For businesses, today’s climate of uncertainty presents a clear and present danger to the very fabric of our economy – no industry is immune to COVID-disruption. Nimble and agile leaders who accelerate digital transformation and empower innovation in spite of and in response to COVID-19 will help their organizations come out stronger on the other side of this crisis.
With effective governance in place, there’s a strong case to be made that low-code platforms offer the fastest, most cost-effective opportunity for companies to pioneer the adoption of new technology while navigating external disruption. We’re witnessing first-hand that centralized command is no longer a tenable model. Today’s climate is moving far too fast and too unpredictable for one group of central resources to fix everything.
More than ever before, CIOs and IT leaders must help their companies transition into nimble, virtual hubs. Low-code platforms can help organizations weather today’s “new normal”, and even allow them to pursue bold digital transformation strategies.
The Emergence of Low-code
Often a crisis will hasten the adoption of new technology, such as the current rapid adoption of telehealth and telework tools, or the spread of open source software resulting from the 2001 dot com crash and 9/11.
With today’s pandemic as a catalyst, low-code is quickly emerging as an imminently useful technology to address a fully virtual U.S. workforce by democratizing software development.
Low-code was already on the precipice of emerging into the mainstream, and COVID-19 is only further accelerating the technology’s path – helping companies and departments respond to fundamental shifts in their business processes and operations, and addressing immediate and even dire customer needs.
Low-code technology is already engineered for virtual collaboration across the enterprise. During the early days of the U.S. outbreak, companies made fast process shifts leveraging low-code tools as the entire business world went virtual – practically overnight.
Small businesses can use low-code tech to take the guesswork out of the CARES SBA loan application process by automatically determining applicants’ eligibility for certain loan programs, pre-drafting loan application forms for the most relevant program(s) for submission to participating banks.
By delivering above and beyond value to customers during this time, organizations can create assurances in their business growth in the face of the most unprecedented economic event in all of our lifetimes.
Democratizing Innovation
With business as usual no longer “usual”, it’s imperative to establish processes that can help your business withstand any crisis. This means empowering employees to develop, innovate and implement processes that best enable their teams.
That’s why low-code is so valuable – it keeps governance within IT’s purview while unlocking the potential for employees on the front lines and at the edge of your business to create useful, dedicated tools. Companies that champion low-code adoption are democratizing software development in a way that empowers employees to innovate quickly to solve the everyday problems in front of them as the experts best suited to identify and implement solutions.
Technology that can quickly adjust and respond to swift and sweeping changes for how we do business, paired with entrepreneurial business users (aka everyday employee problem solvers) is exactly what businesses need during this time of disruption. With the ability to quickly tailor and streamline offerings, solutions and arcane project management protocol, the possibilities are truly endless.
The way we rise to this challenge reflects the tenacity of our humanity. And U.S. business leaders should view technology adoption and implementation as mission-critical to weathering the impact of COVID-19, protecting their businesses and their people for the long haul.
