Systems | Development | Analytics | API | Testing

March 2022

Easing Retail Supply Chain Challenges with Low-Code Platforms

Ever since the pandemic hit, supply chain issues have abounded. Retailers bore the brunt of the news coverage, as shelves went barren for a host of reasons—not least demand shifts, panic buying, container shortages, and geopolitical concerns. These supply chain issues are estimated to have caused revenue losses of 5%–20% for some retailers. Often, once loyal customers switch brands or retailers rather than waiting months for products to come back in stock.

Accelerating Connected Underwriting on a Global Scale: A Conversation with CNA

To remain competitive, insurers need to look for ways to modernize the underwriting process. However, too often disconnected systems and siloed data get in the way, resulting in inefficiencies and a poor customer experience. We recently had the chance to sit down with Kathleen Ellis, SVP of International Solutions at CNA, during Digital Insurance’s annual conference to discuss how to accelerate connected underwriting on a global scale and their success with their CNA ComPassTM solution.

Monitoring Appian with Appian: Lessons from Automating Security Response

In our previous blog posts, we’ve covered the core components, orchestration capabilities and automated analysis and ChatOps features in our in-house Security Orchestration, Automation & Response (SOAR) application. In this final blog post, we will briefly cover one of the system’s automated response capabilities that allow it to take action and respond to alerts without human intervention, and close out the blog series with two important lessons learned from implementing SOAR at Appian.

Before the Pandemic, the University of South Florida Went to School on Low-Code. Now it's Paying Off, Part 2

Not to get all gloomy about it, but the pandemic accelerated the largest declines in college enrollment in more than 50 years and slammed colleges and universities with $24 billion in COVID-related debt. In other words, COVID was a wake up call for higher education.

It Is Not Technology Versus Business; It Is Technology AND Business

Last year, my friends at Appian commissioned some research through the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Financiers ridden with technical debt. The results were interesting: Research from The Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Appian, finds that just over a third (34%) of IT decision makers believe that the reduction or elimination of legacy IT would do most to help their organisation achieve its automation objectives.

3 Challenges Facing the Lending Market and How to Overcome Them

The financial services industry, like so many others, has undergone long-lasting changes in recent years. With the emergence of new technologies, new regulations, and unprecedented market changes, institutions have had to contend with unpredictability and rising consumer expectations. To effectively manage constant change, financial firms have to find a way to balance innovation and efficient process execution with risk.

The government has a low-tech image problem. Low-code can fix it, Part 2

You can spend hours scrolling down the rabbit hole of government IT horror stories, which makes the recent launch of the federal website for ordering free COVID tests that much more remarkable. The website worked, and it was surprisingly easy to use. But that success belies decades of underinvestment in digital transformation that has stifled public sector innovation and hardened the government's low-tech image. For example.

Before the Pandemic, the University of South Florida Went to School on Low-Code. Now it's Paying Off, Part 1

When COVID-19 hit, college students freaked out, universities went remote, and millions of students struggled with the impersonal functionality of Zoom—even with tropical backgrounds. But more than that, the pandemic exposed the shortcomings of legacy student information systems (SIS) that stymied university efforts to limit virus spread and help anxious students cope with pandemic stress. But sometimes it takes a crisis to start a revolution.

5 Features that Make Low-Code a Joy for Developers in the Appian 22.1 Release

There’s a reason for this. Low-code allows developers to visually build impressive UX, create interactive diagrams, and leverage pre-built templates to make their work easier and their lives happier. And with every release of Appian, we bring more features that make low-code a joy for developers. Read on for our developers’ top 5 highlights from the Appian 22.1 release. Try the latest Appian release for free.

Appian 22.1: An Experience You've Never Had Before

The way we interact with organizations has changed. Experiences have gone remote, mobile, and virtual over the past few years and there is no going back. According to Gartner, organizations providing a Total Experience in this new era will outperform competitors by 25% across key satisfaction metrics. But what is Total Experience? It is the combination of customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), user experience (UX), and multi-experience (MX) to transform business outcomes.

The Ingredients for Spectacular External Web Portals

The front door to your organization. Connection is key. No matter what industry you are part of, you need—you want—to communicate and interact with your most important audiences: customers, partners, citizens, suppliers, and more. And you don’t necessarily want to ask loads of questions or require users to provide login credentials for every interaction. This could result in unhappy users who abandon the process and look to one of your competitors for what they need.

How LIUNA Saved Two Months of Manual Work with Appian Portals

Every five years, LIUNA, the Laborers' International Union of North America, hosts a convention attracting over 1,400 delegates. The labor union needed a way to quickly build a public portal using the Appian Low-Code Platform to reach these delegates without requiring them to create an account or log in. They chose to join the Appian Portals beta program to meet their needs. Appian Portals securely connects external users to apps without authentication.

I Process Mined My Own Team and Here's What I Learned

Insight is a funny thing - everyone wants more of it, but sometimes, when we get it, we realize what we truly don’t understand. I got a major dose of insight recently when I used Appian Process Mining to take a look at how we could optimize some of our workflows, specifically content creation. At Appian, we have an AMAZING Creative team - and I’m not just saying that because we work together. I’m saying that because if they didn’t work here, I would hire them, without question.

Boost Customer Satisfaction with Connected, Automated Underwriting Processes

The insurance industry is undergoing massive modernization to improve outdated processes and enhance policyholder experiences. Delivering a connected insurance experience has become critical for insurers to stay competitive as the marketplace digitizes and insurtechs emerge, bringing new challenges to more established providers. Core to an insurer’s overall connected insurance experience are workflows that ensure a seamless, accelerated digital underwriting process for potential policyholders.

Developers Are Fed Up. They want More Fulfilling Work. This Is how Low-Code can Help

We should be skeptical of doomsday commentary about worker burnout and the “great resignation”, but also keenly aware that things have changed, that worker engagement is on life support, and that fed up workers are costing the global economy a staggering $8.1 trillion a year. So, what the heck happened to work since the pandemic began? Turns out just 20% of global workers are engaged with their work, including 36% of workers in the U.S. followed by 11% in the U.K. and Western Europe.