CIO Guide to No Code Development

A big part of the CIO's role is to create value through technology. While thinking about business applications, their choices can have meaningful financial implications in the short term and long term. Replacing outdated systems with modern solutions allows organisations to increase operational efficiency. But building and maintaining business applications is an expensive and labour-intensive process. Moreover, buying the ready-to-use applications often confines you to their pre-designed parameters as they are not built specifically for your business. This is where No Code platforms like DrapCode can be a game-changer.

What is No Code?

Before getting any further, let’s understand what is no code. 

No code is a new development in building technologies without coding. It allows users to build, launch and maintain software applications using a graphical user interface instead of writing long lines of complex code.

How does No Code Work?

No Code visual building blocks are pre-written codes which work as a layer between you & the programming language. This simplifies application development and makes it more accessible.

DrapCode is a no code development platform where users create web applications by visually configuring design & logical components representing both user-facing elements and back-end business logic.

So, when you configure these building blocks & create an application, Drapcode is generating a standard & optimized code that is ready to run on DrapCode or any public or private cloud of your choice.

The elephant in the room.

Before we get to the benefits of No Code platforms and challenges of No Code platforms, Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Is there a No Code platform powerful enough to develop the applications which you need?

The short answer is: Yes.

No code development is not a new technology. It has been around for decades; however most of the tools were focused on simple products like websites, ecommerce portals etc.

Today, a new generation of No Code platforms like Drapcode, Bubble, Adalo, Webflow, Airtable and Zapier has completely changed the landscape of what is possible with No Code. These platforms empower large and small organisations as well as startups to rapidly build and integrate scalable business solutions using no-code technology. Also, it allows them to effectively manage these solutions without requiring much manpower.

DrapCode is specifically built for enterprise-grade web application development with complete source code export functionality.

Also Read: 10 Reasons to Build Your Next Product Using No Code

The nitty-gritty

Now down to the nitty-gritty. Here is what to look for when you evaluate no-code platforms: make sure they offer the following capabilities:-

1. User Experience 

Any no-code platform you consider should make it easy to create frictionless user experiences that delight users while maintaining consistency across all devices and media.

DrapCode provides a 100% responsive design for web apps. Therefore, any web app built on DrapCode will smoothly run on different types of devices; be it a desktop, a mobile, a tablet, etc.

2. Integration 

No Code is ideal for getting the most out of your existing IT resources, but only if the applications you build can easily link to existing enterprise software and databases, whether on-premises or cloud-based.

Therefore, to speed up development, DrapCode includes pre-built integrations for webhooks, events, messaging, and notification platforms.

3. Events

If you hope to incorporate real-time data into applications, your platform should provide event-driven architectures that support loosely coupled, modern, distributed applications.

Therefore, with DrapCode, you can have your custom databases and multiple sources and still incorporate event-based real-time data updates into applications

4. Process and Content

Digital transformation is all about process automation, so your No  Code platform should allow developers to define and execute processes easily and have the flexibility to include multiple content types, such as contracts, images, video, and more.

This is why with DrapCode you can easily automate any business process. Also, you can have multiple levels of authorisations and role-based access.

5. Reporting and Analytics

Your solution should provide comprehensive auditing and oversight tools so your IT team can monitor application performance and make it easier to detect problems by allowing performance issues to be identified in real-time.

Therefore, DrapCode provides you with free plugins like Google Analytics, Survey Monkey, etc. to analyze your product’s performance.

6. Custom Coding

Don’t forget that in some specific cases your application may need some coding. So, make sure your No Code development platform provides robust tools that allow developers to add functionality with custom coding.

One such tool is DrapCode. Therefore, it won’t be wrong to call DrapCode a low-code platform alongside a no-code platform. With custom coding, you can add new features and functionalities to your web app and customise your web app.

7. Security

Data security should be your number-one priority when choosing an application development tool. Look for capabilities like application security checks, identity management, access control, encryption, and auditing.

DrapCode provides enterprise-grade security out of the box.

8. Scalability

The ability to scale your applications both in usage and complexity without degrading performance is what separates great No Code platforms from the merely good ones.

Therefore, DrapCode allows you to scale your application at any given moment in terms of features and uses.

9. Change Management

Your No Code platform should make it easy to extend your product lifecycles with iterative improvements over time and without adding any complexity.

Therefore, DrapCode allows you to push changes with just a click.

10. Governance 

Scale is not only about the number of users or application complexity; it is also about managing multiple development teams and governing large portfolios of applications.

Therefore, DrapCode offers a variety of tools to administer and govern the platform, apps, and users.

11. Multi-Tenancy

Modern enterprise applications and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications rely on multi-tenancy to share applications with thousands (or millions) of users while isolating their data from one another.

Therefore, Drapcode provides multi-tenant application development features. Watch how easily you can create a multi-tenant web application using DrapCode.

12. Data Loading and Sync

Consider how each platform loads data from external solutions and how each stays in sync with those sources.

13. Service-Level Agreements for Cloud Services

Research the service-level commitments that the platform vendors offer and how they handle outages.

DrapCode is hosted on AWS, which is one of the biggest & most trusted cloud service providers.

Consider Reading: Why Your Marketing Team Should Use A No-Code Platform

Benefits of No Code

1. No Code lowers the initial build costs

The cost of initial build for traditional software development comes from two sources; number of developers used, and amount of time taken. Over time applications complexity has only increased, they need to work on multiple browsers, devices and are connected to many third-party applications.

With DrapCode, Developers do not have to create everything from scratch rather they can use already existing configurable components to create applications which are already responsive to every device and browser.

Moreover, with DrapCode, organisations can take projects from ideation to market in weeks rather than months or years. Even better, the acceleration for initial build is also applicable for making changes down the line.

2. No Code lowers long-term maintenance costs

Maintenance of codebase applications is complicated, as most codebase applications have been relentlessly patched, edited, and added over the years by multiple developers who may have long since left the organisation.

Developers are forced to invest time in researching the legacy codebase they find themselves working on before they can make even small changes. Also, it slows down upgrades and impedes innovation.

No code development changes all this. No code completely separates application logic from the code underneath it. Therefore, in platforms like DrapCode, all technical changes are handled “underneath the hood,” so organisations only need to focus on optimising workflows and enhancing the user journey, not constantly updating and maintaining a codebase.

Even better with time users can learn to make changes themselves as everything happens visually and no coding experience required.

3. No Code Accelerates Time-to-Market (and Time-to-Value)

Thanks to the No Code visual development process, you can bring everyone to take part in the development process. This can be used to get internal feedback from key stakeholders to ensure core business requirements are being met early in the process, rather than months down the line during UAT.

DrapCode provides instantaneous preview features where users can give feedback immediately and help developers develop a ready to market application rather than a first iteration and so on till they go live.

By getting ready to market products, organisations can begin to realise value quicker than the competition. Also, first-mover advantage provides differentiation in the marketplace that can bring value for years to come.

4. No Code Amplifies Tech Team Productivity

Why the change in productivity?

It’s simple, they don’t have to create everything from scratch. Also, no code eliminates tedious coding tasks and allows developers to focus on building the value-adding solutions they were hired to deliver. In traditional technology teams, developers spend a lot of time on “work about work,” such as coordinating work efforts across teams, attending meetings to prioritise coding tasks, or dealing with legacy code.

However, with no code, tech teams can conceive, prototype, and create more projects in less time. The platform does much of the heavy lifting of development, so less-experienced developers can take on routine development tasks, while experienced ones can spend their time working on complex or unique solutions.

Are you ready to propel your business forward with no-code application development?

Today, almost every organisation around the world requires more system development talent. We know that no code is a panacea. However, it can address and solve the shortage of resources at least to some extent. Furthermore, over time, systems will likely become even easier to automate business processes and use cases. The former GitHub CEO, Chris Wanstrath, also said that no coding is the future of coding.