Cutting-edge companies are creating enterprise-grade applications without the headache of having to code them from scratch. It’s made possible through low-code application development platforms, which were first introduced to the market as a way to automate repeatable coding tasks. This empowers application developers to quickly build and test solutions without having to write code line by line. Low-code technology also enables business analysts and other citizen developers with little to no knowledge of traditional programming or machine code to solve unique business problems through application development and process automation.

This shortens the application and business process development lifecycles, speeds up time-to-value, improves flexibility, and allows employees who are intimately familiar with the business process to build, test, and deploy applications quickly. This also enables them to respond as feedback is received, greatly improving business agility and the finished product – providing differentiating value to the organization as a whole. 

75% of IT leaders say low-code is a trend they can’t afford to miss. That’s because these tools enable enterprises to respond to fast-changing needs unlike ever before, which is a key strategy to support digital transformation in today’s marketplace. Research from Forrester shows low-code platforms allow professional and citizen developers alike to make cloud-native applications as much as 10 times faster than traditional coding methods.

There’s no doubt low-code is changing the way developers, business experts, and decision makers work together to digitize workflows, applications, and processes within an organization. These powerful platforms help advance business agility in three major ways: 

1. Increase Speed 

With low-code development, a more diverse talent pool is able to build custom applications in a fraction of time from traditional application development. Business analysts are able to create and deploy fully functional applications through the use of flowchart-like capabilities, pre-built models, templates, as well as drag-and-drop editor features. This cuts down on documentation and development time significantly, allowing teams to work faster and deliver immediate impact, improving business compliance and reducing risk. 

Additionally, this means teams across the business don’t have to wait on IT to deliver custom-built solutions. Using low-code, the job gets done faster and more efficiently, saving organizations valuable time and leveraging existing resources. 

2. Reduce Costs

Low-code development platforms reduce costs by eliminating mundane IT development tasks in a number of ways: 

• Low-code platforms have built-in security and compliance functions, for example General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which reduces business risk, labor costs and coding skills required
• Citizen developers can quickly build high fidelity business applications, freeing IT professionals to focus on higher-impact, deeper-level code priorities which deliver the most value to the organization
• Apps can be easily built, tested, provisioned, deployed, and maintained all within a single point-and-click platform, requiring fewer resources to manage
• Teams are able to improve productivity and efficiency, as they have more time to work on other projects 

3. Greater Productivity

Streamlining the development process and increasing the use of automation allows IT to accomplish more in less time. Additionally, low-code platforms feature built-for-purpose tools which are made to simplify the business process development life cycle, which improves productivity. For example, these cloud-based systems are designed to monitor and alert personnel when a process is at risk of failure and automatically balance system loads ensuring processes delays and bottlenecks are avoided. These types of solutions minimize the time IT spends troubleshooting issues, allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives. 

Gartner expects the low-code development market to explode by 2024, with 75% of large enterprises using four or more tools across IT application development and citizen development initiatives. Leading enterprises across the world are taking note, as digital transformation becomes even more critical for success. 

While industry experts predict low-code will see continued adoption, it is not expected to entirely replace traditional application development. Certain applications, for example, core system-of-record development, will still require extensive application functionality, data governance, and deployment for specific environments. Instead, the two will co-exist, with low-code being the tool to embrace for fast development or specific business needs, while traditional code remains reserved for the most important IT projects.