Demand for no-code and low-code platforms will continue to grow. There are several reasons for this. Personnel resources in IT departments are limited. At the same time, the market requires ever faster delivery of apps and applications. As a result, speed is increasingly becoming a differentiator and competitive advantage for companies.
No-code and low-code simplifies application programming by using pre-built blocks through a graphical user interface. We asked plazz AG CEO Jürgen Mayer and CPO Stefan Heinz for an interview where they tell us about no-code and low-code approaches and how these approaches are reflected in Polario.
Is the no-code approach merely a trend or already a permanent feature that will shape the future?
Jürgen Mayer: I can report a whole lot of momentum in the no-code and low-code market. The plazz AG has been developing no-code solutions for the international event and employee sector for 10 years. Nowadays, companies that want to keep pace with international competition have to be very fast and dynamic. Against this background, ever shorter life cycles for products and services therefore present companies with particular challenges. So-called no-code and low-code solutions are developing rapidly and seem to be becoming the new industry standard. According to the market research company Gartner the future of software development will lie in reducing programming effort to a minimum (low-code) or creating apps completely without coding (no-code). Gartner predicts that by 2024, about two-thirds of all applications will be built on a low-code or no-code application platform.
No-code and low-code is currently on everyone’s lips. What could be the reasons for this?
Jürgen Mayer: The trend toward no-code and low-code development has many origins: the technical realities, changing demographics, the lack of developers. Gen Z users have grown up digitally. They expect business software to be intuitive to use – just as they know it from their private apps on their smartphone or tablet. To achieve this, it is necessary to bundle the individual steps of a business process into an automated, continuous and clear end-to-end process. When we as plazz AG have to participate in tenders and use some platforms, we see what incredible legacy IT is still in use in Germany. Actually, in this day and age, a total no-go.
What do you see as the USPs in no-code and low-code solutions?
Jürgen Mayer: Users usually use standardized modules that can be assembled via the graphical interface using simple menu navigation. This no-code development environment thus enables employees who have no connection to technology in particular to create their own applications or program sequences without having to struggle with programming languages. Scarce resources of IT departments and programmers can be easily expanded by employees from specialist departments. Prefabricated modules also make it easier and faster to program processes.
Stefan Heinz: No-code and low-code thus means time and resource savings, more creativity in implementation and more flexibility in short-term adaptation.
How do you describe the no-code approach in Polario?
Stefan Heinz: Polario pursues the idea of managing a technically complex platform in the same way as one creates and maintains websites nowadays. Away from a rigid catalog of requirements, away from the dependency of IT staff and towards self-service or managed service with Polario. To achieve this goal, however, it is necessary to work out one’s own use case from generalized modular building blocks or to recognize their potential and to interpret and implement them individually.
Due to the individually editable UI using the no-code approach, changing a color, swapping a logo or placing a button after the fact is hassle-free. In Polario, nothing more than CMS access and knowledge of what needs to be changed is required. As with an HTML-based website, the content management system the interface and administration interface for the product. However, the difference is that we play out changes in 3 different systems (web app, native iOS app, native Android app) and thus reach the target audience on each platform with the best possible user experience.
What can the customer expect with the Polario no-code platform?
Stefan Heinz: Polario sees itself as a platform. The platform has a constantly growing and maturing range of functions. Currently, Polario’s no-code feature set maps to over 40 functions. This is based on essential features and is constantly being expanded by the community and the associated requirements. As a Polario customer, you can add, customize or remove functionality at any time, with just a few clicks and without in-depth programming knowledge. Thus, each Polario product is to be considered individually and changes in its characteristics during the period of use.
An elementary feature of Polario is the autonomous user or rights and role management. What is meant by this?
Stefan Heinz: Polario serves different use cases. What they all have in common, however, is the desire for a distinctive User and role management. Therefore, the platform offers not only the possibility to administer user profiles, but also to build or import segmentation into groups. Among other things, these (target) groups are the basis for distributing functionalities and content in a targeted manner and for controlling access to them. With role management, the platform also allows administrative tasks to be assigned, for example, to moderate user content in the apps. Both tools, user administration and role management, can be fully managed via CMS and adapted at any time.
How will Polario make it possible to build workflows and processes independently?
Stefan Heinz: With the help of Polario Workflows, complete processes can be automated and digitized. Similar to the models like Zapier and Co is about the independent creation, editing and management of automated processes. These include business workflows such as Online registrations, traditional employee purchasing, monthly newsletters, booking workshops or scheduling appointments. These and many more scenarios are possible thanks to the modular construction kit and can be adapted or developed together. The goal of every Polario workflow is self-sufficient configuration and maintainability.
What does the future hold for the Polario no-code platform?
Stefan Heinz: plazz AG is constantly developing Polario further. This also includes communicating with customer IT structures, for example to include existing services. Therefore, a majority of the features can ingest data from external sources or provide data to other platforms. In addition, more and more links will be provided “out of the box” in the future. That means there are standard integrations like live streaming, cloud services, voting or quiz tools. This expanded the use cases enormously and all integration is configured with just a few clicks.
Learn more about No Code and Low Code in our continuing blog article.
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