Item: OutSystems
Rating: 10
Author: Lennie Sutton

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using the OutSystems platform to convert an existing legacy student system and satisfy a long list of backlog projects associated with that legacy system. It will primarily be used by staff, faculty, and students. It will enable students to register online and pay for registrations online. We are doing all of this with the help of one of OutSystem's partners GrovePath.

Pros and Cons

One can quickly create prototypes for an application and make changes to it. Because it is low code, much of the interaction with the developer is with graphical widgets. The scaffolding wizards are also very helpful.
Integrates very easily with both internal and external systems using their Integration Studio.
Tools are very intuitive to use and the plethora of training videos help the beginning developer to very quickly become acquainted with the Outsystems methodologies.

Some areas that I would have put here that have room for improvement are due to come out in Q1 2020: Things like making the workflow engine easier to use.
Being able to see all the modules and dependencies at a high level is also being addressed in Q1 2020. One can see at a glance which applications may be affected by changes to one re-useable module.
I would like to see a better and more consistent wizard for the creation of autocomplete fields. e.g. converting a dropdown to autocomplete.
I dislike the Active Object constraints with how they relate to pricing. I often feel I am having to sacrifice some of the ease of design to keep under the Active Object cap or be willing to pay the premium.

Return on Investment

It has been very positive to interact with other Outsystems users at their NextStep conferences.
Working with Outsystems partners has also been very positive. It leaves one feeling as though you developing the system that you can be excited about using.
If you are a company with many third-party solutions and a small IT staff, OutSystems could be used as a single platform to replace these systems and potentially save you money and give you the option of building additional applications as needed using the same platform. This reduces your eco system's complexity and increases the speed at which new features can be brought in, when a developer needs to know only one platform.

Alternatives Considered

Eclipse, Oracle Database and Apache Tomcat

OutSystems can be thought of as a combination of all three of the thing listed above. Service Studio lets you manage your code and business logic, your entities (database tables), and provides access to your web server where you can deploy, run or debug your code step-by-step, if needed. They also offer recommendations on how to split your application into modules that can be reused between applications using the 4-layer-canvas approach.

Support Rating

I give this rating because the OutSystems support team and resources have been helpful and very responsive. The forums are a great place to get questions answered. The Forge provides sample programs and connections to use in your own modules. The conferences provide a great place to network with other developers, clients, and partners.

Key Insights

Do you think OutSystems delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with OutSystems's feature set?

Yes

Did OutSystems live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of OutSystems go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy OutSystems again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Ellucian Ethos Framework, Banner Student

Likelihood to Recommend

OutSystems is often promoted as being a system without limits. I admit, that I have had difficulty finding things that this platform cannot do. It is well suited for both big and small organizations with limited IT staff. OutSystems handles integrations well. The platform also accommodates tying in AI elements for both speech and video into your applications. You can save binary objects directly into the database, create complex workflows hiding most of the typical complexity from the citizen developer, easily create multi-lingual aware applications, and connect to external systems via API calls. They also offer on-premise and Saas solutions.

OutSystems Review by a satisfied user

Overall Satisfaction with OutSystems