant to high loads. You need a deep understanding of business processes, architecture, knowledge of the capabilities of the low-cost platform itself.

We practice a hybrid approach. Low-cost without coding is unacceptable for a large corporate segment, says Pavel Berman. - Low-cost - for flexibility and rapid changes, but for complex and loaded processes, code is needed.

During the break and at the end of the conference, the participants talked informally, and also had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the solutions and services of IT suppliers at the stands deployed in the event hall.