OutSystems helps Sage embrace future of work

OutSystems has teamed up with Sage to develop a ‘MyWorkSpace’ app, which enables colleagues to book desks and meeting rooms. This project has helped Sage colleagues return to the office under the company’s Flexible Human Work initiative.

Like many companies, Sage, the market leader in cloud business management solutions, implemented a work from home policy at the start of the COVID-19 crisis and is now helping its 11,000 colleagues return to its offices where guidance allows.

Having chosen the high-speed development platform, four graduates and a senior developer learnt about the OutSystems solution and built the company’s first in-house mobile app, ‘Colleague Hub’, designed to streamline internal approvals. In addition, it delivered a web application, integrated with Sage’s contact centre system, to allow customer service staff and managers to support customers as effectively as possible.

After Sage implemented a work from home policy across all of its global offices, the developers continued their work and found OutSystems helped them with collaborative development, as a result of its modular application architecture. OutSystems Cloud also enabled the team to move to a remote working environment with very little process or technology adjustment.

Using an OutSystems Forge template and supported by a Technical Success Manager, who provided coaching on rearchitecting the app as a web application, the team delivered the first iteration of the MyWorkSpace app in just six weeks. In the following months, regular updates by the development team added more features to the application, helping Sage colleagues safely return to office-based working while putting safety first.

MyWorkSpace includes a range of features, including the ability to choose an office location, date and area. It automatically assigns a desk and displays an interactive map that helps the user find it; QR codes at the desk allow easy check-in scans. Colleagues check out when ready, or the app notifies them when checkout time is imminent, so that they can vacate the space for cleaning.

MyWorkSpace also integrates into Sage’s intranet, providing employees with access to a comprehensive set of COVID-19 related information and instructions tailored to their office without leaving the app. Sage also simplified the desk booking process and built Sage-specific reports and dashboards.

As restrictions have eased nationally, the app is now aiding colleagues’ return to the office, under Sage’s Flexible Human Work initiative. Sage believes that the future of work is built on true flexibility and collaboration and that where or when you work is not as important as how we connect as humans to do the best work for customers.

Stephen Lukert, Global Director of Finance Solutions at Sage said: “In this new normal, like all businesses, we have to be able to adapt quickly. OutSystems has allowed us to do this and helped us rapidly deliver a tailored app that allows colleagues to book desks and meeting rooms – helping them safely return to the office.”

Mike Hughes, Senior Director, Product Marketing, OutSystems, said: “Sage really has seen the benefits of using our platform, with a small team developing a number of apps, along with its MyWorkSpace app. Using a team from its graduate programme, supported by OutSystems, it has developed a business-changing app that has helped the Sage team return to work safely in just six weeks.”