These days, if you want to create a website, you don’t need to be able to program HTML, but simply put together a series of building blocks made up of images and text. This is what’s known as no code. If you want to add some nifty features to your website that aren’t included in those building blocks, you need to have someone who can do a bit of programming. That’s low code.

If it’s so easy to put together a website, a customer portal should be a breeze, right? Not at all. There are other factors at play when it comes to portals. While a website can be standalone, but a customer portal has to connect with other data sources such as an ERP system. It’s important to understand then that even with low code, not everything you want will just fall into your lap. Unfortunately, that misconception is almost as widespread as the idea of quickly migrating to the cloud. Thankfully, there is a way forward and all it takes is a little bit of programming and discipline.

Specialist department + IT =
The Low Code Dream Team.

The service and sales teams are well-versed in their customers’ needs and wants and are in the best possible position to design a customer portal and, in a perfect world, configure and roll it out straight away. Low code makes this possible.

The department creates the application it needs itself, saving itself the effort of having to try and explain to the developers exactly what they are looking to achieve, which ultimately ends badly. The IT department is increasingly playing another role here, supporting specialists when it comes to choosing the right low code platform and application. This is because they take integration into the existing IT environment into consideration, along with any additional programming capacities if required.

Furthermore, they ensure that governance, compliance and security policies are adhered to and defined the various roles and access permissions together with all those involved. This work is the bread and butter of IT departments and allows specialists to focus on features they would like the portal to offer. It’s a win-win situation for the business as it benefits from greater productivity, that can only be achieved when apps are developed and installed with the backing of the IT department. If this doesn’t happen, the result can be apps that simply do not work and shadow IT starts to spread throughout the company.

Low code is nothing new, but the method is now increasingly established and there are plenty of sophisticated, high-quality solutions on the market that have the necessary interfaces, facilitating integration with relevant business processes databases.

There are options that are well-suited for cloud environments and those that would be better for on-prem use. The platforms are easy to navigate, offer intuitive drag and drop user interfaces, and support mobile applications with a responsive design. Apps can be easily reused or modified and performance, scalability and security are on a par with—or in some cases even superior to—in-house developments as they have been thoroughly tested.

In short,
low code is the future.

It allows companies to overcome the challenge of a lack of development capacities and enables them to drive digitalisation forward. Experienced citizen developers can also optimise the quality of applications used and deliver results much faster to professional programmers thanks to low code. The crucial factor is excellent collaboration between IT and the specialist departments.

Contact.