Embracing low-code development Build faster - together

25 May 2022

Highlights

Embracing low code - Dive deeper into the benefits of low code - for both business and IT.

  • What is low-code application development?
  • Why use low code? 
  • Low code vs. no code
  • What are the benefits?

Industries from financial services, to healthcare and the public sector are changing fast. To compete, organisations need to constantly innovate. The result: IT departments are struggling to keep up with demand at a time when developer resources worldwide are scarce. But forward-thinking organizations recognize that digital business needs are accelerating – and waiting isn’t a viable option. They are taking action, empowering business users to build and automate new solutions through a collaborative, easy-to-use, low-code application development platform.

You may have heard about “low code,” a term that permeates enterprise conversations. But what does it actually mean?

Low-code application development describes creating application software using visual tools and model-driven processes – instead of traditional code-based programming. It reduces the amount of hard coding needed, enabling democratized access to development and an accelerated delivery of applications, innovation as well as the ability to build trusted and more cohesive organizational capability development. A low-code platform can range from a simplistic, free software you can use online to a sophisticated, enterprise-grade application development engine that serves the most complex and highly governed processes.

In essence, these tools make application development accessible to business users and non-programmers. Anyone, regardless of technical ability, can build applications to automate workflows – with drag-and-drop functionality, intuitive process flow capabilities, and visual guidance. This empowers people beyond the walls of IT to take ownership, streamline common development tasks, increase productivity, fast track to new digital job roles and ultimately, free up development resources. 

Given the benefits, it’s clear why a growing number of organizations are adopting these tools. In fact, Gartner predicts that “by 2023, the number of active citizen developers at large enterprises will be at least four times the number of professional developers.” (1)

Low-code development platforms can help enterprises outmanoeuvre the competition with the agility to rapidly change how they serve customers in their preferred channels – whether it’s mobile apps or self-service portals. In turn, they empower their employees with the right tools to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively. It’s a win for everyone.

Benefits

Business users

  • Enable users who are fluent in evolving business needs to get involved in development – with no coding knowledge needed
  • Allow users to show rather than tell developers what they need, dramatically reducing revisions and leverage the deep knowledge of the business
  • Actively design and update apps as needed, without adding burden to IT or landing at the end of a backlog

Professional developers

  • Enable expert coders to better delegate more routine development tasks to free up backlog
  • Free up time so developers can respond quicker to higher value, urgent requests – so they can focus more on strategic or complex tasks
  • Provide easier, more open communication and collaboration with business users

Organisation

  • Better outcomes for all stakeholders as well as reduced spend from redundancy and lost economies of scale
  • Better regulatory compliance and decreased security risks
  • Increased communication and cooperation across departments including reduced potential for shadow IT though enterprise guardrails
  • Increased agility for responding to threats and opportunities
  • Supports smooth transition to new digital job roles and improved change management that maximises organizational value.

Want to know more about low code platforms? 

Find out more about Low Code Application using Pega’s industry leading low code platform.

(1) Gartner, The Future of Apps Must Include Citizen Development, October 4, 2019, Jason Wong, Mark Driver, Saikat Ray.

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