In today's digital age, businesses that fail to keep up with the breakneck speed of technology will quickly fall behind. New products must launch faster than ever, but there are fewer professional developers with the technical skills it takes to build, test, and deploy them — and that makes low-code/no-code platforms essential for doing business.
They won't be replacing professional developers anytime soon, but low-code/no-code platforms can help companies streamline their processes in a number of ways. From designing internal tools like customized apps to empowering non-technical users to design their own functionalities, these platforms can boost collaboration, improve operational efficiency, and keep your team ahead of the development curve.
In this article, we'll answer the question, "What is a low-code/no-code platform?" We’ll also show you how these platforms have evolved over the years. Then we'll explain what the difference is between low-code and no-code platforms, what they bring to the table for process automation, and how you can get the most out of yours.
Is There a Difference Between Low-Code and No-Code Platforms?
To understand how you can get the most out of a low-code or no-code platform, it helps to know whether there’s a difference between the two. While some argue that no-code apps or platforms are just a subset of low-code platforms, the differences are significant enough to impact how you use them within your business processes.
As their name implies, low-code platforms require some knowledge of programming languages, whereas no-code platforms require no programming at all. However, low-code platforms are more versatile, enabling a broader range of functionalities than no-code platforms, which are more suitable for business users who have no coding knowledge.
The Evolution of Low-Code and No-Code Platforms
As IDC Vice President of Automation and AI Neil Ward Dutton points out, low-code/no-code platforms play a cyclical role in developing new products, and this cycle is what has helped low-code development evolve.
First, the market drives demand for foundational tools that require full coding to create their original architecture. As the tools mature, the need for additional functionalities may arise. Low-code platforms are often most useful for building tools that extend from the architecture of the original product. As the team scales its business processes further, the need for more granular tools may emerge. These are most suitable for no-code platforms. Once the entire architecture has evolved to the point at which an entirely new solution becomes necessary, professional developers may then implement full-code solutions again to create the foundational products they require.
Advantages of Low-Code/No-Code Platforms for Process Automation
Low-code/no-code platforms help teams work more efficiently and shorten the software development journey. The most evident benefit is that they eliminate the need for writing basic lines of code, but that brings extra advantages with it — all of which make your company more efficient and profitable.
Streamlined Collaboration
Low-code development not only frees up your professional developers to work on the more challenging parts of your build; it helps them work with the rest of your team as well.
Coding software lets a non-technical user or a citizen developer create portions of a product, giving them greater involvement in the overall build. Without the need for coding skills, business users and other team members can give input into which functionalities should be added to existing software, and they can even help build some of these features themselves. That not only puts more hands on deck at a time when developers with the right technical skills are at a premium, but it also enables technical and non-technical personnel to work together with ease.
Accelerated Manual Processes
While it's notoriously difficult to precisely track an individual software developer's efficiency, there's no question that their efficiency would increase if they could spend less time on writing basic lines of code. Whether they're coding an app or preparing their tech stack for a digital transformation, developers can use low-code/no-code platforms to reduce the amount of code they must write. This lets them accelerate their manual processes so that they can spend their time completing the parts of the build that add more value and require more technical skills.
Use Cases for Low-Code/No-Code Platforms in Process Automation
A low-code development platform can be useful in a variety of industries. It can benefit business processes ranging from application modernization, company-wide digital transformation, and website upgrades to customer experience improvement.
- Automating Repetitive Tasks Through Drag-and-Drop Functionality: Instead of using an empty text editor with endless lines of code that only an experienced developer could read, low-code/no-code platforms are more intuitive and user-friendly. They feature a simple drag-and-drop interface that lets non-technical personnel add functionalities with merely a click of a mouse. This cuts out repetitive coding work for professional developers and lets citizen developers jump into the game as well.
- Rapid Development and Deployment for Custom Applications: Remember that full coding solutions are better for designing the foundational architecture, while low-code/no-code platforms are better suited for building extended functionalities. When companies want to improve their existing apps or add new features to their internal tools, they don't need to completely redesign their architecture from the ground up. Instead, they can use a low-code/no-code platform to make simple updates.
- Integration with Existing Systems and Business Applications: Low-code platforms are flexible enough to play well with your existing tech stack, so you can integrate them with relative ease. Open-source low-code/no-code platforms contain code that can easily be reused or amended to suit your application, so they're also highly compatible with the systems you currently use.
Leverage an Application Modernization Solution to Implement Low-Code/No-Code Processes Today
The best low-code/no-code platforms are versatile enough to help you implement your most basic functionalities while still giving you the flexibility to add in some code if you need a more specialized feature. Their automation capabilities can help reduce repetitive coding tasks, and their flexibility will align with your existing environment while shortening your product's time to launch.
At BP3, we give our clients a faster way to get things done. Sometimes, that entails a tailor-made approach to meet highly specialized needs, but other times, a low-code/no-code platform is the fastest way to the finish line.
We leverage both methods to provide the best end-to-end application support services for our customers, so contact us today to automate your business processes.