The democratization of application development

As more business heads, data scientists and programmers come into contact with low-code, the rate of application delivery and innovation in the market is bound to go up, says Divyesh Kharade – Co-founder and CEO – DronaHQ.

Can you describe exactly what low-code is in brief?

Simply put, low-code is a visual software development approach that lets users create tools like apps and websites with minimal hand-coding. It enables users to build solutions without the need of proficient coding skills by using drag and drop interfaces and ready to use modules. It is a technology set to shift the power from only the IT teams to the business as well. The business developers or citizen developers can co-create powerful apps for business in collaboration with IT.

Can it contribute to democratisation of technology?

The ease of access and ease of adoption of cloud-based low code platforms is further contributing to democratization of application development. As more business heads, data scientists and programmers come into contact with the low-code technology, the rate of application delivery and innovation in the market is bound to go up.

The crux of low code makes it easy for users to adapt and make apps that meet their needs in a more personalized way than their off-the-shelf and pricy alternatives. Something that they build once can be continually iterated upon and optimized. Power and onus of digitization is shifting from IT to business, as business users and managers are co-creating along with IT.

There is now even a move to teach coding to children from Class 6 onward. Your views?

Teaching kids from a younger age on how to code is good, especially given the growing necessity for technically sound folks, but in actuality coding develops the understanding of the flow of data, data security, architecture, structural thinking, and logical thinking. Low-code tools help them achieve exactly these and more irrespective of the coding languages.

Do you think low-code is more relevant in the post-Covid New Normal?

The corporate world is really flexing its muscles on digital ever since the onset of the pandemic: Enhancing customer experience, employee experience, adjusting with the new normal—Work From Home.

What more businesses have come to realise is how frail old manual, paper-based processes and legacy systems can be. With that realization growing, the importance of agile framework, online and real-time data access, cloud-based apps is at its peak.

With the need for innovative digital solutions growing at a pace more rapid than IT capacity to keep up, low-code platform attributes make it an effective technology to handle change management. With a lot of secure and ready to use UI modules, Database and API connectors, users can just plug in different data points and make information available to stakeholders in real-time.

Do you have concrete examples of how low-code products have benefited the industry?

Low-code vendors have been able to raise more than $500 million and the investors are looking into low-code for good reason. Globally there are conglomerates, governments, small and medium enterprises and even freelancers who have taken to loading code in the wake of the pandemic to create apps and keep vital processes running.

At our organization we have Global CPGs building sales engagement apps to keep their field force motivated and boost KPIs up. One of the customer's started out with a sales gamification app to boost new product launch and received an end-user adoption rate as high as 80%. They've introduced the low code platform to their innovation teams to create apps for their ideas and quickly validate them and take them live.

An HR consultant developed a Virtual development center to continue a leadership training program as the world was beginning to go into lockdown. The consultant, in a span of 14 days, created apps that integrated with video conferencing tools and google calendars and emails. So with the app, the consultant not only created an alternative solution to conduct training remotely, his clients also saved a tonne in logistics costs like travel and accommodation.

An Indian bank has recently adopted a low code platform to create employee evaluation apps that allows employees to rate their peers and that data is transferred to the bank's internal SAP tools.

India is woefully short in apps becoming popular in the global market. Can low-coding help in our Make in India app campaign?

The Indian SaaS market is growing 1.5 times faster than its global counterparts and for good reason. Low-code, zero-code is surely gaining popularity in the Indian business place. The Atmanirbhar Bharat initiatives by the government has actually boosted the demand for low-code platforms as we see an increase in paid subscriptions and participation of millennial managers and students in the low-code movement.

Going forward, can low-code handle the complex issues of traditional coding or does it have certain limitations?

Low-code can very well handle complex issues given its plug and play attribute. DronaHQ and a handful of other low code players have the provision for developers to bolt in their custom code if they hit a ceiling or need a highly specific functionality like a custom traveling salesman algorithm or a customer onboarding workflow implemented.