Low-code, no-code isn’t new. What’s on people’s mind in 2022?

For years now, forward-thinking companies have pursued digital transformation in a way that enables everyone in their organization to play a more instrumental role in helping achieve success. In recent years the trend has only accelerated.

Has your experience been that IT and business, more times than not, tend to work in silos?

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The good news is that today this situation is rapidly changing. With the introduction of low-code and no-code (LCNC) solutions, you no longer need to be a techie to help make informed decisions on what tools are best for your role, department, or company. It’s becoming more and more common for folks from IT and business to come together to form inclusive teams and decide together on what tools to deploy and how. In this new relationship model, collaboration yields greater value and shared success.

In 2022, we’re seeing non-technical professionals paying more attention to LCNC tools. It’s hard to get on social media and not stumble across someone who’s learning to use them. For example, some are story telling at mynocodestory.com, while others are getting to work building with Daniel Wroblewski on SAP AppGyver!

So now you may ask yourself, how does this relate to me since I’m not a software engineer? The answer may be that these solutions provide non-technical business users the power to take full proprietorship of their data, software, and processes—without requiring a comp sci degree support from the IT department. When executed correctly, it’s a win-win (and significant time savings) for everyone! (For all of you professional developers, a recent survey shows that LCNC is valuable to you as well, allowing you greater speed (again, a win-win for everyone) and freeing up your time to think more strategically⁽¹⁾ .)

I figured I’d ask some colleagues from different parts of my organization to provide anonymous feedback on what they think their role should or could be in 2022 for LCNC? Here are their answers:

• Developer: “I don’t think that one size fits all. LCNC is becoming part of my toolkit.”
• HR manager: “These platforms help me create apps where I know best. In the past I felt locked out of a business idea because I didn’t know how to code. Now, I can bring my ideas to business reality.”
• Marketing manager: “I think there are more marketing professionals using LCNC than we think. They are becoming easier and easier to use as we work with developers to outline what we need to do our jobs. Many of us do not even realize we are using LCNC tools in the first place as they are so integrated in our day to day jobs.”
• Sales manager: “Transformational competitive advantage with need for running agile business can be driven by LCNC solutions. With these tools sales can support the changing customer demands by changing their business processes.”

Outside Perspectives On Why LCNC Matters

I’ll throw in an outside perspective, too, on why everyone should be paying attention to LCNC opportunities within their organization. According to Forbes, “low-code and no-code options can give your digital transformation effort a series of quick wins that do not break the bank … With low-code/no-code options, you can get started on a project in days instead of weeks. You can go live in weeks instead of months.”⁽²⁾ Then there’s this from Toolbox.tech, “As IT departments turn their focus to digital transformation, security, and governance initiatives to keep up with the rapidly evolving technology landscape, LOB users will no longer have to rely on IT to implement technology. Instead, business teams can leverage low-code technology to fill in the gaps in their skill sets and their technology stacks, to solve business problems faster themselves.”⁽³⁾

So, there you have it! Several unique perspectives from everyday people and reputable publications that validate the growing importance of low code and no code. How do these perspectives stack up with your own?

In 2022, I started my journey to become a LCNC coder by taking Low-Code / No-Code Applications and Automations for Citizen Developers.  As a business analyst at heart, my takeaway has been to rethink how I can get better data, make processes more efficient, and ultimately decide which tools to use to accomplish this.

Please share your story, too! Finally, I we welcome you to share what you are learning in regards to LCNC at  SAP Community Learning Groups to keep your dialogue going!

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Sources

1. Turns out low-code and no-code is valuable to professional developers, too
2. How Low-Code And No-Code Tools Can Help Your Digital Transformation Journey
3. Are Low-Code Solutions Replacing Expensive On-Premise Tools for Software Integration?