How Our Technology Partners Elevate Unqork No-Code Application Development

No development platform does everything—that’s why Unqork has Technology Partners to help elevate the capabilities we offer our customers. 

We recently wrote an article discussing the role our Solutions Partners play in helping us share no-code with the world and drive change across a wide range of industries. However, Solutions Partners only make up one branch of our full Partner Program. The other branch, Technology Partners, focuses on integrating third-party services from leading technology partners into the Unqork platform. These services are key to accelerating application development and making it easy to build complex, sophisticated software solutions. 

Technology Partnership Goals

Unlike our Solutions Partners, who allow us to bring the Unqork platform to a wider external audience, our Technology Partners help power the internal workings of the Unqork platform. Brian Karimi-Pashaki, Director of Technology Partnerships, describes the goals of the programs in one simple sentence: “We want to extend best-in-class technology to enterprise customers in order to expand the capabilities of our platform.”

As a platform that champions flexible, reusable components, we want to make sure that we take advantage of powerful existing services so we can continuously take our platform to the next level. The truth is, no platform does everything. No platform does everything, and it would be inefficient and ineffective for any platform to even attempt to do so when there are already so many incredible organizations out there that focus on specialized services. Instead of trying to build out every single capability we could think of, we’ve focused on developing the strongest no-code platform—and from there, we’ve built an incredible community of partners who have allowed us to integrate their technologies into our platform in a meaningful way. 

Instead of trying to build out every single capability we could think of, we’ve focused on developing the strongest no-code platform—and from there, we’ve built an incredible community of partners who have allowed us to integrate their technologies into our platform in a meaningful way. 

For example, there are thousands of applications out there with wildly different use cases that all require a map/location functionality to be effective. Customer portals for universities need campus map features, banking applications need to be able to show you a street view of the nearest ATMs, and so on. Thanks to Unqork’s technology partnership with Google Maps, all our users have access to high-quality geolocation services from a flexible component. Instead of having to spend time developing a map functionality or even integrating with an API, our partnerships mean we can offer our customers ready-to-use components that pull from the very best technology out there.

The Key Qualities of an Unqork Technology Partner

When we’re exploring a potential technology partnership, we’re looking for a company with demonstrated success in selling APIs to enterprises. There are plenty of great APIs on the market today, but as APIs are still a relatively new concept in the larger scheme of things, not all of them are built with a modern infrastructure that makes them a great fit for no-code. While it’s technically possible to integrate with just about anything on Unqork, we’re looking for modern, credentialed integrations when it comes to long-term partners.

In return, our tech partners get the opportunity to bring their APIs to people who build software without code, a previously unreachable market. For instance, any developer who has tried to use Google Maps in a software solution knows that it can be challenging to work with, and performing the same function without an API would require writing a lot of time-consuming code.

When a tech company partners with us, we do all of the “heavy lifting” that makes it easy to incorporate their API into any Unqork application. By templatizing integrations and building reusable components, it becomes possible for Unqork Creators who have never written a line of code to seamlessly incorporate technology like Google Maps into powerful solutions. This also guarantees that our partners APIs are properly utilized, as the integrations have already been tested before Creators gain access. Most importantly, non-developers who otherwise wouldn’t have access to certain technologies can now build with some of the best APIs in the world. That’s true democratization of app development.  

Establishing a Partnership

We pride ourselves on being a client-responsive company, and many of our partnership leads are generated by our clients. Oftentimes a client will come to us and say, “Hey, here’s what I use for e-signatures in my business. I’ve already validated it and it works really well. Can I use it in Unqork?” And our team says, “Of course! We’re a platform that supports everything and integrates with anything.” Then we work directly with our clients to create a use case, which we can point to in the future when other companies want the same services. 

DocuSign is one of the specialized technologies that can be accessed inside the Unqork platform.

On the other hand, the rest of our partnerships are generated from a proactive rather than a reactive approach. Our proactive approach to establishing partnerships is predicated on one simple question—“What doesn’t our platform do?” We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to proactively fill gaps and give our clients what they need to offer increased optionality.

After we’ve established contact with a potential partner, we get into the nuts and bolts of our partnership. We can integrate with any company that has publicly accessible APIs, as long as they have a license—and clients can bring their own licenses as well. We like to think of integrations as part of a bigger story, so we take a holistic approach and pitch full-stack, conceptual application ideas. 

“For instance, if we go back to the Google Maps example,” says Brian, “Google Maps is never really the whole story in the application you’re interacting with—it’s just one part of it. An API is generally the last part of a larger workflow, and what we really want to talk to our partners about are those larger workflows. What does it mean to have a virtual government service? How does a technology like DocuSign fit in? Where do other parts of the workflow fit in? We’re telling a broader story, so we want to talk to our partners about the vision for the different places we can take that application.”

Further Accelerating No-Code Development

If you’ve read our blog before, you’re probably pretty familiar with the benefits of no-code—particularly the acceleration of application development. No-code is already leaps and bounds faster than working with traditional code because of its reusable, visual, drag-and-drop components. When you add in leading technology partners who help us create pre-built integrations, you unlock unbelievably rapid application development that allows users to execute sophisticated functionalities in a matter of clicks.

To learn more about our existing partners and understand what Unqork can help you build, check out our Technology Partners page. If you’re interested in partnering with us, you can fill out an application here, connect with Brian on LinkedIn, or say hello at brian.karimi-pashaki@unqork.com.