No-code Platforms In The Enterprise Space: The Journey From Experimentation To Transformation
Authored by Mr. Muzammil Patel, Global Head Strategy and Corporate Finance, Acies
No-code platforms have started to make their way to the centre of an enterprise’s digital transformation strategy. No-code promises faster delivery times, halves the cost of ownership and brings in true technology democratization. As more organizations understand the concept of no-code and their benefits, it is important to cross some conceptual bridges and some operational ones too. Crossing the conceptual bridges can prove to be harder and can derail the entire transformation process.
Crossing the conceptual bridges to no-code:
Two of the most common mistakes that enterprises make are (i) not distinguishing between no-code and low-code (ii) considering all no-code platforms to be equal.
It is important to understand that no-code means a pre-architected platform that can be used to build entire enterprise grade applications without writing any code. Low-code, on the other hand, is a set of developer tools with limited user interface and scenarios created with the intent of accelerating the software development process. While low-code platforms help in increasing the speed of development, they do not replace the need for coders. A number of enterprises treat no-code and low-code synonymously and as a result derive only incremental benefits rather than a transformative change. In simple terms, low-code is an incremental improvement over bespoke development whereas no-code is a significant leap forward from low-code.
It is equally important to understand that all no-code platforms are not equal. Most no-code platforms are built for specific purposes like website development, data integration or API management. The truly transformative no-code platforms that are pre-architected, component-based systems,can cover virtually any development scenario. Truly transformative no-code covers data management, compute, UX and UI development, reporting, visualization, process management and everything in between. Selecting the right no-code platform to support the digital transformation journey is therefore critical for enterprises in order to ensure that a wide range of use cases can be covered.
Crossing the operational bridges to no-code:
Moving to no-code ecosystem requires a scale-up plan that has executive sponsorship. It is important to start with a few but complex use cases to test the resilience and scalability of a no-code platform. It is equally important to pay attention to the underlying concepts and start skilling business analysts and other business teams on using the no-code platform. For an enterprise to achieve scale, building teams dedicated to creating applications on no-code platforms is critical.
Once the pilot projects take shape and the enterprise has built enough internal capacity, no-code can be deployed for more transformative projects. No-code platforms enable true technology democratization. Adapting to this new freedom entails a cultural shift in the enterprise including re-organization of technology teams, re-allocation of budgets, re-skilling of business analysts and rejuvenating the focus on bringing down the total cost of ownership of technology.
No-code platforms are making waves in the enterprise technology space. For enterprises to make sure that they are not left behind and are deriving the promised benefits from no-code, enhancing the awareness of no-code and accelerating the decisions for no-code adoption can truly shape the course of digital transformation for years to come. Making the right choices and having the right execution strategy for large scale adoption can make all the difference.
