What is life nowadays without our reliable apps?
The application-centric world connects a modern business environment with the needs that arise. We can include in these necessities apps used for work, in managing and track projects; and apps made for tracking other personal routines, habits and entertainment.
Apps need to be intuitive and attractive, but they also need to get things done. They also need to be effective and quick to give answers to an ever-moving industry. For that, low-code development platforms are the most interesting turn. This category of app-building tools focuses on the most important aspects: design and build. Since it helps to reduce the back-end economic effort it allows more for customisation and the business aspects.
Low-code platforms allow this focus on the business logic and on the ultimate goal: user experience.
How does Low-code work?
Low-code is a term that exists for some years and as the name says itself it dwells on the concept that any person, from the most tech-savvy to the least knowledgeable employee in a company has a tool to optimise and develop an app, to solve a business problem.
Low-code platforms are designed to accelerate software delivery by allowing to quickly developing apps for specific cases. Building and developing an app takes time and manual effort, from analysing the issue, conceptualising, and designing to coding. Low-code platforms answer the market demands much faster.
If there is a way to minimise time, that is already a major plus of this technique, to any company. The evolution of web and mobile space demands a competitive delivery time to end users.
IT departments may not have the full ability to operate these requests with their existing frameworks. A low-code platform may be the solution for this. They allow the creation of applications with a minimum of hand-coding and minimal upfront investment. How can these types of platform help?
They allow the developers to design, test, deploy, review and manage apps in very little time when compared to the traditional approach. The IT leaders can still use their current skill sets and resources, while integrating existing systems. On top of this, 7 out of 10 IT projects fail, never being finished, due to technical aspects. Low-code platforms are a big part of the solution for technical difficulties.
Using graphical user interfaces and configuration rather than traditional procedural computer programming to either create new apps or further develop existing ones, help develop and fulfil several needs of the organisation.
While it’s possible to optimise digital touch points, “user adoption can be also optimised because the platform provides the dynamic ability to rapidly iterate on requests, rather than slowly hacking through underlying code or messing with the framework of an application”. (Why Low-code is Right for Mobile and Web Front-End Development" by OutSystems)
Low-code platforms or tools are not all equal, and it is important to note how front-end and back-end development are bot equally important to the lifecycle of an application.
Are companies using low-code platforms?
Yes, they are. According to market research, specifically Low-Code Development Platform Markey by Component (Solution and Services (Professional and Managed)), Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical (Telecom and IT, BFSI, Government), and Region – Global Forecast to 2022”, the market for low-code is expected to grow and 4.32 billion dollars currently to 27.23 by 2022.
Major growth that is expected to grow due to the key role of professional services, that provide assistance customers in the efficient use of platforms and its maintenance. This will also allow the low-code platform vendors to innovate and offer new and different services, wanting to expand the client base across the world.
More enterprises of all sizes are adopting low-code development platforms, since it requires less capital investment and helps decrease operational and maintenance costs. Lower costs and higher speeds are the magic words.
OutSystems: the low-code platform
In the market of existing platforms, a lot of companies are choosing OutSystems as their low-code provider. For 2017, this platform for low-code rapid application development registered 63% growth in annual recurring revenue. 275 new enterprise customers were added to the books.
The customer success is the key strength of OutSystems and 2018 promises to improve these numbers even further. Amongst the companies who use OutSystems platform for its applications are Randstad, TAP, Liberty, KPMG, Logitech and Fidelidade. For this particular company, Fidelidade, we did the Front-end Development work for OutSystems. The use of the low-code platform allowed the developers and IT to provide quick responses to the business needs of the insurance sector.
Fidelidade has many complex application systems. Outsystems changed that paradigm and helped in adopting a strategy to better serve the needs of the client. There was a need to align different teams and technologies with the company’s IT strategy: from sales counters to associated mediators, agents, brokers etc.
Applying the development platform from Outsystems increased productivity and enabled team members to respond faster to business. The platform is also robust, allowing all the systems to co-exist and helping with the integration process as application development lifecycle. It is not another platform complicating the process, but a strategy to encompass the IT needs of Fidelidade, providing flexibility and knowledge.
Hi Interactive’s work for OutSystems
Hi Interactive’s work for OutSystems connects the bond between low-code and front-end development. JavaScript, HTML and CSS are the tools used to build and develop a user’s interface. Front-End development consists of using these practices to convert data to a graphical interface. Basically, what you see and/or use when opening a website or an app.
The user will engage with the results of the front-end development work; we can think of Front-End being simple and intuitive and Back-End code being complex and technical. The Front-End developer will be the bridge between the human-focused interface designers/UX and the technology-focused developers who deal with coding, data and other technologies used to build the app. Hi Interactive will not develop the app itself, but provide the Front-End assets so that the developer can focus on building the app, already having this effort taken care of. This includes, for example, applying the live style guides.
Hi Interactive is expert in Front-End development for OutSystems encapsulating the soft skills needed to manage both worlds. Read more about it here.
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