Nowadays virtually every business, large or small, has to implement a digital strategy to thrive. However this Digital Transformation is often too slow because of the time it takes to plan, obtain and deploy the mobile-ready software applications.
For some vertical industry applications, mobile-ready packaged software may be available, but one must consider the substantial costs of : the initial licence purchase, the recurring yearly support licence charge and the compulsory version migrations every few years. It is unlikely that you will find packaged application software that addresses your specific mobility requirements and meets your process improvement objectives, because your ways of doing business are what makes you different from the competition. Having the package vendor customize the software is sometimes possible but risky, because the customizations might not be well supported by the vendor and also make future version migrations expensive.
Custom Mobile Apps are preferable to packages because they give you complete control over how to transform your processes and when to deploy new features. For custom apps, the key resource is the subject matter expert that knows the processes and is motivated to improve and transform them digitally.
There are two paths to build custom mobile apps : (1) native coded apps or (2) low-code apps.
Native coded mobile apps are built by IT developers who obtain the requirements from the subject matter expert. The advantages are the limitless functionality and perfect app user experience. The disadvantages are the substantial time and cost to understand the requirements and perform the project, especially if IT developers are a scarce resource.
Low-code mobile apps are built by the subject matter expert himself / herself using a set ot specific tools that are initially setup by IT. The advantages are the ability for the subject matter expert to apply process knowledge direcly to create the app therefore eliminate requirements misunderstandings, and the low cost and speed at which the app is progressively delivered to end users. The disadvantages compared to native apps are less flexibility in app functionality and user experience.
The ideal candidates for quickly building Low-code Apps by themselves and for accelerating your digital transformation are your non-IT employees that are subject matter experts and are also skilled at using new technology. For example, those who currently build spreadsheets to assist with planning and managing tasks and assets, or those who have started using computers at an early age, or who have played with web and blogging tools or even are inclined to building their own software. Such employees can become “business process innovators” that are driven by the confidence that they can progressively build applications to improve the productivity of their work group.
The role of your IT group is important for the success of Low-Code tools implementation. IT governance must verify platform security, approve external accesses and data exchanges, approve that new apps are complementary but not redundant with existing systems, and confirm if the deployed prototype apps can be used in production. IT operations must setup cloud and user accounts, and build file imports/exports for integration with existing systems.