Codeless Software cuts the time and cost of software development by as much as 60%. Find out what it is.
Introduction
A form of rapid application development software used in enterprise computing, codeless software is a type of application software platform used to design, deploy and operate software applications without the use of, or visual presence of computer code or script. Normally, Low Code and Codeless application software platforms are deployed on a cloud computing environment. They help organizations to bring new software applications to-market faster, and at lower cost.
The need for adaptive IT to support digital transformation
Markets have always been competitive, but with the progressive rise of digital business and the globalization of markets, the very structure of markets is changing too. It means that organizations must find faster and smarter ways to adapt their enterprise computing platforms to maximize customer value and minimize spend.
It’s not just people and processes, but technology too is having to adapt faster and more often to change. This means traditional IT platforms are being displaced by Low Code or Codeless enterprise software application platforms that are designed to adapt to change constantly, and offer productivity enabling tooling to serve the needs of change managers orchestrating change.
How organizational change has changed
At one time, an organizational change was a rare thing. Business models rarely altered and the structure of organizations – i.e. how organizational structures were designed and resourced – had no need to change. Once people were assigned roles in the organization, they rarely moved beyond their role or department. Not today. The business models organizations operate are changing frequently and rapidly.
This is because, in a digital age, the structure of markets and the nature of competition. Many new forms of competition emerge from beyond the traditional players in any given market. We are seeing retailers selling holidays, telecoms contracts and financial services products, utilities and automotive manufacturers selling data and online retailers selling everything! In such a tumultuous market for products and services, suppliers have to respond to change faster. This means organizations are facing near constant organizational restructuring.
The rise of the citizen developer
The last decade has seen the gradual erosion of centralized IT power in technology selection and decision making. This is partly because departmental leaders have grown more confident in their appreciation of technology and its potential to automate their processes. It is also because read-to-deploy Business Intelligence, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications and robotic process automation (RPA) tools have made it possible for departmental managers to request software tooling that instantly works to address task fulfilment challenges.
During the period, the term ‘citizen developer’ has arrived in enterprise software development vernacular. A Citizen Developer is someone who wants to author an application but lacks IT expertise (particularly coding or scripting) and tools. A wave of Low-Code and Codeless software applications have evolve to aid citizen developers in their quest to use software applications to solve their individual or team productivity challenges.
Codeless software applications development and the citizen developer
Codeless software platforms like Encanvas Secure&Live equip citizen developers with the tools they need to design applications without coding or scripting, to then deploy apps using one-click deployment methods. Unlike technologies that have preceded Encanvas, this latest genre of technology separates citizen developer tooling from the next level of applications deployment functionality that IT administrators used to govern application and protect data housed within them. This means that enterprise-grade apps can be designed and deployed by business analysts and citizen developers without compromizing IT governance and security.
Breaking down the barrier between IT and the business
Codeless software development is a major breakthrough in the evolution of enterprise computing because, until its arrival, enterprise-grade applications were largely created by expert software development teams in back-offices, working ‘offline’ as opposed to developments carried out in near-real-time in workshops.
Evidence shows that users and stakeholders of applications are very much put off by the visual presence of code and script on computer screens as it’s a language they simply don’t understand. In consequence, they feel isolated and unqualified to present their case for enhancements to applications designs during review meetings; some claiming they feel awkward presenting ideas for improvements because of concerns over the amount of extra work they might be placing on IT colleagues.
The risks and impacts of shadow systems and data
At one time, the adoption of Low-Code and Codeless applications development software – designed for use by business analysts and citizen developers – was seen as a high-risk venture. IT teams were rightly concerned about a loss of influence, control and governance over deployed systems. Fortunately, modern enterprise applications software platforms like Encanvas Secure&Live carefully balance the needs of citizen developers with the expectations of IT teams, so everyone benefits.
Deployed applications bring MORE INFLUENCE, CONTROL AND GOVERNANCE to IT teams, not less. This is because:
- They are able to respond to the long-tail of demand from departments for new situational applications; removing calls for two-speed IT solutions and dedicated ‘rapid development’ DevOps teams.
- Use of ‘enterprise-grade’ applications development tools removes the existence of self-authored applications such as spreadsheets (so-called ‘shadow systems’ because their existence is unknown to IT teams).
- Furthermore, it means any created data becomes visible to IT and data security governance professionals rather than being held by users on local hard-drives (so-called ‘shadow data’).
Benefits of Codeless Applications Platforms
Sited benefits of using Codeless applications development platforms include:
- Faster time to market of new apps
- Lower development costs and risks
- Higher quality apps – because designers are better equipped to understand and apply the needs of users, stakeholders and the business
- Improved data management and governance controls
- Better data security because use of shadow data is removed from the enterprise
- Capacity is released from IT teams who no longer need to directly support software developments, so they can concentrate on more expert activities demanding their skills
About Encanvas
Encanvas is an enterprise software company that specializes in helping businesses to create above and beyond customer experiences.
From Low Code to Codeless
Better than code-lite and low-code, we created the first no code (codeless) enterprise application platform to release creative minds from the torture of having to code or script applications.
Use Encanvas in your software development lifecycle to remove the barrier between IT and the business. Coding and scripting is the biggest reason why software development has been traditionally unpredictable, costly and unable to produce best-fit software results. Encanvas uniquely automates coding and scripting. Our live wireframing approach means that business analysts can create the apps you need in workshops, working across the desk with users and stakeholders.
When it comes to creating apps to create a data culture and orchestrate your business model, there’s no simpler way to instal and operate your enterprise software platform than AppFabric. Every application you create on AppFabric adds yet more data to your single-version-of-the-truth data insights. That’s because, we’ve designed AppFabric to create awesome enterprise apps that use a common data management substrate, so you can architect and implement an enterprise master data management plan.
Encanvas supplies a private-cloud Customer Data Platform that equips businesses with the means to harvest their customer and commercial data from all sources, cleanse and organize it, and provide tooling to leverage its fullest value in a secure, regulated way. We provide a retrofittable solution that bridges across existing data repositories and cleanses and organizes data to present a useful data source. Then it goes on to make data available 24×7 in a regulated way to authorized internal stakeholders and third parties to ensure adherence to data protection and FCA regulatory standards.
Encanvas Secure and Live (‘Secure&Live’) is a High-Productivity application Platform-as-a-Service. It’s an enterprise applications software platform that equips businesses with the tools they need to design, deploy applications at low cost. It achieves this by removing coding and scripting tasks and the overheads of programming applications. Unlike its rivals, Encanvas Secure&Live is completely codeless (not just Low-Code), so it removes the barriers between IT and the business. Today, you just need to know that it’s the fastest (and safest) way to design, deploy and operate enterprise applications.
Learn more by visiting www.encanvas.com.
The Author
Ian Tomlin is a management consultant and strategist specializing in helping organizational leadership teams to grow by telling their story, designing and orchestrating their business models, and making conversation with customers and communities. He serves on the management team of Encanvas and works as a virtual CMO and board adviser for tech companies in Europe, America and Canada. He can be contacted via his LinkedIn profile or follow him on Twitter.
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