{"id":10447,"date":"2016-08-16T10:55:30","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T15:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/?p=10447"},"modified":"2016-08-15T16:23:41","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T21:23:41","slug":"5-huge-benefits-of-low-code-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/5-huge-benefits-of-low-code-development\/","title":{"rendered":"5 huge benefits of low-code development"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Education\"Summary: For the modern IT department, speed is the name of the game. The business demands new solutions faster than ever. The problem is, IT is already overworked. How can they quickly deliver the applications the business needs, without expanding their team? Today, we explore the concept of low-code development, and explain how it helps businesses solve this problem (and more). <\/em><\/span>
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photo credit: ClkerFreeVectorImages<\/a> via pixabay<\/a> cc<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

What are the biggest application development challenges you face in your business? While the answers will vary based on your business, I find that organizations these days increasingly face two common challenges: <\/p>\n

The need for speed<\/strong>: As technology plays an increasingly important part of the business, speed becomes essential. The business demands new solutions faster than ever. The problem is, IT departments are bogged down with development requests–creating a development bottleneck.<\/p>\n

The talent gap<\/strong>: As new technologies emerge, the talent gap widens. Business leaders demand new technologies, but the IT department doesn\u2019t have the skills to meet those demands. To make matters worse, the business can\u2019t afford to bring on new talent.<\/p>\n

These challenges lead to IT departments that can\u2019t meet business demands. What happens? When IT can\u2019t meet their needs, the business starts seeking out their own solutions. This problem–known as \u2018Shadow IT<\/span><\/a>\u2019–is growing rapidly in companies across the globe. <\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the answer to these two challenges? How can your business address the speed and talent issues, while avoiding Shadow IT?<\/p>\n

Today, let\u2019s focus on an increasingly popular solution known as \u201clow code development.\u201d What is it? As defined by Forrester Research, \u201cA low-code platform is one that enables fast application development and delivery with a minimum of hand coding.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a growing trend, more businesses are adopting low code platforms as a way to accelerate development, and offload some development tasks to business users. Forrester calls the Low Code market a \u201chigh growth\u201d area, and predicts it will grow to over $10 Billion in 2019.<\/p>\n

Why are low code platforms growing so quickly, and how can they help you? Today, we\u2019ll uncover a few ways that low code software is helping other businesses, and the benefits it offers your company.<\/p>\n

1. Development Speed <\/h3>\n
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Speed is the biggest (and most obvious) benefit of the low-code approach. With a low-code platform, developers can create new applications in hours or days, rather than weeks or months. <\/p>\n

Also, simple development tasks (like reporting) can be pushed off to the business. Rather than waiting around on IT to develop their reports, business users can create them on their own.<\/p>\n

Forrester Research sums up the benefits nicely, in their report on low-code platforms<\/span><\/a>: \u201cHand-coding is too slow to develop and deliver many of the applications that companies use to win, serve, and retain customers. Some firms are turning to new, “low-code” application platforms that accelerate app delivery by dramatically reducing the amount of hand-coding required. Faster delivery is the primary benefit of these application platforms; they also help firms respond more quickly to customer feedback after initial software releases and provision mobile and multichannel apps.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

2. Improves IT productivity (without expanding the team)<\/h3>\n

Generally speaking, development projects go through the IT department. However, they also handle reporting, hardware, the company network, and more. <\/p>\n

As a result, they\u2019re stuck in a no-win situation: They can\u2019t dedicate all of their resources to completing development projects, and the business can\u2019t afford to hire new staff.<\/p>\n

How do low-code development tools help? While they do improve development speed (as mentioned above), they also help IT departments offload some development projects to the business. They let the business users create basic applications without coding.<\/p>\n

The result<\/strong>: Taking the small development projects off of their plate will create hours (or days) of time every week. This frees up the IT department to focus on more mission-critical tasks. <\/p>\n

3. Fights Shadow IT<\/h3>\n
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As mentioned above, Shadow IT is a growing problem. When business users don\u2019t get the solutions they need from the IT department, they search for their own solutions. With the rise of easily available SaaS options, these solutions aren\u2019t hard to find.<\/p>\n

How can IT give the users the solutions they need without compromising security?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where low-code development platforms come into play. They give users the ability to create their own solutions, while letting IT control the data and user access.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cLow-code development tools have finally reached a point where the average business user can create their own applications without bothering IT,\u201d explains Tyler Wassell, Software Development Manager at mrc<\/span><\/a>. \u201cThis trend is set to explode in the coming years, as it gives both parties what they want. Business users get the solutions they need, and the IT department doesn\u2019t need to worry about users going behind their backs and licensing third party solutions.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

4. Keeps you current with new trends<\/h3>\n

Application development has evolved dramatically over the past few years. New languages and frameworks have emerged. Mobile devices have fundamentally changed application development. The modern developer must have a variety of skills–and stay ahead of the ever-changing tech trends.<\/p>\n

The problem: This is no easy task. In many cases, the development team is already overworked. They have more projects than they can handle, and don\u2019t have time to keep current with the latest trends. They\u2019re barely keeping their head above water as it is.<\/p>\n

Low-code development platforms offer a simple solution. In many cases, they can bridge this skills gap–giving developers modern capabilities. As explained below, mobile is a great example. Low code tools let developers build for all platforms, without the need to learn about mobile development.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe expertise to stay current and compatible with the latest browsers and mobile operating systems can be daunting,\u201d says Rachel Batish, co-founder and CRO of Zuznow<\/span><\/a>. \u201cTo ensure a consistent user experience, organizations can leverage low\/no-code platforms to augment existing development resources.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

5. Reduces project failure<\/h3>\n
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photo credit: geralt<\/a> via pixabay<\/a> cc<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the past, application development projects took a \u201cwaterfall\u201d approach. Developers gathered requirements from the users, and then built the entire application to fit those requirements.<\/p>\n

The problems with this method: Speed and communication. The project often took weeks or months to complete. During that time, the there was little or no communication between developers and users.<\/p>\n

What happened? The finished application didn\u2019t always meet the user\u2019s requirements or expectations. Why? Maybe the users didn\u2019t clearly communicate their requirements. Or, maybe the developers misunderstood the user\u2019s goals. <\/p>\n

Low-code tools help avoid these problems, as they help developers create applications (or prototypes of applications) much faster. As explained below, a developer can quickly mock up an application and get user feedback before dedicating weeks of time to development.<\/p>\n

\n“Low-code development environments are well suited to building the Graphical User Interface (UI) of an application through a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor where you can drag-and-drop UI element onto a screen,\u201d says Nic Grange, CTO of Retriever Communications<\/span><\/a>. \u201cThe importance of using such a tool is that you can get early and regular feedback from end users. They also usually allow you to quickly iterate without having to build the entire application.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Summary<\/h3>\n

These are just 5 benefits of low code development platforms, but the list could certainly be longer. If you would like to add anything to this list, I\u2019d love to hear it. Feel free to share in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: For the modern IT department, speed is the name of the game. The business demands new solutions faster than ever. The problem is, IT is already overworked. How can they quickly deliver the applications the business needs, without expanding their team? Today, we explore the concept of low-code development, and explain how it helps …<\/p>\n

5 huge benefits of low-code development<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","slim_seo":{"title":"5 huge benefits of low-code development - mrc's Cup of Joe Blog","description":"Summary: For the modern IT department, speed is the name of the game. The business demands new solutions faster than ever. The problem is, IT is already overwor"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-10447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-web-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10447"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10456,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10447\/revisions\/10456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}