Low-Code: your company's hidden talent

This article is part of the annual cycle of reflection on technology, business, and sustainability at the Nova SBE Digital Experience Lab, in the month dedicated to Low-Code, in which we are focusing on the impact that Low-Code can have on business, society, and our future. Join us on the 23rd to reflect on the role that citizen developers can play in companies' digital transformation processes.

 It is not every day that an academic thesis results in a fully functioning mobile application in less than 100 days. Therefore, whenever I tell people about my thesis, I always get questions such as “But how?”, “An app? Does it work?”, “Wait? You can code?” - no, I can’t. But I don’t need to. Not anymore. 

Knowing that Nova SBE has the Low-Code Field Lab in its offering, it became clear to me that this is where I needed to develop my thesis. I have been working with No-Code solutions for the last few years and still do. I have built my own projects with No-Code solutions and as part of VisualMakers, a company I worked for. I regularly give workshops to teach, but mostly to communicate to everyone the value of No- & Low-Code solutions.

Once you discover what you can do without knowing how to program, it’s like finally getting your driver's license. From that day on, you can do everything on your own. It’s a kind of freedom. That’s why everyone should discover the hidden talent that you maybe didn’t know your company has: Low-Code. 

Low-Code development is the practice of building applications with minimal use of coding. To do so, users work within a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows them to drag-and-drop components, connect data sources, and design workflows and user interfaces. Low-code development platforms are designed to reduce the amount of coding needed to create an application, thus allowing users to create applications faster and with fewer resources.

The implementation of Low-Code into any company - as long as it is done correctly - brings many benefits. My top three are:

1. Boosting Efficiency: Low-Code platforms are designed to reduce friction and time spent when building applications or features within them. If you need less time to build a new application, you can test it faster. Thanks to the reduced complexity and improved bug-fixing, it will also allow you to free up developers‘ capacities. Thereby, you can get more done with fewer people in less time.

2. Reduced Development Costs: Time is money. By allowing for faster testing, Low-Code helps reduce the financial risk attached to experiments. Furthermore, the same development team can build more without working more. This helps save costs on hiring more developers. 

3. Improved Collaboration: One of the great things about Low-Code is that it does not only include developers. Thanks to its simplicity, other people within the company can understand it, collaborate through it and even build things with it. It allows developers and non-developers to speak the same language.

Of course - it doesn't end there. Low-Code allows you to adapt if there are new requirements and changing and flexible environments, helps you scale your applications, reduces legacy code maintenance, and much more.

If Low-Code allowed us to build a complex mobile application in less than 100 days, imagine what it could allow you to achieve with your company.