October 27, 2021

How Did Low-Code Platforms Become The New Favorites of Enterprise CIOs?

Last year, enterprises were pushed in at the deep end of the digitization pool. They had to scurry to develop software applications to address even the most basic workflows and processes. They were managing many mission-critical situations, which meant that the application had to be developed within days.

One way to solve this challenge was by using low-code platforms. Low-code platforms use a visual and automated approach to software development. Unlike traditional application development where developers manually wrote code, low-code platforms took an automated approach. Low-code platforms offer a drag-and-drop interface to allow users to choose from reusable components. Developers, including business users, can rearrange these components to create workflows and apps. They can add, delete, or move components in the workflow while developing software. This helps the developers to build an application within a few days. Let’s look at the example of the City of Los Angeles. They wanted to automate a process that could register the citizens of Los Angeles for testing. The idea went from idea to production within 72 hours. That was made possible by low-code platforms.

Low-code platforms are becoming so popular that some research predicts the low-code development market to surpass $45 billion by 2025.

Why Are Low-Code Platforms Becoming So Popular?

Fosters innovation

Developers are often so busy with routine development tasks that they barely get time to build innovative products or applications. Another challenge is that almost 80% of the IT budget is spent on maintenance and support tasks. If CIOs want the enterprise to stay ahead of the competition, they must foster innovation without impacting the current work. A low-code platform could be useful in building innovative products.

As low-code platforms automate most of the tasks, developers can focus more on creating innovative products and spend less time developing the flood of apps needed by the business. The reusable feature of the low-code platform also helps developers save time by making it easier to build other apps. CIOs also have the benefit of possessing cutting-edge tools considering that low-code platforms also upgrade themselves frequently. This empowers the CIOs and developers to build more innovative products.

Accelerates go-to-market

Remember the example of the application built for the citizens of Los Angeles? Low-code platforms can help enterprises build applications 6 to 20 times faster. The market is extremely dynamic. Enterprises are expected to react to changing conditions quickly and comprehensively. Things change quickly, and the onus lies with the CIO to predict these changes and build products or add features to existing enterprise products, tools, workflows, and systems to meet those demands. As low-code platforms help to rearrange reusable components to create a workflow, developers can quickly launch the products without spending time building and testing custom code. It’s also easy to add, delete, or move components. So, based on need, developers can improve applications and upgrade them. The agility to go from ideation to development with zero fluff makes low-code platforms uber-popular among CIOs.

Perfect for building future-ready applications

CIOs of large enterprises understand that applications need to be built for the present and the future. Modern enterprise solutions will change every few years. That’s why enterprises need products with a future-ready architecture, i.e., they should be flexible, scalable, secure, and adaptable to changes. These products cannot be tied to a specific platform or system. Low-code platforms offer that flexibility. That’s why CIOs prefer using low-code platforms. They can help to build future-ready and flexible applications for enterprises to thrive for a long time.

Solve skills shortage issue

Low-code platforms promise to help democratize the development process within the enterprise. The shortage of skilled developers is a major concern of CIOs. The skills gap is widening, and the CIOs are facing a tough time bridging it. Also, given the pressure to launch products quickly, enterprises don’t get enough time to train developers. It’s also a challenge to embed the specific requirements of business users into the apps built by developers. Low-code platforms could help to solve all these problems. Even business users and less-experienced developers can easily build applications with minimal help from expert developers. All that’s required is an in-depth knowledge of the business workflows and some knowledge of the low code platforms. This will help an even broader group of employees to participate in the development process with the expert developers only required to provide the most essential support to move things along.

Creates business value

Until now, we have seen how low-code platforms offer value to developers. But when it comes to investing in low-code platforms or expanding them to other processes, CIOs need to demonstrate its value. Low-code platforms deliver different business values. Some examples include:

• Helping the enterprise to build business agility by developing products quickly
• Reducing IT costs by automating most of the processes and reducing IT backlog
• Helping developers to manage data in a more secure environment than spreadsheets

The more benefits the CIOs demonstrate, the better are the chances to receive executive buy-in.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, low-code platforms deliver plenty of benefits to enterprises. However, there are a few things that CIOs must be mindful of while choosing the platform. Here are a few things to remember.

• Check about the vendor lock-in
• Check if they offer reusable code
• Understand what the vendors could offer
• Analyze if the low-code platform can support applications and workflows
• Ensure that they have a rich and easy-to-use UI design
• Offer API-driven integration
• Allow full-stack development

Once the CIOs identify the right low-code platform, they must ensure that the people, processes, and platforms are aligned with each other and work towards achieving the shared business goals. Working with an expert partner who can define an enterprise-wide strategy that includes low-code applications as well as custom applications and other enterprise tools is a smart way to find a way through this complex landscape. Get in touch with us if you need help crafting an effective strategy.