Gone are the days when the only people designing software were computer programmers who could turn unintelligible strings of letters and symbols into computer functions. Today, no-code is leveling the playing field and turning all of us into potential software developers.
Exciting, right?
But, you may be wondering how no-code tech can actually benefit your business. What types of applications will you build, in reality?
Since sharing our complete guide to no-code, we’ve seen many similar questions from business executives and owners who are still wondering how to leverage no-code in a way that will specifically advantage their organization.
That’s why in this post, we’ll dive a little deeper into five specific ways no-code builders can help you take advantage of the “democratization of coding” to benefit your business.
What Is No-Code?
First, a quick refresher on terms. No-code development is what it sounds like: a user-friendly technology that lets users create digital applications without using any code at all.
If you’ve ever built a website using Squarespace or designed an email newsletter with Mailchimp, you’ve taken advantage of no-code platforms. These applications are typically composed of modules of prewritten code, which users can drag and drop to build their own custom product.
Products built using no-code are nearly endless, including:
- Websites and pages
- Forms
- Online stores
- CRMs
- Databases
- Mobile apps
Just as no-code lets you design a nearly infinite variety of customized applications, no-code tech benefits your business in a myriad of ways. Let’s look at five ways below.
1. Automation and Custom Workflows
If your organization has decided it’s time to build automation into your business, it may be daunting to think about designing an automation from scratch. You’re no coder, and no one on your team knows the first thing about building an application.
That’s where no-code comes in.
No-code automation platforms let users of all technical knowledge levels automate crucial business workflows. Instead of needing to understand traditional computer programming techniques and processes, your team can use a no-code builder with user-friendly drag-and-drop functionality.
Your business may be ready to automate your accounting process, customer service pipeline, or some other custom workflow unique to your operation that you’ve perfected over the years but that could now be easily handled by AI. You have unique needs that necessitate designing an automation from scratch—but with no-code options, you may not need to hire a developer to build that program for you.
For example, you might use Zapier to automate repetitive tasks, like creating a new row in Google Sheets when you receive a new subscriber in MailChimp.
2. Ease of Finding Talent to Create/Deploy Solutions
Using no-code tech also allows you to take advantage of the creativity of your own team, rather than outsourcing to developers. With the right tools, your people—who have an intimate knowledge of your organization and its workflows—can solve problems and create back-end applications internally.
Because no-code applications are intuitive and extremely easy to use, the learning curve is quite manageable. Your team can get right to designing solutions without needing to take a coding class.
And you won’t need to designate a whole team to build an app, either; a single “citizen developer” can build an application (such as a mobile app or chatbot) within a day or two at most using no-code builders like Appy Pie.
3. Enhanced Innovation
Another benefit of using no-code solutions is that they let the people who best understand your business and its challenges (i.e., you and your team) unlock valuable innovations.
If your business has a problem that you would typically have to bring in engineers and developers to solve, no-code could provide tools for your team to solve those problems more quickly and directly using the latest technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning.
Teams are using apps like Airtable to create a database with the flexibility to design workflows, set views, and tailor processes to the unique and changing needs of their organization.
Many no-code solutions are geared towards enterprise-sized businesses that need to design workflow apps at large scale, quickly. You’ll be able to experiment with no-code builders to work your way towards functional apps that are streamlined and, by their very nature, custom-built for your operation.
4. Exceptional Agility
In an ever-changing business environment, the ability to pivot on a dime is essential—which is why removing the need for complex strings of code when making changes to business software is endlessly useful.
Businesses that embrace no-code technology don’t need to wait for their IT departments or third-party programmers to make new customizations to critical software. Instead, internal team members can make small tweaks to backend applications as-needed.
Your team might use Salesforce Platform to digitize and automate workflows, for example. As your needs change and processes are updated, you can make changes to that process instantly, without needing to be a software developer.
With the democratization of software that no-code introduces, businesses have more control over their applications—from the minutiae of how they work, to when they change.
5. Reduced Time
And finally, a no-code development strategy is much faster than traditional application development. The drag-and-drop functionality and easy visual interfaces (not to mention pre-built modules and templates) let users create cross-platform apps in record time.
There’s a reason “time is money” is a cliche—it’s true, especially in business. Being able to turn ideas into applications quickly means your business won’t be wasting precious time hiring and communicating with an outside team of developers and programmers.
You might use a no-code builder like Quickbase to create backend business applications with reduced time, while not cutting corners on the efficiency or productivity of the final product.
No-Code: The Future of Business Innovation
As Owen Williams, UX Manager at Shopify, so succinctly put it: the future of coding is no-code. That’s because when complex computer logic and coding languages are taken out of the equation, anyone can become a developer.
When you’re no longer limited by how well you know programming, your only limits are your team’s creativity, ingenuity, and dedication.
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