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Meet Mambu, the SaaS cloud banking platform powering financial innovators everywhere.

Mambu

SaaS cloud banking platform

My first encounter with low-code was in 2009. Back then, I was a .NET developer and all I knew was pure code - thousands and thousands of lines of code, hours on end spent writing code to get something to work.

When I headed for my new job in a company called 

, my role was to develop a product that enabled other people in the company to build software for customers using low-code. At first it was counter intuitive: how did people that couldn’t write code develop applications? Good, reliable applications, developed 10 times faster than I was ever able to get something to market.

Alex Sarbusca

 How? Let me walk you through some of the interesting aspects of low-code development.

Have you ever heard about obsolete, out-of-time software? If yes, then you probably also heard about entire software landscapes that need rebuilding from ground up.

Think of a company that implemented an entire landscape of applications in the early 2000s. Assuming they did not use low-code, they most probably implemented those apps in all sorts of languages that are now obsolete - developers are hard to find, the latest OS-es might not even run them and we’re not even discussing mobile-platform support.

What low-code platforms bring to the table is complete abstraction from underlying technologies. For an application developed with low-code, it doesn’t matter if its platform is running on .NET or Java. If the low-code provider is adding mobile-platform support, it does not matter that your application was developed in 2005 - it will simply run on modern devices. And it’ll do it without development costs (analysis, development, testing, training, migration).

 don’t have to spend time and energy on the technical side of the implementation. They can focus on understanding what customers want and implement what they need on the spot. Think of a sales pitch where you could build what the customer requests on the fly - they’ll see value going up in front of their eyes.

Or think of the customer already running your low-code application asking for an urgent change that their business can’t do without. Provided that your low-code platform is mature enough, 

 Alex Sarbusca

Any good application provides the following: a menu, user-access control, logging, reporting, file manipulation/attachments and security. So if the majority of the applications require these attributes, why do we need to build them over and over again? One could argue that there are existing libraries for each of these, but they still need to be integrated.

Why not have a base, barebone, application that already does all of the above so the developers only need to add functionalities specific to the particular business case? Why bother with security certifications when you can use a platform that is certified? Why audit user management implementation when a low-code platform has this readily available, fully tested and certified?

A mature low-code platform can enable developers to implement applications by clicking and dragging entities on screen, linking them, defining relations and interactions between them. This way you can create business value without giving much thought to how controls on screen are created, how the application communicates with the database and so on.

If you’re worried that once you’ve started using low-code, you either stay and continue or start from scratch, know this: many platforms offer a simple way out called code generation. If a customer is in an irreparable situation with their low-code provider, they can simply request his application to be converted to conventional code. That way the know-how gained on low-code one can quite easily be translated and used into another platform.

Before jumping into developing your brand-new software ecosystem, do your research thoroughly - there may be the perfect low-code platform to serve your needs. And if you are a developer on the lookout for your next career move, check opportunities in the world of low-code - there might be a surprise in store for you.

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The new frontiers of low-code development

What makes working in the Ecosystem Team at Mambu such a unique experience?

“We enrich Mambu’s software with elements provided by our partners to create new banking solutions for all kinds of modern financial institutions. The closest analogy I can think of to make this clearer is car manufacturers. A car is not complete after the engine is built, right?  It needs more parts. Similarly, you can look at Mambu as mostly an engine and in the Ecosystem team we’re busy building connectors to all the other parts - we call them partners. We do have many partners to connect to and they are some of the most exciting (fin)tech companies of our age: ClearBank, CurrencyCloud, Marqeta, nCino, (Transfer)Wise, MS Dynamics, Oracle Netsuite, you name it!

How does a typical day at Mambu look like for you?

“The typical day for an integration engineer looks very similar to the typical day of any other software engineer working in an agile environment. What I think is different is that we tackle new problems and explore new business domains more often. You may be working on card payments one day and anti money laundering compliance the next.“

Why did you choose low-code as opposed to conventional programming?

“I didn’t choose low-code, I chose to work on a certain class of problems and a certain domain. Part of my work involves integrating cloud-based products for financial institutions and it turns out that the best tool for this job, given our constraints, is a low-code platform.”

In your opinion, how does low-code add value, as opposed to conventional programming?

“Each low-code platform is different but their main advantage is that they allow you to start working immediately. Low-code platforms handle deployment, monitoring and scaling so we can focus on the business logic. Whereas low-code platforms may add restrictions to what can be built, they also solve difficult problems that developers may not even be aware of (like scalability). Personally, I love conventional programming languages and integrated development environments, but low-code allows you to get things done faster by simply reducing the number of things you need to think about.”

What advice would you give to a software engineer who is thinking of moving to low-code?

To succeed with low-code, a software engineer needs to be pragmatic and focused on the outcome, rather than the technology. Conventional software engineering skills are important, because you can’t solve problems without them, but they are less important than the ability to listen and understand.”

Which key qualifications should applicants have to join the Ecosystem Team as low-code engineers?

“A low-code engineer in our team needs to focus on solving business problems first. We expect integration engineers to be familiar with a wide range of technologies, but technology itself is just a means to an end. Low-code engineers work with high-level abstractions. The point is to build working solutions to clients’ problems as fast as possible, while ensuring they are secure and technically scalable.”

Want to join the Ecosystem Team and apply for a Low-code Integration Engineer position? Coming soon... Keep an eye on this page.

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More on Low Code

A day in the life of a Low-code Engineer

This helped a lot with framing the pillars of what good software design and implementation mean, but it inadvertently sharpened my view on what actually makes great business for the end customer. It also made me less concerned with concepts such as delivery times, opportunity catch, time to market, expansion and that ‘something’ that makes even species survive: the ability to change.

Those core values haven’t fundamentally altered in my case, yet in more recent years I have added something essential on top. And it all begins with questions.

What if the software solution you are building now won’t be relevant in a couple of years?

What if you need to target markets operating on different rules?

What if you must build the product this year?

 and versatility of a business are key in any of these situations and if you went through them all alongside an army of developers, then I would like to hear from you and learn how you achieved it. With solutions that need to be delivered yesterday, time and resources are never enough. Adding more developers to a late project will only make it slower. That is a fact, regardless of how savvy the developers are because common approaches generate way too much knowledge transfer, overhead and maintenance. And speaking of more and more developers, you’ll tap way before you find enough.

A nimble business at scale can only be quickly built by connecting the best software that already proved reliable. That’s it. With any other variation, the business or the software on which it is based is either not nimble or not scalable.

 (Mambu Process Orchestrator), a tool based on patented technology which is able to put together virtually any custom product out of web services. I am part of a team that is building productised solutions which we call connectors, and I can see the magic happen. The infamous problems caused by lack of flexibility, time, resources and deep technical knowledge can be overcome in a matter of months, provided a clear business objective is set. Everyone in the team had a steep learning curve in spite of a quasi-technical background and were able to meet the initial demands and expectations.

We keep on building and changing at an unprecedented pace. Solutions that would have taken years with common development practices were put on a plate in a few months with the help of our 

The platform wields the ability to transform data and make changes using some code. Basic built-in libraries are at hand and GitHub repositories can be used if you need to go the extra mile, but using too much of those overrides the whole point. Structures such as queues, state diagrams, maps, delays are there to blend with your business logic and you can always equate to code execution.

I speak coming out of the trenches, having rolled up my sleeves and gotten my hands dirty. With a 

 platform such as the MPO, those who know what needs to be done can become those who do it. For the software developers reading this: you either are or become outstanding, or you’ll be disposable soon. The 

 movement gives little room for mediocrity and is founded on the selection of the optimal, on business knowledge and previously proven solutions. Ten years from now, the best engineers will probably develop the microservices that integrate via 

platforms, offering bespoke solutions to a variety of businesses.

If you can’t tell me a negative about the product, then I don’t trust it

Every solution that promises to become the silver bullet will eventually meet a wall that is thick enough. An orchestration engine, such as the 

, is bound to what services you integrate can offer. So, for the most part, you are confined to the APIs exposed by the systems you are connecting. But this puts the supposed limitation more on the microservice side, doesn’t it? However, that API is augmented by the tool via a set of nice features that give freedom of customisation to a significant extent, making up for many of the shortcomings.

Automated testing can be a challenge too, though you should keep in mind that instead of testing every single service, it's only their integrations you have to check.  In theory, the microservices are already thoroughly tested. Nevertheless, we overcame this with creativity and mocking as sole ingredients!

 aims high, and, no doubt, it is the right move towards giving businesses what they needed to succeed. A 

 platform is an adaptable, open environment that is resilient and flexible enough to incorporate new technologies that are emerging at a furious pace. To succeed in the 

 world, however, a platform alone is not enough. It is imperative to ensure that how and what you’re working towards always aligns with your business objectives.

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Low Code will take over the world

Wondering how Mambu can help you get products to market faster, improve your business agility and elevate your customer experience?

We have all that covered in our live demo session. Join us as we walk through the Mambu platform, tour the partner ecosystem and show you why Mambu is the only true SaaS platform trusted by hundreds of financial businesses around the world.

Join us as we walk through the Mambu platform, tour the partner ecosystem and we can show you why Mambu is the only true SaaS platform trusted by hundreds of financial businesses around the world.