Introduction
Enterprises are under increasing pressure to “go digital”. Even before the pandemic accelerated this trend, 92% of companies believed their business models would need to change given digitization.
Digitization builds operational efficiency through the automation of complex business processes. It gives companies the means to address users’ rising expectations for digital services and engagements while allowing them to fend off “digital attackers”. Research also shows that the most digitally sophisticated companies have significantly higher revenues, better profits, and higher staff potential.
Still, companies are often hesitant to commit to investing large amounts of resources into digital transformation out of fear that as soon as a solution is sent to production, it will be outmoded by some newer technology.
That’s where a no-code application platform truly shines.
With no-code, organizations can easily evolve their enterprise applications without having to invest a lot of time or money. No-code applications allow companies to accomplish tasks faster and more cost-effectively, so they can serve their clients better while making good on the promise of their business objectives.
Your enterprise can use no-code to build and improve high-value solutions like back-end workflows, employee-facing applications, and digital self-service portals that automate intake procedures and elevate the customer experience.
Without the need to write or edit lines of code, no-code platforms also alleviate challenges of refactoring and technical debt. By enabling companies to spend less time on technical concerns, they allow for a greater focus on resolving business problems.
Here are four ways that Unqork’s no-code enterprise application platform blends rapid digitization with robust, low-maintenance flexibility to effectively future-proof your solution.
1. Make changes quickly based on marketplace feedback
In a previous technological era, it was a given that companies making changes to their applications software should expect a long, resource-intensive process. To stay ahead of today’s competitive curve, however, businesses must find ways to adapt quickly and make timely changes to their solutions in response to external feedback.
With no-code solutions, it’s easy to make continuous iterations as a matter of course because changes can be implemented much faster and with a significantly lower resource commitment compared to traditional code/low-code approaches.
Unqork’s no-code enterprise platform, for example, allows companies to build 3x faster and achieve higher-quality outcomes for one-third the price.
As a solution that completely divorces application logic from the technological underpinnings, Unqork leaves you free to design, build, and manage enterprise-ready applications software via an intuitive, visual user interface.
Visual programming accelerates development and empowers business users to participate in the process directly. Furthermore, since the platform handles so much of the heavy lifting, platform developers—or "Creators” as we refer to them at Unqork—can design complex processes without worrying about the code underneath. Indeed, a recent analysis also found that Unqork-built applications have 600x fewer bugs than those built using code. The same analysis found that the platform provided 99.99% uptime, so organizations can be confident their applications will always be available and ready to update.
Build out MVPs faster
As early-stage, pared-down, bell-and-whistle-free versions of your final product or application, minimum viable products (MVPs) are critical to gathering the ongoing feedback you need from customers and external stakeholders. But because building applications with code is complicated and time-consuming, code-based MVPs require an outsized commitment of resources to develop even the most basic iteration. Unqork’s drag-and-drop components and other built-in platform features make it easy to quickly develop a functional MVP.
According to Gartner, digital business acceleration is putting pressure on tech leaders to dramatically increase both application delivery speed and time-to-value. One of the biggest technical challenges associated with traditional code-based solutions, in fact, is the push to address evolving user expectations.
By simplifying application development, no-code lets you focus on business challenges instead of technical ones. The same acceleration that leads to rapid initial builds can also be counted on for making changes down the line.
Unqork positions your organization to respond quickly to marketplace feedback by enabling Creators to build and adapt custom solutions faster than what’s possible with code.
2. Outsource your tech maintenance
Companies spend massive amounts of resources upholding legacy code. By some estimates, 75% of the technology budgets of banks and insurance companies are consumed maintaining existing systems.
Keeping your software up-to-date is critically important, both for staying competitive in a rapidly changing market and for addressing evolving cybersecurity threats. But engineering change into outdated systems can be tough—especially in the case of substandard or undocumented software, or where the original design team is no longer available.
As technologies, business processes, and even workforces evolve, so must the code that supports them. The problem with keeping up with code, however, is that it doesn’t pay off—literally or figuratively.
If your enterprise is still using code, a significant portion of your tech spending is undoubtedly earmarked for:
- Addressing broken processes and functionality
- Paying off technical debt
- Maintaining legacy systems
Sustaining applications built on soon-to-be outdated languages, you can expect maintenance costs to continue to take a bigger and bigger bite out of your budget. You also risk exchanging a potentially profitable investment in innovation for non-revenue-generating upkeep.
That picture changes entirely, however, when you do away with code and all of its headaches.
Unqork’s no-code application platform eliminates the need to write or manage code altogether—simultaneously removing the need to constantly keep up with code’s changes, and empowering your organization to:
- Galvanize development teams. Unqork enables enterprise development while handling all the technical updates on the backend. That means you can effectively outsource your technological upkeep while emboldening Creators to innovate without fear of what changes may be lurking around the corner.
- Abolish change anxiety. Making changes to an application often necessitates reflecting those modifications throughout the application (a task that can prove difficult with code). Unqork executes many of these cascading changes automatically.
- Minimize workflow disruption. Working with a backend-supported solution like Unqork ensures that when you upgrade multiple elements of your digital infrastructure, workflows remain intact and any disruptions to your solution are mitigated.
Fixing and maintaining years of legacy code can take an enormous amount of developers’ time, increase overhead costs, and prevent organizations from dealing with business challenges efficiently.
By separating application logic from the codebase, Unqork lets your enterprise redirect crucial resources away from technological upkeep.
3. Easily expand enterprise functionality
Not only does Unqork allow for the seamless integration of modern systems with legacy technologies without any scripting, it also allows for easy configuration of APIs using plug-in components that expand functionality.
Google Cloud has suggested that digital transformation relies not just on an organization’s ability to package its services, competencies, and assets into modular pieces of software that can be repeatedly leveraged—but on expanding functionality by combining that software with valuable assets from partners and other third parties.
Hot new technology just arrived on the market? You can add it to your solution easily by leveraging Unqork’s advanced, no-code enterprise application platform.
Unlike code/low-code solutions that do little to offset the notorious complications of working with integrations, Unqork graphically represents all key software components—including third-party integrations—in a visual UI where they can be ordered and manipulated with ease.
Much like the integration tools that boost your favorite software apps, Unqork powers next-generation application development and expansion through native integrations with an ever-growing roster of leading technology partners.
These integrations enable your business to:
- Collaborate to meet customer needs. It’s a virtual given that today’s businesses must collaborate digitally to both stay competitive and bring vital offerings into their ecosystem. With Unqork’s no-code solution, building out connections between services couldn’t be easier.
- Ramp up operational efficiency. In addition to boosting system functionality, tech partner integrations are the key to improving the efficiency of your internal operations. Unqork only partners with trusted, enterprise-grade third-party services and applications that allow you to take the time saved automating repetitive tasks and processes and dedicate it to driving business value.
- Tame unwieldy legacy systems. Unqork’s platform and partner integrations ensure that, even if you can’t move away from your existing systems or solutions immediately, you’ll be able to connect the old to the new and keep services functioning smoothly as you continue your digitization.
Gartner predicted in 2018 that, through 2020, the integration work attached to digital transformation would demand 50% of an enterprise technology team’s resources—and that was before we knew COVID-19 would drive up demand for digital services.
Digital integrations haven’t just become essential for building the connections that power business growth, innovation, and value—leveraging them to do more of what your business does best ensures your end-users get what they need, streamlines your internal processes, and helps you stay ahead of the competition.
Unqork’s no-code platform is an effective way to optimize your enterprise by making it easy to expand your functionality.
The business impact of easy integrations
Unqork, along with partners SE2 and Life.io, built a life insurance solution that empowers carriers to rapidly build and effectively manage a broad range of offerings, including New Business, Customer Engagement, Illustrations, Accelerated Underwriting, and Digital Claims & Operations. As a result, carriers have realized:
4. Stay Innovative
When it comes to keeping your organization dynamic and relevant, unlocking innovation is a must.
Research conducted in 2014 found that more than 50% of companies on the Fortune 500 list had become obsolete since the turn of the century, largely as a result of digital disruption.
Now, given the heightened pace of digital transformation some twenty years on, it’s increasingly important for businesses to make thoughtful choices about their technology and innovation strategies.
Fortunately, keeping pace with digital transformation is entirely doable—so long as you opt for the right tools to innovate your business.
By investing in technology like Unqork to facilitate faster project ramp-up with lower costs, it becomes feasible for your organization to experiment alongside all the benefits of no-code with none of the risks attached to traditional development.
Experimentation plays an important role in gaining and maintaining a competitive edge in today’s fast-moving marketplace. Tech giants like Facebook and Alphabet, for example, would be hard-pressed to secure their positions as digital front-runners if they weren’t constantly researching, developing, and testing new products.
It’s true that many companies haven’t been in a position to invest in development projects that lack a sure outcome or clear value-add—especially when a traditional, code-based approach is involved. Between tech budget limitations and the high fixed costs of coded solutions, in fact, many of a company’s most daring solutions never make it to the development funnel.
Fortunately, no-code platforms like Unqork are changing all that.
With Unqork, enterprises are discovering they can alleviate development risk and clear the way to experiment with business problems in new, more innovative ways.
Final Thoughts
One of the biggest takeaways from the pandemic is just how important it is for large, enterprise-level companies to build up their digital resilience with the help of systems and platforms that boost adaptation.
IDC (International Data Corporation) projects that spending on digital transformation will only accelerate going forward as organizations shift their budget away from traditional and legacy tech spending and towards greater digital resilience.
Google Cloud’s State of the API Economy 2021 report confirms that not only are 75% of organizations continuing their digital transformation journey, but almost two-thirds of those companies are also increasing their investments.
For enterprises that have yet to embark on the journey to a future-proofed solution, it’s clearly time to get started.
Ready to see how no-code Unqork can rapidly append and amend your digital infrastructure to unharness innovation and help address business disruptions of any scale?
Contact us to set up a demo.
