What are low-code platforms and what makes them so popular in enterprise environments?

These days, companies are increasingly interested in technologically advanced solutions offering extensive feature sets, while being simple and easy to use. Every year, technologically-conscious organizations opt for implementing low-code platforms, willing to use them to manage their business processes. Making that decision guarantees a number of benefits, making it a great business move. If you want to learn what low-code platforms are and why they should be on your radar – continue reading.

 Low-code platforms – comprehensive enterprise applications without coding

The low-code platform moniker refers to highly advanced and standardized IT software that allows business employees to build comprehensive enterprise applications without having to resort to coding and programming languages. The development takes place in an intuitive, simple-to-use and graphical user interface (GUI), which is complemented by a host of additional tools – together, they allow end users to bring automation to some of the most complex cases, business scenarios and processes in a quick and easy way by just dragging and dropping application elements.

This, in turn, allows virtually anyone to take maximum advantage of the opportunities afforded by low-code solutions – including users, who have never had anything to do with code, software development and the like. What is more, state-of-the-art low-code platforms feature highly effective and extensive change management functionality – a solution that will certainly be of interest for every innovative company that wants to expand its operations in a systematic manner.

How do low-code platforms work in practice?

Low-code platforms are innovative software platforms that facilitate building and deploying enterprise application in a visual way. What is more, they also constitute a cohesive, standardized environment, in which the applications can be developed, and then subsequently deployed, edited, modified and maintained. What is important, the best low-code platforms are designed with ease of use in mind – they support relevant global standards and can easily be integrated with other systems already implemented in a company or organization.

Mature low-code platforms offer extensive accessibility, easy scalability and feature sets that enable users to extend their base functionality.

Low-codeplatforms allow business users to carry out a number of tasks, which to date were reserved to  software development teams. These include building and deploying, modifying and managing enterprise applications, which is now possible using intuitive and well-known techniques such as pointing and clicking, as well as dragging and dropping in the so-called Designer – the application design GUI. What is even more important is that using a low-code platform does not necessarily mean that using code will be impossible. In a number of situations, such as advanced integrations, as well as complex business scenarios, where there is a technical or economic justification for coding, you can do just that. This can be seen as a huge advantage in the eyes of organizations that want to digitalize complex processes – the possibility of adding code where necessary increases the efficiency of such platforms and broadens their application scope. On the other hand, the ability to develop and deploy business applications required by the company at every stage of its growth without coding, in a fast and efficient manner supports digital document and task workflows. A low-code platform that is well-suited to the needs of a company brings a number of benefits to the organization, including support for business process digitization and automation, resulting in higher efficiency and competitiveness.