Low-Code / No-Code Applications

Low-Code / No-Code Applications - What is this?

The low-code and no code applications is becoming increasingly popular in today’s marketplace. This programming technique can be used to dramatically cut down on development time, which makes it an attractive option for many companies who want their applications up quickly without having to invest heavily into custom coding from scratch every single time they need a new feature or upgrade.

More and more people are thinking about their professional career and business use cases, in relation to these platforms. This article explains what these platforms are, and the difference between them. In this post, you will also learn what are the advantages and disadvantages of using No-Code Low-Code platforms, and we will answer the most frequently asked questions:

  • Does No-Code or Low-Code foreshadow the end of Full-Code?
  • Is Low Code worth learning? What are the development paths?
  • How much you can earn in Low-Code positions?

Low-Code / No-Code Applications - Details

What is No-Code?

No-code development platforms [No-Code] are IT platforms that allow developers and non-developers to build applications, automation, bots, and reports using graphical user interfaces and configuration, instead of traditional computer programming. No-code are closely related to the Low-code development platforms [Low-Code] as they both aim to speed up the application development process. However, unlike low-code, no-code doesn’t require you to write any code at all. Everything is based on the point-and-click and drag-and-drop principle. The configuration panels operate on the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) principle. In addition, ready-made templates are often used when creating. No-Code platforms can often be extended with their own functionalities, but it always requires Full-Code programming (e.g. in JavaScript, PHP or C#) Popular examples of No-Code platforms are WordPress, AppSheet, SharePoint Online and Airtable.

What is Low-Code?

Low-Code development platforms (Low-Code) are IT platforms for developers and non-developers. In many aspects (purpose, job characteristics) they are very similar to No-Code platforms. However, what makes them different is having the ability to use a simple programming language (often a functional language similar to that used in Excel) to build more advanced operations. Although this language requires some effort to learn, it is still incomparably faster and easier than learning Full-Code (such as JavaScript, PHP or C#). The very low-code approach reduces the workload needed to build a solution, enabling the rapid delivery of business applications, automation, reports or bots. Low-Code platforms are often used in business, where it is required to build solutions tailored to the specificity of the company, and you want to save time and do not want to involve the development team and bear the associated costs. Popular examples of Low-Code platforms are Microsoft Power Apps and Mendix.

Remember: No-Code and Low-Code platforms do not describe a specific solution or tool. It is rather an approach of the way the solution is built and the platform on which it is built. In other words, you’ll be able to find No-Code and Low-Code tools from Microsoft, Google, and loads of third-party vendors.

Low-Code & No-Code platforms

Low-Code platforms allow you to write simple and fast software that will run on any device. They’re great for large organizations because they require less training, which can save time when launching new products or services quickly in an ever changing industry like technology! Part of Power Platform and M365 Part of Google Workspace To understand the situation of No-Code and Low-Code platforms on the market and their future, it is necessary to understand where they came from and why?

Problems of the 21st century

According to the World Economic Forum, by 2030, approximately 1 billion people will require a change of industry. It is also said that if today a person changes industries on average 2-3 times in their working life (every 20-30 years), in 2050 it may be even 10-15 times (every 3-5 years). This is noticed by the education market, which is incredibly growing, is valued at ~ USD 90 billion and will be worth USD 2.3 trillion (!) In 2028. According to 1 by 2030, approximately 1 billion people will require a change of industry. It is also said that if today a person changes industries on average 2-3 times in their working life (every 20-30 years), in 2050 it may be even 10-15 times (every 3-5 years). This is noticed by the education market, which is incredibly growing, is valued at ~ USD 90 billion and will be worth 2. At present, the IT industry enjoys the greatest interest – IT faculties are the most crowded, numerous educational companies and bootcamps appear. And so there is still a shortage of specialists and this number is not decreasing. It was estimated that in 2020 there will be a shortage of 500,000-600,000 programmers on the European market (sourcesource). Today, there is talk of a lack of over 1 million specialists (no current research). Where does such a demand for IT industries come from? Mainly due to the acceleration of market changes and the resulting necessary changes in the business. Today, in order to remain competitive, it is necessary to make faster changes in the functioning of the enterprise’s operations. Some industry examples:

Manufacturing industry

According to a study published in the Harvard Business Review 3, less than 25% of frontline workers think they can use the right technology at work. In other words, more than 75% of employees must use outdated, complex and distributed technology solutions.

  • In addition, as many as 62% of manufacturers still use a pen and paper to track some key production processes (source).
  • Less than 50% of manufacturers now have intelligent solutions at the operational level (source).
  • Only 13% of manufacturing organizations have a complete overview of activities at all levels of the supply chain (source).

Retail industry

  • Almost 30% of store employees cannot check the store’s inventory in real time (source).
  • Over 45% of store employees do not have quick access to customer data (source).
  • Almost 50% of employees sometimes know less about products than customers (source).

Popular challenges to solve

So it seems that, regardless of the industry, there are many areas for improvement. In addition, some challenges repeat themselves. Examples of this will include:

  • Too many manual processes
  • Difficult for the operational department to assign tasks and track if they are completed
  • Constantly updating content requires good tool support and notification of people using this information
  • Constantly growing needs for data security, e.g. by limiting users’ access to certain information
  • Little integration between different systems and processes

Solving problems….

We learned about the issues from the previous section. So how do you fix these types of problems? Mostly through:

  1. Strengthening the culture of the organization and community: The entire organization should be aware of what is happening in the company, what changes are coming, where to find company news, and where is the knowledge base. Individual areas of the organizational hierarchy should have dedicated information channels – departments, departments or business units. A similar approach should apply to areas outside the organizational hierarchy but relating to specific areas: programmers of individual languages or traders of individual product groups should have their own information exchange space.
  2. Introducing areas dedicated to teamwork: Each employee works in more than one team. This means that the context of teamwork should be clearly separated between teams or projects.
  3. Improving employee training: The number of tools available for immediate use by an employee is constantly increasing. For this reason, it is required to constantly educate employees about the existing tools as well as those in the field.
  4. UI modernization: today it is no longer enough for the graphical interface of an application to have all the functions a user might need. The intuitive arrangement of information and the logical structure of transitions between screens are of great importance.
  5. Engaging employees in improvement: when creating a process improvement or a part of it, it is very important that people who know and understand the process well are involved in the development work. Ideally, these people should also be involved in the implementation work

… with the use of IT tools

After we realized the challenges and learned the direction in which to look to solve them, the time has come to solve them. How to meet the requirements? Naturally, the answer is in IT solutions. What does it mean specifically? Applications, automation, robotization, bots, analytics and reports. However, if we would build EVERYTHING on the basis of Full-Code, the work would take months, if not years. And today, if building an IT solution takes over a year, you have to think carefully whether it’s worth the effort – in a year’s time a business may be in a completely different place than today. So it may happen that a solution that is put into use, after a year of implementation, will require changes immediately. It is also worth mentioning the rising costs. This is where the No-Code and Low-Code platforms come in. All in white.

Examples of No-Code and Low-Code solutions

No-Code Low-Code platforms allow you to effectively build dozens or even hundreds of applications and automation a year. IT solutions such as:

According to a study published in the Harvard Business Review, less than 25% of frontline workers think they can use the right technology at work. In other words, more than 75% of employees must use outdated, complex and distributed technology solutions.

  • Assignments of responsibility and acceptance levels
  • Generating sales offers
  • Supervision over the timeliness of medical examinations
  • Automatic appointment booking
  • Resource management (multi-storey buildings, company movables or licenses)
  • Circulation cards
  • Collecting NPS (customer feedback)
  • Equipment / people availability control
  • Tracking task completion time
  • Monitoring the use of vacation time and the amount of the reserve
  • Requests for delegation
  • Settlement of business trips and expenses
  • Support for support tickets
  • Processing of documents (e.g. acceptance)
  • Audit management
  • Acceptance of expenses
  • Planning and handling of events and events
  • Vacancy register
  • Compulsory training management
  • Requests for new accounts
  • Creation, approval and archiving of contracts
  • Monitoring the use of budgets
  • Maintaining and organizing information and data
  • Standardization of the design process and documentation
  • Monitoring the use of vacation time and the amount of the reserve
  • Systems integration
  • Planning investments, requirements
  • CV database
  • Automatic system of the recruitment process
  • Employee evaluation system

Yes, No-Code Low-Code solutions give the greatest return on investment when a lot of them are created. Of course, this requires a proper approach and proper management.

Advantages of No-Code and Low-Code platforms

Thanks to the use of No Code Low Code platforms, the time of solution delivery is shortened (3x-10x). This significantly affects the budget, which is also reduced.No Code Low code tools allow you to significantly reduce the number of manual, paper or Excel-based workflows. Automating repetitive steps standardizes and simplifies the entire process.

No Code Low Code platforms minimize the limitations of outdated solutions. You can build a new layer of solutions so that it responds to the needs and habits of people in the organization

Disadvantages of No-Code and Low-Code platforms

The more solutions we have, the more difficult it is to control them. Therefore, especially at the beginning of the adventure with platforms, it is worth taking support from a trusted supplier or manufacturer, and using the Center of Excellence. This will allow you to better control the potential chaos.

No Code Low Code tools do not allow you to look into the platform code. So the debugging capabilities are limited. In addition, the growing number of small and medium solutions (applications, automation) affects the need to control policies and security.

Q&A

Why are No-Code Low-Code tools just now available?

Platforms to simplify the IT solutions manufacturing process have existed since the 90s, only with different names. Back then, it was called the Rapid Application Development (RAD) approach. RAD platforms were characterized by ease of use, so that everyone, not only highly qualified engineers, was able to build solutions. Back then, and actually until ~ 2015, these tools did not have too many supporters or followers (in the form of competition). What happened around 2015? Standardization has begun! The standards were created earlier, but it can be assumed that in 2015, no newly emerging IT tool questioned the sense of using OAuth2 for authentication, REST API for integration and JSON notation to the data schema. This, in turn, made it possible to build platforms that are not closed all-round harvesters. Finally, it was possible to build easily extensible tools, well integrated with other solutions and very accessible. So, if we were to list 5 features of No-Code Low-Code platforms, they would be:

  1. Ease of use – everyone, not only highly qualified engineers, should be able to build solutions
  2. Standards support – basing the platform’s operation on globally accepted and supported standards
  3. Integration – the platform should enable integration with any systems. Reaching point 2 helps a lot with this ????
  4. Availability – building solutions and using them should be independent of the system used (Windows, Linux, macOS)
  5. Extensibility – a platform that cannot be easily extended has little chance of being accepted on the market longer

Does No-Code or Low-Code mean the end of Full-Code programmers?

Absolutely not! No-Code and Low-Code are not a panacea. Still many projects will require a “traditional” programming approach. The goal is to support programmers in their work, not to replace them. In addition, the greater the complexity of the project and the risks it has to face, the greater the chance that the best approach will be to use the Full Code approach. The chart presented by Microsoft at one of the conferences is very well reflected in the above thought

A slide from the Microsoft presentation at the Microsoft Ignite 2021 conference

The No-Code Low-Code approach is designed to take the burden off programmers, not replace them

Is it worth learning Low-Code? What are the development paths?

If you take the Power Platform as your reference (Low-Code platforms from Microsoft), then: Power Platform Consultant can count on earnings in the range of $ 4,200 – $ 11,400 per month, depending on the experience, the form of the contract and country you’re working in (as of 2021). Power Platform Developer can count on earnings in the range of $ 5,300 – $ 14,500 per month, depending on experience, the form of the contract and country you’re working in (as of 2021). Anyone who has worked in a different industry in a non-junior position can become a consultant. I was a PM? Cool. An analyst? Great. An employee of the HR, finance or administration department? Great. Did you work in marketing or sales? And such people will find employment. Really.

In the work of a No-Code Low-Code consultant, technology is not difficult. It is difficult to implement, i.e. to understand the process properly, and to prepare the business and users for the upcoming changes.

What does the future tell us?

It is estimated that by 2025, 70% of IT solutions will be implemented using LowCode tools. The industry itself is valued at USD 46 billion by 2026 and at USD 88 billion by 2028.The above data indicate how quickly and how much this market will grow in the coming years, which answers the question: is it worth being interested in the No Code Low Code branch?

  1. World Economic Forum[]
  2. 2.3 trillion(!) USD in 2028[]
  3. study published in the Harvard Business Review[]

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Courses. Workshops. Showing useful and simple tricks to improve the work on applications and helping you to better use the software.

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