There is no doubt that businesses need software tools to help them compete in today’s marketplace. We need to be faster, smarter, and more efficient in everything we do to compete in this global market.
But software is expensive, and it doesn’t always work the way we want it to. Often times, out-of-the-box software can give us solutions that come really close to being helpful, but they don’t always give us the functionality that we want or need.
However, today there is a new trend, No Code and Low Code software. These platforms offer drag and drop solutions that allow customers to create software applications that perform the way they want them to. They are customized to fit a single business. You can send automated email messages to customers, add new sales data to third party solutions like Quick Books or Salesforce, or track invoices and purchase orders. All of this and so much more can be done with no code and low code software.
The biggest benefit of this new trend is that anyone can do it. You do not need to be a software developer or have any coding experience at all to use these applications. (I might work for a software company, but I have 0 coding experience, and even I was able to use low code software.)
All of this is pretty simple, and something that I would highly recommend to any business that is trying to simplify their processes. Use these platforms to give your business better access and flexibility to your data. It is worth it. On Google, you can find plenty of reviews and commentary on the different no code or low code platforms available, at CM2 Software we use and recommend Zoho.
However, there are limitations, especially if you are not a programmer. If you have never written a line of code in your life, you are limited by the drag and drop capabilities and pre-written workflows of low code or no code platforms. You will be able to create beautiful reports and collect all of your data in one place. But you might be missing out on the added benefits that a software consulting service would be able to offer.
For example, data gathering from outside sources. What if you wanted to know the exact traveling distance from one location to another, would you use Google Maps? What if you wanted to know the current day’s exchange rate for USD (US Dollars) versus GBP (British Pound Sterling), would you know where to find this information without manually updating the data daily? How would you be able to incorporate this data into your new application? If I told you that you could use an API to find this information, would you even know what that means?
I don’t ask these questions to belittle because the truth is, that I don’t know the answers either. But CM2 Software has software developers who do.
There are many consulting services (CM2 Software included) that use low code software and take it to the next level by integrating APIs and developing code that allows the application to talk to itself and outside sources in new and dynamic ways. They are able to create reports that dynamically change based on inputs, search the web and gather data from all different sources, integrate applications across multiple platforms, and customize all solutions to your business’s specific needs.
Could a developer do all of this without using low code software? Yes. But it is significantly more expensive and time consuming.
They would need to create all of the back end code and structure for the application before they even begin the process of customization. Think of a simple application like MS Word (yes, I picked this example as I write this post on Word), a developer created code that defined the size of the application, created the blue header, defined the tabs, created all of the buttons that change the formatting, view, and design. Someone developed code to identify how many lines can fit on one page before moving to the next, how large the font is, the style of font used, and how each change would effect the entire document. The scroll bar was designed to be dynamic and grow with the page as you write. All of this and so much more had to be visualized, designed, and written in multiple programming languages before anyone could write a single line on a word document. Further, one tiny error in the thousands of lines of code (as small as a missing period, or capitalization of a word) could cause the entire application to fail.
Low code removes all of this back end work for the software developer. Now they can focus solely on your application, on the customizations that you need to be successful, and do it all in a timely and cost effective manner. To me, it is a no brainer, low code platforms work – and if you are willing to invest the time into learning how to use it, you can have great success. Consulting services and programmers make low code even better, faster, and more intelligent. The possibilities of software are only limited by imagination.
I recommend that you take the time to look at low code software platforms, sign up for a 30 day trail, and see how easy they are to use. Get creative with your ideas of how software can solve your biggest business problems. See how it can help you to grow and be more successful, and then tell us about it. We want to hear how software has changed your business.
