What Is Low Code Automation Platform? Is It the Future Tech?
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Low code automation platform has emerged as a disruptive technology in recent years. It is now a core driver of digital transformation for businesses in today’s fast-paced business ecosystem. Straits Research projects low Code Development Platform Market Size to reach USD 148.5 Billion by 2030. So, what is low code, and what has enabled this technology to establish its dominance in the industry?
What is a Low Code Automation Platform?
Low-code automation is a means of automating business processes that require little coding knowledge. Low code automation platform can drag and drop application components, connect them, and create mobile or web apps. Components are primarily built-in through visual modules, which makes such platforms easy and quick to use. This helps developers at all levels to build value-driven applications.
Low code automation platform traces their roots back to RAD tools such as Excel and Microsoft Access that equipped non-IT professionals with some development-like capabilities. However, those tools require that users understand the business apps thoroughly. In contrast, users need minimal development knowledge using low code process automation. This empowers change-driven individuals within the organization to become citizen developers and take care of their IT needs.
Who is a Citizen Developer?
A citizen developer is an employee who creates applications with approved IT technology for their own consumption or that of others. With rapidly increasing digitalization, every company is a software company. The IT requirements of businesses have increased colossally, and backlogs have become never-ending. This has put IT under immense pressure.
The advent of low-code platforms has paved the way for citizen developers. They can make their work easier by creating programs using no-code or low-code platforms, thus reducing their dependency on IT. This helps ease the workload of the IT department, thus alleviating its pressure.
How is Low-Code Different from No-Code?
While low-code app development requires users to possess some coding knowledge, no-code development is aimed at non-technical users in various departments who know the requirements but have little to no coding knowledge. Hence, while low code automation platform are used mainly by IT professionals, no-code platforms are leveraged by business users to create apps to address their business needs.
Despite the differences, both platforms are similar in the way that they help foster a culture of citizen development.
What are the Benefits of Low-Code Platforms?
Using Low Code Platforms has multiple benefits for businesses. Here are a few-
- Easy to use- Low-code platforms make it easy for professionals with less coding knowledge to create applications by simply dragging and dropping components.
- Increase productivity- Low-code development takes less time and enhances employee productivity. It equips employees with the capability of designing the app best suited to business requirements, thus improving the overall flow of the project.
- Less dependency- Low-code platforms empower citizen developers and reduce dependency on IT departments. This helps streamline development, reduce bottlenecks and save time in running operations.
- Cost savvy- Low-Code platforms reduce the need for hiring and training more developers. They offer the capability to build less expensive, high-quality enterprise-grade software in a few days.
- Promote innovation- Without Low-Code, requests for new applications would have to be queued and it would take at least a few weeks to develop an application. This would increase the time investment and build pressure for a successful outcome. However, an app built using low code needs less time and investment and enables employees to experiment and innovate.
Conclusion
According to Gartner, 80% of technology products and services will be built by non-IT professionals by 2024. Low code automation platform helps businesses gain efficiencies. Traditional IT developers use low code to develop apps and create value quickly. So, is low code the future of app development?
Although it has reserved a coveted place for itself in the future and will continue to increase the user base, conventional application development is here to stay. Traditional application development offers a high level of customization and full control of the technology stack, which low code is yet to offer. Despite this, low code is crucial in helping organizations begin and run their digital transformation better while allowing IT teams to focus on more complex problems without any worries about a developer shortage.
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