Low-Code, High Impact: Increase Agility With Innovation

Automation has been keenly discussed over the past few decades. Promising an array of impressive benefits, it is capable of reducing human error, increasing productivity and efficiency, as well as improving customer support. No surprise then, that more organizations are looking to harness automation. Gartner’s 2024 Digital Worker Survey, for instance, finds that 73% of digital workers streamline tasks by utilizing basic automation tools at least sometimes.

However, end-to-end process automation is more complex. Just deploying automation tools won't guarantee seamlessness across systems, devices, and people. Yet, many organizations use a variety of tools to manage processes, gather data, track project statuses, and transfer data across the organization. In short, manual processes are being automated without first being optimized. This ultimately results in apps with complex integration requirements, leading to poor user experience.

Indeed, while 90% of tech leaders in Southeast Asia see improving app development as key to successful digital transformation, up to 33% noted that it takes more than six months to create apps, according to Kissflow research. That is a consequence of inadequate support platforms.

Kissflow Citizen Development Report 2024 revealed that the chief digital officers (CDOs) are usually the ones leading citizen development programs (59%) as they excel in bridging departments and driving cross-functional collaboration. They support the seamless adoption and integration of citizen-developed solutions throughout the organization, laying the groundwork for more cohesive and efficient processes.

Boosting process orchestration

Apart from having the expertise and forward-looking planning of chief digital officers or organizational leaders, combating inefficient platform workflows rests on process orchestration, which involves unifying individual tasks to create end-to-end processes that will allow employees within the organization to manage the entire process lifecycle from a single dashboard.

Business process orchestration connects workflows, technologies, and people in end-to-end automation. It automates and monitors workflows to ensure that processes run as smoothly as possible. This can be difficult to do, however, without the right talent, which is where low-code/no-code platforms and citizen developers can help.

Low-code platforms boost an organization’s ability to accelerate digital transformation by enabling non-technical users to reimagine and digitize business processes. At the same time, a powerful low-code platform helps teams build an orchestration layer that unifies data from different systems.

In essence, these platforms allow organizations to develop and deploy complex software solutions quickly. Teams can then build simple workflow processes that eliminate the need to update various systems manually, integrate multiple functions to enable data transmission and retrieval in real time, and decrease data silos for a more seamless user experience. This can then lead to:

• Increased agility and responsiveness: Low-code process orchestration offers better responsiveness and agility. It empowers organizations to efficiently automate and scale operations across the enterprise from HR to customer support, inventory management, sales, and more.
• Quicker implementation and deployment: Since low-code platforms do not require expert-level coding skills, it boosts an IT team’s ability to develop and deploy software that serves their needs quicker and more efficiently. The time taken from idea to implementation is significantly shortened.
• Reduced reliance on IT teams: Similarly, the low-skill requirement of low-code platforms reduces reliance on IT teams across the organizations. Different departments can develop their software tailored to their specific needs while freeing up IT technicians to focus on more high-value tasks.
• Enhanced collaboration across departments: With low-code process automation, teams across the enterprise will be able to better collaborate, creating space for more innovation. Process orchestration centralizes communication for everyone in the organization to be able to work together to achieve common business goals and targets.
• Cost-efficient and resource optimization: A key benefit of low-code process orchestration is the optimization of resource usage. After all, imagine the costs that are saved when users themselves can build the software that they need without having to go through numerous rounds of rework with a software development team.

Leveraging the power of AI

Powerful as they are on their own, low-code platforms are taken to greater heights when integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. AI-enhanced low-code platforms further simplify and automate the application creation process, making them even more accessible. Users can choose between visual elements or natural language processing when developing apps and leverage the AI media generators to create custom assets for the app, such as images and text. These platforms also come with chatbot assistants that guide users throughout the process, helping accelerate the development.

The future of a fully digital operation powered by AI and efficient software development is achievable. Low-code platforms are not just a trend, they are the key to revolutionizing operations, driving automation and delivering efficient solutions. Businesses that want to be more agile and secure long-term success can do so by leveraging low-code platforms in their digital transformation journey.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CDOTrends. Image credit: iStockphoto/Nuthawut Somsuk