Low Code: Understand what it is and its advantages for the IT team

Low Code - understand what it is and what advantages it offers to the IT team

When we say that most IT departments suffer from enormous delays, struggle to hire qualified developers amidst a market shortage, and are constantly pressured to do more with less, do you see your company represented? 

That's why Low Code development has been attracting attention . Were you already familiar with this term?

Low Code offers great potential to help developers better address these challenges. Besides being easy to use, it also speeds up the development process, since you don't need to write all the code for a project manually.

The goal of this content is to explain what Low Code is and show the benefits it can provide. You'll see that, although developing systems in this style isn't exactly new, the rise of cloud-based businesses and the growing demand for automation makes it one of the main trends right now . Check it out!

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What is Low Code?

Low-code software development is an approach that allows for faster production of software and applications with minimal manual coding . These solutions provide building blocks that IT users can assemble into automated workflows.

These building blocks abstract the code behind actions and commands, making it possible for IT to assemble workflows and business applications without the need for manual work. In other words, it's like a puzzle: there are already blocks – or pieces – ready to fit together to deliver the desired end result.

Therefore, instead of writing thousands of lines of code using complex syntax, you can use Low Code development to build complete systems, integrate with modern user interfaces, data, and logic quickly and visually. This allows for faster delivery of developed software .

That's why Low Code is already known as a strategic approach for IT and for the business as a whole. In practice, using this work model saves time and costs for the development team, which quickly sees a number of benefits compared to other platforms.

Low-code development vs. traditional development

Traditional coding involves an entire team of developers and programmers gathering specific requirements, developing a plan, and working to create custom code for a system to meet those specified needs. 

Although the traditional approach results in deliverables that meet the required standards, these projects are often complex and expensive. Delays also occur due to various factors, such as: 

  • Several software coding errors;
  • Inaccurate time estimate;
  • New challenges encountered during the testing phase;
  • Infrastructure delays;

Furthermore, a traditional development approach requires an ongoing maintenance cycle on the part of the developer to keep the software secure and up-to-date. 

Low-code development platforms, on the other hand, help accelerate the delivery of new software, allowing developers to quickly create applications for specific business use cases .

Instead of spending time and manual effort coding an application from scratch that is made up of common features and components, Low Code allows developers to work from pre-existing templates and drag and drop pre-built elements, forms, and objects to achieve the result they need, with greater speed and fewer complications.

A trend for the future that you can count on right now

Low-code tools promise success in democratizing software development and automating workflows.

This is a clear trend for the future, but one that companies can start taking advantage of today. That's what Gartner's studies indicate.

Therefore, we have selected some excerpts from recent research that prove the relevance of Low Code:

“As a software engineering leader looking to evaluate and select a low-code application development technology, you should: identify the specific Low Code technologies that support your productivity and time-to-market needs by analyzing specific application, automation, integration, and workflow requirements.”.

Source: Identify and Evaluate your next Low-Code development Technologies

By Analysts: Jason Wong, Paul Vincent, Saikat Ray, Akash Jain, Keith Guttridge, Kimihiko lijima, Adrian Leow, Yefim Natis.

"By 2025, spending on low-code development technologies is expected to grow to nearly $30 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.9% from 2020 to 2025.".

Emerging Technologies: High-Velocity Demands Accelerate Low-Code Application Platforms. Published 30 April 2021. By Analysts: Laurie Wurster, Fabrizio Biscotti, Jason Wong, Paul Vincent

Furthermore, all major Software as a Service (SaaS) already offer some features that incorporate Low Code development technologies. In this case, as SaaS grows in popularity and these providers' platforms are increasingly adopted, the Low Code market will experience proportional growth .

5 advantages of Low Code for the IT department

Now, let's present the main advantages of using Low Code from the perspective of an IT professional who works strategically.

1. Greater business agility

Most Low Code platforms provide direct integrations with major vendors and allow IT to transform APIs , web services, and command lines into reusable building blocks.

This accelerates the time required to integrate and deploy new tools and technologies, helping companies stay ahead of market trends and consumer demands. 

Low Code is synonymous with agility in all stages of the development process!

2. Increased productivity

By simplifying the development process and increasing the use of automation, IT is able to accomplish more in less time. Furthermore, discussing Low Code includes tools that simplify the process lifecycle.

This can include monitoring and alerting features that notify the team when a process is at risk of failure. Or, if a server is at maximum capacity, redirecting processes to avoid bottlenecks and delays.

3. Closer relationship between different areas of the company and IT

Business teams often implement and manage software without the IT team's consent. The reason for this is always the same: the delay in IT's response to this demand.

On the other hand, by using a Low Code development tool to quickly deploy new processes and applications, the need for and dependence on the IT team for this type of action is drastically reduced.

Furthermore, interfaces can be more intuitive to allow business users to execute and monitor processes, while developers can focus on more urgent demands.

4. Automate more processes in less time

Low-code platforms, along with the right DevOps tools, can accelerate development speed to automate end-to-end tasks and processes.

Workflows can be initiated based on IT and business events, templates can be used to quickly develop new processes, while variables and flow control facilitate data management across platforms.

Meanwhile, pre-built integrations and API accessibility make it possible to automate virtually any digital business process.

5. Democratization of software development

This is also an important benefit of Low Code solutions, precisely because they reach more people in a positive way.

This is because Low Code enables users to access technical or business knowledge, such as data analysis, machine learning, or application development, with a much shorter learning curve , depending mainly on the use of logical reasoning.

In practice, it is no longer necessary to be a senior developer to use highly specialized tools and systems in your work.

Be sure to also listen to Episode #2 of Sky.Cast , the Skyone podcast. In it, we talk with Guto Rosa, Product Manager at Skyone Studio, about the topic of No Code and Low Code . Don't miss it!

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What are the features of a Low Code platform?

A typical Low Code development platform includes one or more of the following features:

  • A visual IDE : an environment for visually defining user interfaces, workflows, and data models, and adding handwritten code when necessary;
  • Connectors for multiple back-ends or services : automatically handles data structures, storage, and retrieval through these APIs;
  • Application Lifecycle Manager : Automated tools for building, debugging, deploying, and maintaining the application, both in testing, staging, and production.
  • Transforming design into code : integrated systems that provide designers and developers with a common platform to design prototypes and then easily transform those designs into clean, production-ready code.

These are the features that explain why companies are seeking Low Code with the functionalities available today, and not just thinking about the future.

3 Low-Code Tools

If you're looking for Low Code tools right after learning about these benefits, you're on the right track!

Ultimately, the differences are significant when compared to traditional tools. 

This type of platform goes beyond offering Low Code as a substitute for custom development and provides everything you need to develop robust enterprise solutions that differentiate your business from the competition.

When considering the points to take into account when choosing a low-code tool, always choose one based on its importance to the success of your business. 

Below are three examples of tools that can help any company:

1. Salesforce Lightning

Salesforce Lightning provides a suite of tools for building business applications. The platform will allow developers to create applications with both custom and standardized components. It also offers features to accelerate the production process.

With this tool, you enable IT and business teams to build applications together using no-code builders. According to the company, with Lightning, you can save up to 25% of the time developers spend creating customizations .

2. Pipz

Pipz , offering omnichannel solutions for customer-focused companies. With a focus on providing an advanced marketing automation platform, it allows users to create conversion pages, forms, and automation flows using low-code or no-code solutions.

What sets it apart from other solutions is the ease with which you can develop your own solutions based on ready-made templates already available on the platform. Just edit and start using.

3. Skyone Studio

Skyone Studio is an IPaaS platform developed by Skyone. With it, you can automate your business processes by integrating software and systems . It also manages all your integrations through a single, simple, and secure connector.

Using modern architectures, we developed a platform that utilizes APIs to ensure simple and secure integration.

Skyone Studio: How to integrate systems using a Low Code approach

Skyone Studio acts as an important Low Code solution: it was developed precisely to address business pain points that result in excessive IT costs. This reduction also allows for a more strategic approach. 

In short, it's the solution for companies that need to integrate systems without requiring advanced development . It works like this:

  • We develop scalable integrations, meaning each one can be replicated for multiple companies with similar needs;
  • You receive a suite of automated tools to connect software applications used in different environments, such as the cloud and locally installed systems.

This unique feature makes the investment more accessible. Since it's not developed exclusively for this purpose, but rather to support a range of integrations, its costs will be even lower.

Since you need more features in your management system to run your company more effectively, without making large investments of time and money, Low Code with Skyone Studio is the way to go! 

Discover all the details of this solution now!

 

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