A necessary new approach

Pluryn is a leading Dutch healthcare organization serving clients with disabilities and mental health conditions. Pluryn’s mission is to help their clients to live more independently in society. Thomas Geelkerken, Manager Business Analyst at Pluryn wants to support this mission with innovative technology. Thomas started looking into a new way of working because he was tired of solutions that didn’t truly benefit employees or clients.

When Pluryn hired agencies to build custom apps, the results weren’t stable or scalable enough to be used across the large organization. Third-party developers also have a hard time understanding the diverse and complex needs of Pluryn’s clients. That’s when Thomas saw the potential to transform the way the organization approaches digital solutions: using low-code/no-code technology (LCNC) to empower those who have the most client knowledge.

Balancing innovation and resources

Healthcare IT is expensive and digital solutions must be able to meet stringent security requirements. Apps also cannot add time or complexity to processes because the staff needs to optimize their time for clients. As such, the organization must constantly balance innovation with tight budgets and resources.

By leveraging the client expertise of their non-technical staff, Pluryn aims to turn ideas for improving client care into practical solutions. For example, an app to enable clients to manage their personal finances and budgets. They want a low-code/no-code (LCNC) platform that is accessible for non-technical staff and also supports building advanced, custom applications.
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“What we found in Betty Blocks was a partner with enthusiasm, great vision and product, and a certain amount of realism. They made our ideas and vision practical and the ability to support the implementation of our citizen development vision was an exact match for us.”

Mobilizing citizen development

Thomas built an idea backlog, based on topics that had a clear gap between what the organization wanted and the available technology. He also started inspiring people to the possibilities for solutions developed by their own client experts, also called citizen developers, instead of the IT department or agencies. Thomas searched for an LCNC platform to support his citizen development vision.

"I believe that truly great ideas come from within the organization, from those working with our clients who may not necessarily have strong technical skills. So, why not give them an instrument to help their ideas get translated into a working digital solution?" - Thomas Geelkerken, Manager Business Analyst

Thomas also had high standards for data security and privacy to consider. This was a crucial factor considering the personal health information of their clients and healthcare sector regulations.