Insights: Myths and realities of low-code and no code

According to Gartner’s 2021 Hype Cycle for open-source software (OSS), through 2025, more than 70 per cent of enterprises will increase their IT spending on OSS, compared with their current IT spending. In the Middle East, public and private sector companies continue to increase spends on resolving business challenges than strictly technical ones. IT departments and teams which were solely responsible for automation of internal systems and were considered a back-end traditionally have gained much prominence in recent years. This 360-degree transformation for IT departments universally has come about in today’s intensely competitive market where organisations have to gear up to elevate business efficiencies and deliver standout customer experiences across all channels and devices. It is through robust IT departments and revolutionary technologies such as low-code platforms that organisations are able to overcome various digital transformation roadblocks and amplify experiences.

It is also no wonder then, that the rise of low-code and no-code platforms in the cloud over the past few years has completely altered the game. In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia for instance, is a front-runner in adopting an open-source government strategy that was announced in 2021. The objective is clearly to boost innovation in business and develop customised solutions conveniently, rapidly and at scale to deliver winning customer experiences in line with the country’s Vision 2030. In fact, with enterprises demanding new digital solutions rapidly, low-code and no-code application platforms are pacing to modernise processes and experiences. IT heads are therefore scouting for newer opportunities in this fast-changing competitive business environment for an advantage over their competition using transformational tools.

That does not, however, mean that IT departments have everything their own way or that they don’t face wide-scale pressures. While spending was recovering post-pandemic, the global economic situation remains perilous with inflation looming ahead. Additionally, with political tensions high in many regions and supply chains still shaky, companies of all sizes may once again be forced to cut costs at short notice in the imminent future.

Additionally, some IT departments may fear that low-code and no-code solutions will render some of their functions null and void. While there will undoubtedly be organisations that are tempted to take this route, to do so would be a mistake. They would, instead, be better off using such solutions to get previously untapped value out of their IT teams. For those unsure of what low-code means, the term essentially refers to environments that allow people to build applications using graphical user interfaces. These platforms typically use snippets of pre-built code or simple drag and drop interfaces and allow people with little to no programming experience to rapidly build business applications.

Some of these platforms are stand-alone, while others include low-code capabilities as part of a wider offering. For the business as a whole, low-code comes with a number of obvious benefits. Chief among them is the fact that it allows people who understand what customers (or employees) actually need in an application, without having to translate those needs to developers. A low-code approach also eliminates some of the most challenging aspects of application development, including creating frameworks and linking databases.

A good low-code platform should also allow for greater flexibility. In order to do so, it should support low-code creation of custom sites and content, low-code customisation of users and accounts, and low-code creation of custom business objects. While that may leave some IT departments feeling as if they’ll end up surplus to requirements, that definitely doesn’t have to be the case.

In fact, many of the things that make low-code so powerful is highly advantageous to IT departments. The fact that applications can be developed faster and with fewer errors than with traditional code, for example, can make IT teams more agile. That, in turn, means that they’re able to respond quicker to market changes. And because low-code platforms provide standard components such as forms, report templates, and ready-to-use code snippets, they also mean that IT departments can ensure a much greater degree of uniformity across the organisation’s digital offerings. Cumulatively, the time these changes free up for IT departments means that they have more freedom to explore new digital avenues that the organisation could benefit from. That can only happen, however, if IT departments are given the freedom to be proactive and innovate rather than simply react to problems.

Low-code propels open development but not all low-code software are security- built developments. Low-code platforms have their own security practices or the ones that are used enterprise wide by customers. And therefore, before choosing a low-code platform, it is important to understand where the platform’s banister ends and when should take charge of the security aspects. No enterprise – big or small, private or public sector will compromise on security of their data and therefore should work with reputed open source platforms that offer high levels of security to its users. This is also the reason it has been included as trusted and transformative alternative to conventional systems.

It is evident that while low-code does reduce the software development process time and lowers workloads for the IT department, it also results in quick and agile working for the teams. Low-code platforms are developed by professional developers who have their eye on solving business problems instead of mere technical ones, using the most advanced technology to achieve this – Low-code for the many benefits it offers. Therefore, organisations that use the benefits of low-code to free up their IT departments for innovations are bound to do well in the long run.

Ahmad Saad is the country manager – UAE and Qatar, Liferay

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