Why low-code
technology is
the future of
all business
Fueling innovation and fast-tracking change, low-code is poised to disrupt every industry you know
Low-code was making a name for itself even before the extraordinary events of 2020. But when the pandemic forced businesses to make unprecedented changes at an unprecedented pace, organizations came to rely on low-code technology like never before. Across all industries — from healthcare and higher education to the financial sector and beyond — low-code has proven key to fast-tracking adaptation to change for the world’s largest organizations: be that by rapidly connecting dispersed employees and data, building workforce safety and contact tracing apps, implementing digital-first banking, or moving entire educational institution programs online.
“The pandemic sent
shock waves through
a lot of different
industries, accelerating
the pace of change.”
Low-code development replaces complex coding with simple drag-and-drop composition — like drawing a flowchart. This means low-code empowers professional developers to deliver more faster, while empowering non-technologist business people to be actively involved in solving their own problems at a rapid clip. Companies seeking an extra edge, and fast, are increasingly turning to Appian — a leader in low-code — to rapidly discover, design and automate processes through new software applications. The need for greater speed and agility became obvious in 2020.
“The pandemic sent shock waves through a lot of different industries, accelerating the pace of change,” agrees Todd Lohr, a principal in KPMG’s Technology-Enabled Transformation practice. “Suddenly, there was this need for entirely new technologies and applications that, as a business leader, you would’ve never thought you needed one month prior.”
Finding fast
solutions
Finding fast
solutions
At this crucial moment for low-code solutions, Appian stepped in and led the way, realizing the technology’s impact across a dizzying array of sectors. Take healthcare as an example. Managing the deluge of patient data during the pandemic was made easier for healthcare providers via Appian’s Intelligent Document Processing. This low-code AI and machine learning solution turns unstructured data into useful enterprise information, automating activities like filing patient information, so medical staff can access data faster and provide more transparent and responsive care.
It’s thanks to such swift and game-changing innovations that, according to Lohr, “We’re now starting to think about true digital transformation in healthcare. The pandemic has shined a light on the need to modernize architecture, be able to scale, and do more around integration and patient access.”
On modernizing architecture, he adds: “Historically, it’s really hard to remove legacy applications because of their criticality, extensiveness and cost. Low-code is changing the paradigm of how quickly you can replace those frameworks.”
And the need for rapid innovation isn’t going anywhere. Remote and hybrid work have raised new security concerns and a spate of logistical challenges, from virtual troubleshooting to onboarding new employees based in vastly different locations. At the same time, high demand for developers is creating a skills gap that, without the advent of low-code, would leave many organizations behind.
As a result, roughly 85 percent of developers believe their companies will implement more low-code and no-code technologies in future. The global market value of low-code is projected to total $13.8 billion this year, a 23 percent spike from 2020, and could reach $45.5 billion by 2025.
“Businesses can’t afford the amount of time we used to spend on creating an application,” says Gaurav Shekhar, program director of the graduate Business Analytics program (Flex and Online) at the University of Texas in Dallas. “And we not only need speed, but we need quality and security along with it. Low-code platforms help with all those aspects.”
“The pandemic sent
shock waves through
a lot of different
industries, accelerating the pace of change.”
FOLDER
the potential to reduce
development time by 90%
A critical technology for
critical sectors
A critical technology for
critical sectors
Most if not all industries have had to adopt new digital solutions over the past 18 months. And for certain critical sectors of the economy, low-code has been a vital tool, enabling quick and seamless responses to high-pressure, high-stakes situations.
The financial industry, for example, also faced a new and extraordinary set of challenges last year. When Congress passed the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a federal initiative providing funding for small businesses to cover payroll costs and keep workers employed during the pandemic, commercial banks across the U.S. were tasked with implementing new lending products in the span of only two weeks: an “unheard of” responsibility, according to Jason Bloomberg, president of Intellyx, a boutique analyst firm focusing broadly on enterprise digital transformation.
Rolling out a brand-new product typically takes two years or more, and this product also needed to be integrated with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) on the backend. “The only banks that were able to do it had to use low-code,” Bloomberg says.
Again, it was Appian that led the pack. Many banks leaned on Appian’s low-code solution, which could be up and running in days and gave banks ultimate adaptability, whether they needed to assess PPP applicants’ eligibility or deliver compliance reports to the SBA.
The healthcare sector, meanwhile, didn’t just need fixes for accessing patient data. Hospitals began relying on the Appian platform to coordinate care, including applications that show whether staff, facilities and materials are available, and that streamline patient transfers to other care providers.
For certain critical
sectors of the
economy, low-code
has been a vital tool
enabling quick and
seamless responses
to high-pressure,
high-stakes situations.
“All of those technologies are part of the patient care story, so you have to support those with applications and they all have to be HIPAA-compliant,” Bloomberg explains. “Low-code can help with prioritizing patient care within the guardrails of regulatory compliance.”
In the higher education sector, the shift to providing remote and hybrid learning also meant creating new products and moving other services online. Faculty support, staggered scheduling for classrooms and buildings, onboarding of international students and scanning of vaccine passports are just some of the new needs.
In answer, the CampusPass solution, a collaboration between Appian and leading universities, acts as a digital hub for pandemic-related data — including location-specific virus testing, contact tracing and isolation protocols — so departments university-wide can access data and respond appropriately. And there’s no need to worry about whether the new application will mesh with a university’s existing ones.
“Low-code is a great way to pull together capabilities from disparate applications,” Bloomberg adds.
For certain critical
sectors of the
economy, low-code
has been a vital tool
enabling quick and
seamless responses
to high-pressure,
high-stakes situations.
FOLDER
development will be responsible
for more than 65%
of application development By 2024, low-code
application development
will be responsible for
more than 65% of
application development
Fuel for future
innovation
Fuel for future
innovation
Even as low-code is shaping key industries now, experts in the technology field believe there’s no sector of the economy that won’t be using low-code in the future.
“This isn’t something that one industry is going to do over another,” says Lohr. “They’re all going to look to low-code to fill in their tech stack for certain areas, to modernize and provide agility, and manage and automate their business.”
Of course, large organizations across all industries have complex workflows that need to run as smoothly as possible, even in the face of rapidly changing conditions.
And as industries consider what comes next, beyond the particulars of the pandemic, Appian low-code automation platforms can help streamline and optimize essential processes: from IT service management to HR and payroll operations.
“Enterprises should spend their time focusing on meeting business needs and addressing competitive pressures,” Bloomberg emphasizes. “And that’s exactly what low-code gives them.”
“To on-ramp an employee you need to get them a badge; that’s facilities. You need to get them a computer; that’s IT. You need to get them in the salary system; that’s HR or a third-party payroll system. So how are you going to carry out multiple steps across multiple applications, including some third parties?” Bloomberg asks.
The answer, he says, is unequivocally low-code: a now-critical technology for agility and growth.
“Enterprises should spend their time focusing on meeting business needs and addressing competitive pressures,” Bloomberg emphasizes. “And that’s exactly what low-code gives them.”
“Enterprises should
spend their time focusing
on meeting business needs
and addressing competitive
pressures. And that’s exactly
what low-code gives them.”