In 2020, Forrester had predicted that 50% of developers will use a low-code product. And then the pandemic happened. Instead of derailing the prediction — like the pandemic did for most trends of last year — it accelerated it. So much so that Forrester predicts that the “accelerated adoption of low-code platforms will change how teams organize.”
Today, low-code is no longer one of the many tools that help development, but a strategic initiative that fundamentally shapes the way software delivery will happen. Enterprises already understand this. For independent software vendors (ISVs) though, this can be a different ball game.
As a ‘software company', most ISVs pride themselves on having excellent developers, building products that are robust, customizable, secure and scalable. For long, low-code development was seen as a means for citizen developers or business users to build prototypes, which then the ‘real developers' built by hand. With reason.
Most low-code development platforms available today can not handle complex business logic or application requirements.
Until now.
If there is one change that 2020 has brought to the world, it's the widespread acceptance of remote work. For employees to work remotely, enterprise software needs to work remotely as well. This shift to the cloud, and perhaps a SaaS model, requires ISVs to rapidly modernize their software. Low-code can enable that.
Low-code can make software development faster by 10 times, as compared to traditional methods. Features like reusable elements, drag-and-drop and process modelling let individual developers or small teams release in days or weeks! Pair it with an agile-DevOps process, and it can modernize legacy applications to support enterprise needs of the future, without any disruption to current paying customers.
With low-code:
ISVs often maintain multiple implementations of their products for each customer. Even when on cloud, modernizing applications across these implementations — and their customizations — can be a complex endeavor.
Low-code platforms like WaveMaker leverage component-based models and micro-services with session-less architecture to build large, customizable applications at scale. With simple API integrations, ISVs can also ensure their applications work seamlessly with a wide range of other software that the client uses.
With low-code:
The biggest advantage of low-code development is that it doesn't require ‘specialists' for every function. A lean team of professionals can use low-code to build or modernize an entire application. With powerful abstractions over technical programming, low-code platforms can empower development teams, making it easier for non-specialists, junior programmers and even citizen developers to build software.
Low-code reduces expenses both for the ISV and their end customers. It also frees ISVs from the expense of regular maintenance, while reducing development costs multi-fold.
With low-code:
Unlike most low-code platforms, WaveMaker is built to handle extreme customization, enterprise-grade security and scale, all of which are essential for ISVs.
If you’re an ISV looking to leverage enterprise-grade low-code technology to modernize your application, get a demo or contact us here.
