Helping SMBs leverage cloud services

Businesses of all sizes today are looking to transform themselves into data-driven companies. Cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions give small- and medium-sized business (SMBs) affordable access to the kinds of software that enterprises use to improve operational efficiency and customer engagement.

In addition to eliminating high up-front costs for software licenses and hardware to run applications, next-generation SaaS solutions typically support multiple business capabilities such as e-commerce, digital analytics, order placement and tracking, inventory control, and business reporting. They also help SMBs meet evolving customer expectations for 24/7 digital availability and more personalized experiences.

“Like all businesses, SMBs need to adapt to changing circumstances to stay competitive and relevant,” says Premanand Thudia, CEO, SMBXL Pvt. Ltd. “Digital enablement keeps many SMBs viable in any environment.”

Based in Hyderabad, India, SMBXL has helped modernize more than 18,000 businesses in 800 cities since it was founded as Business Central in 2011. The company rebranded to SMBXL (for small and medium business excellence) in 2018. The company developed its Business Central business management suite and Market Central global business network using Adobe ColdFusion.

“SMBXL has been able to use everything that Adobe ColdFusion provides,” Thudia says. “We developed all back-office functionalities using built-in ColdFusion components, API tools, and security features. We can quickly build new applications and scale existing applications to enterprise-grade with one solution.”

Innovation, agility, and speed

After developing software for 20 years for established corporations and mom-and-pop businesses, Thudia knows that speed matters, especially for smaller companies just getting started. Accordingly, SMBXL creates applications that are easy to learn and quickly deliver business value.

The company’s templated approach to its Business Central and Market Central solutions allows developers to quickly adapt applications for different types of businesses. Similarly, SMBXL keeps development cycles short and simple so applications can be created and updated rapidly as customer needs evolve.

“SMBXL develops applications 25% to 40% faster with Adobe ColdFusion than with other tools. Simply tweaking the CSS in built-in functions helps reduce the need to develop completely from scratch,” Thudia says.

SMBXL evaluated open source programming tools including JavaScript and AngularJS. In fact, SMBXL tried building a new single-page application (SPA) with AngularJS in 2018. At the time, AngularJS had a lot of industry buzz because it was supported by Google.

The SMBXL development team, however, realized that even small enhancements required extensive coding through a complicated user interface. Additionally, changes to the freeware library caused problems when compiling source code.

“After four months, we scrapped everything we’d done in AngularJS,” Thudia says. “We then rebuilt the SPA in Adobe ColdFusion in less than one month.”

Quality and security

Of the 25 developers at SMBXL, ten of them specialize in Adobe ColdFusion. With the solution’s extensive built-in support for web and mobile app development protocols, all major databases, and API development and testing, the ColdFusion team rarely uses other tools to accomplish their objectives.

Adobe ColdFusion includes built-in error feedback to accelerate development and quality control. Developers can customize error information and handling with techniques such as using cftry, cfcatch, cfthrow, and cfrethrow tags to catch and handle exception errors on the pages where they occur or using try and catch statements in CFScript to handle exceptions.

“Adobe ColdFusion error feedback helps us understand in real-time when development errors happen,” Thudia says. “They enable us to build more robust apps faster, which is important as our company grows.”

Security is also increasingly important to SMBs as they move to cloud-based applications. ColdFusion provides scalable, granular security features, such as encryption, data validation, and password protection.

“ColdFusion even includes an automatic lockdown feature to protect servers against vulnerabilities. I really don’t have to take care of anything,” says Thudia. “If I want to open pipes to our applications, I have to do it intentionally using valid security processes.”

New customers and markets

SMBXL continually revamps applications to better serve its customers. The company is also evaluating opportunities to expand services to SMBs outside India and to pursue sales to larger enterprises.

The development team trusts Adobe to provide expert advice for staying at the forefront of ColdFusion innovation and guidance on enhancing Business Central and Market Central features. SMBXL has also been encouraging Adobe to enhance native ColdFusion integrations with Adobe applications including Magento Commerce, Campaign, and Creative Cloud.

“Adobe has supported SMBXL at every stage of our journey,” Thudia says. “Adobe ColdFusion easily allowed us to provide what smaller companies require and can scale to support SMBXL’s growth. It provides us with the necessary tools to enhance and deploy our applications in environments of any size.”

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