COVID-19 has caused tremendous economic turmoil around the world, many companies have frozen recruitment and investment. Many also noticed their technological shortcomings, encountered programming challenges, such as unsecured firmware or the lack of tailored solutions. Companies recognized the need to digitize and automate work in order to meet new challenges. Thus, the pandemic significantly accelerated the digital transformation, paving the way to low-code and no-code technologies.
No code, No problem
The rapid digital transformation creates a huge demand for developers. Although more and more new developers join the industry, there is still a deficit. Therefore, low-code and no-code platforms will gain momentum in 2021. As many as 85% of engineers predict that the use of these tools will soon become commonplace (1). Low-code tools are intended for programmers, allowing them to create systems with little effort. No-code platforms are dedicated to non-programmers. They enable business experts with minimal IT skills to independently build and operate relatively simple applications, data, and tasks in very intuitive programming environments that do not require the use of code.
Low-code and no-code platforms were created to simplify the delivery of tech solutions in companies. Both technologies allow you to implement the necessary applications and automate work much faster. By using these tools, companies can improve workflows and reduce workload, allowing employees to focus on more important tasks. Low-code and no-code tools lower the barrier to entry with visual programming interfaces and drag-and-drop tools.
No-code platforms, such as Qalcwise, allow any user to create even advanced business applications after a short training. For example, an HR employee can create an application to handle holiday requests in a few days, an accountant can create an app for managing employee expenses, and an administration employee can create an app to handle the fleet. Knowing the course of the process, using visual components (widgets), they can design an application just like building with LEGO bricks. They can automate anything they have been doing in Excel or several other programs. This is how a new group of users called “citizen developers” is born, taking over some of the IT competencies. The lack of code allows non-technical workers to innovate and develop software on their own in weeks, not months.
Companies choose DIY
Last year at the Ignite 2020 conference, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella admitted that companies will develop software in-house. Ten years ago, Microsoft expected to sell its solutions to companies, and today it needs to get involved in large-scale public corporate software development. Gartner (2) predicts that in 3-5 years as much as 65% of solutions will be created inside companies using low-code and no-code supported by AI bots and machine learning.
Citizen developers enable faster and more tailored to the business needs technological changes, thus increasing companies’ competitiveness and innovation. They also allow making the automation process more democratic, creative, flexible, and ethical. Thanks to the involvement of business experts, they have a greater impact on the solutions being developed and what their work will look like in the future. By creating multidisciplinary teams, organizations can develop solutions that are 100% tailored to their needs, allowing for better use of internal talents and opportunities. And also preparing teams for remote work during and after a pandemic, ensuring greater technological resistance to unexpected changes (3).
Sources:
- Internal Survey Says No-code/Low-code Will Be IT Priority in Next Nine Months
- The Most Disruptive Trend Of 2021: No Code / Low Code
- 6 Trends on the Gartner Hype Cycle for the Digital Workplace, 2020
