If the 20th century was the space age, the 21st is digital. While many people predicted a future in which mechanical advances allow people to go farther, faster, it is digital technology that allows people to know more and connect more anywhere and everywhere. The result of this has been an unprecedented collection and explosion of data, and for businesses, this meant both more information to work with and more resources required to manage it.
The most successful businesses are the ones that take advantage of how digital technology, like work productivity software, can allow people to do their jobs better, faster, and more precisely. However, computer programming and software development have traditionally been extremely complex, time-intensive tasks that required a highly skilled workforce of programmers. Today, that’s still true for some software development situations, but others have new solutions like low code development platforms.
What Is A Low Code Development Platform?
Traditional software development relies on the expertise of computer programmers that are “fluent” in different programming languages. This normally means working in a very complex software environment where creating the structure and function of the software is reliant on the ability to manually enter commands in these languages, or “code” in Python, C++, Javascript, HTML or other languages that are considered “high” or “low” level, depending on their complexity.
A low development platform is a very specific tool that mimics the ability to create the general function of programming languages, without requiring the knowledge of those programming languages to do so. By using a “graphical user interface” or GUI, symbols, icons, and other simple graphical elements stand-in for complex programming functions.
People who familiarize themselves with a low code development platform can achieve similar results to high-level programming while using a simpler interface. This brings the power and efficiency of computer programming into a business, without requiring that business to depend on highly skilled programmers.
How This Helps
Low code development platforms bring a variety of benefits to a business, provided that the platform is deployed intelligently, and the company plays to the strengths of the technology. When combined with a clear understanding of their own corporate needs, a low code development platform boost performance in the following ways.
Lower Operational Budgets
Normally, creating custom software for a company requires the use of experienced programmers who are contracted to bring their skills into the equation. A low code development platform, however, can be learned by anyone with basic computer literacy, especially if there’s any familiarity with reporting software.
This means that rather than having to allocate the budget to outsource work and develop expensive contracts, businesses can do the work in-house. While having an IT department can speed this process up, it’s not strictly necessary to get results from a low code development platform.
It Can Go Portable
Low code development platforms are not just for business software on desktops or laptops. It can be used for mobile applications as well. This is one area that is continuing to expand and prove vital to business operations as it’s not always practical to bring a laptop to an area, but a phone with an app is much more feasible.
Enterprise mobile apps can boost productivity for work and streamline many operations that might otherwise slow things down. Expense reports, for example, can have each item keyed in as the expense is made with the right enterprise app, rather than having to save every receipt and fill in the report all at once at the end of the trip. Or employees “clocking in” for work to a remote destination without having to first report into a home office because that’s where the physical punch clock is.
It Can Be Customized
By using a low code development platform in-house, with the people who will use the software developing it, this means you get software or apps that do what your business needs. Extraneous features can be ignored, critical features can be prioritized, and anyone with any involvement in using or need this software can volunteer critical input that can shape the functions to get the job done.
Businesses get exactly the software that meets their needs, because the people who use the tool participated in, or even built, the software themselves.
It Can Be Agile
Speed is one of the top benefits of using these systems. Because it is the employees themselves that conceptualize, design, and develop the software, it means that changes and new iterations can be rapidly prototyped and integrated.
This is much faster than the typical process needing to schedule appointments and consultations with programmers to outsource upgrades and modifications to the software. A feature can go from idea to prototype to implementation sometimes within the same day.
