It is the beginning of a new phase for Low-Code: Business Composition
The rise of Low-Code as a development technology is clear to see, and this year, market growth is expected to be 25%[1].
According to Gartner, the diffusion of Low-Code has been through two initial phases, and a third begins this year[2].
The first phase was that of democratization, in which the potential of application development was also extended to non-IT personnel, who (independently or by collaborating with developers) can have all the software they have always wanted to make their work more efficient.
Efficiency was the objective of the second phase, the so-called “Hyperautomation,” which uses BPM, BPA, and DPA technologies to design digital process automation workflows, also by integrating various systems.
The third phase begins this year and involves broader use of Low-Code to support entire companies to make them more responsive to change: the composable business phase with composable enterprise applications[3].
The idea of a modular business is opposite to that of the classic, less dynamic company.
Each change in a business corresponds to the creation of a project, managed by teams of people from different departments who design and implement the necessary new processes together, implementing them in composable enterprise applications and modular business applications. These applications are tailor-made for the project but created very quickly thanks to the speed of Low-Code and the reuse of PBCs[4] (Packaged Business Capabilities; i.e., semi-finished products with specific functions focused on specific business activities, which can be put together like pieces of a puzzle according to needs).
This is nothing new in the software sector—developers have always created applications by integrating already-developed components, but if this working model is used at company, organizational, and process levels, a real Agile revolution occurs.
Gartner predicts that by 2027, 50% of Low-Code Platform vendor investments will be in PBC development[5].
Examples of composable business with composable enterprise apps
A software company was commissioned for a new application by a banking institution that wanted to offer a new customer-to-customer payment system via smartphones, which required a team of people from various departments to design and manage customer service, accounting, marketing, and IT department aspects.
To implement the system, the developers reused the components (PBCs) already created for other customer-facing applications: for reporting, integration with accounting systems, and interbank information sharing.
The components to be developed quickly with the Low-Code approach were only those for interaction between customers with smartphones (via QR code or NFC), the back end, the necessary APIs, some front-office interfaces, and those of the back office for banking operators’ dashboards.
A company supplying a software product, an ERP dedicated to pharmacies, wanted to improve the operational efficiency of incoming logistics by providing a more precise delivery time forecast, which was previously limited to 4-hour time slots in the morning or the afternoon.
To develop the project, they organized a team composed internally of IT, operations managers, and sales and marketing, and externally of dedicated staff from three pharmacies and a transport company.
Thanks to the low-code approach, they finished testing the new functionality in just 8 weeks, reusing the PBCs already developed and linked to logistics activities. They added a shipment tracking system structured in multiple checkpoints and a time-prediction algorithm of delivery linked to new factors, such as the average route time based on the day of travel and the history of previous times.
A more pervasive diffusion of Low-Code improves efficiency
As we have seen, successive Low-Code phases provide for a more pervasive diffusion in the company, a more strategic function, and a more complete use of technology.
As the adoption of platforms such as WebRatio Platform increases, their potential is utilized to a greater extent, because they are natively Agile[6]technologies that help companies to be more reactive to change and bring benefits to entire value chains.
Discover all the advantages of Low-Code for companies >
Sources
[1] https://www.webratio.com/site/content/en/news-detail/forecast-2023-low-code-platform-market
[3] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/composable-enterprise-applications-new-era-business-agility-jayaraj/
[4] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/packaged-business-capabilities-pbcs-what-sarah-halbrehder/
[6] https://www.webratio.com/site/content/en/news-detail/low-code-agile-development-platforms