What is the purpose of Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms?

Updated on :September 30, 2023
By :Jemimah Rodriguez

Software programmers often look at developing applications quickly and reducing the chances of bugs sprouting up from nowhere in their completed projects. Inspite of consistent technological advancements, coding was a challenge till a few years back. Traditional software development was limited to developers with excellent technical and programming skills. The challenge was to develop 100% bug-free software applications. Interestingly, the advent of enterprise low-code applications has made application development so easy and simple. It has helped in building software applications quickly and effortlessly.

Gartner predicts that by 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity.

Features of Low-Code App Development Platforms

Low-code app development platforms provide a graphical user interface-based programming environment that can help in creating software applications without having to code them manually. The concept behind the low-code application platform is to help people collaborate, integrate databases and systems into a single workflow, and build applications with beautiful UIs and user-friendly functionality in less time with minimal coding. Instead of coding manually, the software developers can now use low-code application platforms for creating software applications through visual user interfaces. To elaborate further, let's look at some of the most prominent features of enterprise low-code application platforms.

AI-Assisted Development

AI-enabled low-code application platforms help the developers in learning how to build apps on a real-time basis as it provides automated suggestions based on the complexity and requirements of the entire project. With real-time suggestions popping up while building the app, the developers get the chance to notice and mitigate the errors before they impact the entire development process.

Visual Modelling

The visual interface provided by enterprise low-code application platforms includes built-in components that represent the information in a specific form that non-technical users easily understand. The visual modelling feature plays a significant role in equipping citizen developers with the power to develop apps with speed irrespective of their technical know-how and training.

Drag-and-Drop

Drag-and-drop functionality is one of the essential features of a low-code application platform. It makes it quite convenient for the users to create applications as per the decided requirements in a fraction of the time. The low-code application platform interface with the drag-and-drop feature allows users to drag and drop multiple components instead of building on their own. Thus, it is highly beneficial to even professional developers.

Collaborative Development

Built-in collaborative features like synchronization and version control allow the entire team to stay updated with the latest developments in the applications and processes. The application details like client requirements, tasks, feedback, revisions, etc., are at the developers' fingertips. Keeping everyone in the loop helps develop a healthy work environment and eliminate the bugs in the application outcomes.

Data Aggregation & Publishing

The low-code application platforms with data aggregation & publishing features allow you to unify and orchestrate all your app data without manually writing the code. It also helps in launching the finished app on multiple platforms with a single click. This helps eliminate the technical hurdles and technical dependency and makes it easier for even novice developers to have control over their data and make their applications live with speed.

Integration Management

The enterprise-level low-code platforms include a repository of pre-built applications and solutions that can be integrated to complete the app development process quickly and seamlessly. Efficient integration management allows generating all the necessary code, creating authentication flow, encoding and parsing for building scalable applications. Also, you can easily augment the existing integrations with the new ones depending on your app requirements.

Performance Monitoring

Performance monitoring is an out-of-the-box feature included in most of the low-code application platforms that allow analyzing the performance of the application development and having visibility over the journey of the users throughout the app development lifecycle. Monitoring the performance on a real-time basis helps eliminate bugs in the app that become difficult to resolve in the long run.

The above features manifest the abilities of enterprise low-code application platforms that promise to deliver a sound and efficient software development process. To elaborate further, let's have a look at some of the most prominent benefits of using enterprise low-code application platforms.

Benefits of Using Low-Code Application Platforms

With these benefits of using low-code application platforms, organizations are better equipped to deliver software applications quickly and efficiently to respond to the ever-changing project requirements. Besides these benefits, there are some unrealistic expectations, as given below, that users need to consider while using low-code application platforms.

Low-Code Application Platforms-Expectations-Reality

Bridging the gap between these unrealistic expectations and realities can definitely help you deliver better results using low-code application platforms. Though every company follows a unique process while planning, building, and deploying a software application, the low-code application platform can be the key success factor in engaging employees and working towards a common goal. 

Before adopting a low-code application platform, it is also essential to understand how it is different from traditional coding and the right scenarios of using these coding methods.

Difference Between Low Code Development and Traditional Coding

Agility

Low-Code - With the help of drag and drop and visual modelling features, and the availability of readymade templates in low-code applications, it becomes possible for developers to build the apps quickly and save time.

Traditional Coding - In traditional development, the developers are required to code manually from scratch. Also, it requires a lot of learning how to operate different programming languages throughout the development process, making it less agile.

Cost

Low-Code - Applying low-code development platforms takes less time to develop apps, and it doesn't require paying hefty salaries to highly skilled developers resulting in cost savings.

Traditional Coding - Traditional development requires investing in hiring skilled developers, and thus the cost of developing an app becomes high in this case. Although the cost may vary based on project requirements, it is still significantly higher compared to low-code development.

Quality

Low-Code - Enterprise low-code development platforms are well-known to produce bug-free apps because of their AI-assisted development feature providing suggestions at every stage of development. This helps developers to improve the quality of their applications and deliver user-friendly apps.

Traditional Coding - The instances of bugs in finished applications increase in the case of manual coding. Sometimes these bugs go unnoticeable during its testing phase, too, and thus, the users and clients get dissatisfied, accelerating rework, resulting in waste of time and money.

Skills

Low-Code - The low-code application platforms come with features like visual interface, templates, drag-and-drop, etc., that make it easy for even non-technical developers to develop applications without much hassle.

Traditional Coding - The traditional app development approach requires know-how of various programming languages, database structures, tools and functions. To be able to develop a quality app using traditional coding, the programmers need to be equipped with knowledge and experience of working in different programming languages.

Flexibility

Low-Code - The low-code applications have predefined functionalities and standard templates that make them less flexible for developing customized solutions. In case some project requirements arise after the development process has started, the low-code application platforms have restrictions in accepting those custom enhancement requests.

Traditional Coding - In the case of traditional coding, skilled developers equipped with the right knowledge and skills can incorporate out-of-the-box ideas during any stage of the project development lifecycle. The traditional coding method provides the flexibility of developing customized applications.

When to Use Low-Code Application Platforms?

Quick App Development

The low-code application becomes a great alternative to traditional coding when rapid app development is required within a business, and the technical staff is too busy to take up the urgent tasks. The employees working in marketing, HR, and other departments can develop the apps and make changes to those applications quickly without any technical support and know-how using low-code application platforms.

Implementing Innovative Ideas

Business users cultivate innovative ideas but lack the technical expertise to transform those ideas into reality. Low-code application platforms can be of great use enabling business users to develop applications independently with little or no technical knowledge. 

Low-Budget App Development

Not all app development projects are worth investing a considerable amount. Many times, there are apps required to be used for internal department purposes. Using traditional coding for developing such applications can be a waste of time and money. In that case, using a low-code development platform can be a smart move.

When to Use Traditional Coding?

Unstructured Process

Using low-code application platforms can become disastrous if there are no predefined tasks and goals of the project. Some project plans require open-ended thinking. Low-code works best for structured and defined plans. The projects without a predetermined structure can be built using traditional coding techniques only and thus cannot be risked using low-code solutions in this scenario.

High-Level Customization

Traditional coding is best suited for app development projects that require high-level customization. Low-code platforms with limited templates and functionality cannot cope with large-scale development projects' huge and demanding requirements. The companies need to hire highly skilled programmers with programming knowledge in this situation.

After going through the difference between the traditional and low-code development methodologies, and the right scenarios of their usage, it is clear that low-code development is far more superior to traditional development and can provide quality applications at fast turnaround times. However, we also need to accept that low-code development cannot completely replace the customization ability of traditional coding. 

What Can You Build Using Low-Code Application Platforms?

By using low-code application platforms, businesses can build almost any type of application. Some of the frequently used applications built using low-code application platforms are for improving -

  • Business Operations
  • Customer Engagement
  • Process Automation
  • Legacy Modernization
  • Employee Engagement
  • Workplace Automation

Ultimately, when it comes to developing apps using low-code application platforms, it becomes vital to consider the solutions that promise to deliver user-friendly functionality, convenience, and security, all under the same roof. Below are some popular names in this sector.

Leading Players in Low-Code Application Platforms

These leading players in enterprise low-code application platforms have enabled businesses with the potential to customize and improve applications even if they lack technical expertise and resources. The speed and agility in developing high-quality applications make low-code application platforms a preferred choice among businesses worldwide. 

As per a recent report, the global low-code market revenue generated was almost 13 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, which is expected to reach approximately 65 billion U.S. dollars in 2027 at a CAGR of 26.1% over this period.

Low-Code Application Platform Statistics
(Source: Statista)

What is the Driving Force Behind the Growth of Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms?

The growth in the usage of low-code application platforms is driven by a shortage of technically skilled developers, an attempt to empower non-technical experts, and a desire to improve internal business efficiency. In this digital transformation era, the demand for frequent customization in software development is quite common, and IT departments have to cope with the same. The only solution to this problem is to rely on a quick development process with the help of enterprise low-code development platforms. As the enterprise low-code application platforms are developed within a fraction of the time, it also becomes easy to promote the same and achieve even the difficult-to-achieve business objectives and targets.

Will App Development Move From Professional Developers To Citizen Developers?

With continuously evolving consumer demands, businesses are under pressure to deliver quality products and services at high speed. This requires automating processes and increasing operational efficiency across the organizations. The enterprise low-code platforms allow organizations to automate software development processes, enabling even the non-technical employees and business users to create well-featured and complex applications. 

The organizations that deliver quality products and services in less time have an excellent advantage over their competitors. These digitally transformed workplaces can drive higher productivity and profitability within the organization and positively impact the business, bringing in technological and cultural change. Excellent communication, effective collaboration, and seamless automation of business processes are some aspects behind the purpose of the existence and continuous growth of low-code development platforms

Low-code, no-code app development platforms allow ordinary citizens to prototype things from a business perspective, but to make it go in reality into the production environment, you have to have a core application through a proper architecture principle structurally. Thus, app development can definitely move from professional to citizen developers, provided that they are equipped with the right low-code application platforms that help them seamlessly collaborate and build apps without writing code from scratch.

Jemimah Rodriguez
Jemimah Rodriguez

Jemimah Rodriguez is a content marketing specialist having 8+ years of experience in content writing, SEO, and social media optimization. At present, she is working with GoodFirms – a reliable platform helping businesses in selecting right Software Companies & Products. For further information, you can get in touch with her on [email protected]

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