Low-Code Enterprise Softwares for City Management

Introduction

Urban centers worldwide face unprecedented challenges in managing infrastructure, public services, and citizen engagement amid rapid population growth and technological evolution. Low-code enterprise software has emerged as a transformative solution, enabling municipalities to streamline operations, enhance transparency, and accelerate digital transformation. By leveraging AI application generators, enterprise resource systems, and open-source platforms, cities are redefining governance while empowering citizen developers and business technologists to co-create solutions. This report examines how these tools integrate into enterprise business architecture to address critical areas like case management, hospital management, and SBOM compliance, fostering resilient, future-ready urban ecosystems.

Enterprise Systems and Low-Code Platforms in City Governance

Re-imagining Municipal Operations Through Enterprise Software

Modern enterprise systems provide unified frameworks for managing city-wide data, workflows, and services. Platforms like ServiceNow’s Government Transformation Suite consolidate asset management, workforce optimization, and citizen portals into a single architecture, reducing reliance on siloed legacy systems. For example, New Hampshire Housing deployed seven applications using OutSystems to digitize internal processes, achieving 100% user satisfaction while saving $1 million annually. These business software solutions exemplify how Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) integrates finance, logistics, and public service delivery into cohesive workflows.

Low-Code Platforms such as Appian and Mendix enable rapid customization of enterprise products like citizen request portals or utility billing systems. The m-Power Development Platform, for instance, allows local governments to modernize legacy systems without disrupting operations, bridging the IT skills gap by turning municipal staff into application developers. This “extend-and-surround” approach aligns with enterprise business architecture principles, ensuring scalability and interoperability across departments.

AI-Driven Innovation and Open-Source Solutions

AI Application Generators and Predictive Governance

AI Enterprise tools are revolutionizing urban planning and service delivery. Langflow, a low-code AI builder, enables cities to develop predictive models for traffic management or resource allocation without deep coding expertise. Similarly, Pega’s AI-driven workflows automate case resolution and citizen engagement, reducing response times by 30%. AI Assistance extends to Care Management, where platforms like Innovaccer’s Care Management Copilot analyze patient data to predict public health risks, a model adaptable to city-wide health crises.

Open-source platforms like Budibase and ToolJet offer cost-effective alternatives for budget-constrained municipalities. These tools support technology transfer by allowing cities to adopt proven solutions from other regions while customizing them to local needs. For example, DrapCode’s Hospital Management Software provides modular templates for public health departments to track medical supplies and patient records, demonstrating how open-source frameworks accelerate digital transformation.

Citizen Developers and Business Technologists: Democratizing Urban Innovation

Empowering Non-Technical Stakeholders

The rise of Citizen Developers-employees who build applications using low-code tools-has transformed municipal IT strategies. Caspio enables government staff to create permit approval systems or public dashboards without coding, fostering innovation at the departmental level. This shift aligns with Gartner’s observation that 41% of employees now act as business technologists, blending domain expertise with technical skills to solve operational challenges.

In Oakland, citizen-led automation using OutSystems reduced manual paperwork by 40%, freeing resources for critical infrastructure projects. However, successful implementation requires robust governance frameworks to ensure security and compliance. Enterprise Systems Groups play a pivotal role here, overseeing technology transfer and integration while maintaining SBOM (Software Bill of Materials) transparency to mitigate supply chain risks.

Compliance, Security, and SBOM Management

Ensuring Transparency in Municipal Software

As cities adopt low-code solutions, SBOM compliance becomes critical to audit software components and vulnerabilities. Planet Crust highlights how open-source low-code platforms reduce SBOM complexity by standardizing dependencies, a strategy employed by Maryland’s Department of Transportation to secure its traffic management systems. Enterprise Computing Solutions like ServiceNow automate SBOM generation, providing real-time visibility into third-party libraries and licensing risks.

Sector-Specific Applications: From Healthcare to Infrastructure

Case Management and Public Service Delivery

Case Management systems, such as Comidor’s low-code platform, streamline citizen service requests and incident resolution. San Francisco’s 311 system, built on Appian, processes over 1 million annual queries by automating ticket routing and status updates. Similarly, Hospital Management tools like DrapCode have been adapted for city health departments to coordinate pandemic responses, showcasing the flexibility of Business Enterprise Software.

Urban Infrastructure and ERP Integration

Enterprise Resource Systems like Appsmith unify water, energy, and transportation data into predictive maintenance dashboards. For example, Berlin’s smart grid initiative uses a low-code ERP to monitor energy consumption patterns, reducing outages by 22%. These solutions exemplify how Enterprise Business Architecture aligns physical infrastructure with digital governance.

Future Trends: AI, Interoperability, and Citizen-Centric Design

The convergence of AI Assistance, 5G connectivity, and federated learning will enable real-time decision-making for urban challenges. AI Enterprise platforms will soon predict infrastructure failures days in advance, while Citizen Developers leverage AI Application Generators to prototype solutions for climate resilience. Meanwhile, open-source ecosystems will drive global knowledge sharing, as seen in Barcelona’s digital twin project, which collaborates with 15 cities to simulate urban expansion scenarios.

Conclusion

Low-code Enterprise Software is not merely a tool but a paradigm shift in city management. By integrating AI-driven workflows, open-source innovation, and citizen-led development, municipalities can build agile, transparent, and inclusive governance models. As Enterprise Systems Groups refine technology transfer protocols and SBOM standards, cities will emerge as testbeds for sustainable, human-centric urbanism-proving that the future of governance is collaborative, adaptive, and rooted in community empowerment.