Raphael Thys© One Photo
While digitalisation is a way for businesses to prepare for an economic recession, low-code tech could spur innovation in the UK market
The post-pandemic recovery has become a waiting game for a looming recession. However, whether a downturn in the United Kingdom will come or not, one thing is clear; the businesses that will overcome economic disruptions are constantly looking towards new opportunities to digitise and build resilience, such as low-code tech. In a recent article, Gartner identified investments in digitalisation as a way for businesses to prepare for an economic recession. This is because digital initiatives that focus on spurring productivity and innovation in an organisation can blunt the negative impacts of economic downturns in the short term, which will stand them in good stead for long-term growth.
But what can companies do today to prepare for the future? Choosing the right productivity tools that create benefits across the business as a whole, will prove essential to extracting value from investments. With that in mind, low-code tech is the solution that empowers both non-technical as well as technical employees to drive innovation forward.
Why is low-code tech the future?
The UK market is currently facing an acute tech skills shortage. According to a BCS State of the Nation Report, job vacancies in the UK tech sector in the 2021 third quarter were up by 191% from the same period in 2020. This comes at a time where poor productivity is becoming a major concern for the UK government. Latest ONS figures show that the UK’s output per hour growth between 2009 – 2019 was the second lowest of the G7 countries.
This is where low-code tech comes in. With low-code tools, businesses can move forward with their digital transformation initiatives. One study of companies that used low-code development found that it increased digital innovation by 66%, boosted responsiveness, and reduced the need to hire full-time technical staff.
Low-code solutions as opposed to no-code solutions, serve both the needs of non-technical employees as well as those of IT departments.
Day-to-day users are empowered to create their own solutions such as automating manual tasks with minimal complexity and without seesawing with IT teams. With a low-code platform more advanced users can go beyond the built-in functionalities of standard platforms to create more complex, personalised solutions that can be adopted throughout an organisation if needed. It therefore provides the ability for increased customisation where required.
Productivity with low-code tech
What we are already starting to see more and more of is companies applying both no-code and low-code solutions to improve internal employee productivity. This trend is likely to accelerate as non-technical process owners are empowered to automate their own processes without having to rely on IT departments. Gartner predicted that by 2025, 70% of new applications developed by organisations will use low-code or no-code technologies.
With low-code tools, businesses will be able to create solutions that drive forward productivity and innovative initiatives at the organisational level.
By changing the interaction between developers and end-users, low-code tools cut down the time it takes for a solution to be developed. Business users become the drivers of solution-making processes and can call on developers for challenges in technical implementation. This greatly improves the adoption of initiatives that help drive digitalisation by increasing productivity and minimising time to market.
The next steps in the future of low-code tech
With solutions such as Nintex, low-code tech will enable businesses to use automation to benefit the bottom line and create external value. This means the application of low-code tech will aim to solve complex business challenges that are not limited to the personal productivity use case. Compliance and customer service are two such areas that will benefit from low-code automation solutions.
One way to achieve this is by automating the compliance process and developing solutions specific to the regulatory environment. Manual processes prone to human errors can be automated through low-code tech to reduce compliance risk and ultimately bolster a company’s bottom line.
Another way low-code tech brings external value is through benefits to improved customer experience. Low-code platforms make it easier and quicker for developers to digitise and automate processes, at an organisational level, that improve interactions and elevate the customer experience.
Ultimately, low-code tools will enable businesses to transform employee productivity and allow end-users to drive digitalisation. But employee productivity is just the beginning of the automation story – arguably, it has an even greater ability to impact external focuses that affect society as a whole and low-code will be the vehicle that helps get us there.
This piece was written and provided by Holly Anderson, VP Product Marketing, Nintex.
