In a world driven by technology, businesses constantly search for innovation that will ensure a competitive edge and accelerate growth, including adopting automation tools, leveraging advanced technologies, implementing new strategies for digital transformation, etc. These drivers of success are crucial for companies seeking to:
- Enhance operational efficiency
- Improve customer experiences
- Create new revenue streams
- Remain agile
- Reduce costs
- Empower a broader range of employees to contribute to accomplishing goals
One platform that is driving these business growth hacks is low code. Over the last few years, the low-code market has expanded significantly, fueled by the demand for faster development processes and high-quality outputs achieved with fewer resources. Over two-thirds (71.8%) of developers are using low-code/no-code tools and more than half (56.4%) anticipate greater reliance on these tools in 2024, according to the 2024 Reveal survey. In addition, nearly all the Reveal survey respondents (90.4%) said that low-code tools boosted developer productivity in their organizations.
Analysts say that by 2025, low code will be the most fundamental factor in almost every digital strategy, revolutionizing how software is built, deployed, and maintained across industries and sectors. Its democratizing effect on application development will empower companies of all sizes to innovate rapidly and stay ahead of the curve.
But how exactly do low-code platforms foster business growth initiatives? Let’s dive into the specifics.
The Power of Low Code
Low-code tools like App Builder simplify the complexities behind traditional coding. Instead of crafting everything manually and from scratch, developers benefit from an intuitive WYSIWYG visual interface, drag-and-drop functionalities, and pre-built reusable components to get them started. There are differentiators like instant code generation for technologies like Angular, Blazor, Web Components, and more, real-time code preview, data binding options, interactions, theming, branding, and BI dashboards for more sophisticated data analytics – just to name a few.
Low-code app development platforms help digital product teams create apps with visual tools that require little to no up-front coding but will need a development team to ‘finish’ an application before deployment. This type of approach is helpful for developers who want to eliminate the need for heavy hand-coding in areas like screen design, UX flows, theming, and branding, and can all but eliminate the need for manual HTML & CSS tweaking, which, according to Gartner, can take up to 60% of the application development time.
Other Ways in Which Low-Code Tools Help Businesses Grow
In their report “Large Enterprises Succeeding With Low-Code”, Forrester notes that “49% of organizations using low-code say it has the greatest ability to automate processes, while 50% say they use low code because it has the fastest speed of delivery.” This is no surprise, considering that low-code platforms drastically reduce the time and effort required for traditional and error-prone hand coding, enabling companies to develop and deploy apps at a fraction of the time and cost compared to conventional methods. This speaks to low code’s immense potential in reshaping the industry landscape.
1. Process Automation
One thing that low-code platforms really excel in is automating mundane tasks and workflows across development teams and other business functions like HR, finance, sales, and more. The biggest challenge for software development teams, for example, is high workloads and insufficient time to complete all the work. And the 2024 Reveal Survey finds that building apps manually consumes most of the development resources, with 28.2% of the developer’s time dedicated to coding and 24.8% to design. Compared to the report from 2023, this marks progress, where coding alone accounted for 43.4% of their time. This improvement is due to the increased adoption of low-code technologies across sectors and teams in businesses of all sizes.
So, instead of writing custom code, developers can go from an idea to a fully functional app by simply converting design files, for instance, eliminating heavy design-developer handoff processes. Screens or entire apps can also be built using a toolbox of pre-built, framework-agnostic components and a full set of features for a more customized UX. All while eliminating disruptions and costly delays.
2. Digital Transformation
Some businesses want to leverage digital technologies to change how they operate, deliver value to customers, and compete in the ever-changing market. And low-code platforms can facilitate digital transformation initiatives aimed at accelerating the process by:
- Enabling organizations to modernize legacy systems
- Integrating other systems more efficiently
- Minimizing errors derived from manual processes
- Cultivating a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning
- Speeding iterative processes, allowing for continuous improvement and innovation
3. Agile Project Management & Democratization
Sometimes, low-code platforms serve as an all-in-one solution to democratize application development. These tools can allow a broader range of users, including non-technical stakeholders, citizen developers, CIOs, etc., to participate in the innovation process – some through observing and managing processes, others by handling less complex development tasks. This way, businesses benefit from improved collaboration, transparency, and agility every step of the way. With real-time visibility into workflows and project updates and better resource allocation, low code speeds up time-to-market and allows teams to adapt to changing requirements faster while keeping everyone aligned with business goals. Whether it is adding a new feature or integrating with third-party systems, low-code platforms provide the flexibility and capabilities required to support business growth and scalability.
4. Cost Optimization
When a company is undergoing digital transformation, teams working with reduced technical debt due to proper resource allocation and project management, faster development processes thanks to automated tasks (like generating production-ready code for any framework of choice), optimizes IT budgets. The reduction in development time translates directly into cost savings, as fewer hours are spent on manual coding, debugging, and updating software applications. This could reallocate resources to other growth initiatives, such as marketing, R&D, or expansion into new markets.
5. Better Customer Experience
In today’s competitive landscape, customer experience serves as a key differentiator. Businesses that not only meet but exceed clients’ expectations and provide exceptional experiences can stand out from the crowd. Therefore, leveraging low-code platforms empowers companies to create customer-facing applications that deliver personalized experiences much faster, thus driving customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
To further enhance these applications, embedded analytics tools like Reveal can be integrated to provide real-time access to key business insights. This allows businesses to seamlessly incorporate advanced data analytics and visualization capabilities within their apps, enabling data-driven decision-making at all levels. By utilizing these insights, companies can better understand customer behavior, preferences, and trends, ultimately delivering more tailored and impactful experiences.
6. Expanding Presence in the Market
What if a company wants to expand its presence in the market? The strategy here may be to diversify their product categories or service offerings, appeal to new customer segments, and tap into different geographical regions or sectors. This step will enable businesses to maintain or grow market share and capitalize on more opportunities in mature markets where competition is intense.
Low-code tools facilitate strategic expansion by ensuring more agile development cycles, quicker iterations, and the ability to experiment with new ideas, features, and functionalities thanks to pre-built components and their reusability. These streamlined procedures reduce time-to-market and lower the entry barrier for launching new initiatives. Customizations are done in record time; changes are made instantly; businesses can adapt to the changing market and meet specific requirements of different clients or sectors – all due to the scalability, capabilities, and flexibility of low code.
From faster app development cycles and increased agility to reduced costs and expanded market presence, low-code tools have become the ultimate instrument for companies that want to achieve business growth. Businesses that invest in these platforms and make them part of their strategic plans, can focus on innovation rather than being bogged down by overlong development processes, backlogs, technical complexities, and budgetary and cost constraints.
