How Low Code Platform Accelerates Digital Transformation
Here’s how low code platforms equip enterprises with strategic agility.
Digital transformation provides strategic agility. But enterprises are unsure how to get there. Anurag Shah, head of products and solutions at Newgen Software, says when looking to modernize legacy applications and quickly transform non-digital applications as part of their digital transformation initiatives, enterprises should consider low-code platforms.
Digital transformation is not just about adopting digital technologies. A true transformation equips enterprises with strategic agility, and top business priorities such as customer experience (CX), operational efficiency, business innovation, and employee productivity.
Leaders in enterprises know this. However, despite great intent and persistent effort, digital transformation more or less remains elusive for most. The key challenge preventing enterprises from achieving the desired results is competing priorities across the application landscape.
The mission-critical applications consume a significant chunk of technology leadership’s mental and operational bandwidth. That’s where a majority of impact in terms of CX and efficiencies also comes from. But the problem is that they are difficult to modernize due to their monolithic and rigid underlying architecture.
At the same time, thousands of small to mid-size applications in large enterprises continue to demand attention from the leadership. These small applications are integral to the end-to-end value chain for the end customer’s experience. But they are too many and too diverse for the leadership to tackle efficiently.
The key to solving this digital transformation conundrum requires an approach that can address the key issue: The ability to adapt quickly.
Low code: A powerful alternative with multi-fold benefits
Low code, equips you with the ability to develop your business applications faster without the notoriously long-drawn digital transformation programs. Low-code platforms employ visual, declarative techniques instead of programming to build applications, accelerating the pace of pro developers and allowing business experts to lead or participate in solution delivery.
A holistic low code platform should meet enterprise application development as well as modernization needs. The platform should have a powerful environment for agile development and top-class application governance and deployment command center console.
And low code platforms are here to stay. This study reveals that enterprises succeeding with digital transformation have embraced low code. According to Gartner Research, by 2024, low code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity.
Various low code platforms exist, ranging from simple mobile applications, database applications, portal applications, workflow automation, robotic process automation (RPA), content management, and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML).
A fully functional low code platform can help enterprises overcome some major challenges associated with digital transformation. Let’s see how:
Achieve Speed and Agility
Long development cycle is a key deterrent for enterprises to take on new projects. The complex architectural stack of traditional infrastructure is also one of the key challenges. Low code platforms abstract out the functionality and offer a visual, modeling-driven environment to speed up application development. These platforms provide pre-built templates that speed up experiments and allow feedback to be incorporated at the shortest notice, thereby accelerating “product-market fit” discovery.
This empowers enterprises to take new offerings to market faster and accommodate changes to applications per requirement at the shortest possible times without impacting business. With the right platform, this capability can span hard-core pro-grade development to citizen development. Low code platforms also enable change with traceability, ensuring business applications’ long-term sustainability.
Rationalize Application Portfolio
A low code platform can help enterprises rationalize their application portfolio by preventing the introduction of multiple-point solutions. A good low code platform offers various capabilities in a unified manner to that goal, such as workflows, content management, mobile application development, collaboration, business rules, RPA, AI/ML, and so on. Another great advantage of a low code platform is to obviate shadow IT through central governance and visibility. A standard modeling environment of low code promotes IT governance by dealing with data, process, and security vulnerabilities.
Solve the Build v/s Buy Conundrum
Enterprises have traditionally preferred to build their applications by creating an end-to-end infrastructure. That enables them to create their differentiated competitive advantage. However, over time, this approach of long-drawn application development has become cumbersome and fraught with risks. But the most critical driver is the speed of development which is just not achievable with traditional application development. On the other end of the spectrum are the off-the-shelf business applications that come with their limitations in terms of customization and differentiation.
A low code platform helps enterprises achieve the best of both worlds through the ability to develop custom applications, but not from scratch. The kickstart provided by a low code platform through powerful ready-to-use functionalities goes a long way in enabling digital transformation.
Enable Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)
A low code platform comes with the ability to not only develop the applications fast but also enable changes with speed. This is supported by the same visual paradigm for application development combined with robust version control and traceability system. Also, through the development cycle, enterprises can leverage gradual development in phases with multiple cycles of iterative deployment through agile methodology as against the traditional waterfall model.
A low code platform requires minimal coding, which in turn helps with faster development, more experimentation, quick innovation, and rapid deployment. Low code platforms support faster integration with in-house legacy and external systems and enable real-time business insights for rapid decision-making. And to top it all, the low cost of development allows organizations more room for experimentation without overshooting the budget.
A good low code platform can, thus, help enterprises transform complex mission-critical applications with speed while also providing support for relatively simpler applications, enabling a unified approach to their business applications. Enterprises looking to modernize their legacy applications and quickly transform their non-digital applications as part of their digital transformation initiatives must consider low code platforms to accelerate their digital journey.
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