Are you facing the lack of digital agility required to efficiently meet the pace of business transformation? Are you reliant on code-heavy platforms, manual systems and siloed data? You know you may need to transform at this point however it may require a heavy financial burden upon the organization. And that may not be what you want right now!

The events unfolding in 2021 have accelerated ‘digitalism’ like never before! Digital transformation no doubt was well underway, but 2020 & 2021 just made it rapid and fierce. It pushed the accelerator to the fifth gear and here we land up to a whole new space & pace of business. Today every business in every industry realizes that they will fight odds if they do not keep up with the digital age. In 2019 organizations were spending somewhere around $2 trillion on digital initiatives however over the coming ten years, the number is going to accelerate even further up.

So how do we keep up?

Answer: Low-code application development.

But before that, let's understand why we need digital transformation.

Digital transformation while coming with a dynamic cultural and operational shift, mostly is about adopting novel technologies in our everyday business operations. Technological advancement promises to bring about improvement in the overall productivity of the organization. It can enhance the customer experience, improve communication and foster collaboration and drive innovation within an enterprise. With technological adaptation, we are able to circumvent lengthy and elaborate development cycles & rigid legacy systems to quickly work with new business applications that can meet up the immediate requirements. Low-code platforms for development can contribute immensely in this space. However, making such a switch has never been easy for businesses. A technological overhaul or merely deploying a new one can be financially draining. Plus there looms the challenge of a steep learning curve and understanding how a business works. But before we take these steps the first challenge will be to realize how to create transformative solutions and how to deploy them further. Who can take ownership of driving the transformation?

How best can we begin a ‘digital transformation’ journey?

Once we identify the need for digital transformation, the next possible step can be to locate the best approach to introduce it in our organization. Most of the companies either hire specialist agencies or go about bringing in the responsibility to their in-house IT team. However, there is something more than we can explore: driving digital transformation through the use of low-code development platforms.

How low-code speeds up the digital transformation goals?

A new tool; low-code application development has made a grand entry into the scene! Low-code is speedy and that’s what businesses are looking for today. The low-code approach to application development can leverage the platform based visual design elements – like the checkboxes, drop-down menus to efficiently and quickly develop, alter, modify business applications with minimal to no hand-coding requirements.

This very powerful capability is letting enterprises get rid of lengthy development cycles & very rigid legacy systems, to efficiently bring forth new business applications that can meet up with the existing business requirements. The low-code method of development offers a host of benefits however the one that stands out the most is SPEED. This kind of technology can enable rapid application development that can in turn rapidly develop solutions. This holds significance today because there is this new requirement for the businesses of today to ‘meet the moment’. For example, if you want a solution to perform COVID 19 tracing in your office campus or campuses, you may not have time to undergo lengthy development cycles. By the time you reach the solution, the problem may have well passed. In such a scenario application development through low-code platforms comes in immensely handy.

Today enterprises need more agile solutions, something that they are able to use to quickly solve a problem and reach the users before the opportunity passes by. This is where low-code development helps, by giving your organization the opportunity to leverage intuitive tools to build applications that can solve business problems in a jiffy. This ability to quickly develop and deploy tools or applications is a game-changing approach to digital business transformation. It is easy, simple and efficient. In fact, as per Forbes, the low-code movement accelerating digital transformation is shifting gears quickly. The Low-Code Movement Has Shifted Into High Gear -- And You Can, Too

Overcoming the Build vs Buy challenge efficiently with the low-code development model

As we witness digital transformation accelerating by the day and businesses look to solve novel challenges, they may have the question in the mind of build vs buy. Both of these options come with their drawbacks.

Going and buying something can be a lot quicker however it can be way more expensive. The chances are that it may not be the right fit as well. Building something can be time consuming and resource-draining.

With low-code, we hereby have a chance to look at a new alternative. We can also maximize ROI from our existing tech stack. It has the capability to derive more value out of your existing solutions. With the option of low-code development tools, we are able to create power-packed data relationships from internal as well as external sources, being able to centralize that information and provide the users with an ability to take action on it. We may also be able to leverage our existing technological solutions to bring all the data together and have new applications that are able to put the correct information in front of the right set of users & at the right time.

Likewise, we are able to enhance the user experience and in turn, increase user adoption. The more and more people use these customized solutions the more efficient they are likely to be at their work. This can naturally lead to ROI maximization. We can devise customizable, diverse and effective low code apps or solutions for particular problem statements.

We are able to adapt the low-code model along with the core systems

One of the critical components of low-code development is its ability to access and use all the available data and content from your data and content library. Probably the best low-code strategy is the one that is able to integrate your enterprise’s critical repositories with the applications. This way they may complement your systems and maximize the investments. Documents and content maybe some of the most challenging aspects to manage across businesses and industries. Organizations may be able to see the greatest significance when low code development apps are able to be built along with process automation or content management platforms.

The additional areas where low-code development can reap huge dividends can be

  • Finance
  • Vendor Management
  • Purchase
  • Human Resource
  • Asset Management

All the departments that are yet heavily reliant on spreadsheets and access database applications can heavily benefit from low-code tool development innovation. All of this can work together to fuel the digital business strategy and bring about organization-wide empowerment to be able to excel at this new pace of business.

How do we measure the low-code capabilities contributing to the success of the business?

The low-code platform you opt for development of custom tools should be able to accelerate your business demands otherwise what’s the point?

How do we start looking at the success metrics that low-code brings along?

By looking closely at :

  • The speed and accuracy of deployment
  • The increase of efficiency at all levels
  • How satisfied your customers seem.

Another critical aspect that may hint towards success is user adoption. Are the users using the systems and the corresponding business apps? If they are, which means the solution is a success. Whenever the user adoption rises it will do so alongside the business benefits that you may be looking for:

  • Driving optimal utilization of the resources
  • Observing improved profitability
  • Maximizing Return On Investment

By benchmarking how the current development systems perform along with user satisfaction we may be able to measure the impact of the low-code platform in our business transformation efforts.

The ToolJet Advantage

Whether you are beginning your digital transformation journey or if you are in the midst of it already you may consider how low-code platforms like Tooljet can aid the process. Low-code platforms enable the business users, the ones who drive the business ahead to be an active part of the transformation journey. This can make a whole lot of difference in ensuring that we are able to bring about a successful digital transformation together. Tooljet comes with high-impact, robust solutions. This has been possible through our ability to leverage the technical capability along with a deep understanding of what clients are looking for. We strive to come up with efficient and effective solutions that meet the needs of the hour. Our solutions are easier and faster to roll out and manage. Visit our website to know more about us.https://tooljet.com/

Ending Note: Undergoing a digital transformation is a multi-faceted journey and no one tool or approach can make the transformation an overnight reality. An organization’s digital transformation strategy may need a host of novel approaches to look up to. Low-code platforms are able to play a pivotal role in this journey. They come with the ability to reduce the time and cost involved while going through the transformative journey. The resources spent on the traditional development process can be many folds of what low-code has on offer. Low-code development modules also empower the employees and stakeholders to actively participate in the development process regardless of their technical background.