The City of Las Vegas (CLV) is one of the country’s fastest-growing cities, with a population of 640,000 and 42 million annual visitors. As a tourism-dominated municipality, CLV had a substantial property portfolio to maintain across facility management and field inspections.
Unfortunately, the city was unable to keep pace with the fast growth of the population and their associated needs.
“Demand for online services for government has been lagging behind, and we are rapidly being asked to close that gap by our city council, our citizens, and so on,” said Rick Virmani, Las Vegas Development Services Systems Manager.
Achieving a full-scale digital transformation while maintaining a limited budget requires a creative approach to development—one based on a low-code approach that allows rapid delivery of new solutions.
Accelerating Development Work With a Low-Code Approach
Both developers and businesses are beginning to see the value of low-code development workflows.
According to Gartner, low-code development will account for more than 65% of all software development by 2024. This trend (along with the wealth of other benefits that low-code provides) is why T4S prioritizes low-code development based on the OutSystems platform.
For CLV, the first step was a new Mobile Inspector App that would provide new functionality for field technicians and eliminate cross-departmental silos that dragged down efficiency.
In just three short months, CLV was able to deploy this application via OutSystems to great effect, providing these benefits:
- Shortened building inspection times by 25% across the board
- Created offline capabilities to enable inspection work at any location or worksite
- Reduced hardware cost by eliminating the need for outdated laptops
- Enabled automatic online/offline data synchronization
The lightweight, low-code development approach made this application launch more feasible than CLV expected at the project outset. Thanks to the unique OutSystems platform, CLV was able to shorten its development timeframe from a projected 6-8 months to just under three months – substantially accelerating its deployment timeline.
The Ongoing Benefit of Low-Code Platforms
While CLV’s new mobile application was deployed faster than anticipated, the project represents a bigger shift for CLV towards digitally-enabled efficiency. With CLV leveraging a low-cost platform that continuously delivers new functions, the city is now poised to build a huge variety of internal and citizen-facing applications to further improve operations.
And given that CLV estimates that ongoing and future enhancements to its web presence will cost 50% less after adopting the OutSystems platform, it’s easy to understand why these new solutions are on the table.
In total, the city estimates it saved approximately $1 million with the integration of a single new application while simultaneously providing improved service to citizens. In terms of outcomes, that’s hard to beat—and it was made possible only through a leaner, smarter system of application development built on low code and rapid delivery.
Questions for Your Own Digital Transformation
As you consider the benefits of moving towards a more efficient IT environment of your own, review the following issues:
- Does my current IT environment offer full functionality to support user needs, both now and in the future?
- How can you restructure back-end functions to modernize your workflows?
- Which specific applications offer the most leverage for improving operations at the lowest cost?
- Do you have an efficient front-end delivery system that can rapidly deliver solutions and support back-end functions?
OutSystems is one of many options in the development ecosystem that can accelerate your digital transformation. As CLV’s project shows, even subtle adjustments to your infrastructure can yield big results for your bottom line.
At T4S, we have the methods, tools, techniques, and experience to drive change. If you’re interested in exploring new solutions built on a low-code framework, contact T4S today to learn how your organization can be modernized.