One of the key questions for any CIO when implementing low-code/no-code solutions is ROI. While it is relatively easier to measure the impact of a particular application, paying for a new development platform to reduce the need to code when you already have a coding team requires a bit of justification.
In this article, we look at three ways low code and no code increase ROI on enterprise software development.
Lower IT Expenditure
It sounds a bit oxymoronic – how will spending more money on a low-code platform reduce IT expenditure?
But the fact is that enterprise software development has always been a scaling problem. Low code helps enterprise IT teams to scale without spending additional money, which is where the cost savings happen. So how do low-code application platforms do this?
The first way is that Low code prevents building up huge, costly pools of technical expertise. Enterprise software development usually requires either hiring more developers or outsourcing work to IT consultants, especially for large projects. Both are expensive propositions and don’t scale well.
Low code allows you to scale applications without adding new developers because it lets users create many smaller apps. It also makes coding faster for existing development teams.
The second way low code helps is by providing composability. Its pre-developed modules are reusable across multiple applications, so the same platform can be used to build applications for HR, finance, marketing, and other functions.
Enterprises often have several applications doing the same job for different functions, but IT teams can centralize all of it in a single window with low code. In both ways, Low code platforms reduce the cost of enterprise software development, thus improving ROIs.
Quicker Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is the key priority for almost every CIO. However, typically such transformation rests on either a build or buy decision, and both options are quite expensive.
Low code offers a middle path to digital transformation. It lets existing enterprise software be reused while adding a layer of cloud-ready, modern front ends and integrates them through a network of application programming interfaces (APIs). This helps to bring down the cost of transformation significantly.
Moreover, even after transformation, there are always a slew of processes that remain manual. By providing an easy drag-and-drop interface for developing applications, low code helps non-technical users build such apps, letting the core IT teams focus on more important development work.
Lastly, extensive use of low code development for the digital transformation of enterprise applications also helps tackle the problem of technical debt that always occurs in such projects. Since low-code platforms are built on a large pool of pre-built and tested code, applications built with them are prone to fewer errors.
Measuring the impact on ROI for such improvements is slightly difficult. Still, one simple way is to look at how much of the workload on your digital transformation map is reduced or eliminated simply through low code.
Increased IT output
The throughput of any IT team depends on two factors: the number of requests generated on average and the speed at which older requests are getting closed. There is enough research to show that enterprise IT teams today are burdened on both fronts.
Low code helps reduce this logjam of request tickets. It brings down the number of new requests by empowering users to build their own solutions for themselves. Where the request is complex, it lets IT teams do the job more quickly and efficiently through prebuilt custom modules that automate common coding tasks for them.
By helping reduce this never-ending burden of minor fixes and small applications, Low code development platforms help IT teams focus on solving bigger problems, improving throughput, and, thus, ROI.
CIOs can measure this ROI improvement through a simple metric – just look at the average requests per week or per month before and after implementing a low code platform and the average time spent by IT personnel on ticket resolution.
Wrap Up
ROI is the holy grail of business, and IT teams are no exception – CIOs are forever under pressure to improve the ROI of enterprise software. Implementing an organization-wide low code platform helps measurably bring down costs and improves the throughput of the IT team, thus significantly improving ROI at all levels.