No-code Ebook

Empowering everyone to build digital solutions

Contents
ALL ABOUT NO-CODE

Section One: No-Code Overview

What is ‘no-code’? 1
The history 1
No-code and low-code 3

Section Two: Citizen Development

What is ‘citizen development’? 5
The Enterprise Citizen Development Tension 6
The suggested mindset 7
Citizen development as an enterprise-level solution 8

Section Three: Guide to Picking the Right No-Code Platform

Platform solution vs. Point solution 9
What to look out for when choosing a no-code platform solution 10

W H AT C A N N E O TA O F F E R

Section Four: The Neota Difference

Process automation 17
Expertise automation 19
Document automation 19
Data management 21
Use cases and Building Blocks 22
Integration23
Security24
Solution development 25
Self-service/Build your own applications 25
Neota managed service delivery 26
Neota University 27
 No-Code Overview
SECTION ONE – NO-CODE OVERVIEW

What is ‘no-code’?
Let’s start simple. As far as naming conventions go, the term ‘no-code’ doesn’t get
more self-explanatory! No-code is a form of software development which allows
users to develop applications without having to code it themselves.

There is code behind it, but it’s now represented by visual and graphical drag-and-
drop interfaces to give users the power to build digital solutions – without touching
a single line of code.

This is the theme that runs through all no-code platforms; enabling everyone to
develop software.

The history
It’s easy to forget that software development is a relatively recent advance in the way
we work. It’s harder to forget just how seismic that impact has been. Every industry has
been disrupted by software: in the words of Marc Andreessen, it has ‘eaten the world’.

Software development, as with anything in life, is not static. The terms ‘low-code’ and
‘no-code’ are the latest stage in this evolution. While the words are new, the concept
of no-code has been around for a long time. From the early days of spreadsheet
programs like Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel replacing the need to manually code
software that can handle complex calculation to current webpage creators like
WordPress and Wix where anyone can build their own business website, no-code
platforms to build digital solutions are just the latest in this timeline.

Long before the term no-code arose, Microsoft Excel provided computer users with
a way to replace manual manipulation, analysis, and visualization of data. Its benefits
are still reaped today in practically every industry, long after its release in 1985.

In 2003, WordPress broke another barrier for businesses and organizations across
the globe. Having that all-important online presence no longer meant having to pay
a web developer to create a website. After a few hours with the system, anyone
could have a functioning website for a low subscription fee. Even today, 35% of
websites are powered by WordPress, with a significant proportion of the rest built
on other platforms based on a similar model.

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SECTION ONE – NO-CODE OVERVIEW

A multitude of other commonly-used no-code platforms exist today, and their

popularity is rising fast. Tools such as Zapier, Google Sheets, Airtable, Notion, and
Coda empower their users to build things they couldn’t have done before without
having to spend time learning to code. These platforms also provide far more
features and possibilities than anyone could reasonably develop without having to
spend a very large sum of money on development.

The crux of no-code is about the democratization of software development. In

other words, it is all about accessibility. An interesting way to consider it, and why
no-code is here to stay, is to think about it from a business standpoint. Possessing
knowledge about coding has been found increasingly on job descriptions in
the past few years, especially in professional services. But do companies really
need someone who can code, or are they really after someone with the ability to
develop software?

There is a subtle nuance between the two. No-code comes into the latter, offering
a way of bringing software development down to a business user level. The
democratization of the task means more people capable of doing it, without having
to develop new competencies.

The phenomena of no-code platforms can be seen as a reaction to the rising need for
coding; these new tools fix the problems surrounding coding and developing with agility
and ease. The broader SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) industry is also underpinned by
this idea – enabling users to do more by providing them with a software solution.

Even today, 35% of websites are powered by WordPress,

with a significant proportion of the rest built on other platforms
based on a similar model.

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 No-code and low-code
SECTION ONE – NO-CODE OVERVIEW

So far, we’ve just mentioned no-code.

An important distinction to make is between no-code and low-code, two terms

often found close together. You will likely see these terms more and more often, as
Gartner predicts that the no-code/low-code market will be responsible for more
than 65% of app development activity by 2024.

The fundamental difference between no-code and low-code tools is, again,
accessibility. How easy is it for someone with no programming experience to use
your tool? How much of your technology’s features are accessible at the point of
purchase to that non-technical user?

A low-code tool can offer businesses enormous opportunities for efficiency.

It can eliminate the need for a lot of the repetitive, mundane coding necessary to
build streamlined systems. But low-code isn’t a panacea: these tools commonly
need users to roll their sleeves up and do some more technical work to make the
solution fit their business.

This assumed level of programming knowledge often also means that low-code
technology providers tend to take a hands-off approach. You buy the technology
and off you go – with minimal further support when things get complicated.
Low-code platforms are often very powerful and can offer great benefits – but you
must be prepared for a very steep learning curve - it isn’t a tool that can be placed
in front of business users. Low-code platforms often require the assistance
of your IT team to make code changes for the end solution to run properly.

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 No-code, on the other hand, takes the entire concept a step further. It starts from
SECTION ONE – NO-CODE OVERVIEW

similar principles: to make building digital tools far easier, far quicker and far more
cost-effective. But no-code differs in some major ways. One is that no-code
wants everybody to build digital solutions. It doesn’t want steep learning curves, or
baseline knowledge of JavaScript, or a mandatory 10-week coding boot camp.

The very real benefits which no-code/low-code platforms can provide to

businesses are clear from this thinking. We’ve moved past the consideration that
this form of development could be a bubble yet to burst, and instead realized
its potential. Forrester Research expects the market for no-code and low-code
platforms to grow from $3.8bn back in 2017 to a staggering $21.2bn in 2022.

Forrester Research expects the market for no-code and low-code platforms
to grow from $3.8bn back in 2017 to a staggering $21.2bn in 2022.

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 Citizen Development
SECTION ONE – NO-CODE OVERVIEW

What is ‘citizen development’?

No-code platforms have given rise to a new breed of software developers, often
referred to as citizen developers. The idea here is simple; an individual without a
knowledge of coding can develop software, and this individual may also very well
be the end-user of a particular solution. What is important to consider is how this
isn’t only a desirable new categorization from a business standpoint;
it is also a necessary one.

The IDC predicted that the number of applications built by businesses between
2018 and 2023 would exceed 500 million; more than the previous 40 years
combined. While on the one hand this could be seen as a result of a simple
increase in demand, the fact that no-code and low-code systems now exist opens
the door for many businesses to engage in digital transformation, many who could
never have considered it before. Now with only a finite number
of coders available, the reality is that people outside of this classical software
development remit will often have to be the ones developing the apps. We can
view this as a natural, proportionate shift in software development. The reality is
that demand for digital creation is always outstripping the resourcing available.

This is no new phenomenon.

In 1982, James Martin noted this exact trend, but with the proportion of
programmers to computers more broadly. In order to keep up with this trend in app
development, this gap needs to be filled. But it is naive to consider the only solution
to this as being to have a drastic rise in the number of people who can code. In
parallel, for any real prospect of a sustainable future, software development needs
to become more accessible. And that’s what no-code and low-code platforms
provide the ability to do.

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The Enterprise Citizen Development Tension

Gartner defines a Citizen Developer as ‘a user who creates new business
applications for consumption by others using development and runtime
environments sanctioned by corporate IT.’

While not a bad definition, some have taken aim at the words ‘sanctioned by
Corporate IT,’ reasoning that by its very nature, citizen development should
encompass anyone building applications without the hurdle and oversight
of the IT team. This tension should not be the adopted mindset.

A large part of this mindset lies in the simple fact that the ‘enterprise’ citizen
developer hadn’t existed until very recently, and the practice of software
development lay very resolute at the feet of the IT team. Any encroachment
on this practice can very easily – at the beginning at least – be seen as a threat.

The fundamental issue rests in the ambiguity surrounding enterprise citizen

development. How far does their reach go? Do they build the apps and make them
live for the end-users themselves? Do they maintain the apps and patch bugs?
All these questions pertain to where programmers and IT departments would sit
in a world where individuals who don’t code are building apps.

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 The suggested mindset
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Although platforms that drive citizen development should be business-led

purchases, IT oversight on the purchase and ongoing engagement in its use is
critical to ensuring success and avoiding the resulting trap that is shadow IT.

Business-led demand for no-code/low-code platforms should not arise from

seeing IT as a speed bump in getting things done. It should be seen as a need to
encourage downstream, non-IT development on work that doesn’t need resourcing
from what is often an understaffed team. Procurement and subsequent use of a no-
code/low-code platform should always be sanctioned by IT – the real value lies in
the resulting freedom to ideate, develop and deploy applications by business users
without needing to add to IT’s pre-existing burden. After all, IT cannot do everything.

Let’s consider this with the example of a law firm wanting to develop a client-facing
app without the use of a no-code tool.

There are almost always inconsistencies between what the Subject Matter Expert
(SME) wants and what is being built by the development team. Following one iteration,
the SME might change their mind, or want something added in,
or a UX change, or any other of a variety of potential issues. Note that this isn’t
to blame either party; if the SME doesn’t know how to code, they cannot explain exactly
what it is they want, how to bring it about, and how it should operate.
On the other side, there might be delays in the SME explaining what they want, and there
is an underlying assumption that the developers would understand the complexities
of particular areas of law and understand the terminology used and how it applies in
building an application. Time and money are wasted on fruitless reiteration processes.

Now consider if the SME was able to build the solution themselves, and develop it
exactly how they wanted. There is still a possibility of issues arising or the SME not
understanding fully how to do a particular thing, but the IT department is liberated
from the vast majority of the excruciating back-and-forth process.

Procurement and subsequent use of a no-code/low-code platform

should always be sanctioned by IT – the real value lies in the resulting
freedom to ideate, develop and deploy applications by business users
without needing to add to IT’s pre-existing burden.

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 Let’s consider this in a broader digital transformation sense. Many technologies aim
SECTION ONE – NO-CODE OVERVIEW

to free professionals from tasks that can be automated and simplified, with
the ultimate goal of allowing those professionals to focus on higher valued work
as opposed to, for example, redrafting the same document 100 times.

No-code does the same thing for the IT department. Certain development work
can be done by the business, more easily, with less reiteration, saving time and
resources and focusing the expertise of the IT department where it is needed.
It empowers the IT department to focus on projects that require absolute attention,
with fewer resources needlessly dedicated.

Citizen development as an enterprise-level solution

What this discussion is building to is a view of citizen development being an
enterprise-level solution, assisting a variety of business functions effectively.

Citizen development is about bringing about an enterprise-level capability to drive

digital transformation, and develop a variety of solutions as and when they are required.
It allows us to set aside the classically centralized idea of software development
and of who is capable of building. Rather than either buying into a prescriptive point
solution or having a bespoke app built by your IT department or external developers,
the possibilities of app development are made far more accessible and provide the
opportunity to have more than just one solution for a single price.

This isn’t just an abstract forecasting, either. If you consider that nearly 60%
of custom apps in North America are now built outside of IT departments,
by individuals with little to no coding experience, the magnitude of digital
transformation and citizen development becomes clearer. And it is important to
note that this doesn’t have to exist in isolation. Citizen development has to form at
least some part of a digital transformation or enhancement strategy for businesses
to sustainably develop their service delivery.

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 Guide to Picking the
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Right No-Code Platform

Platform solution vs. Point solution
The very first question you need to answer is: are you looking for a point solution or
a platform solution?

If you’ve answered the latter, then ask yourself: are you looking for a platform
solution to solve a specific problem or a strategic pick to complement your
organization’s broader technology stack?

Let’s dig a bit deeper.

Point solutions enable you to tackle a single, very specific problem in isolation,
allowing for deep functionality of one channel. One key disadvantage is that if all
problems are solved with a point solution, it becomes very difficult to manage
the multiple systems and databases that support them. Systems are created and
launched in isolation, which can often lead to user frustration as each system
brings a new interface and learning curve. It is also usually more difficult to expand
and enhance the solution to solve other problems, making it less adaptable to
changing business requirements.

Platform solutions enable you to address a number of use cases, across multiple
facilities with integrated and consistent end-to-end business processes throughout
the platform. They are a logical choice if you wish to expand your application,
existing technology stack or address several use cases in the future. However, they
can often involve reimagining solutions to help fit within the platform’s capabilities
– where there are major gaps though, integrations with other platforms can often
help solve these challenges.

Often, change management is centered on solving the immediate problem,

and so often look to point solution amendments, focused on keyhole changes. No
attention is paid to downstream (or upstream) effects from these changes. Utilizing a
no-code approach to transformation requires an end-to-end look at suitability and fit.

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SECTION ONE – NO-CODE OVERVIEW

What to look out for when choosing a no-code platform solution

There are a number of considerations to be made when looking at a platform’s
features and capabilities, and it can be a minefield trawling through the phrases
and acronyms used by vendors when establishing what is of value to you, your
team and your business. A good vendor will help you untangle this and work with
you to derive value for your business, from the platform.

No-code platforms exist on a spectrum. On one extreme you have platforms

offering very basic functionalities – i.e. simple form and logic creation, combined
with rudimentary document automation capabilities. On the other, you have
platforms allowing citizen developers to build large, end to end workflow solutions,
encompassing features like e-signature integrations, multi-step approvals, email
reminders and data management.

The considerations we will run through below seek to help give you a clearer
picture of what you are investing in, and how to approach the buying process when
it comes to no-code platforms.

Pre-built use case templates

No one really wants to start with a blank canvas when building anything. Solutions
built on no-code platforms are no different. Users look to no-code platforms to cut
down development barriers – both time and resourcing.

The frequent homogeneity of particular parts of applications means that some

vendors now offer pre-built use case templates, offering either a complete simple
solution or a core part of a larger, more complex solution. In any case, these
building blocks help you by allowing you to simply drag and drop larger parts of
an application in a modular manner as opposed to developing it yourself. While
developing it yourself in a no-code platform shouldn’t be a hard task, these templates
empower you to speed up the app-building process, allowing the user to develop
comprehensive end-to-end solutions with less investment in time and energy.

While many vendors now offer this functionality, a question you should ask should be
how comprehensive these pre-built use case templates are, and how far along the
app building process they will get you for the use cases you have in your pipeline.

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 Process automation
SECTION ONE – NO-CODE OVERVIEW

Workflow modules are becoming cornerstones of most no-code platforms.

The ability to allow no-code development of solutions that allow for tasks that
span multiple parties or time periods, or where complex negotiation or signature
sequences are required opens up a world of possibilities for users.

The scoping of workflow solutions will always be a visual exercise – think Visio for
example. Therefore it is critical that the no-code platform you’re evaluating allows
for visual drag-and-drop creation of your workflow solution or allows for import
from another tool. The additional advantage of being able to scope it out in your
chosen tool is that you can better understand the constraints of the system when
mapping out your solution. This allows you to piece together an application with
a greater understanding of what is going on, and what you want the system to
be doing. Having the tools aligned to a widely recognized standard (i.e. Business
Process Management Notation (BPMN)) is a major advantage.

Beyond this, the platform should be able to demonstrate how the automation
could speed up, enhance, and simplify day-to-day tasks, and the complexity
of the processes that they can undertake. Useful tools for enabling this type of
automation include having sequential, parallel, and loop task creation capabilities.
These are especially useful in process-heavy use cases, where service requests
and approvals may need to be made. The ability to automatically loop back in
the process if approval is denied, or sending relevant information off to another
department or individual in a particular circumstance allows often messy and
admin-heavy tasks to be fully automated with ease.

Other useful workflow-oriented capabilities include ‘optional’ action creation,

allowing individuals to edit, update, and assign aspects of a task, as well as role-
based credential access and management control to databases.

Most importantly, understand how role-based credential access and management

works on access to the end solution, not just the platform.

One of the most useful offerings can, however, be data visualization support. This is
particularly relevant where an application is dealing with one or several databases
from which the system is extracting data. The ability to automatically see your data in a
clear, digestible format again allows a business to speed up processes and understand
their processes in greater detail without having to manually create data visualizations.

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 Document automation
SECTION ONE – NO-CODE OVERVIEW

While many vendors offer document automation capabilities, the ways in which they
function and their interface can vary significantly. This means that rather than just ticking
document automation off the list of things a particular no-code solution can do, you
should investigate how it works, and establish whether it is the right tool for you.

Questions you should be asking include whether the system offers document mark-
ups natively in Microsoft Word, or in a separate interface. If it is unable to do this natively
in Word, consider if the functionalities that your documents need in Word and ensure
they are supported (e.g. formatting and clause referencing). For non-Word programs,
also consider if the editing program
has a familiar and user-friendly interface, if there are any compatibility issues, and the
overhead of using two different programs.

Even if the program is surfaced in Word, it’s important to confirm support for Word
functionalities in the automated document. For example, will automated numbering,
cross-references, and footnotes update if clauses are added or removed, and
whether you can leverage custom styles. When dealing with data spreads that
require document automation, the ability to create and populate tables and other
data visualizations automatically can be very important. It is also important to establish
whether these tables and visualizations can be auto-populated with data in the form
which you store that type of data in, pertaining to file and database types.

For document and contract negotiation, again there are a number of implementation
possibilities. A system that has a comprehensive multi-user tracking, commenting, and
editing system integrated into the document automation is often the core functionality
but it’s also worth considering more fixed negotiation processes such as fall-back
clauses. Further, it is worth considering whether multi-party execution clauses are
supported, and support for your chosen e-signature provider.

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 Expertise automation
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An expertise automation capability is something that very much pertains to the

spectrum of no-code platform offerings mentioned earlier. There are various levels
of complexity offered by different vendors, and the important thing to look out for
here isn’t just high-level expertise automation capability, but a broad range of these
capabilities, from simple to complex. The reason for this is that the majority of apps
will use some expertise automation functionality, but are unlikely to require AI or
other complex logic systems integrated into them. Key things to look out for include
whether the platform offers simple, stand-alone logic creation, or support for
combining different forms of logic in the same application. This can include ‘if-then’
rules, decision trees, formulas, and weighted scores. Further, you may want to
establish whether you can combine declarative and procedural forms of reasoning
in the same application for the purposes of building more complex logic-based
applications. Another level up, some offerings may include reasoning across field
sets, or even nested field sets, to support logic application across groups of data
points for really complex applications.

It is useful to take a bit of time when establishing which of these are relevant to
you, and what aspects of expertise automation functionality you would need in
your identified use cases as well as potential future use cases. The offerings and
applicability can be quite difficult to comprehend at face value, so getting a grasp of
previous app examples built in a particular platform can help analogize your use cases.

Database integration
This is quite possibly the most important consideration for you to make when
picking a platform. Ultimately, any digital transformation process seeks to utilise
both user input and workflow data in some way.

Some platforms enable storage of application session data to external SQL

databases, and most importantly, accessibility to you, as a user of the SQL tools,
to these databases. However, this often requires database administrators
or knowledge of SQL language.

Is it really a true no-code platform if a user still has to interact with an internal
database administrator when looking to manipulate data or interact with SQL
databases? Can you truly call a platform ‘no-code’ if you are still required to
have knowledge of SQL operations?

Ask these questions – does the platform:

• Enable storage of application data in a SQL or Postgress database through no-code?
• Enable no-code, no-SQL interactions with standard, external SQL database?
• Enable automatic creation and update of databases when the application data
or structure is updated?
• Enable automatic synchronization of application data structures?

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 Simplicity in scaling – the non-technical considerations
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All SaaS offerings come with some degree of ‘scalability’. This comes in many
forms, but most frequently in how the subscription pricing ultimately scales. There
are a variety of aspects to this to think through. Some of these relate to the internal
building process, others more broadly on your no-code strategy. This may, for
example, include considerations on whether to commercialize the app yourself.
More broadly, ask yourself the question: does the platform’s scalability align with
our strategy going forward – after all, you shouldn’t be buying a no-code platform
to build one single solution.

Number of users
One aspect to pay attention to is whether the platform makes a distinction
between builder users (i.e. those who are using the platform to build) and solution
users (i.e. those who are using the end solution) and does the pricing scale based
on an increase in this distinction. How many users and types of users you can have
when building solutions and when the application is running. How many builders
can you have working on the application? Is there a limit to the monthly usage
of your application at runtime? Will you have to pay an extra fee or get a higher
subscription band in order to have the app used at the scale you want?

Number of solutions
Beyond this, you want to see how far you can make your subscription cost go
with the development of multiple applications for a variety of use cases. Does the
platform scale based on the number of solutions being built or being used? If so,
what are the costs associated with this? Does creating more complex applications
lead to higher costs for that application? Consider also your database usage, as
you will need to establish what data storage capacity a particular offering provides,
and what the cost of expanding this would be. These are all fundamental questions
when establishing your ROI in depth.

Commercialization
Question whether the vendor charges extra if you decide to commercialize the solutions
you have built (i.e. if you are a law firm and you’ve built a solution for your client). If yes, how
do they charge (i.e. revenue split or extra per solution that is commercialized)?

Support and training

Support and training are often left as the last consideration on the list – always after
the commercial points. However, when it comes to no-code platforms, it should be
somewhere at the top of the list!

It is crucial to understand what level of support and maintenance is included in

your subscription model. Enquire about the types of support included in the base
subscription rate, what extras are available, and whether there is a dedicated customer
success and project management team to help you on your no-code journey.

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 An important consideration is understanding how the vendor charges its
SECTION ONE – NO-CODE OVERVIEW

professional service hours for support purposes. While relying on the vendor
to debug a solution or guiding an internal team on best building practices is
often faster and more effective than ‘figuring things out yourself’, this can often
be accompanied by unexpected line items in the monthly invoice. Ensure these
charges are understood prior to contract signing.

Along with support, understanding what user training is included as part of the
onboarding process is essential. No matter what no-code solutions you are looking
at, there will be some level of training required to get you to where you need to be.

Considering many organizations haven’t been on an internal app building process

before – or it is taken care of by IT rather than your citizen developers – a certain level
of hand-holding is always helpful coming from the vendor to guide you through best
practices and how to approach your digital transformation on a broader level.

This helps to provide a deeper level of understanding of the process, and ultimately
provides for faster and more confident app-building processes in the future. Some
vendors may offer bespoke ideation sessions and design-thinking sessions to help
you map out the framework of your application. This is invaluable knowledge when
seeking to transform an idea into a functioning application.

Part of this support and training consideration is determining who will actually be
trained in your organization. The user profile of the individual(s) managing and building
solutions is key to how successful and efficient any app development process is. It is
likely that particular individuals in your team are more suited to app development, not
only in terms of their technical capability and the time they have to be upskilled, but also
how well they can articulate specific business processes and logic flows.

An example could be where a law firm is seeking to enhance their internal

correspondence and matter management. A lot of this is work is down to paralegals
as opposed to fee-earners. While fee-earners may be enthusiastic to have their input
– and it is important they do have some input into the planning – it may make more
sense for the app development process to have the paralegals front and center in
the process. In larger organizations, consider forming a Centre of Excellence (CoE),
a centralized team who can leverage the platform for the rest of the organization.

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SECTION ONE – NO-CODE OVERVIEW
 The Neota Difference
S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E

Now that you have a better understanding of no-code and what to look out for, let’s
see what makes the Neota platform stand out from the rest!

The complete package

The Neota platform is best described as:

The only no-code platform that incorporates BPMN-aligned intelligent

process automation that is further supported by expertise and document
automation and data management capabilities.

The platform provides professionals with pre-built Use cases to rapidly build digital
workflow solutions that automate any aspect of their service, without writing a
single line of code.

Now let’s break that down a bit!

Process automation
Workflow is Neota’s drag-and-drop, standards-based feature that allows users to
create process automation solutions. Workflow enables organizations to manage
tasks and complex processes that span multiple teams, parties and time.

Utilizing Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) standard visual conventions

into a drag and drop interface, users of Workflow are able to orchestrate individual
or multiple Neota applications, as well as external systems, in a logic-driven, data-
aware end-to-end solution to manage the execution and completion of business
processes such as:
• Document creation that requires conditional approval routing;
• Document execution that requires multi-stage negotiation and review;
• Case management and matter intake that requires assignment, tracking and review;
• Central tasks allocation such as employee onboarding or IT Support requests.

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S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E

Further, this feature allows for the no-code creation of specific workflow
functionalities such as:
• Conditional logic (do task A if X, otherwise do task B or send the next incomplete
task to person X when Y is true)
• Reminders (if Task A has not been started or completed on time, send tailored
reminders to the assigned people)
• Multi-party interaction (move work such as review and approval back and forth
across parties and business unit
• Actions (resume a process, cancel a step, query an external database, reassign a task)
• Data management and audit capture (progress, status and all data elements
are automatically updated as processes run. All user input and workflow data
are automatically captured and presented in our case manager – a grid view
of process sessions that users and managers can use to track progress, move
processes along and gather statistics on outcomes, efficiency and cycle times.
Visualization across this data is also possible through the Neota platform.

F E AT U R E H I G H L I G H T – W H I T E B O A R D M O D E

Going one step further, the Workflow designer has a ‘Whiteboard Mode’ which
allows a subject matter expert to define how the intended process should flow
before any application building has started. They can do this with no Neota training.

What this means from a practical perspective is that you can ask stakeholder(s)
familiar with the business goals and processes to define the workflow in the
Whiteboard and when completed, can pass this onto a Neota trained business user
to complete the actual build. With content and knowledge being the biggest barrier
to building any platform solution, this takes the tools right to the content person!

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 Document automation
S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E

Neota’s Word Toolbar feature increases efficiencies and control over automating
templates created in Microsoft Word. Through the Word Toolbar, Neota authors
are able to create questions, conditional text and logic variables, while supporting
all existing features of the document (tables, headings, footers, bullet points etc).
This also includes the automated handling of clause references which is an often
overlooked functionality by document automation vendors.

These questions, conditions and variables can then be automatically imported

into Neota’s authoring environment, to create the framework for an end-user
solution that controls the document creation as part of a larger Contract Lifecycle
Management workflow solution.

Negotiation capabilities are further supported by the Neota platform through

native redlining, departure tables and clause libraries that enable the negotiation of
document content across multiple parties.

Expertise automation
Neota’s expertise automation function is driven by our proprietary AI inference
engine. The engine employs hybrid reasoning tools capable of emulating the
‘it depends’ reasoning often found in legal analysis. In building an application,
all content/rules/factors/judgement that a subject matter expert would consider in
making a particular judgment call will be automated so that the app will provide the
same advice the expert would have made, given the same set of facts. Unlike ‘black
box’ systems, we can provide a report on how the decision was reached, thereby
creating a complete audit trail for future reference.

Our inference engine allows the creation of highly complex applications -

for example, a regulatory compliance checking application that instantly processes
millions of fact patterns to assess compliance applicability or commercial risk
against thousands of market rules.

The engine employs hybrid reasoning tools capable of emulating

the ‘it depends’ reasoning often found in legal analysis.

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 Along with the inference engine, the platform also encompasses a range of other
S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E

tools that allow users to create complex logic-based solutions. These tools include:

• An advanced Formula Editor which supports the construction of highly

sophisticated calculations and reusable functions to support automated
financial outputs;
• A Spreadsheet Editor that allows existing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to be
uploaded to a Neota built solution where that solution requires calculations that
are best (or can only be) completed in Excel. The editor allows platform users to
maintain sophisticated calculations or models natively within Excel spreadsheets,
with the operations to serve as an additional reasoning tool for the builder.
Intuitive web-based application interfaces can then mask the complexity behind
the scenes and save users from editing Excel spreadsheets directly.

These schemes allow you to improve consistency in decision making, streamline

expertise delivery, and scale your expertise in a way that is impossible to recreate manually.

F E AT U R E H I G H L I G H T – C A N VA S

Of course, not everyone will want to develop a solution with such advanced
functionalities. Neota’s expertise automation capabilities are further enhanced by
our prototyping tool - Canvas. Canvas is a web-based authoring tool that enables
subject matter experts to quickly and effectively turn their expertise into runnable
applications. Canvas incorporates the legal engineering or process mapping steps
an expert would typically undertake when mapping out the logic of an application.
Similar to our Workflow designer, it replaces third party process mapping tools, to
significantly streamline the way clients can turn ideas into runnable products.

Canvas requires no training and is a logical, intuitive product that allows users to ask
questions, apply formulas and rules, and generate output reports or send emails
to third parties. All Canvas outputs are fully ‘ingestible’ into Neota’s main authoring
platform – Neota Studio for advanced functionalities (think database connections
and integrations, advanced logic and reasoning) to be built out.

Our vision is that Canvas will be deployed entirely across an organization, to give every
employee, whether you are a lawyer, HR, procurement professional, etc., the chance
to start prototyping ideas for automation. These prototypes are then put through an
ideation funnel to select the best few, which is then handed to a separate team of
trained and certified Neota builders to build out the solution in the Neota Studio.

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 Data management
S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E

The Neota Data Manager (NDM) is a radical innovation in data management.

With NDM, business users are empowered to build applications that read from
and write to MSSQL and Postgres databases, without writing code and without
assistance from programmers or database administrators.

NDM can automatically generate a database with all the tables, joins, and
procedures needed to manage data for a Neota application. As the application’s
data structure is changed (variables added, modified, deleted), the database
schema is automatically updated and synchronized, meaning that changes to any
Neota built solutions requires relatively minor overhead.

Operations to read from and write to the database are created with a few clicks via
the Neota authoring platform. Most importantly, knowledge of SQL is not required.

All actions taken in applications on the Neota platform, including user or logic-
driven amendments to contracts, are automatically stored in NDM and are readily
available for reporting purposes or to trigger actions based on pre-defined logic
or other criteria. Configuring NDM is flexible, and an organization can either use
Neota’s database or one of their own.

If using Neota’s own MSSQL or Postgres database, all data is stored in a virtual
private cloud, maintained for the customer by Neota at Amazon Web Services,
Azure, or in the customer’s own cloud.

Where the customer has an existing database – for example, a customer

relationship management system – NDM can read the database schema
and build the Neota application data structure automatically, and without code.

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 Use cases and building blocks
S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E

No-code platforms, like with most platform solutions have the blank canvas
dilemma. The catch-22 that while everyone wants the tools to be creators, no
one wants to start from ground zero – no matter how good or easy the actual
technology is to use.

Even the Microsoft suite doesn’t escape from this problem, and they’ve
implemented templates to help solve this. For Microsoft, a PowerPoint Template
is ‘a pattern or blueprint of a slide…[templates] can contain layouts, theme colors,
fonts, effects styles and even content.’ The building industry has something
similar – the Modular Construction method. A form of prefabricated construction
methodology that sources pre-built components (made offsite) which are then
transported to the construction site to be assembled. In essence, it’s a lean
technique applied to the construction industry!

To solve this problem and to enhance the platform usability, we have introduced
our use cases and Modular Building Block concepts to the Neota tool suite!

There are three key concepts:

Use cases are fully built, runnable digital solutions which are made available to Neota
customers. Although pre-configured by the Neota team, each minute use case detail
(logic, functionality, content) can be configured by customers to suit their own needs.

We have included two use case data sheets as appendices to this e-book.
For a complete list of use cases, please visit our website.

Use case templates are skeleton versions of use cases that Neota customers
can access to customize or further develop through the Neota platform. Use
case Templates do not have content built-in, rather it comes with step-by-step
instructions for the customer to leverage already built out functions of the use case
while allowing customization of their own content.

Building blocks are modular, fully built, meaningful, ‘functionality specific’ solutions
which through simple no-code ‘plug and play’ can be connected to use cases or
use case Templates. Building blocks include functions like third-party integrations
into DocuSign and Box, negotiation capabilities and approval workflows.

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 Integration –
S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E

What does the system support and allow you to integrate?

The ability for any newly onboarded tool or platform to integrate with existing
systems is critical to the enterprise success of any technology stack.
The Neota platform provides a native Web Services editor that functions as a
visual, no-code component to make REST API calls to third-party products over
HTTP and secure HTTP (HTTPS). As such, it allows integrations with any product
exposed via a RESTful API.

This empowers builders to create their own integrations, so there is no need

to come to Neota to custom develop integrations for each platform individually. To
help give a better understanding of what this can allow you to do, successful third-
party integrations with Neota include DocuSign, SharePoint, Salesforce, HighQ,
Kira, Wolfram, AWS, Google Maps, PowerBI, BigML, iManage, GreenID, TextRazor,
Dandelion, and Amazon QuickSight, amongst many others.

The ways in which these integrate allow reasoning tools to have their data points
translated into the Neota platform, allowing for reports created at the end point to
use that data and apply any necessary reasoning to it. Other functionalities, such
as DocuSign, allow for Contract Lifecycle Management solutions built using Neota
to be integrated with signing procedures in one native user experience, rather than
having to link in and out of the Neota application in order to achieve these ends.

Neota’s integration capabilities extend in the opposite direction as well. Neota

applications can be run as a service to other Neota apps or to any program or
external third-party system via the Neota-as-a-Service (NaaS) mechanism. NaaS
provides a mechanism for Neota built applications to be transformed to expose
a RESTful API for integration to third-party systems. For more information, please
read our Integration Whitepaper found here.

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 Security
S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E

Data security and privacy considerations are never an afterthought here at Neota.
All data used and maintained by the Neota System (NLS) is encrypted in transit
(via HTTPS/SSL) and at rest (through continuous AES-256 encryption of the NLS
Operational Database). Neota Data Manager (NDM) data stores can be located on
customer premises or in a customer-controlled cloud (at AWS, Azure, or another
cloud provider). Customers hosting an external data store will have complete
control over the encryption of that data.

Neota applications can persist data via NDM to Microsoft SQL or PostgreSQL
databases, or via the NLS Web Services Editor to any data store or system with a REST
API. NLS application servers and relational databases are entirely contained in an AWS
VPC, making it impossible to directly access these machines from the general internet.

NLS environments are protected by Amazon Guard Duty, an intelligent threat

detection service that continuously monitors the network for malicious or
unauthorized behavior. AWS Shield protects against the most common Distributed
Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and state of the art web application firewalls help
protect the infrastructure from common web exploits that may affect availability,
compromise security, or consume excessive resources.

Manual and automated threat detection is performed by Neota developers and

third-party services several times a year, with feature updates (and security patches)
being constantly tested and debugged prior to their release on customer servers.

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 Solution development
S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E

Neota offers our customers the choice when it comes to the development of applications
in the platform – self-service or Neota managed service delivery. Both options are
supported by our customer success team during three key phases depending on the
use case that is being developed and who the end-user will be, they are:
1. Idea to prototype – The process of managing business ideas/challenges/pain
points through a ‘prototyping funnel’
2. Prototype to product – The process of project managing a set of deliverables
into a working product and releasing to the business
3. Product to market – The process of taking a product to market

As part of Neota’s onboarding process and to support customers on their Neota

journey we can offer to run customer workshops that support design thinking,
ideation and agile application building.

For customers that want to use Neota Service Delivery we take a hybrid approach to
project managing application delivery which incorporates elements of agile working.

Self-service/Build your own applications

Customers that are looking to be self-sufficient in using the platform and can
build and maintain their own applications may take one or more of the following
approaches:
• Self-paced e-learning
Neota provides both the Neota University (more information below) and User Manual
for customers to use training and reference material. The self-paced e-learning material
enables customers to become familiar with the fundamentals of Neota Studio.

• Training workshops
– 2-day Foundation or 3-day Standard workshops for attendees that will be
using Neota, which are designed to bolster participants’ knowledge of Neota,
as well as work with the participants to develop a working Proof of Concept
application based on an initial use case identified by the customer.
– 1/2 day Advanced workshops which are designed to focus on very specific
advanced platform capabilities, which may only be required for certain use cases.

• Bespoke training workshop

If a customer has very specific training that they would like Neota to deliver,
we would be happy to discuss and under the customers’ requirements
and expectations. If the training material does not exist and/or the delivery
of training requires a Neota specialist to deliver, this will incur additional cost
to the customer in preparing and delivering the required content, along with
any associated travel & expenses.

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 Neota managed service delivery
S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E

Neota Service Delivery is based upon standard project management methodology,

a framework to support the successful delivery of an application/product or solution
to our customers who have elected not to build using the Neota platform.

Neota projects are delivered in 6 phases (planning, solution blueprint, build & test,
customer user acceptance testing (UAT), deployment and support transition), with
each phase having a set of tasks and outcomes to complete.

During the build & test phase, Neota uses an agile approach; building being carried
out in 1 or 2-week iterations, with a customer demonstration at the end of each
iteration. This allows continued customer engagement and proactive feedback
during the build process. Feedback is logged in a product backlog for review and
inclusion in a future release. Certain phases have a tollgate to move through before
proceeding to the next phase of delivery, which acts as a formal authorization/
signoff by the customer to proceed to the next phase.

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 Neota University
S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E

Neota University is Neota’s comprehensive e-learning and training platform.

Neota University combines step-by-step training videos, clear reference materials
and hands-on, real-world application building exercises to familiarize authors with
the many functionalities of the Neota platform. Neota University provides detailed
instruction on some of Neota’s most exciting functionalities including Workflow,
document automation, data storage and much more. Neota currently offers
two curated courses for authors: Fundamentals and Advanced Concepts.

Neota Fundamentals
Fundamentals is designed for new authors looking to develop their app-building
skills with our advanced app-building application-authoring component tool, Neota
Studio. The course covers the basics of application authoring in Studio and guides
learners through the process of building out their very first app. By the end of the
course, authors will have the opportunity to submit their own Neota Expert Advisor
application and receive personalized feedback and guidance from the Neota team.

Neota Advanced Concepts

Once authors have completed Fundamentals, they can transition to Advanced
Concepts to gain a wider understanding of Neota’s advanced functionalities including
Workflow and NDM. This course will teach authors how to leverage Neota applications
to generate documents, how to create complex multi-user and multi-application
Workflows, how to integrate SQL data storage into their business solution, and much
more. Advanced Concepts will give authors the skills and confidence to implement
sophisticated business solutions leveraging the full power of the Neota platform.

Certifications
Both Fundamentals and Advanced Concepts reward authors who complete the
course with a certified digital badge and certificate of completion to recognize their
achievement. Badges and certificates are digitally shareable and can be added as
a verified certification on LinkedIn or shared via social media.

Thank-you for taking the time to read this e-book and we hope you are as excited
about the future of no-code as we are at Neota! If you would like more information or
wish to discuss any aspect of this e-book further, please contact info@neotalogic.com.

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S E C T I O N T W O – T H E N E O TA D I F F E R E N C E
A B O U T N E O TA

Neota is the leading no-code platform for the intelligent

automation of processes, documents, and expertise.
The platform provides professionals with pre-built components
to rapidly build intelligent workflow solutions that automate
any aspect of their service, without writing a single line of code.
These solutions empower professionals to deliver access
to their expertise at scale.

Learn more Request a demo