Low code development platforms
For modern businesses, the ability to adapt to a rapidly changing world has become essential. How your business responds to these changes, and how quick your response is, can make or break your long-term success.
As the requirement for digital transformation continues to become more of a necessity, businesses need to embrace it so they can meet customers’ growing demands and keep up with the competition.
Businesses can implement these changes in various ways. Using low-code development is an increasingly popular approach for businesses to adapt to changing conditions.
What is low code development?
Low code development is an approach to software development that allows businesses to build digital solutions with limited coding required. It’s a significantly different way of quickly turning innovative ideas into market-ready products, without dependence on legacy technology or a new, extensive IT undertaking.
Low code operates in a model-driven, drag-and-drop interface which means all development skill levels, including people with no prior development experience, can use a low code development solution to build value-driven digital solutions. From creation to deployment, a low-code development platform reduces the amount of time required to build and deploy changes.
Gartner 2022 forecasts the low code development market to grow 23% in 2022-23. According to Gartner’s latest estimate, the global low-code development technologies industry will be worth $13.8 billion in 2023, up 23% from 2021.
What are the features of a low code platform?
Low code development tools allow businesses to create and roll out new digital customer experiences without having to undertake costly, complex and time-consuming development processes.
From Visual Modelling Tools to API’s, low code platforms provide businesses with a suite of ready-to-go features.
Visual Modelling Tools
Visual modeling is the use of rich, graphical, and textual design elements to capture software designs. The most common visual modeling tool is a drag-and-drop editor which can be used to create user interfaces, workflows, and data models.
No code is required, no risk of syntax mistakes, meaning instant cross-platform accessibility, total reusability, and easy updating. Add hand-written code for further customisation and your digital solution is ready in days or weeks instead of years.
Integration and APIs
Using ready-made connectors, businesses can connect systems and centralise data to deliver seamless integration with third-party applications.
Businesses can also create custom integrations using API protocols to retrieve data, automatically handle their structure and database updates, and launch workflows based on events or predefined business rules.
Open API combined with visual modeling tools makes it faster to create new digital experiences and modernise legacy systems.
Artificial Intelligence
Businesses can instantly discover customer insights and make data-driven decisions by using built-in AI capabilities, such as classification, and scoring recommendations to ensure a better user experience.
Businesses can also build machine learning models to generate accurate predictions with a low code requirement and without hiring a data scientist. You can also create chatbots and conduct sentiment analysis using natural language processing tools.
Governance Tools
Invite your business users to participate in the digital transformation journey. With the right low code governance tools in place, this will fuel innovation and development growth across the business.
Create user roles and manage access rights, set up application approval processes, and use built-in application and infrastructure monitoring tools. You can also use auto-generated recommendations to optimise apps and workflows for better performance.
Security
Using off-the-shelf security tools, businesses can build secure applications, ensure they are compliant with industry standards, and configure the security at all levels of the application.
With a low code development platform, the built-in security tools provide visibility and insights into all activities on the platform and have the highest level of certifications & accreditations such as GDPR. The vendor will also conduct regular penetration testing and vulnerability scanning, so you can develop solutions at a faster rate.
Application Lifecycle Management
Low code development platforms can help businesses to simplify and streamline application management processes – from business requirement analysis and development to ongoing maintenance.
Manage requirements, teams and create user stories to automate quality assurance and deployment processes in a singular place. Businesses can also collect more in-app feedback using built-in feedback tools.
What are the benefits of using a low code platform?
From Faster Digital Transformation to Higher Productivity, there are several benefits when using a low code development approach.
Faster Digital Transformation
First and foremost, low-code platforms speed up the development and delivery of digital solutions. This is a critical element in the digital age when businesses must race to meet employee and customer demands.
Low-code development removes complexity from building modern business apps which allows businesses to quickly develop digital solutions.
Increased Autonomy = Higher Productivity
Empower your employees and make them the ‘champions of change’ by allowing them to develop the solutions they need and quickly.
This ensures a high amount of user buy-in, addresses any tech skills shortages, and allows the employee to digitise processes and deliver software solutions faster.
Decreased Costs & Time to Deploy
Low-code development will lower the cost and time to deploy. A low code approach allows businesses to use existing staff as citizen developers instead of hiring expert developers. This enables your business to create more digital solutions in less time.
Low code development allows businesses to build more digital solutions with the same resources while reducing maintenance costs. Repurpose and reuse previously created system modules or entire applications to reduce cost and boost productivity.
Citizen Development
With today’s constant demand for software and apps, most IT departments can’t keep up. Enter citizen developers, employees with limited coding experience building business apps using a low code platform.
With less code and a simpler development path, citizen developers can quickly create much-needed digital solutions. A low code approach cuts development time and accelerates innovation.
What are the challenges/limitations of a low code platform?
Although there are several benefits when using a low code development approach, there are some challenges/limitations
Vendor Lock-In
Vendor lock in is one of the biggest fears surrounding low-code development platforms. Most businesses assume they are locked in to the vendor they choose. This varies from vendor to vendor.
Some vendors produce clean, standardised code that works everywhere making it easier to maintain an application both within and outside of their platform. Other vendors generate convoluted code that makes it nearly impossible to maintain an application outside of their platform.
Additionally, some vendors don’t allow you to make changes to your applications once you stop using their tool.
Customisation Options
When a developer creates custom software, the only limitations they may face are hardware and native language capabilities. Low-code development platforms are more restrictive.
A business may not be able to achieve the exact functionality they want or need and the user interface within some low code solutions can be limited. On the other hand, the customisation options can vary between platforms.
Some low code platforms offer limited customisation choices, while other platforms give you access to the underlying code. Before you choose a low code platform, make sure you know the limitations of the customisation options.
Low Code can promote Shadow IT
There can be situations where IT departments discover individuals using an unapproved low code development tool. This can waste resources and create security risks.
Businesses can try and solve this problem by looking out for warning signs such as your helpdesk receiving requests for unfamiliar software. It is crucial for businesses to understand what issues departments are facing so you can suggest the correct low code platform.
When would I use a low code development approach?
The justification for using a low-code development approach is fairly simple to understand. Businesses need to build applications fast without sacrificing their entire budget. Taking into account some of the challenges of low code development, this approach isn’t applicable to every scenario.
Here are a few use cases where a low-code approach makes sense:
- Legacy modernisation
- Customer portals
- Configuration and device set-up
- Small scale automation
- Analytics
The above list demonstrates how low-code development can help businesses to optimise daily automation and also increase customer outreach efforts.
To find out more about how NashTech’s Application Services, such as low code development, can help your business create digital solutions, get in touch!
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