For many organizations, when business users have the drive and are empowered to solve problems they often lack the coding skills to engage in app development or revert to what they know: shared spreadsheet with custom macros and web forms. These spreadsheets often have limited or confusing permissions and sharing, and can result in numerous copies, making collaboration difficult. They also require a lot of manual work and eventually only one person has the knowledge on how to maintain them. This undesirable environment can be frustrating, time consuming, and error prone.
But, business users are those most closely aligned with the business problems. Their familiarity and knowledge of the issues makes them the logical choice to find solutions to the issues. In order to help this process run smoothly and encourage innovation, rather than hinder it, it is necessary to enable them with right tools — low-code development platforms.
Low-code development platforms empowers business users to quickly create fully functional applications without relying on their IT department or having to outsource a solution. These platforms allow any user to jump right in and start describing a solution to a business problem in plain language. They create applications graphically, rather than requiring code, and use intuitive visuals, simple drag and drop tools, and step-by-step guided wizard to create, test, and share an app in no time.
While IT involvement is not required, technical developers have the ability to customize the platform and also create or integrate custom building blocks if desired such as reusable APIs and services. IT can also use built-in governance to suit the needs of the business and set the right safeguards and gates to manage applications through their lifecycle. This means projects aren’t stifled by one departments time constraints but when time allows, collaboration is not only possible, but streamlined.
By providing a tool accessible to all levels of developers you allow for joint development between business and technical developers and create an environment where your business can truly thrive.
For an in-depth look at the key-capabilities provided by low-code platforms and the different types of developers — and development projects — that can benefit from them, see what independent analyst Sandy Kemsley has to say in our upcoming webinar.
