In recent years, there has been a revolution in low-code app development. Low-code solutions allow organizations the power to leverage the IT teams they already have and utilize their current employees (who might not have any experience with coding) to adapt to using coding frameworks with relative ease.
The emergence of COVID-19 has made the use of low-code solutions even more widely utilized because it’s a cheaper form of coding and many businesses are looking to reduce their overhead.
COVID-19 model changes
While low-code solutions have actually been in use for decades, the recent widespread adoption of the framework really boils down to timing. Over the last decade, the advances to web browser capabilities have given way to organizations foregoing traditional apps in favor of web apps. Throw COVID-19 into the mix and organizations have begun to change the way they approach app development altogether in order to slim down their budgets.
According to an interview with the CEO of Skuid, a low-code and no-code solution company, Ken McElrath, “‘The crisis has put a bright spotlight on weaknesses that companies have let slide for some time. The pressure is on to not only fix what is broken, but to develop entirely new ways of doing business. And we don’t have months or millions of dollars to get it done.’”
Keeping costs down by using current teams and strategies
While focusing on the low-cost advantages of utilizing low-code solutions is important, this isn’t the only benefit to make the switch. Additionally, utilizing low-code solutions can also improve a business’ efficiency as, in some instances, low-coding can decrease the amount of time needed to develop applications by up to 90 percent.
Experts are also seeing a rise in companies rethinking the traditional workflows that go into app development, which has resulted in a revolution of sorts for application development. This revolution could have lasting impacts on the way recruiters bring on new employees.
Edgar Wharton, a product manager at LANSA, suggests that as businesses gain the ability to provide cheaper ways for workers to develop the same product, the need to spend exuberant amounts for a JavaScript developer (which could run $100,000 a year), for example, is likely to decrease. This fact alone would lead to a change in the way businesses hire employees.
At the same time, COVID-19 has created increased employment opportunities in many industries as well as portals through which clients and individuals are able to communicate within an organization. Wharton feels that this development will spread past simply communication within organizations and into everyday life.
Low-code development going forward
Given that we have no magic 8 balls to tell us when many of these organizations will be able to cease remote operations, the forefront of low-code solution implementation may lie with the organizations and individuals who will bear the brunt of newly emerging logistical challenges.
Additionally, we don’t really know the toll that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on the economies and communities around the world. Nor do we know what the increasing use of low-code applications will do to workflows. Only time will tell.