Low-code Platforms to Provide Government Coding Relief
- By CDOTrends editors
- April 28, 2019
Citizen app experience remains a top government priority, said the Digital Government Survey. Survey respondents ranked citizen experience top at 46%. Reducing the cost of delivery came in second (42%). Data security (42%), providing better access to data and information (40%), and increasing service delivery speeds (38%) ranked lower.
Yet, creating the right citizen experience needs resources. Many government departments are already battling limited budgets and a lack of staff. The reality is that many are not ready to build the right apps for their citizens.
Low-code platforms can provide the answer. “The survey results clearly show that developers in government agencies need tools and processes to help them create positive user experiences while also keeping a lid on costs,” said Mike Hughes, product evangelist at OutSystems.
The City of Oakland in the U.S. did exactly that. They saved USD 1 million within one year and speeded up the delivery of the apps to the city’s 412,000 citizens.
Another U.S. city, the City of Shawnee, modernized 30 apps using the company's low-code platform. It used only a single developer and delivered the apps to its 66,000 residents within one year.
OutSystems sees a massive demand for low-code platforms in Asia. Governments across the region are accelerating their smart city initiatives.
For example, Singapore unveiled Digital Government Blueprint (DGB) to guide government app development. But finding the right resources will be a problem. Time is another constraint as the Singapore government looks to digitalize 90 to 95% of transactions by 2023.
Low-code platforms can offer the budget-friendly rapid application development environments they need.
“A low-code approach to application development accomplishes both goals. It allows teams with limited resources to rapidly meet the needs of their users while providing a consistently high-quality, secure user experience,” said Hughes.