Luxoft puts blockchain adapter into low-code Appian toolset
Low-code software application development company Appian holds its annual user conference and exhibition this week in Will Smith’s favourite holiday hangout, Miami Beach Florida.
First to the table for a portion of news at Appian World 2018 was IT services firm Luxoft.
But in this day and age, what, really, does any company mean by calling itself an ‘IT services’ firm, when all businesses are digital and all digital businesses run on software and all software is based on services?
It is possibly more accurate to call Luxoft a custom/bespoke software development services and engineering firm with a built in strategic consulting function.
The firm’s key sectors of work are financial services, automotive, communications, healthcare & life sciences.
Blockchain adapter
With a healthy breadth of enterprise software lifting under its belt, Luxoft has logically had a good deal of exposure to blockchain as this immutable distributed ledger technology now comes to the fore in terms of its application across software systems looking to use its record-based advantages. As such, Luxoft has built a blockchain adapter for Appian’s low-code Rapid Application Development (RAD) platform.
This makes sense, surely?
Appian is known for its low-code platform designed to help firms build software front ends and Graphical User Interface (GUI) elements, but also deeper software tools that help create and control Business Process Management (BPM) functions and their associated logic.
But Appian is not, necessarily, known for its work or competency with blockchain for its secure (but let’s remember not completely reverse-engineer-able and pure in every single sense) digital environment that facilitates data sharing.
Businesses using Appian’s Business Process Management (BPM) tool can now integrate a blockchain network into their day-to-day business processes.
No rip and replace
“The launch of this adapter is about helping businesses realise the potential of blockchain by making it easier to use,” said Vasiliy Suvorov, vice president of technology strategy at Luxoft. “Problems integrating blockchain into existing in-house systems are often the biggest obstacles to its adoption. Now, by integrating blockchain into a BPM [system], a business can [gain] the benefits of a decentralised model [taking blockchain technology from outside the central BPM stack] whilst retaining its existing IT architecture. This means business don’t have to rip out their old IT systems to use blockchain.”
Luxoft claims that, in healthcare, the blockchain adapter can reduce claims processing errors and inaccurate medical bills.
Blockchain creates an auditable way for medical and pharmacy systems to share and update real-time accumulators, meaning medical insurers, healthcare providers and pharmacies using the Appian platform instantly have access to the same claim data.
Sam Mantle, managing director of Digital Enterprise at Luxoft says this is important because the disparate systems used by pharmacies, healthcare providers and insurers to manage medical information are extremely complex.
“They are not designed for the smooth exchange of data,” said Mantle.
Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT)
Luxoft built this adapter on Appian’s platform . It is used not just in healthcare but also in financial services and other verticals in areas such as data management. The move is part of a push to commercialise Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and accelerate their deployment in established business processes.