Oracle APEX is suitable for use whenever there’s a need to save time and cost on app development without sacrificing functionality, performance, and user experience. The low-code platform simply does the heavy lifting for you so you don’t have to spend weeks writing codes.
Whether you’re a business owner looking to create a simple spreadsheet-based app for personal use or a developer building a mission-critical tool for the general public, Oracle Apex empowers both developers and non-developers to build top-performing apps rapidly. These apps are highly intuitive, user-friendly, and 100% browser-based.
Thanks to Oracle APEX low-code functionality, app development is now a project any business executive can get involved in without having to spend months learning how to code.
Oracle APEX Use Cases
Now let’s talk about specific use cases—times when Oracle Apex is an ideal solution for your business:
New Apps to Meet Rapidly-Changing Market Demands
Market opportunities arise as frequently as customer demands are ever-changing. Companies can take advantage by quickly building apps that meet new customer needs and their advancing business requirements to stay ahead of the competition.
With traditional app development, speed, which is crucial here, is a challenge. Before an app is completely coded and developed, market needs may change again. Oracle APEX solves this challenge by allowing businesses to build apps in real time, going from concept to working prototypes in minutes.
Using Quick SQL, you can generate SQL scripts based on a simple shorthand syntax to define new data structures. The scripts run within the Oracle Database to create database tables, views, and triggers. Next, create forms and reports for the tables via the Create App Wizard. And voila! you have a prototype.
You can add additional functionality like access control and activity reporting as needed.
Converting Spreadsheets into Web Apps
When companies collect data, they usually enter the data in a spreadsheet. They may then send out the spreadsheet to appropriate team members and departments to assess, update, and use for whatever purposes. But what happens is that each team member may alter the spreadsheet in different ways, as it’s all manual. In the end, there’s a variety of spreadsheets with varying data.
To avoid this, why not convert your spreadsheet into a browser-based web app that everyone can work on remotely in real time? That way, there will be a single source of truth; everyone sees the same data at every given time.
You can convert a spreadsheet into a web app with just a few clicks on APEX. This app can enable SSO, LDAP, or social login as well as audit tracking. These attributes solve the authentication and tracking challenges that most conventional spreadsheets have.
External Data Sharing
Have you ever wished you could develop an app by which business partners or customers can access your company data and interact with you without exposing your internal systems to security risks? Thanks to Oracle REST Data Services (ORDS), developers can develop an isolated app open to the public without compromising security.
You can achieve that by defining a REST endpoint and building a report or chart on top of that data source using declarative statements.
Building such apps that allow partners and customers to seamlessly assess important company data can encourage them to do more business with you. And you’ll have peace of mind while at it.
Extending ERP Systems
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, although highly efficient, do not always provide customized functionality or specific reports as you may personally need. Whether it’s a CRM, sales, or marketing system, the challenge is the same.
The best that developers can do is implement industry standards. Still, you may wish you could do a particular thing differently, like what button performs what function. Well, now you could.
With Oracle APEX, you can extend your ERP system by adding bespoke functionality tailored to your unique needs. You can also reduce the steps needed to perform a particular task, increasing efficiency and user experience.
Additionally, APEX can be used to access data from other systems outside your ERP so you can project better dashboards and reports with more comprehensive information. This is achieved using Database links or REST Web Services.
Datamart Reporting
Oracle APEX solves the challenge of data visualization that many companies face. As there is a vast amount of data within the company, there’s a need to limit what anyone can see at any time. With APEX, you can create different dashboards for each user group to control who sees what. This helps to reduce the risk of data breaches even as you collect and report the vast loads of data within the organization into a single database.
You can achieve this level of security by defining RESTful Web Services to access whichever data is appropriate to be viewed by a certain user group.
Modernizing Oracle Forms
Oracle Forms applications were once the standard but have since lost their appeal due to the outdated interface, usability, and user experience. You may also have difficulty accessing your Oracle Forms app on some modern browsers. Most Forms apps are not mobile-friendly, a necessity in modern times.
By modernizing your Oracle Forms app using APEX, the app becomes responsive, accessible on any browser, and intuitive for modern-day users. You can also enhance and extend the pages (add custom functionality) as needed using HTML, SQL, PL/SQL, JavaScript, and CSS.
APEX and Forms both use the same SQL and PL/SQL programming language, so modernization is a breeze.
The Bottom Line
You can use ORACLE APEX whenever there’s a need to develop an app instantly, modernize an outdated Forms app, share company data securely with partners and customers, enhance an inefficient ERP system, app-ify simple spreadsheets, and more. As you can see, there are various instances where Oracle APEX comes in handy.
If you’re a business owner and any of these use cases appeal to you, you can achieve your goal in a very short time. APEX does the heavy lifting. Just drag and drop elements.
And if you need expert assistance or prefer to leave it to an APEX developer while you focus on your executive roles, get in touch now.
