Integration Platforms: When Low Code is of High Value

“Every company is a technology company.” It’s been said for years and is no less true today. All companies, regardless of industry, depend heavily on technology to run their business. If you accept that all companies are tech companies, then it follows that all jobs are tech jobs, right?

Of course there are roles identified as “tech roles” in IT, Support, and Engineering, among others. But there are many other jobs that aren’t thought of as technical, but still deal with some form of technology.

• Mechanics deal with engine diagnostic tools and shop management software.
• Nurses use clinical information systems and point of care technology.
• Law enforcement officers use drones and biometrics as well as GPS and body cameras.
• Retail managers deal with e-commerce platforms and shared ledgering technology.

The list goes on, but you get the picture.

Many of the aforementioned are basic end users. They cannot or do not dive into the coding or architecture that runs the systems they use. They do, however, need to be able to perform basic configurations and customizations. Think language or currency selection or choosing a geographic area of operation.

If technology consumers could not perform these basic customization tasks, then there would be an unimaginable workload placed on IT and support groups. The insurmountable backlog would render most of our technology useless and place progress firmly at a standstill. This is why many basic configurations have been democratized – taken out of IT and brought to the end user for completion.

Integration Democratization

A similar change is slowly but surely occurring within the application integration space. Many businesses today are earnestly pursuing digital transformation. Additionally, companies are using far more software as a service (SaaS) applications than they were just a few years ago. The global SaaS application market is expanding at a CAGR of nearly 28% between 2015 and 2020.

Cloud applications and on-premises applications and systems eventually need to be integrated so that they can communicate with one another. Much of this cloud integration work ends up filling IT’s queue and creating a significant backlog.

Fortunately, low-code integration platforms, like an iPaaS, can simplify the integration process, democratizing it so that line-of-business users can do some of their own configuring. Essentially, low-code iPaaS uses a drag-and-drop interface and predesigned templates that enable users to configure apps and integrations quickly and easily. This takes some of the task completion burden off of IT, but still enables data flow and strategy oversight, as well as permissions and access management.

The use of low-code integration platforms, low-code application development platforms, and low-code software solutions empowers the end user to be a part of delivering simple technical solutions for the business, like a Salesforce integration or integration with NetSuite. This simultaneously frees IT to 1) work on more complex, innovative projects and 2) to provide strategic guidance and thorough oversight.

There are groups opposed to accepting this low-code enabled democratization, for one reason or another. IT staff worry it will affect job security. Others feel it is too limited and not helpful enough. Despite the opposition, the low-code movement appears to be progressing, expected to experience 68% revenue growth by 2019. This is good news for those interested in speed, agility, and competitive progress.