Low-code is about how businesses build the enterprise applications they need to be agile.
Low-code is a software development methodology that requires little or no coding to build business applications and processes.
Low-code is the newest approach in application development. By combining drag-and-drop interfaces, process modeling, reusable code templates and software development interfaces in the development process, it makes it easier to bring digital initiatives to life faster.
Today, digital transformation is a necessity for every business. You need a modern, powerful yet business-friendly digital platform. Low-code enables businesses to accelerate their digital transformation journeys. Businesses mostly adopt low-code platforms to quickly automate internal and external processes by leveraging citizen developers and building electronic forms to collect information from employees and integrate it with other information management or analytics tools. In this article, we will answer the question of what low-code is and examine why businesses are increasingly interested in these technologies.
What Is Low-Code?
Low-code is a software development strategy that enables applications to be built faster and with less manual coding.
Low-code lets businesses create digital solutions and automate processes without having to invest in a large software development team.
Low-code platforms offer drag-and-drop visual design and development interfaces that let users build a variety of business processes, from customer-facing applications to collecting information with electronic forms.
Businesses are always under pressure to be more agile and more digital. However, not every business has the financial or human capital needed to meet these demands with traditional software development teams. In addition, the number of software development experts on the market is not enough to fill this gap. All of this means businesses must meet their digitalization needs with the resources they currently have.
Fabrizio Biscotti, research vice president at Gartner, says: "Although low-code application development is not new, the convergence of disruptive digital transformation, hyperautomation and the rise of a rapidly reconfigurable business world has led to an increase in tools and growing demand in this area."
Key Benefits of Low-Code
Businesses could not operate as they needed to during the COVID-19 pandemic, so they adopted remote work to keep doing business. But most businesses were unprepared for this transition and needed a way to quickly move their work forward digitally.
Low-code platform capabilities such as electronic forms and process automation helped organizations overcome these challenges in significantly less time.
Low-code applications are now one of the most important components of many organizations' digital transformation roadmaps.
Let's look at how low-code capabilities can affect your business;
Lower Costs
As mentioned earlier, businesses will not need to invest in medium to large software development teams to build digital applications. Low-code platforms will help businesses become more productive with existing resources and bring ready-to-use digital business applications to life faster.
Low-code platforms also allow citizen developers to build applications and automate procedures without in-depth development expertise.
Remember that the capacity to build more applications in less time reduces costs.
Improved Customer Experience
With low-code platforms, businesses can respond quickly to changing market dynamics, consumer needs or disruptive digital transformation threats.
New generations are used to the outstanding digital experiences offered to them across industries, and your business is no exception to this expectation.
Agility
Businesses now have to keep up with the digital environment more and faster than ever before. They must be able to respond quickly to any market change, disruption or new opportunity.
Businesses must be agile enough to change direction quickly, and to do so, agile techniques must be adopted across all departments. Low-code platforms must be adaptable enough to respond quickly to business changes.
Intelligent Process Automation
Digitalization is essential for a business to compete digitally. Manual business processes reduce productivity, create bureaucracy and negatively affect both the customer and employee experience.
Using low-code platforms lets you automate any (relatively) simple business process in a short time. Not only that, it will also encourage employees to complete routine activities faster and spend more time on more complex tasks.
Remember that business process automation enables organizations to accelerate their digital transformation, innovate and adapt faster.
Rapid Development and Deployment
There is little doubt that using low-code technologies will allow businesses to deliver digital business applications faster and with fewer resources.
This will give you an advantage over your competitors in developing, testing and launching digital solutions, both internally and externally, to improve business processes.
Features of Low-Code Platforms
Low-code platforms are rich in capabilities that make it easier for users to build digital solutions. These elements must be packaged effectively and work together to make the most of the opportunities they provide.
Let's look at the most important features on offer.
Drag-and-Drop Interfaces
This functionality is critical because it allows citizen developers to drag and drop components and adjust application behavior to meet their needs instead of writing long, time-consuming lines of code.
In process automation, a low-code platform should include a visual process design tool and a visual form design tool so that users can quickly create electronic forms to collect data and link them to an automated process for analysis.
These elements should also be extensible with custom code when needed.
Low-Code Visual Modeling Tools
Using visual tools and methods lets you build applications faster than you could by coding.
Low-code platforms provide most of the components their developers need, such as database connections, APIs and document management.
As always, if some of these do not exactly fit the requirement, they can easily be extended.
Reusability
Being able to reuse parts of applications makes it easier to complete new applications faster.
Low-code platforms provide ready-made activities and functions. Users can also build new components or activities themselves and share them with others for later use.
Cross-Platform Accessibility
Most users now use mobile devices to do their daily work. Low-code applications should run smoothly on devices with different specifications without requiring any additional management.
Security
Security is critical in every digital application. Low-code platforms must have all the security elements needed to ensure your solution runs without any data breach or code hacking.
Conclusion
According to Gartner, by 2024 low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity.
In a rapidly changing market, businesses should use low-code platforms to stay one step ahead of the competition by empowering their employees to run digital projects, increase productivity and improve the customer experience.
Sources
https://www.gartner.com/reviews/market/enterprise-low-code-application-platform
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/low-code
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/low-code-vs-no-code
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