We are experiencing a renewed industrialization of software development. Companies are increasingly differentiating themselves from their competitors through customized IT solutions. The cost of developing tailor-made solutions, which must also be harmonized with the company's data strategy, is correspondingly expensive and slow. The off-the-shelf solution often does not meet the requirements to be a leading company in its own sector.
How do innovative companies deal with increasing digitalization in terms of scarce resources in the form of IT experts, costs and time?
Everything that can be digitized will be digitized. Fully digitalized companies not only have an extreme competitive advantage, but are also more attractive employers. This change affects almost all processes in every specialist department. Low-code is playing an increasingly important role in the implementation of applications. The benefit is easy to explain: affordable individuality that can be permanently maintained - i.e. has a long life cycle and is more inclusive, as specialist departments can not only get involved ("citizen developers"), but can also build some solutions independently.
A critical success factor is the right platform for the right problem class. Corporate IT is quick to desire a one-size-fits-all solution that can solve generic problems. Experience teaches us otherwise. All-in-one platforms degenerate into comprehensive programming environments, and the development of the necessary complex technical building blocks eats up important resources. Only domain specialization brings real productivity gains. Platforms that solve specific technical problems, but can be extended almost at will, provide the right breeding ground for scalable and efficient development of business benefits.
A concrete case: Project and portfolio management in the pharmaceutical industry
The organization, orchestration of resources, identification and product and portfolio planning in the pharmaceutical industry are an important factor for the success of research and development of new drugs.
The use of a project and portfolio management ("PPM") solution is an absolute must in order to optimally coordinate the complex interplay of deadlines, resource and cost planning. Outside of this core process, however, every department has an incredible number of peripheral processes that are often not even recorded by IT and are implemented in shadow IT (e.g. based on email processes or non-compliant Excel solutions).
This is precisely where the strength of a PPM solution with low-code functionality comes into play. The specific challenges in the core discipline are realized by the finished and well thought-out components - the peripheral processes can be implemented individually, quickly and leanly with the help of Citizen Developer.
Organizations that, as in the case described above, use their specialist departments as citizen developers and allow them to create solutions, promote over 33% more innovation than comparable companies that do not pursue this approach [1].
And how does that fit in with data and strategy? Why does every solution have to be a data product?
Of course, every digital solution produces data. Today, it is vital for companies to integrate the data from each solution into the corporate data strategy. This is because data is often only meaningful in combination. In this respect, low-code solutions must also make data products available to the general public so that a comprehensive picture is created, insights can be derived and no one has to make bad decisions.
Solutions also mature over time. Once a process has been run through 50, 100 or 500 times, the data on the process becomes increasingly meaningful. The system may be able to learn, assist later and ultimately even automate sub-steps. Individual low-code solutions must therefore also benefit from data & AI.
All in all, the following aspects of software development are irreplaceable for companies:
- The combination of domain-specific solutions with domain know-how and a suitable low-code platform.
- Skilful integration into the overarching theme of data & analytics and the right data strategy for the company - which we at Dataciders can also offer our customers in full.
