Low Code: The future of Software Development

The days of labor-intensive hand-coding and clunky software development processes are over. Software companies have been forced to find alternative approaches to not only deliver their services and products but also to stay relevant in the digital age due to the rise of automation technology, rapidly rising expectations and demands from innovation-craving consumers and end users, and a lack of developers. Platforms for low-code development can now help you overcome this challenge.

The future is low-code or no-code with an expected growth rate of 44.4% by 2022 to $27.23 billion (up from $4.32 billion in 2017)

Source: Business Wire

Low-code development facilitates the development of apps by digital product teams and citizen developers without requiring them to perform time-consuming hand-coding tasks. Low-code platforms typically consist of a visual integrated development environment (IDE), connectors to various backends and services, and a design-to-code system.

Choose the right platform

Low-code platforms come in various types, so keep that in mind before counting up your numbers. A wrong decision will quickly lead to a negative net worth.

There are three main categories of low-code development platforms.

1. Apps can be developed on these platforms that can do basically anything you can imagine, and can be deployed on any operating system. Expert developers like these tools because they allow them to quickly deploy and edit new applications, slashing development time.
2. Platforms for creating mobile apps that are primarily designed for creating mobile apps. The functionality of the application can be wide, but MADPs are used mostly for churning out mobile apps for deployment on phones. Low-code tools can speed up the development process for mobile developers, while others make app creation less intimidating for non-programmers.
3. Platforms for business process management. Applications like these automate business processes such as purchase requests, leave approvals, and travel reimbursements. The process of automating a business process involves taking a set of data through a sequence of steps or approvals. In turn, this creates a smooth-functioning infrastructure that can handle large numbers of requests.

IDC has reported that by 2023, more than 500 million apps will be developed. That is much more than decades of apps put together!

As a result of the cloud, legacy systems have been disrupted and flexibility has been brought to the workplace. The rise of low-code citizen development teams has led to transparency and automation, which is why errors are rare. Additionally, the whole process is faster.

It is imperative for businesses to become agile in the face of ever-changing business conditions and customer demands. Low-code platforms make it easy for business users to change applications quickly and easily. It is effortless to update and redesign applications with no-code platforms thanks to their simple drag-and-drop development capability. As a result, companies can take advantage of market opportunities without taking any risks.

A recent survey has revealed that high-performance low-code platforms can pay for itself in less than six months and deliver a 506 percent return on investment over three years. (Source: Forrester)

Digital ecosystems are growing at an astounding rate, and organisations are seeking to accelerate their software delivery strategies. Low-code platforms have a proven ROI and are set to improve dramatically in the next few years due to their business case.

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