Data is at the heart of any application. When constructing an application, there are those who build connections and provide data, to those who leverage that information for workflows, automation rules, and user experience. Successful applications demand these roles work in harmony to bring it all together. Today, low code makes application development more accessible to the business for sure. For professional developers, low code provides easier ways to reduce redundant tasks, leaving more time to focus on creating elegant approaches to real world complex challenges.
Those who provide data can simplify the challenge of integrating and aggregating disparate, complex real-time business information from across the enterprise. Those who leverage data get builder-friendly low-code access to that data for workflow automation and user experience. The handoff is clear, simple and comes with caching for the IT crowd that prefers to avoid unwarranted chatter. We will look at this simple approach to division of labor with a focus on the value and savings it provides.
Providing data
Every application needs data. Getting data from disparate sources of varying integration methods and maturity often makes up most of a project timeline. It also introduces the most unknown factors that cannot be accounted for. The people who build the application logic and user experience know what they need but knowing how to get it is a different world.
Pega Live Data introduces differentiating capabilities to insulate your builders from this complexity. Live data introduces adaptable, built-in integration best practices including virtualization, caching, specialization, and transformation which allow you to source the right data from the right system at the right time. The approach is especially valuable as data sources evolve.
- Data abstraction, virtualization, de-coupling, and insulation
Many words can be used to explain this critical and key capability that reduces costs and removes delays for automation projects. Imagine your company wants to automate a key business process, but a key data source is only accessible via manual web application, as the project to make it a web service is not scheduled until next year. The automation opportunity is now on hold.
With Pega Live data, the required data object can be constructed to use robotic process automation (RPA) today, and when the service is ready, it can be migrated to the new source. No change is required to the process, business rules, charts or user experience that leverage the data object. Those who are configuring your Pega application are simply working with the data model. - Declarative
Pega Live Data is declarative in nature. What does that mean? For the person who provides data, this means we don’t need to pre-fetch all the data and make sure it is available or manage complex procedures to execute at the right time. When a builder of your application wants to leverage some data, they simply refer to the data object properties and Pega Live Data will determine (based on low code configuration) if the data needs to be fetched/refreshed. The result saves effort, costs, and precious response time. - Conditional access
Often newly acquired, customer-specific or regional systems of record are required for the same data at the same point in the process. Pega Live Data conditional access allows you to decide in real-time how to leverage one source or another from a single data object. This removes the need for complex code or yet another siloed application. - Data aggregation
In situations where your data is sourced from multiple systems, Pega Live Data provides support for composite data sources. For example, you may have three customer data sources including core customers in SAP, partner sourced in a legacy database, and third-party customers accessible via REST. All three of these sources can be fetched in parallel and merged, including the ability to apply data transformations, all in real time. As the data sources get retired, migrated or merged, the data object can change with no changes to the application components that leverage it. - Caching
Pega Live Data also provides robust caching support, native in the platform. So, for those situations where data does not always need to be real time (for example – a list of products), you can use Pega Live Data to cache the information in memory. Pega Live Data allows you to determine how long things stay in cache – whether it is based on a business rule or a time interval you define. Reducing chatter is key to meeting performance service level agreements and increasing user adoption. - Savable
Pega Live Data also provides robust savable data pages that can be leveraged to persist and information collected or created. A rule-based save plan can be created to persist data to the correct system of record based on current context and requirements. This ensures best practices are being followed to ensure data accuracy and consistency.
Leveraging data
Regardless of your role or title, Pega Live Data objects are easy to find and easy to build with. They are leveraged throughout application development within process, business rules, user interface and more. As a builder, once you leverage a Pega Live Data object, any changes to the source of the object do not require a change wherever you chose to leverage it. Below are some the key areas where the reusable data objects can be leveraged.
- Associated with a property
The easiest way to make the development process more convenient is by defining a data object and associating it with a property. When a builder uses that property, it executes the data object and provides the data to that property without any need to understand the underlying method of retrieval. - Services
Pega’s DX API includes a ready-to-use REST service that can reference a Pega Live Data object directly. What this means for your architecture is any data object that gets created can now be directly leveraged by other applications whether they are Pega or not. - User interface controls
Improve the maintainability of your application by defining sources for the values that populate UX controls. In addition, you can use data objects to source table structures, dynamic layouts, Constellation views, charts and more. - Business rules and data transformations
Pega Live data objects can also be referenced anywhere properties can be used. This includes using data objects in transformations, business rules and automations. The ultimate value is in that there is an agreement between the data object and the builder who leverages as to what will be returned.
Sharing data
Most of today’s organizations modern IT function has a dedicated group, such as a center of excellence, that centrally manages application deployments. Pega is unique in that in provides a layered architecture that allows for the reuse and specialization of enterprise data objects. The data objects can be stored at an enterprise layer for reuse across the organization, accessible directly in Pega applications or as a service via the DX API.
Reusable data management lowers TCO and improves experience!
The strategy of having a provider of enterprise reusable low code data assets enables a world where IT can simplify the challenge of integrating and aggregating disparate, complex real time data. This is while providing application builders easy access to that data and the freedom to build workflow and user experiences that will ensure user adoption. The hand off is clear, simple, reusable, and convenient.