Page 10 - EngineerIT March 2022

ICT LOW-CODE

Five ways low-code development

can help small businesses

By Hyther Nizam, President - MEA, Zoho Corp.

o-code and low-code software It’s easy to use - for everyone
development platforms are gaining Low-code platforms allow business and IT
Npopularity in recent times – especially functions to work together to meet organisational
among SMBs and SMEs – for their dynamic needs. The platforms utilise visual interfaces
ability to quickly meet customisation through flexible drag and drop features,
and automation needs within limited making them user-friendly and accessible to
budgets. According to Gartner low-code professionals of varying proficiency levels.
platforms will account for more than 65
percent of application development by 2024. Works for both simple and comprehensive
processes
What is low-code development? Low-code is suitable for both simple and Hyther Nizam
Designing and building web and mobile complex solutions. The development
applications with little or no coding is called low- platforms support not only once-off projects a small code base and steadily progress at
code development. Visual builders, intelligible and ad-hoc needs, but also major strategic your own speed. The rapid roll-out of apps is
code, snippets and templates are all included to programs like ERPs that integrate with a made possible by a comprehensive ecosystem
make business apps quickly and easily. company’s existing processes. of intuitive visual builders, ready-to-use code
Because of the ease of use of low-code, snippets, form and report templates and built-
they can function as a platform for small and The options are unlimited in connectors.
medium businesses to automate and run Companies can leverage low-code platforms to
their entire back-office operations. Anyone build applications that cover a range of uses. Grow at your own pace
from a project manager to an IT specialist They can do everything from modernising In the past year, SMBs and SMEs have learned
can create and deploy cross-platform apps and automating processes, constructing the importance of digitisation as well as being
for multiple functions like sales, marketing, process automation solutions, business able to pivot and adapt as needed. Adding
finance, HR, internal administration, employee process management applications and more. low-code development platforms to their long-
collaboration, etc. Further, low-code platforms Additionally, the flexibility of the low-code term digital toolkit will provide businesses the
can even help set up front-end applications platforms allows business teams to stay ahead customisation, flexibility and resilience needed
such as customer portal apps for users to log in of changing market needs by modifying live to thrive in unpredictable futures.
and get access to information. applications and applying changes quickly. Small businesses can make low-code a
formal, self-sustaining function, but doing
Benefits for using low-code Low-code facilitates growth that means crafting a vision, setting clear
are as follows: Low-code offers scalability, enabling goals, and putting a plan in place to execute
businesses to adjust their processes, add new methodically. Even if businesses start small,
It’s cost-efficient functionality and remove existing ones as they over time those micro apps and apps built on
Low-code platforms are naturally designed grow and become more complex, all without the platform grow in scope and complexity
for business users. This allows South African having to migrate from one solution to and end up becoming a sustainable growth
businesses to empower functional teams another. This allows you to begin by managing engine for business. n
and users to build applications quickly, which
without low-code can sometimes take months No-code development allows non-technical people to leverage visual editors with drag-and-
or years to develop. Moreover, low-code
projects require minimum programming drop tools to build applications in real-time. No-code development removes the layer of
abstraction between the code underlying the app and the user interface. In this way, it allows
expertise and because most platforms are founders to build their own software solutions visually and in an environment reminiscent of
cloud-based, organisations save money on PhotoShop. Simply put: if you can imagine it visually, you can create it. Low-code is similar to
overhead costs. Businesses that adopt low- no-code, but with slightly less automation and slightly more freedom of design, as explained
code also save money that would otherwise be
spent on hiring and training app developers. in the article. n

EngineerIT | March 2022 | 8