How citizen developers help deliver transformation at scale

The pandemic created urgency for innovation and exposed us to what technology can do. But a shortage of developer skills left organizations grappling. Better integrations and low-code apps can help deliver transformation at scale, while citizen developers can ramp up automation.

ServiceNow® Creator Workflows, including App Engine and IntegrationHub, offer a single, low-code platform that empowers citizen developers to deliver digital services fast without complexity. It equips developers of all levels with the tools they need to build apps fast, deliver experiences users love, and scale without sprawl.

Building apps fast with low-code

For years, UW Health, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's academic medical center, has used ServiceNow App Engine to develop low-code apps that address service management challenges. For example, the organization used the solution to create a content management app that automatically updates more than 2,000 fact sheets and education documents.

With that strong foundation already in place, it was easy for UW Health to use App Engine and the Now Platform® when the pandemic hit to support employees, track symptoms, and prioritize and schedule vaccinations.

App Engine also helped Europe's Banco CTT remain adaptable throughout the pandemic. Having built up a library of integrations, the bank uses App Engine for 80% of its standardized processes for customers and front and back-office teams.

Delivering experiences users love

It's not enough to just develop on App Engine. To be successful, your apps must deliver an incredible experience for end users, so St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis uses ServiceNow App Engine and IntegrationHub.

The team created a vendor invoicing app that decreased the time spent on processing, tracking, and correcting invoices. Tasks that used to take 40 to 80 hours per month can now be addressed in only three hours. And, the app saves the finance team 391 hours of manual work each month.

Swiss Insurance group Baloise digitized and upgraded claims management with ServiceNow. In less than three months, the organization reduced the time from reporting to payment by 40%. Processing time at Baloise went from "weeks or months to days and hours."

Scaling apps without sprawl

Organizations reap the greatest benefits of citizen development when they build automation into a workflow, making it measurable, repeatable, scalable, and secure. Medical technology, services, and solutions company Medtronic embraced citizen development to keep pace with the growing need for automation.

Employees stepped up to help, fulfilling 56% of demand through citizen development. That freed the platform team to focus on higher-value priorities. The organization estimates it slashed the hourly cost of development in half as a result.

At NN Group, an insurance and asset management services company headquartered in the Netherlands, employees depended on their central ServiceNow team to build and maintain catalog items. When requests reached more than 73,000, the company turned to ServiceNow App Engine for automation. Today, with self-service catalog management, processes that once took six to eight days take only two hours.

Learn more about how you can improve application development, experience, and productivity across your entire enterprise in our Creator Workflows Book of Knowledge.

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