"The worldwide market for Low/No-code development technologies is projected to total $26.9 billion in 2023, an increase of 19.6% from 2022." - Gartner

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, organizations are looking for innovative tools to help them stay ahead of the competition. No-code solutions help organizations remain agile, build applications, and automate processes at a rapid pace to match the market and workplace demands.

Before the advent of No-code solutions, building an application took several months of hard effort from professionals with in-depth knowledge of programming languages and frameworks. To reach a satisfactory outcome, an application development cycle would require many hours of effort, unending trial and error, and highly skilled coding professionals. However, No-code solutions have transformed the app development and process automation cycle. It has empowered business users to build powerful applications to automate the way they work. Before moving ahead, let us take a step back and understand what No-code development is about.

What is No-code Development?

"No-code" refers to building applications or automating business processes without writing a single line of code. This can be achieved with a visual point-and-click configuration and pre-built templates, enabling business users to build custom applications and integrations without any coding skills. While No-code solutions have been around for many decades, they have gone mainstream and become essential for business success in recent years.

Benefits of No-code Solutions

"Low/No-code will account for more than 65% of application development activity by 2024." - Forbes

There are several reasons why organizations are looking to adopt No-code solutions. Some of the significant benefits delivered by such solutions include:

• Delivers Better Agility: With No-code solutions, organizations can create applications with point-and-click configuration using pre-built templates, simplifying, and accelerating app development. Users can concentrate on the results rather than preparing the application. Such a tool allows organizations to remain agile and respond to business demands faster.
• Reduces Costs: Costs of hiring a skilled development professional can be high. Keeping a team of experienced developers requires a lot of overhead costs. No-code tools allow organizations to bypass this expense. It is also important to note that building and launching an application quickly has other economic benefits.
• Enhances Productivity: Organizational agility and cost reduction would only mean something if employees could perform their tasks quickly. No-code solutions enable business users to build apps they need rapidly. The IT team is not overburdened with development requests and can concentrate on their SLAs.
• Seamless Flexibility: Traditional coding makes it difficult for organizations to change features or functionalities in an existing app, especially if the concerned programmer has moved out of the organization. A No-code solution can be changed easily to match the evolving business or workplace demands.
  

Why is No-code essential for SharePoint App Development?

SharePoint has established itself as a prominent leader in collaboration and document management, with widespread adoption by organizations worldwide. However, despite its many advantages, SharePoint is not without limitations. To unlock the platform's full potential, technologists must often customize their SharePoint environment, build applications, and automate complex business processes. This is where No-code solutions for SharePoint come into play. These solutions enable business users to overcome the limitations of SharePoint's out-of-the-box functionalities, resulting in reduced costs, faster project timelines, and other valuable benefits, such as:

• Catalyzes Business Process Automation: Business process automation is critical for the success of modern organizations. By automating processes, organizations can streamline workflows, improve efficiency, and address the challenges associated with manual operations. SharePoint provides a robust platform for process automation. No-code solutions enable businesses to develop custom SharePoint applications to automate processes without complex coding, using simple visual design options and user-friendly features. It empowers enterprises to transcend traditional methods and confidently embrace digital transformation.
• Delivers on "Data for Everyone" Promise: The global pandemic has underscored the importance of timely access to accurate data for effective decision-making. SharePoint offers a wealth of data and insights organizations can leverage to drive business growth. No-code tools enable businesses to create applications that extract meaningful results from disparate data sources, empowering decision-makers to make informed decisions based on analytical insights. Moreover, No-code tools allow business users to rapidly construct reports and dashboards using multiple datasets without requiring assistance from IT teams.
• Compliments "cloud-only" Trend: As global organizations significantly shift towards digitalization and the cloud continuum, adopting No-code solutions facilitates this transition. Traditionally, businesses reliant on on-premises environments faced difficulties migrating their business-critical applications to the cloud, as these applications are built solely for on-premises environments. However, No-code solutions enable organizations to seamlessly customize their critical business applications for the cloud, ensuring continued operational efficiency during migration.
• Fosters a Culture of Innovation: Digital transformation goes beyond implementing technology and streamlining processes. It involves the integration of advanced digital technologies to enhance the efficiency of existing business processes, from models and functions to people, perspectives, and operations. This transformative mindset has a cascading impact on the entire organization, ensuring the success of new initiatives. No-code tools are a valuable asset in this process, enabling employees to create and develop business applications quickly without requiring IT support, empowering them to drive their digital transformation journey.
  

Build Powerful No-Code Apps to Stay Agile and Proactive

In conclusion, the emergence of No-code solutions is revolutionizing the way organizations approach digital transformation. As businesses prioritize digitalization and adopt cloud technologies, No-code solutions will undoubtedly play an increasingly vital role in driving their success. With No-code tools, organizations can empower their employees to create custom applications and automate complex business processes without requiring extensive coding knowledge or IT support. It saves valuable time and resources while enabling organizations to remain agile and responsive to changing business needs. Therefore, embracing No-code tools is the next big step for organizations looking to stay competitive in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Arindam Ray Chaudhuri, COO at AgreeYa Solutions, has over 30 years of rich industry experience in the technology domain. He has greatly contributed to AgreeYa's software, solutions and services portfolio, by integrating a global team, defining the technology and business vision of products and services, establishing large scale client engagement and leading time, cost and quality driven value via project governance and solution engineering.