Breaking Barriers: Assessing the Revolutionary Impact of Low-Code on Application Development

Application development can be nerve-wracking and time-consuming since it demands rich expertise and experience in coding. This can be a huge barrier in today’s technology-driven landscape where businesses are striving to deliver innovative solutions in a quick turnaround time to achieve unprecedented levels of agility. This is where the role of low-code comes into play – a game-changing approach that has revolutionized the way applications are developed.

Low-code has brought a paradigm shift in the application development realm by enabling businesses to simplify the application development process, without the need for extensive coding knowledge. By providing pre-built components, drag-and-drop tools, and visually-rich interfaces, low-code platforms allow citizen developers, subject matter experts, decision-makers, and business stakeholders to rapidly prototype and develop applications at unmatched speed to quickly respond and adapt to the ever-evolving business requirements. In simple words, low-code development platforms act as a catalyst for fostering innovation, driving digital transformation, and unlocking the potential of cross-functional teams that propel organizations to new heights of growth and success.

The interesting thing to note is that low-code platforms can not only reduce application development time by 90% but also consume 70% fewer resources as compared to traditional application development platforms. Furthermore, over 65% of non-IT professionals will develop IT-based solutions and services using low-code application development platforms. Lastly, the market size of low-code development platforms is estimated to reach 148.5 billion USD by 2030 at a healthy CAGR of 27.8% during the forecasted period. Before diving deep, let’s quickly understand what exactly a low-code platform is.

A Quick Overview of a Low-code Development Platform

As the name suggests, a low-code platform provides a rapid application development (RAD) environment that enables citizen developers and non-technical professionals to quickly build applications by dragging and dropping components and connecting them together.

Unlike a traditional development environment wherein developers need to write several lines of code manually to build applications, low-code development platforms promote the use of a model-driven, graphical user interface, and drag-and-drop components (block-based programming) to simplify the development process. In other words, RAD platforms simplify and expedite the development process as applications are developed using visual blocks. With the help of low-code application development platforms, businesses can accomplish their application development goals faster with less dependency on IT. This may be one of the reasons why 77% of organizations are using low-code, whereas, 75% of professionals working in IT admitted that they can’t afford to miss out on the low-code trend.

Unlocking the Benefits of Low-code Platforms for Application Development

Low-code platforms are renowned for simplifying the development process, however, the benefits extend beyond that. Let’s dive deep into the key benefits that low-code development platforms bring to the table for enterprises.

1. Reduced Development Costs

Despite massive layoffs in recent times, the tech industry is still facing a talent shortage and this problem will only become worse in the coming years. According to recent reports, the global talent shortage is predicted to reach 85.2 million. With the ongoing tech talent shortage globally, developers are demanding a premium salary. Fortunately, enterprises can cut down on high development costs by adopting low-code platforms since they eliminate the need for hiring seasoned developers for enterprise-grade application development. This approach can be highly beneficial for Startups and SMBs with limited application development budgets. By adopting low-code application development platforms, the cost of the development project can be reduced by 53%.

2. Eliminate the Need for Shadow IT

Business leaders often reach out to the IT department for tools and application requests that they require. However, many times the IT department is already swamped with client development projects, and owing to this business leaders often resort to third-party solutions that can quickly address their challenges and provide them with what they are looking for. The problem with third-party solutions is that business leaders use them without the IT department’s approval and often without the knowledge of the IT. Importing critical information into these third-party solutions can be risky. By using a low-code platform, business leaders can safeguard sensitive data, whilst eliminating the need for shadow IT.

3. Democratize Application Development

The traditional application development process is tedious, time-consuming, and confined to core IT developers resulting in multiple iterations, bottlenecks, and delayed project delivery. Low-code platforms bridge the gap between business stakeholders and IT by democratizing application development. In other words, low-code development platforms empower business leaders and professionals with no technical background to develop applications that they need using drag-and-drop components, pre-built UI templates, and built-in data models. This, in turn, improves productivity since there is no waiting in the middle to transform the concept into reality.

4. Workflow Automation

Low-code platforms come with API accessibility, in-built automation capabilities, and prebuilt integrations enabling businesses to automate end-to-end processes and workflows whilst accelerating development speed. A low-code platform allows enterprises to kick off their workflow automation journey and utilizes pre-built templates to develop new business processes quickly, while variables and flow control play a critical role in managing data.

Summing Up

Low-code platforms simplify the development process, expedite application delivery, foster a smooth collaboration between business stakeholders and IT, and help organizations drive innovation and digital transformation. If you are also planning to be at the forefront of the digital revolution, it’s wise to embrace low-code application development platforms to empower citizen developers and non-IT professionals to rapidly prototype, iterate, and develop applications at a faster pace. Before choosing a low-code platform, you may consider seeking consultation from an expert. This will help you make an informed decision and select the best rapid application development platform tailored to your business requirements.