Event wrapup: Should you care about technology?

Location sponsor DXC Technology in Mechelen set the scene for the next IIBA Brussels Chapter
evening event organized on March 14th 2019. The topic on the agenda was “Should you care about
technology?" and was covered by two speakers. Aswin van Braam from Ordina and Joris Van
Ostaeyen from Robonext shared their insight as subject matter experts, being from two different
angles.

A small but interested group of attendees accepted the IIBA Brussels Chapter invitation and enjoyed an
interesting evening. They were welcomed with a snack and some drinks and around 19h00 IIBA Brussels
Chapter Vice-President Events Filip Hendrickx took the stand and introduced the audience to the
sponsors, the topic and the speakers for the evening.

First speaker Aswin van Braam started with a story on low code and/or no code and called it the rise of
the citizen developer. He clearly situated the differences between the two paradigms.
Furthermore Aswin argued that there was a time not long ago when programming and development
skills were exclusive to IT personnel. However, times have changed. As the demand for fast
development cycles and more in-depth software support increases, the mysteries inherent in app
development are becoming much less mysterious. He showed the attendees how to move on from Excel
and Access to low code/no code platforms.

Joris Van Ostaeyen completed this session with an introduction to robotic process automation (RPA) and
was able to demystify this technique to the audience with success. The related technology has been
around for a long time, but has developed significantly in recent years. Illustrative of this evolution is the
case of Xchanging - a UK-based global company - where users anthropomorphized their robot into a co-
worker named "Poppy" and even invited "her" to the Christmas party.
The advantages should not only lie in pure ROI (through replacing employees by "robots") according to
Joris, but also in happier employees and more satisfied customers, as employees will be able to focus on
the non-repetitive aspects of their jobs that make a real difference for their customers. And that's an
area where BA can play an important role.

After a short Q & A session the beamer was dimmed and a network drink was initiated. Peer talks went
on for quite some time so we can conclude we had a great event once again.

You can download the slides of both presentations here:

Want to know even more? Use the promo code "SPORD" for Mendix World 2019 (16-17 April in Rotterdam / The Netherlands).