Cloud computing transformed the way organizations thought about information technology. Once they could achieve infrastructure as a service (IaaS), they no longer had to think about the hardware they were running or whether servers needed to be upgraded. Once they could access application functionality through software as a service (SaaS), they no longer had to worry about feature updates and security patches.
In other words, the cloud enabled businesses to reap all the advantages of technology while freeing them to focus on outcompeting rivals, winning new customers, and growing the business.
Now, no-code application development is taking enterprise technology to the next level of abstraction – and liberating businesses from the last constraints of self-managed infrastructure. By consuming no-code application development in a SaaS model, your company can achieve a new computing paradigm: codeless as a service (CaaS).
CaaS enables you to abstract away application development. Your development platform is simply a service in the cloud. This codeless architecture allows you to create and continually improve the application and workflow functionality you need, whenever and wherever you need it. You gain a new ability to focus on solving business problems and building business value.
7 Tangible Ways CaaS Can Help Your Business Now
A cloud-based no-code app builder empowers both professional application developers and nontechnical line-of-business employees to create webforms, applications, and workflows. Users drag and drop prebuilt software components to design the user interface, define the data inputs and outputs, map the workflow, and so on. This visual, modular approach lets your people quickly and easily improve business operations and deliver new services.
Here are seven ways a codeless architecture can benefit your organization:
1. Lower costs – A no-code app builder equips nontechnical users to create and continually improve the software functionality you need. Virtually any employee can use the tool with little or no training. You save money by reducing the need for costly developers and development processes. You also gain the efficiencies and increased productivity of custom applications and workflows that meet your unique business requirements.
2. Reduced complexity – A CaaS model frees you from the cost and complexity of managing development infrastructure, from code repositories to quality testing. With a no-code tool, the code is generated automatically, and quality assurance is built in. Embedded APIs smoothly integrate your no-code applications with enterprise solutions such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and DocuSign. And your IT department is freed from supporting and maintaining your cloud-based no-code tool.
3. Greater agility – CaaS enables your organization to scale development up and down to meet changing requirements. There’s never a need to invest in expensive hardware infrastructure. What’s more, your ability to quickly create custom applications and workflows means you can address unique business demands and respond with speed to changing market conditions.
4. Stronger cybersecurity – Your cloud-based no-code tool is protected by your CaaS provider, with strong cloud security and continually updated security patches. Just as important, the no-code software you create is inherently secure, with prebuilt software elements already tested and verified for security and privacy. You can rest assured that customer, financial, and other sensitive information captured in your no-code forms, applications, and workflows remains protected.
5. Improved efficiency – No-code enables “citizen developers” in your lines of business to imagine, design, and create software to their own specifications. It empowers the people who understand your processes best to digitize and continually improve them. The result is faster workflows, fewer errors and omissions, higher productivity, and employees who are more engaged and efficient.
6. Closer collaboration – Enterprises invest large sums in collaboration tools to get their people to work together. But they could be missing the opportunity to drive collaboration through no-code applications and workflows. No-code encourages teams to work together to design the most efficient, effective ways of digitizing operations. And because a no-code app builder enables teams to create and continually improve customized capabilities, team members are more likely to follow approved workflows and collaborate toward business goals.
7. Faster speed to market – Finally, CaaS can optimize your return on investment (ROI) in application development. No-code enables you to envision, design, create, and deploy new functionality in days or weeks, not months or even years. You can quickly implement new internal processes to respond to competitive threats. You can rapidly roll out new services to customers to stay one step ahead of rivals. Recognize a new market opportunity? CaaS lets you respond at the speed of your business.
IaaS and SaaS abstracted away your organization’s hardware and software infrastructure. Now, CaaS is taking technology abstraction to the next level, freeing your organization from the cost, complexity, and distraction of traditional application development. With an effective cloud-based no-code platform, new application and workflow functionality are always available, just waiting to be tapped into. You can move beyond thinking about underlying technology to focus on building value for your business.
