NOVEMBER 20229Low-code/No-code Applications to Empow-er Indian IT ServicesIndian IT services providers have seen enhanced adhesion for low-code, no-code technology solutions. They enable non-technical professionals, or citizen developers, to quickly develop apps through simple drag and drop features and user-friendly layouts. Industry experts say the COVID-19 pandemic heightened interest in low-code, no-code technology as companies created digital applications for customers. Businesses have started using such technology as non-technical executives or citizen developers to create applications when entire workforces have shifted to a remote working model.Salil Parekh, chief executive of Infosys, said at a Nasscom conference last week, "we see more increased automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. These technology components will impact the business model because the way they communicate with customers is going to be automated, is going to be made by artificial intelligence".Tata Consultancy Services chief operating officer N. Ganapathy Subramaniam said that such technology has been helpful when `rapid prototyping is required' to demonstrate an application to a customer before deploying it across an organization. "For the purpose of quickly showing something to the client, you could use the low-code, no-code technology to quickly put together an app to say that, this is the way the given platform could work. One can then refine it, use it and then see whether it can scale", he said.While such solutions are predominantly given by technology leaders such as Microsoft, Amazon, Appian, Pega, and ServiceNow, Indian firms like Infosys, HCL Technologies, and Tech Mahindra are also building their low-code, no-code technology.Mrinal Rai, a chief analyst at technology consulting firm ISG, said, "Indian managed service providers regularly partner with pure-play low-code, no code platform vendors as well as with the hyper-scalers that now also offer this capability. They leverage the existing solution platforms to enhance their domain-specific capabilities". Further she added "There are some exceptions though. Infosys has developed low-code capabilities specifically targeting the banking industry. Tech Mahindra offers its own Phenom solution for low code. HCL announced Domino Volt - a low-code capability solution".Muzammil Patel, Global Head Strategy & Corporate Finance, Acies said "Despite financial institutions growing bigger, they had been staring at the prospect of disaggregation. New players, including finTech, neo banks, and consumer platforms, are chipping away at these traditional institutions".Maintaining/upgrading legacy technology still consumes approximately 75-80 percent of their technology budgets. This constrains the quantum of spend on the adoption of new cheaper technology and impairs their ability to compete effectively with new entrants. No-code platforms allow financial institutions an opportunity to break out of this vicious cycle and move to a path of optimized innovation.Future of Low-code/No-code ApplicationsAs per Gartner's forecast, low-code will be responsible for over 65 percent of application development activity by 2024. Low-code and no-code use is likely to progress among LOB workers, while more professional developers will also adopt it to help them with more ordinary programming tasks. According to Forrester, the top cities for low-code use are business process or workflow applications, web and mobile front ends, and customer-facing applications. But low-code has expeditiously become a standard practice for fast application development, as shown by adapting to COVID-19 pandemic-related scenarios such as employee contract tracing apps. Experts predict that eventually, low-code will expand into broader areas such as reengineering technology stacks and ecosystems.However, companies will practice traditional development for applications requiring extensive application functionality, data governance, and deployment to specific architectures or environments. Businesses have started using such technology as non-technical executives or citizen developers to create applications when entire workforces have shifted to a remote working model
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