Ready to unlock the future of AI-assisted app development and enterprise automation? Join us as we sit down with Creatio, who shares the company's ambitious mission to empower non-technical knowledge workers amid a tech talent shortage. We unpack the evolution of no-code and low-code platforms over the past decade and their potential to revolutionize productivity. Andy also delves into Creatio's strategic investments in governance, composability for security, and scalability, celebrating their recognition as a leader in Forrester's 2024 Wave for low-code platforms.
In our conversation, Andy gives us a peek into Creatio's disciplined approach to global expansion and their future initiatives. From strategic investments in AI and enterprise capabilities to strengthening their global partner channel, we explore how Creatio is positioning itself to meet the demands of various industries. Plus, Andie shares his personal reflections on life in Boston and exciting upcoming events like the global one-team day and No Code Days. Don't miss this insightful discussion on the cutting edge of enterprise automation and digital transformation.
Ready to unlock the future of AI-assisted app development and enterprise automation? Join us as we sit down with Creatio, who shares the company's ambitious mission to empower non-technical knowledge workers amid a tech talent shortage. We unpack the evolution of no-code and low-code platforms over the past decade and their potential to revolutionize productivity. Andy also delves into Creatio's strategic investments in governance, composability for security, and scalability, celebrating their recognition as a leader in Forrester's 2024 Wave for low-code platforms.
In our conversation, Andy gives us a peek into Creatio's disciplined approach to global expansion and their future initiatives. From strategic investments in AI and enterprise capabilities to strengthening their global partner channel, we explore how Creatio is positioning itself to meet the demands of various industries. Plus, Andie shares his personal reflections on life in Boston and exciting upcoming events like the global one-team day and No Code Days. Don't miss this insightful discussion on the cutting edge of enterprise automation and digital transformation.
More at https://linktr.ee/EvanKirstel
Speaker 1:
Hey everyone. Really exciting and timely topic on the future of AI-assisted app development and workflows. Really intriguing topic with Creatio. How are you, sir?
Speaker 2:
I'm doing great and thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for inviting Well thanks for being here, and you do really amazing work in this space. Maybe start off with a little bit about your mission and vision at Creatio, and yourself and your role um, workflow automation and crm.
Speaker 2:
so we are very energized with the mission that we can take knowledge workers not technical people and turn them into contributors to an enterprise automation right, because if you look across all the data, we see that we don't have enough of technical resources, but the expectation for automation in digital is growing every single day. So we're helping mid-size and large organizations to tap into a much bigger talent pool with 1.7 billion knowledge workers. So let's say business technologists and make them very significant contributors to go and automate all sorts of different workflows and build applications at speed and scale. And a few words about myself. My name is Andy Dahlgren. I've been with the company since inception, really, and I oversee everything related to brand development, demand gen. I work very close with industry analysts and I'm just very, very passionate and excited about the space of no-code and AI.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, your passion is so obvious. I love your enthusiasm for this space. Maybe talk about your company's growth and trajectory over the years. Low-code is relatively no-code a new phenomenon but you've been really perfecting on this mission for 10 years. How has that evolved over time? And, of course, with the infusion of Gen AI, it's really lit a fire under this entire space.
Speaker 2:
Our anniversary is coming up this August and we're actually having a one-team event when we're bringing all our people and we're a very global company by the nature, actually, we founded the company that way team event, when we are bringing all our people and we're a very global company by the nature, actually, we, uh, we founded the companies that way, so we're bringing all our global employees to one place to go and celebrate. So we anticipate a very big party, uh, this august. So, but, um, this aside, I think that we are very full, like we. We started the company when no code and low code wasn't kind of a popular term.
Speaker 2:
And we used business process management automation as kind of the way to describe it, like business process management automation, customization, and that evolved into a broader term of low code and no code.
Speaker 2:
I still believe that there are lots of.
Speaker 2:
I think that with time, those terms will get a little bit adjusted because, even like a couple of years ago, we were debating with some industry analysts whether no code is a term or whether this is just a variation of low code, and we have a strong opinion here and it looks like this approach prevails now in the market, where no code is an approach that is focused on non is an approach that is focused on non-technical persona and is focused on enabling someone who doesn't have coding skills, and we believe that this actually this approach has a tremendous potential because if you just focus on taking the limited talent pool and you make them more productive, you're probably going to get great productivity and improvement.
Speaker 2:
But you can achieve so much more if you can just multiply the talent pool by 20, 40, 50, whatever the number is right, Because you will get access to a lot of people and you know what? I also love the statement that now nowadays, specifically with the expansion of generative AI, technology becomes a competence. It's no longer a function within an organization. It becomes a competence and similar to, for example, communication skills or presentation skills. Different people will be learning technology and will be using it very effectively and efficiently in their day-to-day job.
Speaker 1:
Well done and, speaking of the analysts you referenced earlier, congratulations. You're the only leader in the 2024 Forrester Wave, the important piece of analysis and research in the area of low-code platforms for citizen developers. That's well done. There's some huge tech giants competitors of yours in that space. What was your secret there? Do you think to taking that pole position?
Speaker 2:
I think that we, from the very beginning, were very committed to the no-code in general, but also applying no-code to solve big problems. I think that that was our vision from the very beginning. So not only we wanted to give much more freedom into the hands of not technical people or at least kind of combine developers and technical people with someone who is a business technologist, but as we do so, from the very beginning we were thinking about how can we go and build something significant, something that will make a very big impact into an organization? Not necessarily let's take a bunch of what used to be Excel files or Access databases and let's turn them into those small applications. But let's take, for example, we have one of our esteemed customers's, a government of a country, and we have 7,000 people in our system and they kind of manage our system, the country funding infrastructure worth $10 billion a year. So this is like a big problem that we help them to solve. But it's very interesting that the percentage of code used in that project is less than 3%. Like this massive country, critical application has been built without actually a lot of code written.
Speaker 2:
So and coming back to your question, is that? So that was always the focus and, with that in mind, we invested a lot into a lot of different things. So, for example, we invested into governance, because if you want to scale this automation, if you want to give a lot of freedom to people, you definitely need to make sure that you are setting up right guardrails and necessary processes to make sure that you are not sacrificing your security or creating some additional risk in your organization. So we invested a lot into governance. We invested a lot into composability. That made our offering also very unique, meaning that we have decomposed everything that we do, for example, in the CRM space and in a vertical space, and we created a lot of micro components that a non-technical person can go and assemble into applications in experiences.
Speaker 2:
And I think that we're very new because we're not giving you kind of a blank slate and you go kind of and develop stuff from the scratch. We give you hundreds now probably thousands of different components that you can assemble into the needed solutions. And this helps a lot because you're kind of bringing the best from both worlds. You're giving a lot of flexibility and configuration capabilities, but you also give a lot, because you're bringing the best from both worlds. You're given a lot of flexibility and configuration capabilities, but you also give a lot of stuff out of the box that can be used as a part of that configuration experience.
Speaker 1:
Fantastic approach. And let's talk about AI and automation. You integrate AI into CRM and BPM solutions. Talk a lot about enhancing business processes and the customer journey and managing that. What was the big idea behind those investments?
Speaker 2:
Well, you know, ai is just such an essential element in everything we do, specifically with the expansion of generative AI Right now, when machines or computers started to understand human language, we definitely need to capitalize on that and we see a tremendous synergy between no code and AI in general. And when we think about AI, we think about I think multiple ways how we can apply it in the no code development cycle and in the enterprise world. So, from one hand, we can use AI for AI-assisted development. So, for example, instead of just going and creating some applications using those designers, you can provide a narrative so that the system can regenerate at least the fundamentals for you, and then you will use visual designers and you will go and extend that vision with the power of no code. Or, for example, a lot of organizations in the space of business process management. A lot of organizations will have space of business process management. A lot of organizations will have a lot of their processes being documented in a form of regulation or instruction or in a form of a visual diagram. So, instead of just going and replicating that business process, you can go and download it in your Copilot and then the Copilot will go and create those workflows in an automated fashion in the platform, like Croatia.
Speaker 2:
Those are just a couple of examples, but I think we are very excited about the prospect of combining the Gen AI and AI specifically and apply it to the assisted development, because it will help to further decrease the bar for the type of a talent or type of a skill that you bring to the no-code space. Now there are also a lot of opportunities in regards to what we call AI-infused use cases. So let's take development aside, but we talk about, for example, elite generation or say opportunity management, or say case management, request management. The business users can benefit a lot from this intelligence because it can save them so much time and it can save them so much effort and make them so much more productive. In addition to the assisted development, we put together out-of-the-box models and provide all the kind of range of different tools so that those no-code creators can go and apply those AI-infused capabilities into the applications that they build.
Speaker 1:
Fantastic and a lot of it seems pretty customer-centric Use cases and service and sales marketing support. Um is that how you're being used in many deployments?
Speaker 2:
uh, that's an excellent question. I think that, yes, we we take advantage of ready-to-use capabilities that we have for CRM. A good point here is that those capabilities are fully decomposed. For example, if you take our marketing application, you can use only lead management module, or you can use only digital ads module, or you can use events management or just a small element within that events management app. You can combine that with any other composable element. So a lot of our use cases and customers that come to us are coming from the CRM kind of flavored approach. So there are lots of customer-centric workflows. But there's another category of our customers that take advantage of some of those pre-built components but they build something that has nothing to do with CRM and is focused, for example, on employee experience or focused on specific operational workflows that they can automate for their industry or for, say, back office operations.
Speaker 1:
Wow, fantastic and mentioned. Here we have something about the industries, the customers you work with. You seem to be across so many different industries and verticals, but where are you seeing the most traction? Are you seeing a particular set of profiles of companies? What's the if?
Speaker 2:
You know, I think that we see we are a horizontal company right, so we don't tie ourselves to one industry. However, there are a number of industries that show a much stronger interest to the space of enterprise no-code automation, and I'll give you a few examples. I think that financial services like from one hand, you don't expect financial services to be on the forefront of, say, adopting a no-code and AI, because by the nature, those organizations are a little bit more conservative, a little bit more reserved and want to kind of do and make their own kind of checks and risk assessments in regards to democratizing the technology. But if you think about the landscape within, say, a regional bank or a credit union or like insurance company, you'll find that they have a lot of legacy. They will have those outdated core systems, they would have like a really complex environments, but in the same time, their customers expect an Amazon like service from them. So those organizations are being pushed by their markets to go and find unconventional ways, how to solve digital problems and how to go and compete with, say, banks like Bank of America and some other large institutions that have IT budgets bigger than GDP of some smaller countries in Europe. I would say so, in order to do that, you need to be very agile and you need to find different ways how to go about automation, and I think that no code and AI presents them with this opportunity.
Speaker 2:
If done right, if you have strong governance, all the needed investments in regards to the security and needed guardrails, you can go and scale this digital automation much quicker than your competition.
Speaker 2:
So we definitely see a lot of opportunities and a lot of traction with financial services, with banks, credit unions, insurance companies. We also see good traction from government, local state Same problem because you, by the nature of their organizations, they don't have access to all the resources. And if you think this way, like, can government compete with, say, a SaaS company in regards to development talent? Probably not. It will be very difficult to hire a needed number of developers with that kind of a pace and compete with some of those kind of commercial and very aggressive organizations. But in the meantime, if you think about the level of complexity, level of scrutiny they need to go through to put out those digital experiences, it's very, very substantial. So I think that, again, if done right, no code presents governmental organizations, healthcare manufacturing organizations with an incredible opportunity to skip some steps in regards to the digital automation and get into this kind of modern world and provide those slick processes so much quicker than with some traditional packaged SaaS offerings.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, fantastic approach. And how do you go to market? Is it through traditional channels or new kinds of partners, developers? What's the model?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, look, we are very channel-driven, we are partner-centric, we're partner-friendly. We generate 50% 5-0% of our business through our empowered channel and we do that because the thing that we built very strong, long-lasting relationships with our partners. We offer them an absolutely winning partner program. The conditions are very, in a good way, aggressive to make sure that the partner can really build a sustainable business model. So we have a very strong revenue sharing model that works really, really well. But also there are lots of love and support to those partners and I think that in this kind of environment, we see a lot of success. And those partners they're ranging from largest organizations in the world like, for example, deloitte, digital, to smaller boutique organizations in specific countries. So I think that we've seen success with both profiles. So channel business plays a lot of there.
Speaker 2:
Secondly, we are very disciplined in regards to understanding with what kind of organizations we want to work and we have this kind of target account approach where we understand how they want to work. And we have this kind of target account approach where we understand how they want to engage with accounts that we believe will get a lot of value from Croatia and we go and develop relationships there and then certainly we also invest a lot into marketing and brand development. I think that it's a blessing and a curse. From one hand, we work with this almost unlimited target addressable market almost unlimited and this presents us with incredible sets of opportunities that we are excited every single day to be at. But in the same time, you have to grow awareness and you have to grow a brand and you have to kind of create this buzz and excitement. And you need to double down on this, because the number of companies that can benefit from your solution is so big. And that's the reason why we wake up with this idea and we go to bed with the same idea how can we make Croatia louder so that more companies know about us, so that we can deliver more value? Because we truly believe that with a technology like Croatia, we can deliver a percentage of time to value, we can go and replace a lot of legacy systems on a big scale and we can show organizations a different way to go about their automation and digital needs.
Speaker 2:
Fantastic and describe the team behind the innovation and think we have very strong combination of leaders in development, uh, very visionary and very process oriented, right? So, um, we don't have the largest r&d team in the world. If you look at companies we compete with, they have like thousands of people, but yet we can to to your earlier point. We can be the only one leader in the most recent forest wave because of the discipline and talent. So globally we have 700 people and growing and we have representatives in 25 countries.
Speaker 2:
So we have people in Portugal, in Latin America, of course, we have a lot of people in the US, we have people in Australia, in Poland, in Indonesia, like a lot of different countries, and I think that we love being global. This is what makes us quite unique and we try to be very empathetic to global cultures and global needs and this helps us to grow our presence in multiple countries, but also it helps us to build strong relationships with local partners and we give them a lot of kind of. I think that we try to be very understandable to the local needs and work with them to make sure that we deliver success to local customers.
Speaker 1:
Fantastic approach. So let's talk about the future and where you're headed, some of your key initiatives. Clearly, the future has arrived with Gen AI now, and we're doing a lot with it. I assume it's only more of that, more of large language models. What else is of interest?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think that if we talk about the future and areas of investment, there are three major areas where we are focused on. I'll start with research and development. In research and development, obviously we are doubling down our efforts on AI, in generative AI. We see tremendous opportunities there and we see a tremendous opportunity in the synergy between Gen AI and no code. So definitely a big portion of that goes into that. Secondly, we continue investing into what makes Croatia strong and unique in this no code space. I'm talking about governance, application lifecycle management, all kind of enterprise level capabilities for the no code platform.
Speaker 2:
And thirdly, we continue expanding our ready touse vertical components for all sorts of different industries. For example, if you're a bank, here's your integration with, say, your core banking system. Here is your module to manage customers for 60. Here's your module, for example, for lending operations or stuff of that nature, for example for land and operations or stuff of that nature. And we want to provide a lot of those smaller and larger components to help organizations to assemble needed experiences and needed applications. So that's our research and development. At the same time, we will continue to reinforce our partner channel In the years globally. We see a tremendous potential there and we will continue growing our global team to be closer to our customers and make sure that we have this very close touch with each and every customer we have in our ever-growing community.
Speaker 1:
Fantastic. Well, you make it sound so straightforward and simple, but of course, there's a lot of hard work behind that. What about you personally? You're here in Boston. It's about 95 degrees outside. If you believe that, which in Boston, you're going to need to take that jacket off if you go outside today, I'm afraid.
Speaker 2:
But what are you?
Speaker 1:
looking forward to the next few weeks, months, any travel or events coming up.
Speaker 2:
Yes, actually, I'm a big fan of Boston. I came here in 2015,. So I came from Europe and I fell in love with the city. I know that, specifically because of the city got a very big day yesterday. So lots of celebration. And as I was traveling and getting to know the country, I realized that, because of the sports team, not everyone kind of loves Boston the same I do, but I think it's fine. Deep in the heart, everyone kind of loves the city. So I really enjoy being here with my family and continue to stay in here and expand my roots in the city.
Speaker 2:
In regards to a couple of next months, I think that we have a lot of stuff going on, a lot of interesting and exciting news that we will be announcing and publishing in a lot of aspects of our company. We are, as I mentioned in the very beginning, doing this big global one-team day on the 1st of August. So we are gearing up, so we are all traveling and ready to kind of celebrate this time together. Then we also have our big initiative. We call it no Code Days, so we go into 16 different cities around the globe and we go and evangelize no Code, like we just finished one in Poland, in Warsaw, and we've got 300 people joined us.
Speaker 1:
We got.
Speaker 2:
Deloitte eny, some other folks joining us on the stage. So we got. We got a blast. So in august we have two very exotic places uh, we're going to. It's um sydney, australia, and jakarta, indonesia.
Speaker 2:
So those two long travels, so we expect a lot of travel coming up. But then it also brings a lot of joy to us because we come to all of those citizen countries, we evangelize NoCode. We see a lot of traction, like yesterday I was presented to a big group of French MBA students and we got probably 100 questions in a session that was only 60 minutes. So we definitely enjoy talking about the impacts that no code and AI brings to the table.
Speaker 1:
Fantastic. Well, your enthusiasm is infectious and congratulations on all the success onwards and upwards. And have great trips. Those sound so fun and interesting. What a great time to be traveling. Thanks, Andy. Thanks so much for sharing a little bit of the vision and we'll keep in touch and go Celtics.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, thank you so much. Go Celtics, and thank you so much for having me.
