In this special guest feature, Amy Groden-Morrison, VP of Marketing and Sales Operation for Alpha Software, examines the business value low-code developers offer and the challenges low-code development solves. Amy has served more than 15 years in marketing communications leadership roles at companies such as TIBCO Software, RSA Security, and Ziff-Davis. Her past accomplishments include establishing the first co-branded technology program with CNN, launching an events company on the NYSE, rebranding a NASDAQ-listed company amid a crisis, and positioning and marketing a Boston-area startup for successful acquisition.
A common misconception about low-code developers is that they’re not skilled enough to develop high-value apps with advanced features. However, prominent research suggests quite the contrary. It demonstrates that most low-code developers are skilled in their use of technologies and deliver more business value than those app builders who don’t use low-code software.
In a Forrester research report titled, “Is Low Code For Dummies?” senior analyst John Bratincevic argues that professional low-code developers are more business focused and care more about business results than traditional coders. Low-code users are also more likely to work on cloud-native or advanced technologies, including service mesh and IoT apps. Additionally, low-code developers are 2.5 times more likely to say that they view changing their business model (a goal of digital transformation) as a high priority. Being more focused on solving business problems than just technical ones, low-code developers deliver more business value than traditional coders.
The pandemic and recent economic factors have put increasing pressure on organizations to respond swiftly to market volatility and customer expectations. Organizations must adapt and pivot to meet changing demands quickly. There’s also a need for digitization and automation to improve engagement, productivity, and support throughout organizations. Forrester estimates that the low-code development platform market will grow at an annual rate of roughly 40% and touch $21.2 billion in the year 2022.
Here are some of the top ways in which low-code development delivers business value and combats these challenges:
1. Low-Code Saves Time
What organization doesn’t like to save time? As industries and markets change, year-long production cycles are no longer an option because competition is evolving fast. New products must be envisaged, worked on, and launched into the market every month to stay ahead of the competition. With low code, both citizen developers and professional coders get powerful virtual programming tools to accelerate digital transformation. Software coding in modern times has become more related to assembly than just coding. Low-code provides an opportunity for businesses to speed up their development.
2. Low-Code Encourages Innovation
In today’s highly volatile economy and competitive environment employees at all levels of the organization must understand macro and micro business problems and the processes required to solve them. If employees are empowered to work as citizen developers, they can come up with business app solutions to meet the challenges their department faces. Since citizen developers are embedded in their department (definitely more than the IT department), they are in an ideal position to understand daily work requirements, their department’s needs, and the novel solutions that might solve these problems.
3. Reducing Human Error
There are many different forms of business risk, including economic, regulatory, and competitive. Most of these risks are inevitable. However, one thing that can mitigate such risks is the reduction of human error, which can be achieved with automation. As one automates more processes with low-code apps, one significantly reduces the possibility of human error and creates more accountability throughout the organization. In large organizations with well-documented processes, manual work can be automated more easily. This is the reason why many organizations are adopting citizen development and low-code platforms. By doing so, organizations empower individual business units to solve their problems, improve accuracy and information sharing, and automate accordingly.
4. Protection Against Tech Debt
Tech debt means the accumulation of many unresolved technical issues caused because the company prioritizes speed over precision while launching products. Low-code provides adequate protection against tech debt at big business enterprises by equipping these enterprises with resources for digital transformation. Several platforms like ServiceNow serve as insurance against such tech debt. Tech debt needs to be integrated as the debt emerges, which is where low-code systems enter.
Imagine a company that doesn’t have the resources to implement robotic process automation (RPA) and build an employee-first portal. They can use low-code development instead of accumulating tech debt and taking half-effective measures. Since modern low-code development platforms integrate with AI and other resources, they make such resources available for enterprise apps. This is a unique feature in advanced low-code app products.
5. Unlocking the Hidden Value of Your Workforce
Since most jobs require digital proficiency, companies are turning to low-code to reskill and upskill their present employees. Low-code development platforms are a great way to train employees with non-technical backgrounds and improve their capability to prototype systems. Low-code will train them to build apps that were once only possible for experienced developers to craft.
Younger employees are born with a computer and mobile phone in their hands. They use their mobile apps for everyday tasks. For them, building an app to solve real-world business problems is just natural. Low-code, therefore, empowers many demographics who have been marginalized in the world of tech and IT to follow a new career path. This is especially true for women who have been underrepresented in the tech world for a long time. Low-code allows them to break the barrier and enter the industry.
Many employees are now eager to get trained and work as citizen developers. Most of them may not have degrees in IT and computer sciences, but they’re more technically skilled than their predecessors. To keep ahead of the competition, business enterprises need to grab every opportunity to attract and empower these workers to automate business processes and speed up production cycles.
With the short supply of professional coders, low-code developers are bound to play a huge role in digital transformation. The future for low-code development seems bright as it will become essential for staying in the competition in the next couple of years and beyond. Not all organizations can spend time and resources developing a professional IT team. Low-code development provides organizations an opportunity to develop digital solutions to business problems and be on par with the competition.
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