Wrongly, low-code is often perceived as “low-cost” code. However, much more than a simplified version of IT development, it makes application development accessible to as many people as possible.
It is therefore democratization that is in question here. While digital is becoming both a tool and a universal culture, it is necessary to provide a solution allowing everyone to be involved in these issues. This is how low-code actively participates in opening up new horizons.
Low-code, autonomy accelerator
Low-code is an approach aimed at accelerating and simplifying application development by relying on technological components that are already available. User experience (UX) and GUI being at the heart of low-code accessibility, a technical background is therefore not necessary. To be able to determine which components to use, however, it is essential to learn how to combine the building blocks correctly.
This is not to eliminate computer development purely and simply, but to direct its objective to provide access to a wider audience. Therefore, teams considered as non-technical, salespeople for example, can use it to deploy their own applications that will precisely meet the specific needs of their business.
With the emergence of low-code, we are witnessing a change of model where everyone is now able to evolve in quasi-autonomy on technical projects. In this sense, we are witnessing a real displacement of the boundaries that limited initiative within companies themselves.
Thus, low-code is above all an accelerator, in no way a substitute. On its own, it can move the known boundaries of project management and web development. As such, it constitutes a profound innovation in the functioning of companies.
Low-code, a high level advantage for companies
If the immediate benefits of low-code concern above all individuals, it is obvious that the agility thus gained also benefits companies.
According to a Gartner survey of 200 companies, the appeal of low-code was primarily driven by improving productivity, but also by time-to-market, creating enterprise apps and improving UX.
Deployed for several years, low-code platforms now have enough perspective to analyze the use and uses related to their product. It is clear that today the adoption phase is well and truly underway. Low-code is finally comparable to what cloud strategies were like 10 or 15 years ago. Moreover, some consider it to be the natural evolution of the cloud, especially since a majority of platforms have chosen to operate “as a Service”, thus combining the best of cloud and learning. automatique.
Another advantage and not the least, the low-code enriches the approach and the possibilities of IT projects in a sector suffering endemically from a shortage of recruitment. Experience shows that after a few months of training, people from sectors such as finance, marketing, etc. can work on small but very real projects. Here again, this is an extremely powerful change that redraws the lines of technological and IT projects, but also has a positive impact on recruitment on the HR side.
Deploy low-code
What are the best practices to put in place for the deployment and implementation of a low-code strategy within an organization? Everything obviously depends on the digital maturity of the company.
The overall objective is to train non-technical people through empowerment sessions so that they understand the principles of the platform but also the methodologies on which it is based.
It is also necessary to explain to customers the new perspective brought by low-code and the change in trend that it represents. As hardware becomes less necessary and important in the future, the focus will be more on creating business and customer value rather than how to go about it.
Another proven best practice for deploying low-code is to create centers of excellence for development and maintenance, and thus allow employees to try their hand at it and test the solution without risk! These centers provide an ideal “sandbox” structure for training, familiarization, creating automation processes, etc. Quite simple, these allow, for example, to process incoming e-mails, to forward them or to automatically create tasks from the body of the e-mail. A formidable playground which, moreover, does not present any risk for an organization.
Low-code, a metaphor for innovation
Innovation works from both the “top” and the “bottom”. The first is the great innovation that changes everything through massive disruption. This type of innovation that disrupts an industry with a new technology or a new offer is relatively rare, and its rarity is precisely what makes it valuable. But innovation also works from the “bottom”. Low-code is part of this category which, by multiplying the capabilities of a very large number of players, literally creates an expanded ecosystem of innovation.
Indeed, low-code opens up the possibility of creating local applications that allow users without deep technical knowledge to create applications quickly and easily, or even to develop an application or a process using only configuration tools. The low-code thus creates by capillarity a breeding ground favorable to the appearance of what could be called micro-innovations.
These can have, by the mass they represent, a systemic effect of innovation, if only by the immediate access given to the reality of innovation to the greatest number. This democratization removes limits. Without ostentation, with modesty, it broadens the horizon of innovation and thus, in its own way, pushes back the boundaries. In this sense, low-code is obviously a concept that promotes this even more open horizon that defines the new frontiers of innovation.