What is Low-Code? Best Platforms to Know

By 2024, Gartner predicts that 65% of application development will be low-code solutions. The impact of the Covid pandemic will only accelerate these solutions within the marketplace as industry leaders seek tools to remain agile. The low code market is full of technologies that rely on visual representations over code so that development teams can build applications speedily.

Let’s take a look at how no code or low code software solutions are benefiting businesses across industries.

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Coming Up

1. What is a Low-Code Development Platform?

2. What are the Benefits of Low-Code Development?

3. Principles & Features of Low-Code Development

4. What are the Best Low-Code Platforms?

5. How to Choose the Right Low-Code Development Tool?

6. What are the Limitations of Low-Code?

7. Wrap Up

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What is a Low-Code Development Platform?

Low-code development is a way to approach software development visually. By utilising automation, developers can create platforms more quickly and for lower costs. Instead of having to hand-code computer programming, a low-code solution is developed and deployed with graphical user interfaces (GUI) and supported by model-driven logic.

The drag-and-drop interface is a common attribute of low-code solutions, allowing both developers and users to visually work with the software.

Low-code solutions typically maintain:

• An automatic solution to connect to the back-end in order to structure, store and retrieve data
• Tools designed for debugging, building and executing demands along the life cycles of testing, staging and implementation
• The ability to visually define the user interface, workflows and model data within the application, with the additional option of adding hand-written code

A low-code development platform can be deployed as is or further customised with code depending on its use. This makes it easy for businesses to deploy such solutions within their organisation because they can either use them as out-of-the-box without the aid of IT specialists, or they can choose to further develop the software on an as-needed basis.

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What are the Benefits of Low-Code Development?

In a world where technology and big data continue to compound, IT teams and business leaders are looking for ways to draw insights in a timely manner. Traditional development requires highly-skilled individuals that generally come at a high cost because of their expertise.

This generally has meant that bigger companies can outshine their competition and leave the smaller and mid-sized companies with lowers budgets in the dust.

With low-code development, the democratisation of development and deployment of useful software solutions is gaining traction. Developers in any size organisation can provide value by creating systems that address business needs in less time.

Naturally, this contributes to teams that are agile and immediately responsive to market needs, rather than having to go back to the drawing board and taking months to test, debug and deploy updated software. With low-code, developers benefit from automation and can spend less time working on repetitive tasks.

Now that we can clearly see how a developer’s job is truncated into less steps, let’s see what this means for your business:

• Responsiveness: By using a visual interface to design software and carry out processes, your team benefits from agility and the ability to bring new products or services to market faster.
  

• Productivity: Your team can build more in less time. Innovation is always at your fingertips.
  

• Customer Experience: Moving beyond the IT department, low-code development improves the customer experience because your business is able to respond to and meet the needs of what your customers want.
  

• Cost-Cutting: Solutions without the need for hand-coding mean less IT professionals required, thereby reducing payroll expenses. Additionally, every team member, even outside of the IT department, benefits from software solutions that are readily available to be deployed.
  In the case of an automation solution like SolveXia, your team can automate processes without having to code anything, allowing for data to be transformed into insights in seconds. This creates a business environment in which every decision is backed by data in real-time.

• Risk Management: Low-code solutions mean that you can adjust software solutions and processes as quickly as you want in order to adhere to compliance and regulations, which are constantly changing.

• Adaptability: Need to adjust a process that’s currently running on a low-code platform? Try the drag-and-drop interface to test a new process flow and review if it’s achieving the results that you so desire  before implementing the new process across your organisation. You have nothing to lose.

• Transformative: Digital transformation is changing how businesses operate. With low-code software solutions, you can reduce the complexity that was once required to develop solutions and better assist your team and customers. Now, digital transformation can take place in a fraction of the time, for a fraction of the cost.

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Principles & Features of Low-Code Development

Low-code development shortens the gap between meeting business needs through the delivery of software solutions. Low-code development should maintain these principles and features:

• Model-driven
• Operate in the cloud
• Geared towards innovation
• Allow for business and IT collaboration
• Increase governance and control
• Be built with agility in mind
• Allow for multi-user development
• Allow for interaction

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What are the Best Low-Code Platforms?

There are many low-code solutions in the market. Some are geared towards marketing solutions, whereas others are focused on financial data and processes, for example. The low-code solution you need will likely depend on your business’ size, budget, and goals.

We’ve compiled some of the top names in the market for easy review. If your business is in the market to find the best low-code platform so that you can remain agile, cut costs and boost productivity, then consider these top of the line options:

Appian:

Appian is a low-code solution for enterprise needs. It helps deliver business applications quickly to boost customer engagement and employee productivity. With AI services, drag-and-drop tools and the ability to integrate with other platforms through Amazon AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, the tool easily connects all enterprise data together. Standard licenses cost $90 per month.

Powerapps:

Microsoft PowerApps delivers the ability to design apps with a point-and-click approach. Developes benefit from existing templates. The tool allows for the development of web-based apps that are compatible with Android, Windows and iOS. The main function of this low-code platform is to make it easy to build applications.

Uipath:

Uipath provides users with a drag-and-drop interface to build and automate processes. In StudioX, users can integrate their processes with Microsoft Office, Outlook and Gmail to boost productivity. Located on your desktop, the solution can be shareable between coworkers and provides managers with oversight and governance.

SolveXia:

SolveXia is a human analytical automation software that automates your processes in seconds. The solution integrates all your applications, including legacy systems, through the utilisation of process automation.

Any person on your team can design processes by using the drag-and-drop interface or selecting from predesigned workflows in this low-code or no code environment. SolveXia dramatically reduces the time it takes to complete repetitive business processes, freeing up your team’s time to focus on high-level, value-added and analytical tasks.

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How to Choose the Right Low-Code Development Tool?

Low-code development tools are designed to make the development process simpler and more intuitive. However, they still vary in terms of their respective complexity and use cases. These platforms are utilised by different individuals within your organisation, who all have their own level of technical acumen and understanding.

As such, choosing the right tool will come down to a matter of prioritisation. It’s best to first define business goals and assess how a low-code development tool can be of aid for your business. Once you know where your business has the most to gain with an automation solution, you can begin the selection process based on your tailored list of criteria, including: budget, deployment, customer support, team’s level of programming abilities, etc.

The best low-code tools, like SolveXia, will provide developers with the option to build out complex processes or workflows, while also delivering out-of-the-box solutions to teams with little to no programming knowledge. With automation tools like SolveXia, everyone benefits from the solutions delivered, including individuals in marketing, sales, finance, IT and the C-suite.

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What are the Limitations of Low-Code?

Low-code software may have some limitations. These could include:

Scale:

Automated workflows and small-to-mid scale applications are perfectly suited for low-code platforms. Yet, when it comes to enterprise-grade solutions, low-code development may not meet the mark. The more complex an application becomes, the higher the need for hand-coding. Developers generally must work in an integrated development environment to address all the needs of complex applications.

Effectiveness:

There exists an optimal middle ground in which a developer can code as necessary and a business leader with little coding experience can avoid having to do so in order to still reap the desired benefits of a software solution.

In cases of heavy-code solutions, business leaders may find the solution unusable, whereas in very low-code solutions, developers may want an increased ability to customise. When it comes to real-world applications, businesses need to select a tool that can delicately balance the two needs so that the tool can actually be utilised and meet the needs of everyone involved.

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Wrap Up

Low-code software solutions have made it possible for businesses to maximise productivity and lower costs, while enhancing effectiveness. When it comes to finance functions and process automation, tools like SolveXia deliver a low-code solution that can be ready to work in just minutes.

Low-code solutions can automate processes, perform data analysis and provide customised reporting so that you can make informed decisions and improve operational effectiveness without complexity.