Low-code platforms can serve as catalysts for enterprises to seamlessly leverage a variety of applications and technologies that help businesses gain a competitive edge.
The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for companies to digitally modernize their operations. Businesses have found it difficult to keep up with change, innovate, and remain ahead of the competition while employing old systems due to rising digital expectations combined with ongoing tech talent shortages.
Organizations require next-generation technology that makes it simpler to develop applications and optimize procedures to tackle these issues. This is where low-code development can help. To minimize project bottlenecks and delays, IT teams now require the assistance of business technologists who can use low-code development to build and deploy applications.
According to Gartner, nearly 80 percent of technology products and services will be built by those who are not technology professionals by 2024. With low-code development, those outside the IT function are given the tools needed to build applications with little to no technical skills. These users may simply build and deploy applications that include enterprise-grade functionality and can connect to any system.
Companies of all sizes are now using low-code to digitally advance their operations and stand apart from the competition. In fact, a new low-code technology category has evolved that blends app development with application integration and application programming interface (API) management.
Here are a few of the top ways that low-code development may help your company, as well as some crucial questions that IT teams should ask about low-code programming.
See also: Eradicating the Stigma of Low-Code Among Developers
Reduces reliance on IT departments
When organizations with limited IT resources are unable to recruit in-demand tech talent to produce cutting-edge applications, they can find themselves in a bind. Thankfully, the reliance on IT is greatly decreased with low-code application platforms. For quite some time, if IT departments or CIOs wanted to construct all web-based and mobile apps themselves, they would need to recruit front-end developers, who are very expensive resources. With the ongoing tech talent shortage, organizations with inadequate IT resources would be unable to recruit top talent to generate high-quality products as a result.
With low-code development, businesses can lessen their reliance on developers while providing business-critical data visibility to key stakeholders in little time. With minimum coding knowledge, IT teams can build, install, and deliver products that will help organizations advance their digital transformation goals.
In fact, companies can design and build scalable digital experiences in days or even hours with low-code platforms without deep technical skills. This also aids in addressing the IT skills crisis that many businesses are now experiencing. Gartner estimates that the worldwide low-code technology industry is now worth $13.8 billion, signifying the impact low-code has on IT teams today.
Increases access to a wide range of application uses
When people think of low-code, they automatically think of application development. But it also includes integration, APIs, and application builders, to mention a few. Organizations may integrate their service management systems faster and simpler with API integration solutions that leverage low-code technologies.
Conversational AI, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) are some of the other categories that benefit from low-code. For example, IDP platforms offer a “drag and drop” application tool that can verify these documents without the need for human intervention. This enables companies to shift valuable resources to other areas of the business.
Improves workflow performance
Many people think of low-code as the capacity to solve an issue or part of a problem, particularly with the user interface. However, they frequently ignore the managing and maintaining infrastructure and runtime aspect of the project provisioned to tackle the problem. IT teams must offer application and infrastructure production support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These teams must also be ready for infrastructure upgrades and maintenance.
With low-code, IT teams can create applications rapidly and don’t need to worry about infrastructure maintenance. Low-code application platforms have a “drag and drop” application tool that eliminates the requirement for server provisioning and installation.
It also makes human-led administration of corporate systems easier. You may reduce the complexity that workers must deal with by automating workflows, allowing them to focus on higher-value duties for the company.
Enables business technologists to develop apps quickly
Outside of IT, business technologists are increasingly designing applications. Unfortunately, these initiatives may not follow corporate governance or security rules, putting companies at danger of not being compliant. Low-code programming allows business technologists to innovate considerably more quickly. Low-code solutions allow business and IT teams to solve problems faster without needing highly-technical support staff who have deep expertise in front-end or backend technology. This allows business technologists to experiment with new tools more quickly.
Additionally, low-code development helps business teams develop continuously since its capabilities enable considerably faster delivery, allowing them to innovate at a faster rate. It also enables more people in business, and IT teams to identify solutions, regardless of their experience. Low-code ultimately empowers business technologists and helps them provide even more value to the business with app development.
Low-code provides more capabilities for composable enterprises
Low-code platforms can serve as catalysts for enterprises to seamlessly leverage a variety of applications and technologies that help businesses gain a competitive edge. This paradigm is often referred to as a composable enterprise. Companies may use APIs to provide solutions for a variety of challenges within a composable enterprise. This enables businesses to build a single architecture that facilitates the usage of applications rather than the fragmented experience that would emerge if they were all used in separate silos. As a result, they may reap the benefits of more efficient processes, resulting in happier staff and increased consumer satisfaction.
The term hyperautomation was coined by Gartner to define the fundamental shift required by the rapid digitization we see today of business and IT processes. With low-code, hyperautomation will be enabled by the capacity to integrate applications seamlessly across systems and workflows, resulting in enhanced efficiency and consistency, fewer human mistakes, and improved intelligence.
Specifically, low-code application platforms with integration can be helpful tools for speeding up the underlying integrations required by enterprises beginning or in the midst of hyperautomation efforts. Low-code is central to the goal of composable enterprises and, further, hyperautomation by connecting to workflows.
How to get started on your low-code path
Ready to dive in? IT executives and their teams should evaluate whether low-code is suited for them and which path to pursue. Teams will be able to address their business challenges at a faster speed if they can answer these questions.
- Is it possible to address my business problem entirely using the minimal code platform, or will I have to purchase other products and integrate them?
- Is the platform compliant enough to keep my data safe?
- How do the applications created on top of the platform get deployed?
- Will business technologists be able to create applications using the low-code platform, or will experts be necessary?
- During the iterative development process, how effective is testing the application?
- How does the low-code platform handle multi-user development?
- What are the platform’s integration capabilities?
- Is it possible to leverage my integrations in the low-code platform?
- Does the vendor I’m considering provide analytics and data usage information?
Once you address several of these questions, you’ll be well on your way to deciding which type of low-code platform you need and then reaping the benefits of the low-code era.
