Low-code: The solution to strengthen agility

In an era defined by rapid technological advancements and an ever-growing demand for efficient solutions, low-code development has emerged as a transformative force, offering a streamlined approach to software creation. By empowering users with varying levels of technical expertise to build applications through intuitive visual interfaces and minimal manual coding, low-code platforms are revolutionizing software development.

Here we dive into the benefits of this technology and how it enhances productivity, featuring insights and success stories from Chanel, AstraZeneca, 3M, Nestlé and Twinings.

What is low-code?

Economic pressures and geopolitical conflicts mean that businesses are more focused than ever on efficiency, cost-effectiveness and customer retention.

Low-code has emerged as a solution to these challenges. Through platforms that use drag-and drop features with minimal, or in the case of no-code, no coding at all, non-IT trained employees can automate parts of a process.

This can help lift some of the burden off IT teams in automation initiatives and save costs that would otherwise be invested in customized external solutions.

According to PEX Network’s research, 31 percent of respondents already have a low-code/no-code platform at their organization, with 18 percent looking to invest further.

"[Low-code] is an excellent solution which provides rapid success by building custom applications at low cost – it may also help develop temporary solutions."

Gregory Dupuy, Head of process and automation business services platform EMEA at Chanel

How low-code helps unburden the IT department

According to PEX Network’s research, the IT department is the second top department driving operational excellence and transformation (32 percent). However, relying on IT teams alone to deliver technological implementations and automation can lead to bottlenecks and delays in a transformation program.

Organizations can implement low-code and no-code tools and develop a citizen development program to help alleviate the burden on IT teams. By automating part of their day-to-day processes with very limited coding needs, employees are empowered to reduce their manual workload and remove non-value-adding tasks.

Pete Guess, robotic process automation (RPA) technical director at AstraZeneca, says: “We have been successful at automation for years – [low-code] is enabling the team to go to that next stage so we can build in the other parts we want in a full digital process. It is about digitizing end-to-end.”

A route to delivering value quickly

It can also help augment RPA’s capabilities and deliver value quickly. AstraZeneca started adopting the technology in early 2021 to fill a gap in its tech stack. Guess comments: “When looking at an entire process RPA can be applied for bits of it – using traditional development to fill the gaps ruins the point of RPA which is meant to be a rapid route to value.”

The same approach is taken by Nestlé as Emma Scott, business solutions team lead at the global food and beverage company, explained during a panel at PEX Network’s Low Code Automation event: “My team looks at traditional app development, how we can use the technology to develop solutions quickly to the business side.”

Automating processes has helped the company, according to Scott, save “hundreds if not thousands of manual work hours” while low-code helped save “money we could have spent on external solutions”.

“Low-code gives us agility because it is possible to develop something quickly, show it to business users, receive feedback and improve on what we are building."

Pete Guess, RPA technical director at AstraZeneca

On top of delivering solutions quicker, it helps Chanel understand its existing tools. Gregory Dupuy, head of process and automation business services platform for EMEA at the luxury company, explains: “We try to have a discussion with IT on which tools could be used to solve a challenge, whether it is with robots, a low-code platform or a mix between standard IT and low-code – this can help us save some time in the conception of a solution.”

His team’s motto is “we help you save time.” Since April 2022, they have been setting up low-code and no-code solutions to help process owners save time by having discussions and understanding their pain points.

Low-code enables agile working

At Nestlé, Scott’s team helps with the positioning of low-code tools for governance in automation projects. She says: “[We have] lots of global products and processes – we help people understand where these tools fit into the wider governance of global solutions and automations to identify where it is best to channel the energy.”

Part of the reason behind the popularity of this technology is the agility it provides, which is why it is an important part of AstraZeneca’s strategy. Guess says: “We are going big on low-code in 2022 – it enables us to move rapidly. It gives us agility because it is possible to develop something quickly, show it to business users, receive feedback and improve on what we are building.”

Dupuy also sees it as an agility enabler: “It is an excellent solution which provides rapid success by building custom applications at low cost – it may also help develop temporary solutions.”

At the luxury brand, there was no system which helped facilitate the control and management of customs documents. Carriers struggled to check the accurate calculus of customs tax and compliance of customs legislation. Dupuy leveraged low-code to create a system which also helped carriers stock the information for audit purposes, which Dupuy notes saw “a huge satisfaction rate”.

How to ensure a successful low-code program

Ensuring a strong citizen development program is crucial for companies going through a transformation program. An increasing amount of people are interested in and trained in the digital environment and leveraging low-code can help improve their experience, according to Dupuy.

“People can be left feeling abandoned by transformation programs and low-code can help them learn new skills while saving them time,” he says.

At 3M, service technology leader Dimitris Papanikolopoulos explores how to expand the framework to include more employees and educate them on the technology.

“The goal is not necessarily to train new citizen developers but help employees understand what the technology is capable of doing,” he said. “To make citizen development more successful and veered toward the future, we need to educate employees on what they can and cannot get through."

Read more: Future of BPM: Low-code/no-code technology

When it comes to its implementation, Dupuy steers more toward the notion of fusion development, which aims to break down silos between teams, as opposed to citizen development. It depends on the company’s structure, however, as he advises: “You need to work hand in hand with IT – the most important element is to have [a structure] which fits the business’ structure best.”

He goes on to explain that by ensuring a strong collaboration between business and IT, companies will be able to rechallenge the governance of current projects and break silos between the two sides.

At Nestlé, a lot of work has been done around training and guardrails to support citizen developers in creating sustainable initiatives. This helps, according to Scott, with “the scope of what they should be doing versus where IT can provide support more sustainably”.

“My team looks at traditional app development, how we can use the technology to develop solutions quickly to the business side.” 
Emma Scott, Business solutions team lead at Nestlé

In effect, when people have been leveraging a low-code platform and leave a company, this presents a sustainability challenge and guardrails will help overcome it.

“For us it is about having more structure, available training and building on what we have learned [while implementing] guardrails on how we deliver it sustainably,” Scotts notes.

Case study: How Twinings is boosting agility with low-code

By increasing the level of automation in business processes through low-code, organizations can collect even more data about them than ever before. Mastering that data and governing it can be challenging, and low-code can help with this.

Tea company Twinings used to leverage a traditional IT system for master data governance and found it increasingly inadequate for managing its growing number of suppliers. The system was time-consuming, fragmented and relied primarily on emails and spreadsheets.

Twinings wanted to streamline and expand its master data governance suite with automated workflow, digital forms and integration into its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Partnering with Nintex, the company built 20 applications and transferred information contained in the master data governance suite onto them.

They used Nintex K2 Cloud to replace emails and spreadsheets that were slow to onboard suppliers and impeded their communication with Twinings’ buying staff. The solution was a supplier portal which provides an online, real-time way for them to share information about elements such as purchase orders, shipment status and quality checks. Utilized by business users, it allows for more agility than a single software managed by the IT team.

The solution boosted accuracy of data in the ERP system and accelerated app development by 30 percent. The next steps for Twinings include expanding the master data solution and supplier portal to the non-tea side of the business. This will help Twinings gain economies of scale by managing data governance with suppliers through a single portal and master data governance model.

The future of low-code

Gartner predicts that low-code will account for 75 percent of new application development by 2026. Companies are primarily investing in low-code platforms for professional development, while 79 percent of respondents said it improves collaboration between IT and business when delivering applications.

Low-code can enable organizations to empower their employees to remove manual tasks from their day-to-day jobs while upskilling them, making them part of the company’s digital transformation journey.

Increasing integration with technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will give users new features like code generation and automatic testing, facilitating the development of apps that have the capacity to learn, adapt and make data-driven predictions, further empowering staff while helping companies improve their operational efficiency.

Register now for All Access: Low Code 2024, taking place April 16-17.