Low-Code for IT: Drive Growth with Speed
The Criticality of Scalability for Modern Businesses
The success or failure of both new and established companies often hinges on their capacity to scale effectively. Organizations strive to expand rapidly, efficiently, and strategically.
Frequently, the responsibility for achieving this scalability falls upon the IT department, adding to their already substantial workload. These teams consistently deliver for their organizations, rapidly adapting the technology infrastructure and addressing a constant stream of requests.
Empowering IT Teams with Strategic Tools
One of the most valuable contributions a Chief Information Officer (CIO) or Chief Technology Officer (CTO) can make is to provide their IT teams with increased capacity. While adding personnel is one potential solution, implementing a low-code integration platform, such as Boomi, can be a highly effective strategic decision.
Even with limited coding expertise, a low-code approach enabled the rapid development and deployment of four customer-focused self-service portals, exceeding the original timeline by a year. This allowed the core team to concentrate on the manual coding required for the revenue-generating platform.
The Rise of Low-Code Technology
Low-code development is gaining significant traction and becoming a key consideration for IT leaders. The market has experienced substantial growth in recent years.
Gartner projected a total market value of $13.8 billion for low-code solutions in 2021, indicating its readiness for broad implementation. Currently, low-code facilitates the optimization and scaling of diverse processes, ranging from integration to artificial intelligence.
Benefits of a Low-Code Approach
This strategy remains underutilized by some organizations, yet it offers a powerful means to accelerate growth, reduce costs, and free up valuable time for IT personnel. Here's how it can be achieved:
- Faster Development: Low-code platforms accelerate the creation of applications and integrations.
- Resource Optimization: Reduce the need for extensive manual coding, saving on development costs.
- Increased Team Capacity: Empower IT teams to focus on strategic, revenue-generating initiatives.
Strategic Use of Low-Code vs. Traditional Coding
Employing low-code development is most advantageous when addressing organizational needs that lack distinctiveness or fail to substantially contribute to core business objectives.
For example, a standard customer portal doesn't represent a unique capability; dedicating extensive coding efforts to its creation would be inefficient.
Although undeniably beneficial for customers, such a feature is unlikely to significantly impact shareholder or investor returns. However, it is crucial for growth. Utilizing low-code for essential, yet non-differentiating functionalities frees your team to concentrate on higher-priority initiatives while simultaneously enabling scalability.
During the planning stages of a customer portal project at HealthBridge, we initially projected several development sprints per portal. However, more critical development tasks consistently relegated it to the bottom of our backlog. A year-long delay for a fundamental feature seemed unacceptable, prompting us to explore alternative solutions.
We were already leveraging Boomi, a low-code integration platform as a service (iPaaS), to accelerate data and application integrations. We discovered its low-code capabilities could also significantly streamline the development of our portals, particularly given the necessity for HIPAA compliance. Boomi Flow’s multicloud architecture also aligned well with our security and scalability requirements.
Through the use of low-code, I successfully delivered four self-service customer portals a full year ahead of the original schedule. These portals are projected to decrease our call center volume by 50%, resulting in cost savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars as membership expands in 2021. Constructing the portal from the ground up wouldn’t have provided substantial value to HealthBridge or its investors, so we minimized developer involvement, allowing them to focus on enhancing our core, proprietary platform – where the true value for our stakeholders and the business resides.
The speed of development facilitated by low-code can sometimes lead to its overuse. However, a thorough evaluation of the project’s value proposition is always necessary. If the project is central to your unique platform or specialized offering, dedicating the necessary time and resources to build it natively is the appropriate course of action. Otherwise, consider low-code as a valuable asset within your IT toolkit.
An exception to this guideline arises when an immediate solution is required. You may have encountered numerous examples of organizations utilizing low-code during the recent pandemic. They were able to create new applications within days, or even hours, to address emerging demands.
In such urgent situations, low-code can function as a temporary solution. For instance, it could be used to generate unique quality assurance data, establish APIs to provide partners with timely and accurate information, or create temporary integrations while dependent components are under development. However, once the immediate crisis has passed, it’s vital to allocate resources to the underlying code to identify the root cause of the issue and implement a permanent fix, rather than maintaining the low-code implementation.
Low-code is not a universal solution. It won’t transform a flawed concept into a success or conceal inadequate execution. Its primary benefit lies in saving both time and financial resources.
Low-code supports a principle I strongly advocate: Fail early, fail often, but always learn from those failures! It enables rapid prototyping of ideas, assessment of business value, and determination of the optimal architectural approach for a permanent solution should you choose to proceed.
Developing a Low-Code Implementation Strategy
Begin your low-code initiatives with modest projects, but ensure they address a significant need. It’s beneficial to pinpoint a major operational challenge – one that would substantially improve workflows – yet isn’t a primary focus for executive-level stakeholders.
My experience stems from the e-commerce sector. Historically, our most proficient developers were assigned to integration tasks, as these systems manage critical functions like financial transactions and order processing. Business continuity relies heavily on the stability of these integrations.
Therefore, HealthBridge presented a clear opportunity to implement low-code solutions. Stakeholders generally prioritize integration functionality over the underlying technical details, and rapid integration is crucial for expanding revenue streams and connecting applications.
A key consideration is determining the appropriate type of low-code platform. The market offers a spectrum of options, with some still demanding considerable development expertise. Boomi, however, provided the adaptability to assign integration projects to developers with less extensive skillsets, delivering immediate value.
While our highly skilled developers concentrated on enhancing our core, custom platform, Boomi was utilized to manage all integration requirements.
The optimal low-code approach involves offloading time-consuming tasks from senior developers to those with more junior experience. With the right platform and a suitable problem, even recent graduates can contribute meaningfully to business objectives.
Gaining Developer Acceptance of Low-Code Platforms
A common initial reaction among developers is skepticism towards low-code development. This inherent resistance can significantly impede the successful implementation of low-code solutions within an organization. It’s a hurdle that requires careful navigation, as experienced by my own team.
Demonstrating tangible results – specifically, improvements in performance and accelerated time to market – is crucial. After showcasing the benefits through integrations and customer portals, my team began to shift their perspective. They now proactively identify scenarios well-suited for low-code, discerning when leveraging existing solutions is more efficient than custom development.
A further consideration is the learning curve associated with each low-code platform. While not immediately intuitive, the time investment required to become proficient is generally minimal when weighed against the overall project timeline.
For example, with the Boomi platform, I was able to begin building integrations within a week. After a month, I had reached a functional level of competence. Within a few months, I was confidently refining those initial integrations without needing to revisit fundamental concepts. This allowed for the creation of live integrations in days or weeks, a process that would have previously demanded months of bespoke coding.
Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are consistently challenged to expedite growth. However, relying solely on extensive coding for every challenge necessitates a reassessment of IT leadership strategies.
Prioritize identifying the optimal tool to deliver the desired business value. As the adage suggests, a predisposition towards one’s familiar tools can limit perspective. Reassure your team that exploring low-code doesn’t threaten their roles, but rather strategically positions it within the broader development ecosystem.
The landscape of low-code and its applications has expanded dramatically in recent years. The availability of mature, robust low-code applications is greater than ever before. Capitalize on these advancements to maximize business outcomes. Reserve custom coding for complex, unique challenges, while utilizing low-code to efficiently address simpler, more common requirements. Both developers and stakeholders will appreciate this balanced approach.