Juggling the IT demands of your business can be a daunting task, with a myriad of different wants and needs to be balanced across different departments.
It’s a sad truth for many businesses that outdated business processes cost time and resources that could be better spent elsewhere. From seemingly simple tasks like resetting an employee’s password to something as time-consuming, yet critically important as invoice processing, clunky, siloed systems can take employees away from the work they were hired to do.
With IT experts often among the most overworked and in-demand employees, transforming tedious manual processes into automated digital workflows is likely to become just another entry on a long list of projects that take a backseat to more time-sensitive, critical tasks.
However, thanks to the rise of powerful new low-code platforms, ordinary employees are taking app development into their own hands.
The rise of citizen developers
Businesses looking for new ways to digitize their workflows are increasingly turning to companies like ServiceNow, whose Now Platform features a wealth of tools to enable low-code app development.
By adopting low-code app development tools, non-IT employees are able to take up the role of citizen developers, creating applications that solve the problems they are closest to. Because these citizen developers have an intimate knowledge of what works, what doesn’t, and what the end result needs to be, these apps are often more effective than those developed in-house in the traditional way.
So whether you’re trying to digitize existing manual workflows or create brand new processes, low-code can be an essential way to save your organisation time and money whilst still ensuring efficiency and quality.
Take, for example, the aeronautics manufacturing company that used ServiceNow’s App Engine to build a low-code application to manage its flight manual publishing processes.
Flight manuals are updated frequently using a process that involves many different stakeholders. While it might not sound critical at first, consider that without an up-to-date manual, an aircraft isn’t allowed to fly. One grounded airplane can translate into significant loss of time and money.
Instead of commissioning a costly bespoke publishing solution, they used low-code to create an application that automatically sends updates to the right editors, engineers, illustrators, and writers. All changes and updates are tracked within the app, making it possible to send updated flight manuals—whether hard copy or electronic—up to 75% faster than before.
The low-code, pro-code partnership
Low-code development is done in partnership with the IT department, creating a win/win situation in which pro-code developers are freed to tackle big hairy process problems while keeping an eye on the low-coders to ensure proper governance. Instead of simply handing wannabe citizen developers a completely blank slate, your IT professionals set the guardrails to avoid security risks, compliance issues, tech debt, and app sprawl. The result is rock-solid security and compliance through frictionless cross-functional collaboration.
This partnership is only possible with a low-code platform that connects the right players and processes.
The Now Platform provides a safe space for citizen developers to build their apps without risk to business resources. Once completed, IT determines how the app is implemented and assures governance and compliance before giving it access to your sensitive data—no need to worry about an update to one app affecting workflows elsewhere.
Don’t get left behind by the competition
Reliable and efficient digital workflows are one of the most important aspects to running a business, second perhaps only to skilled and dedicated employees.
Adopting the use of low-code app development processes hosted on a proven platform is one of the best possible tools you could employ to develop automated, digital workflows—and ensure your business stays ahead of the competition.