Turkey’s voting for Xmas? Why DTL is embracing Low-Code and Co-Code

At DTL we have seen our customers increasingly looking to run their business more effectively by using digital technology in a number of ways :-

1. using a data-driven approach to make better decisions and increase operational efficiency and transparency for the organisation

2. reduce costs and improve time to value by automating previously manual or poorly connected systems and processes using digital workflow automation technologies

3. improve staff and customer experience by delivering digital capability to them that increases brand connection and loyalty whilst capturing valuable customer insights

This is also a time when there are not enough skilled developers able to deliver against market demands using a traditional custom development approach.

There has therefore been a surge in the use of Low-code and No-code platforms to give organisations new options to consider when looking to speed up the digital transformation process within their organisation.

In our conventional software development, we write lines of code to create the functions and features desired for an application. This process requires us to have in-depth knowledge of computer languages, as well as development environments, deployment processes and testing protocols. Not to mention access to an analyst to help translate the business speak to one that developers can use to build applications.

Low-code and no-code platforms encapsulate a lot of this work behind the scenes. Users can visually select and connect reusable components that represent particular steps or capabilities which contain the actual code and link them together to create the desired data-model, database, workflow and business rules.

Low-code and no-code platforms speed the development and delivery of applications — a critical element as organsiations race to meet worker and customer demands or be disrupted by others who do so.

These platforms can put more problem-solving capabilities into the hands of non-IT professionals, for example the Business Analysts and Subject Matter Experts so that everyday workers can quickly and easily create business apps that help them do their jobs or help create protypes to take to their CIO’s to assist in the process of application requirements analysis and development.

You might think that for DTL as a software development company supporting the Low-code No-Code movement is like Turkey’s voting for Xmas!

However, we believe that these platforms enable DTL to quickly create apps for commodity functions and then tweak them to deliver even more value, or mentor “Citizen developers” i.e. those without formal development experience, to understand a hyper-agile iterative application development lifecycle, the data modelling and data security that is still required and the integration aspect to other systems and processes that often get overlooked to really produce a business application for the enterprise.

Without IT governance, value can be lost at every step of the journey, resulting in a solution with a delivered value far below the initial expectations. In turn, this causes an aversion to future innovation projects. It is often the case that while citizen developers know what they want to develop, they are not always sure of what design guidelines to adhere to. DTL can help citizen developers select the appropriate design framework, adhering to those subsequent design guidelines and the appropriate low-code platform.

These new platforms also enable DTL’s junior and intermediate developers to get valuable knowledge and business exposure in developing prototypes and innovative tactical apps that businesses need now whilst freeing up our senior engineers and architects to focus on the more complex systems that will generate unique competitive advantage that custom code can bring longer term.

DTL truly believes in the concept of Co-Code or a fusion team; that is the collaboration of the right group of people at the right time with the right technology, to collectively deliver a solution to solve a business problem. Co-code connects the knowledge and expertise of those closest to the business with the IT governance and coding skills of professional developers.

Low-code tools alongside a Co-code fusion team approach provide a powerful mix that can help maximise value during the delivery of applications.

DTL therefore believe there is a future where co-code implementations, supported by a robust low-code platform, would allow fusion teams to confidently deliver solutions which minimise technical debt and deliver on expected value across IT and the business.

We have already started this journey with our teams by training them on the Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate Platforms and becoming a TrackVIA implementation partner in New Zealand.

This gives us tremendous scope to service our customers and collaborate more effectively to meet their challenges as they digitally transform.

DTL intend to be a strong partner for customers looking at both low-code and custom code application solutions. We Listen, We Solve, and We Transform your business.