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Ifeanyi Okeakwalam
Ifeanyi Okeakwalam

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NoCode has no limit and is not created for developers none-developers only, Here is why?

For many people who believe that noCode is just for non developers and people are limited to the features of NoCode platforms.

Here is OUSTICS systems, very robust and complex. A system that should take 2 months to develop but completed in 3 weeks, here is how it happened.

Oustics systems is a project i completed some time ago. The problem solved with this system is a very complex and demanding one, but for you to fully understand the gravity of what is involved in all this, allow me to first explain the problem statement in details. 

OUSTICS SYSTEM OPERATION
The business owner ships product in large quantities and send them to shops in the country to sell for him. The shops in question are not owned by the business owner he only affiliated with the shop owners through a contract agreement and all he has to do is to ship in products from China and Japan straight in to his warehouse before distributing the products to all the shops. 

All the shop owners he has affiliated with are located in Nigeria and in this part of the world transactions like this can get messy easily and fast, people from Nigeria would understand me better. 

The problem he faced with this method, is first from the shop owners, they don't remit completely, they took advantage of the analogue nature of the process and was doing all sort of fraud. The business owner proposed to the shop owners that they use some third party service (cloud based service), they tried but the shop owners still complained about the complexity, some of them aren't too educated to understand how to use this tools. 

PROPOSED SOLUTION
The business owner thought about building his own cloud based service so he can have room to make the shop owners UI very simple and concise and still end up automating the operations of his business but there was a little problem, the business owner have already invested heavily in stock but he is yet to begin distribution of goods to shops, this is because he wants his software ready before distribution. Some of the money he used in stocking up where loaned and there was not much time to develop this solution. He was willing to pay for the service of a professional engineer who can do something fast and that is where i come in. 

The problem for me to solve now is to try and automate the whole process between the business owner, the product distributor and the shop owners. To deliver this solution in the simplest way possible most especially the shop owners dashboard, it needs do the job pretty well and as simple as possible no excuses. I was mandated to come up with a very simple but classic user interface and experience across the three different sections of this application. I had just a little time to deliver this project.

To me I already knew that my best bet would be to use a NoCode tool like WEBFLOW to build the entire UI of the system, there was never a doubt that I can't build a great interface with Webflow as I am very good and fast with the tool. I went to my board and drew out the layout of the whole system and how I have envisioned them to be. I defined the relationships (on software level) between the business owner console, distributor console and shop owners console, I did all the wire frame in two days and then I was ready to start building the user interface with Webflow, now check this out.

In less than three days I had created all the screens almost fifty, the shop owners console is the one with the lowest number of screens just five. I already knew the kind of interface I wanted before creating on Webflow, when I finished building my UI on Webflow I extracted the codes and assets files away from Webflow and I continued development from that point. I spent most of my time doing the backend because the logic is quite crazy and I needed it done in the best way possible.

Finished this project in less than 3 weeks, the business owner software, the product distributor software and the shop owners software, built all the tools needed to ensure the system is auditable, transactions are transparent and everyone's actions are accounted for. The system detects underperforming shops, and notifies the business owner so he can recall his products and reassign them to shops that are performing great. Finished 40% of this journey with a tool like Webflow. 

What are the lessons learnt

  1. If the only thing you know how to use is the NoCode or LOW-CODE tool, then truly you would be limited at some point to the features the platform offers you to build with. But if you can do other things then beat it brother, there are no limitations.

  2. NoCode was originally built for people who don't want to interface with any code as they don't know how to code or they hate coding, but that is not the case anymore, NoCode platforms this days are very advanced, meaning you can build professionally looking UI's and what ever you build with their software can be extended. So don't get it twisted developers and none developers use these platforms this days. 

CONCLUSION 
Most of the best noCode tools out There aren't meant only for people with no coding experience but for people with coding experience. You can build almost anything with noCode because most of this platforms allow extensions and you can choose to export your codes plus accets at any time, you can also choose to host directly with them.

NoCode helps you ship your product faster, this in recent time is the catch.

check out my website for more interesting article https://www.ifeanyiokeakwalam.com/blog/1 also follow me on all platform via @ifycoool

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