Low-code application development enables business agility

Business agility refers to the ability of a business to rapidly respond to change by adapting its products and services, processes and technology to meet customer demands and increase its relevance and competitiveness. It’s Agility for the whole business, not just IT. The business is re-inventing itself, or at least quickly adapting, affecting all aspects of the business, says Ben Cilliers, application development manager at IndigoCube.

The rapidly changing business environment increases pressure on business enablers: people, process, and technology. Rapidly evolving businesses require rapidly evolving systems to maintain pace. And this is nowhere more true than in the digital enterprise.

Low-code development platforms become essential in such environments. The alternative is to overwork fleets of developers, throw enormous budgets at IT or, worse, get left in your competitors’ dust.

Research firm Forrester agrees. “In a world that is changing at breakneck speed, the ability to identify and respond to digital innovation opportunities more quickly than your competitors will determine if your company sinks or swims,” according to it’s The State of Application Development, 2018 report.

Low-code development promises quick coding. Rapid application creation can leverage a variety of channels and devices and it makes citizen developers real. Low-code commonly finds a home with enterprises that experience eight common challenges. These organisations find:

• They are increasing spend on application development;
• Their systems development is too slow;
• They experience increasing demand for application development;
• A growing backlog (unsatisfied demand);
• A scarcity of developers;
• IT personnel are stressed:
• They have disparate systems; or
• Their digital transformation has stalled.

The benefits are tangible. Low-code platforms:

• Deliver fast development and high application development productivity;
• Enable non-programmers to develop solutions;
• Provide performance, scalability and flexibility of architecture, including cloud and hybrid;
• Embed robust security;
• Provide a variety of good quality interface templates (UX/UI);
• Offer great integration to various commercial systems and data-sources; and
• Provide broad SDLC coverage with DevOps enablement.

Those benefits give challenged enterprises the means to adapt. They can respond quickly to market changes that demand new or evolved products and services. It makes them more competitive. And it makes the entire business agile, not just IT, so it’s a long-term solution that helps the enterprise reinvent itself.

By Ben Cilliers, application development manager at IndigoCube