Workplace Innovation Platforms: The 2021 Guide

Citizen developers have a special place reserved for them in every department of the digital workplace. These are the individuals who face the problems at work, know the problems their colleagues are going through, and the tools they need to get the job done. They are all the facilitators for all the solutions that standard systems do not address.

Workplace innovation platforms are user-friendly, collaborative platforms, and tools that allow employees to create tools and solutions for their day to day activities.

They allow people to create applications that are customized to their everyday needs that standard systems are just not enough for.

These platforms are very easy to use in terms of the interface and otherwise and allow employees to work together to get the optimal outcome. They have full-stack capabilities without the need for code and have the capability to be API integrated.

Thus, helping employees build confidence through innovation without the need of an IT team third party increasing the steps and time involved in the process.

Key benefits of workplace innovation platforms:

1. Innovative Solutions: Allows employees an opportunity to think outside the box to create application-based solutions to their everyday problems.
2. Collaboration: Removing the dependency of the IT department for a team and individuals within different teams to collaborate
3. Cross-platform Capabilities: the ability to run the same application on different devices, mobile, or even offline.
4. Cutting Edge Technology: seamless integration of citizen built applications with existing enterprise systems.

While these only brush the tip of the iceberg, we will now dive into our list and show you some of the best workplace innovation platforms 2021 has to offer based on features and customer reviews.

1. Airtable

Airtable is a platform that aims to build empowering solutions to increase business agility within teams. They have put in over $170 Million in funding and have put it towards ensuring that their software is in place for the most efficient utilization by creators.

While Airtable may often seem like a spreadsheet at first glance, they promise to offer solutions to optimizing critical processes and workflows. In addition to their technical capabilities, Airtable also promises to help tailor workplace relationships and team integrations.

Airtable has been extremely successful in integrating their processes through the transparency they provide to the users.

They are known to be reliable and have the tools to balance functional and professional to allow their clients to reach their highest potential. Airtable also offers many features that help build team efficiency and separate processes wherever required.

You can try out different workplace innovation tools via Airtable here or take a glimpse into their universe and the plethora of projects they have been involved in here.
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2. Salesforce Lightning Platform

The Salesforce Lightning Platform is an accurate description of what this low-code workplace innovation software has to offer.

It helps innovate business processes through the construction of low-code applications. The platform allows you to create new applications within the native Salesforce platform and allows integration within various Salesforce services. The application has proven itself to be 5-10x faster than other applications in the same arena.

This workplace innovation platform has been wildly adopted by users and non-users of the parent platform alike. It is innovative, easy to use, and provides a more easy to understand interface than others.

Additionally, they have many systems to automate processes they know every business will have and ensure that businesses constantly remain on revenue generation climbs.

Salesforce has some amazing testimonials that truly create an understanding of the brand philosophy and their working methodologies. Testimonials can be accessed here. A demo for this platform can be accessed here.

3. AppSheet

AppSheet is a no-code workplace innovation platform trusted by creative creators and enterprises alike. From organizations like Clearlink, Enterprise Holdings, ESPN, Pepsi, Husqvarna, and more.

They have been accredited by Forrester and offer a multitude of ways to create an application in a fast, easy, and scalable manner. The four methods they offer are; connecting existing data sources copying sample applications, use as an add-on to database management applications, or using their natural language declarative programming tool.

Users have fallen in love with how seamlessly the integration of AppSheet takes place with other cloud-based applications. The accessibility has also been praised as it seems to make vital information and management easy at any time, anywhere.

This innovation forward application aims to cut down on the back and forth traditional applications bring alongside them and the repetitions increased developmental time cause.

AppSheet lets users begin their usage of their application for free and have a plethora of sample applications here.

4. Ninox

Ninox is the business process management tool that seamlessly integrates with your existing processes, adapts them to be smarter, faster, and better.

They believe that an organization is like a body and the workplace should constantly be innovating and tools should fit like a tailor-made shirt.

They should be comfortable, flexible, and seem seamless. Ninox is a BPM tool that allows the integration of
operations of all departments within themselves and amongst one another.

Ninox has proven itself to be a step in the right direction for businesses looking to digitize their tools and processes without a heavy IT team backing them.

This has made their workplace innovation platform accessible to businesses of all sizes and in turn, saves them lots of money. Further, their team is very quick to help out in process development and offer growth in all directions.

To view, a tutorial for Ninox and its plethora of services click here. If you believe this could be a fit for you and your business, sign up for a free trial here.

5. Quixy

Quixy is a leading, entirely cloud-based advanced no-code workplace innovation platform that aims to empower businesses in many ways.

It is a business application platform that helps users with little to no coding experience automate and innovate workflows and processes.

The software allows individuals to build enterprise-grade platforms using WYSIWYG interfaces and reduce the time and money behind processes. Quixy provides solutions for all business functions and a growing variety of business industries.

Quixy is currently rated Leader in no-code application development on G2 and a High Performer in the Workplace Innovation category. The platform offers endless possibilities of what applications can be built on the platform without writing any code.

It also offers easy edits of existing applications and is very quick in its data processing capabilities. Customers in 10+ industry verticals across the globe are using the Quixy platform as a workplace innovation tool to solve their unique challenges.

Quixy offers a free trial and demo here. Quixy also provides ready-to-use solutions that can be deployed as-is or customized based on requirements.
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6. QuickBase

Quick Base is a low code, workplace automation platform. With over 6000 companies, 50+ Fortune 100 companies, and many many happy users, Quick Base allows the quick creation of ideas of innovation into applications. These applications can be used by an organization, shared, and much more.

Quick Base stands out from the rest in the fact that they are involved with many non-profit and fundraising programs alongside the for-profit endeavors they are involved in.

Quick Base also ensures that users have complete access to any kind of edits to their applications and visibility to their users. Furthermore Quick Base aspires to have an option for any business with any price budget and quick technical service.

Quick Base offers personalized demos of their services here. Further in line with their association with greater causes, they set up a COVID 19 response, that you can see here.

7. Pega

Pega Platform sees itself at the forefront changing how the world builds software. They see each organization changing their ways and look to empower that with their low-code workplace innovation systems.
Pega platform propels this transition through their AI capabilities, intelligent automation capabilities, customer engagement capabilities, and much more.
Pega Platform does not limit itself to empowering organizations through its easy application building processes but also through the model drive approach to employ these processes.

Pega platform has taken off in recent times due to a variety of factors including their lightning speed updates, their support team, and their moving towards all-inclusivity in their products.

Organizations have had great success in using this simplified low-code platform in a variety of ways including, but not limited to work-flow processing, web development, and workplace innovation. Pega Platform has also been successful in its collaborations with other organizations.

To learn more about Pega as a service and try it for free click here. Pega Platform also has a world conference that tackles this realm of digital process automation that you can get involved in here.

8. Zoho Creator

Zoho Creator is a low-code workplace innovation platform that empowers the user to build enterprise-grade applications that run across the spectrum of devices; mobile, tablet, laptop, and desktop.
Have a problem, Zoho has a solution for it all. The possibilities of what can be done with this platform are just about limitless.

Customers have shown great satisfaction in this product in that data can be accessed anytime, anywhere and that helps save a lot of time for manual searches in many organizations. To join this guild of creators click here. To check out the Zoho App deck and learn more about what has already been made click here.

9. Qalcwise

Qalcwise is a no-code platform made for workplace innovation for non-programmers and application newbies. It is a space for a simple and intuitive application building to solve everyday problems in a cost and time-effective manner.

It is an upcoming platform for citizen developers to learn from other build confidence and get their creative juices flowing to come up with the best solutions for their everyday requirements.

Customers love the easy integration of devices via the cloud but have remained slightly frustrated that most applications on this platform need to be created from absolute scratch.

To look into the apps that have been successfully built through this workplace innovation platform click here. To contact the team to learn more/collaborate click here.

10. Zudy

VINYL by Zudy is a revolutionary application building workplace innovation platform that specializes in data integration.

They have identified the need to integrate data and organize it to avoid data losses and time wastage and all this without a single line of code. Zudy offers the power and flexibility of low code in a no-doe platform.

While the Zudy patented technologies have proven to make data integration streamlined process customers have been looking for more advanced functionality with respect to other tasks or integration of other platforms that specialize in other workplace innovation solutions.

You can contact Zudy to learn about the 100s of case studies they have or take a free trial today. If you want to learn more about how the platform works they also have an explainer video here.

In Conclusion

There are three key benefits we would like to highlight in light of workplace innovation platforms. The first is reducing manual processes and paperwork, the second being addressing disconnected systems, and the final being getting rid of rigid, inflexible technology.

All these three cause stress and annoyance in the workplace and need to be a thing of the past. Workplace innovation platforms will help you achieve just that.

Let us know your experiences with these platforms and how your business changed or how you are working towards changing your business through their usage!

Alok Upadhyaya

An IITian Mr Upadhyaya’s 44 yrs track record involves successful completion and establishment of World Bank financed Delhi Noida Bridge, India’s largest photogrammetric set-up and prestigious Delhi State Spatial Data Infrastructure (DSSDI) project.