Why everyone is talking about low-code/no-code app development

How companies like Shell are using Microsoft Power Platform to empower their employees to unleash innovation and unlock value

It might be a cliché to say it, but it’s unquestionably true: today, every company is a software company. From retailers and manufacturers to accountants and public service providers, building applications at speed is a critical function of any organization. Taking control of your software development helps boost your agility, responsiveness, and fluidity — all essential for surviving and thriving in an increasingly digital-first world.

However, software development takes time, money and skill. So how can you develop business applications faster and without the need for expensive development resources? The answer is ‘Low-code/no-code’ development platforms.

Democratizing software development
In the last year, low-code/no-code platforms have become essential to digital transformation drives, particularly as companies grappled with the fallout of the pandemic, empowering organizations — and their employees — to build complex business applications quickly and easily.

Gartner expects the low-code/no-code market to total $13.8 billion in 2021, an increase of 22.6% from 2020. By 2025, it forecasts that 70% of new applications created by organizations will be based on low-code or no-code development platforms.

So, what exactly are these platforms, and why is everyone talking about them?

Ushering in the age of DIY apps
Low-code and no-code (sometimes referred to as ‘citizen development’) are a revolutionary breed of software development capabilities. ‘Low-code’ apps need some input from developers, while ‘no-code’ means just that: no coding is needed at all. Both low-code and no-code approaches use an intuitive visual interface, allowing re-usable, pre-built components to be dragged and dropped into place.

Thanks to these tools, almost any department or individual can unleash innovation by rapidly building and testing applications through a DIY approach. This takes the pressure off IT teams, freeing up their time to focus on more high-value and complex tasks. Low-code/no-code puts power into the hands of your employees.

It’s not just about building software faster: low-code/no-code app development lets your organization digitize business processes and integrate them with your core systems. This unlocks critical business data and putting in front of the people that need it most.

Microsoft Power Platform, which incorporates Power Apps, Power BI, Power Virtual and Power Automate, gives your organization the tools it needs to embrace the low-code/no-code revolution — and even lets you integrate with Microsoft Teams for maximum collaboration. With Power Platform, any employee can swiftly create digital solutions to overcome business challenges and spark creativity.

Shell: unlocking business value with the Microsoft Power Platform
As you’ll see in our latest Voices of Europe video, a powerful example of an organization benefiting from Power Platform is Shell. When Shell rolled out its citizen developer program, the company initially set a realistic goal of facilitating 2,000 DIY developers within the company. After all, it takes time, expertise, and governance to create secure and sustainable momentum for no- and low-code development.

However, Shell looks like it will soon surpass these expectations, having accrued well over 1,000 citizen developers in the first year of the program, and delivering — within six months — over $35 million to its downstream manufacturing business.

Not only has the Power Platform improved business agility and unlocked value at Shell, but it has improved company culture too. As Nils Kappeyne, the company’s VP of DIY Software Development, notes: “With DIY, we give people the opportunity to go after the value themselves. Plus, we inject fun and renewed energy into their jobs.”

Bringing IT and business together
Together, Accenture, Avanade and Microsoft empowers organizations to get maximum benefits from their Power Platform services, so that citizen developers can create business value, rather than adding to IT complexity.

Through our design-led approach, underpinned by strong data security and governance, we help our clients to accelerate from pilot experimentation to the use of low and no-code at scale.

Ready to unlock your organization’s potential with low-code and no-code development?
Contact us today at www.avanade.com/powerplatform