Mendix

ProRail, a company assigned by the Dutch Government to maintain over 6,800 km of their national railway, faced a significant challenge in managing its complex operations. The company's mission was to ensure high-quality, safe, on-time, and convenient passenger and freight rail travel in the Netherlands. However, the logistical challenges were immense, requiring the company to maintain a high-quality workforce and systems. The company was organized into three infrastructure management organizations, each with its own set of responsibilities. The IT department was responsible for the processes that enabled the railway network to operate properly. However, the company's core systems operation was sophisticated and of high importance, requiring a substantial amount of IT oversight. At the same time, the business was constantly generating new ideas to create efficiencies in their processes, which often led to a growing backlog and a proliferation of Shadow IT.

Regional banks play a crucial role in the economic health of communities by offering greater access to funding and personalized services. However, over the last two decades, these institutions have found it increasingly difficult to compete with larger national banks due to customer demand for more convenience and digital touchpoints in banking, and their lack of IT expertise to deliver them. Large national banks have hundreds of people dedicated to software development and can make up for their lack of personal client relationships by offering sleek, easy-to-use applications. This has become particularly important in a post-COVID era, where digital convenience often overshadows the personal touch of in-person banking. Regional banks are at a crossroads – their lean IT budgets are hardly enough to develop enterprise-grade software with traditional code, and commercial-off-the-shelf solutions are typically restrictive.

ABN AMRO, the third-largest bank in the Netherlands, was facing a growing demand for digitalization of their services, a need that was further amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. With over 3 million customers and €197B in assets, the bank was under pressure to offer more digital touchpoints for both customers and employees. The bank's workforce of 19,000 employees began resorting to shadow IT solutions to meet these needs, which posed a risk given the high regulatory and compliance standards of the banking industry. In 2016, ABN AMRO reassessed their IT landscape and determined that they needed a more efficient development platform to deliver innovative solutions quickly while maintaining a level of governance that met industry standards.