Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
The Low-Code Movement Will Accelerate Enterprise Automation
By Craig Stewart, Chief Technology Officer, SnapLogic
2020 and the rapid, massive move to a remote, distributed, cloud services-based workforce will have lasting effects for years to come. This shift showed many companies the importance of both empowering employees with the tools they need to be successful, and embracing automation to help them become as productive as possible. This past year will be looked back on as a watershed moment for digital transformation at enterprises across the globe.
With that in mind, I believe that 2021 will see not just a continuation but an evolution of these themes. For years, pundits have been talking about the low-code/no-code development movement. Line of business employees would one day force technology use from the grip of their IT department by using these easy-to-use tools – tools that give them the power to build a new application or integrate data from various silos into the same place to make their jobs easier. After a few false starts, that day has finally come.
Experienced With Technology and Data
Millennials have grown up using technology to solve any problems they encounter. Now that they’re moving into management positions, there is no reason to think they’ll abandon the approach to problem-solving that helped get them where they are today. Their positive experiences using technology in a business setting to drive their personal success will lead to not just a continuation, but an expansion of what they personally apply technology to. This is why I believe that the low-code movement will evolve next year beyond simply building your own app to better use of data across the board to drive faster and better business outcomes.
Low-Code Tools Will Drive Automation
Low-code platforms will increasingly be used by these non-programmers to automate core business processes – not just day-to-day tasks. The benefits of automation are easy for employees to see; since day one, the promise of technology was to free us up from repetitive menial work and give us more time to spend on higher order activities that will actually move the business forward. The need to solve bigger problems or tackle projects of greater strategic importance can be a great driver for automation, as can the need to create better work-life balance. The pandemic and remote work has made both of these drivers rise to the surface. Employees at every level are on board for increasing automation, they’re doing it at home, and want to apply the same to their work.
A Focus on Outcomes
The user experience advancements in today’s low-code systems enables employees without a coding background to take on the task of better integrating applications and data from various sources within the company. Use of these self-service tools to drive productivity and efficiency, bring disparate enterprise applications together, and access real-time data for decision-making will also put more of a focus on the intent, or the goal, of the automation instead of the actual work it takes to make it happen. This focus on outcomes will help ensure that these automation efforts will succeed. Low-code tools will take pressure off IT departments (allowing them to focus on other priorities as well) and allow business users to automate their work but doing so on their own timelines.
It won’t happen overnight, but eventually in 2021, project schedules will shorten from months to weeks. A new wave of low-code-driven automation will free up time for both line of business employees and IT teams to concentrate their efforts on strategic activities more closely related to the overall growth and success of the company.
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About the Author
Craig Stewart is the CTO at SnapLogic, where he is responsible for leading the company’s product strategy and launches, roadmap, and evangelism. Craig is an experienced manager of technical teams with many years of experience guiding the evolution of data and application integration technologies. Over his career, he has been a significant contributor to the development of several fast-growing technology companies, including Oracle, Cognos, Powersoft, Sybase, iMediation, and Sunopsis.
