Step 1: Defining clear ambitions
At the start of the journey, Appfie and Colruyt Group defined clear ambitions to explore and harness the potential of citizen development.
The goal was to assess how low-code solutions could empower citizen developers to create real business impact while establishing an optimal way of working between all stakeholders. By delivering the first use cases, the teams aimed to showcase the tangible business value of citizen development and align it with Colruyt Group’s broader strategic ambitions.
Step 2: Kick-off and hackathon
Colruyt and Appfie carefully selected three use cases to demonstrate and validate the value of the Power Platform. These cases were chosen based on their low complexity, high potential, and quick-win opportunities. This approach ensured that Colruyt Group would gain valuable insights into what citizen developers need to successfully get started with low-code and no-code development in the Power Platform.
To support this, we launched a mentorship plan, one-on-one coaching, and a makers community.
Steve, a Colruyt employee acting as Citizen Developer, shares his experience: "In our selected use case, we are digitizing a paper-based process in the fruit warehouse using a tablet. This has reduced errors and improved efficiency."
To kick off the community, we organized a hackathon. (See the video below 📽️)
Step 3: Citizen Development Mentoring
With our mentoring approach, Appfie supported Colruyt and its citizen developers as effectively as possible. This helped address several key challenges and ambitions:
Ensuring sustainable solutions from the start by focusing on well-thought-out design, preventing technical debt and minimizing the need for refactoring.
Bridging the gap between citizen developers and other stakeholders, ensuring all aspects of a use case are considered.
Even without a fully established Power Platform governance, our mentors guided citizen developers in following Microsoft best practices and industry standards.
Meanwhile, the community grew stronger, with weekly sessions becoming more structured and impactful. A citizen developer shared their experience: "Meeting weekly and having inspirational sessions on various topics was really valuable. We kept learning new things about the platform and gained a more holistic view of its possibilities and connections."
Step 4: Actual ROI Measurement
After delivering the three use cases, we helped Colruyt Group calculate the actual return on investment (ROI) of the solutions in production. Each use case showed a positive ROI within three years, not only due to time savings but also through additional benefits such as improved customer service, better data-driven decision-making, reduced stock-out losses, real-time inventory accuracy, and increased remote work opportunities for employees.
Considering the time investment of the citizen developers, the training efforts (provided by Appfie) and licensing costs, all three use cases proved financially viable.
Additionally, we identified key challenges for future citizen development projects, including data availability, the limited availability of certain personnel, and the need for timely delivery of specific mobile devices, such as tablets.
Step 5: Rolling out the applications
In April 2025, Colruyt rolled out the citizen development apps to its employees. 🎉 To support this, we have been continuously improving governance.
Together, we continue to build and support the citizen development community through inspiration sessions, technical mentoring, and strategic guidance to maximize the value of the Power Platform. As a next step, Appfie has also been engaged to train Colruyt’s support and IT teams, further strengthening their Power Platform capabilities.
What I truly appreciate about Appfie is their proactive and hands-on approach.
Head of Data & Analytics - Colruyt Group
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