The COVID-19 outbreak has triggered a shift to digital transformation from organizations and a rise in demand for technological innovations with minimal expenditures. Since business agility has become the new norm, no-code platforms turn into popular choices for traditional hand-coding applications.

Despite the sudden spike in deploying new technologies such as AI to virtual reality, the software architecture that employs these integrations is also subject to constant evolution and development. Since no-code platforms are democratizing software development, removing the coding needed to make business changes opens the door for non-technical users to influence how their platforms work. Reports show that 60% of CIOs have their eye on no-code technology to boost IT and business productivity and agility. Another report indicates that by 2024, 65% of app development functions will be built with no-code technology. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through what APIs are, focus areas of no-code and APIs, and achieve business agility with no-code technology.

APIs

No-code platforms can only be genuinely exploited with the help of one enabler, which is application program interfaces(APIs). There’s nothing new up to this point about APIs, but this technology comes under the spotlight as it empowers the deployment of new applications to market quicker. Additionally, there is a growing demand for digital transformation from C-suite executives. Since the early days of component-based architecture, APIs have reached new heights but are still inspired by RESTful API. These make APIs easier to use and more accessible for other systems to discover what resources that API can provide to them.

Some APIs are open but are limited to specific scenarios and cannot be leveraged by external systems. To maximize the agility delivered by no-code platforms, the applications should be built on open APIs, and those APIs should also be used internally by the applications.

Enterprise applications can take it one step further by relying on ISO/ICE-approved OASIS Data, making things even more interoperable thus delivering more flexibility to end-user consumers. There is no question that, with the support of open APIs, companies can leverage no-code tools quicker to drive more business agility and value.

Focus areas of No-code

There are three focus areas APIs, and no-code can prove their business value which we will discuss further in the following sections.

Bringing the outside into the business

A robust architecture built on RESTful Data APIs gives organizations the ability to use no-code solutions to extend enterprise software on the outside to create task-specific apps or connect to other systems. With enough of these RESTful APIs, any no-code tool can be used to create targeted applications that interact with other systems running in a business. This becomes more and more important as organizations using no-code platforms are looking to orchestrate processes across multiple applications.

Smart Automation

No-code tools are also commonly used to tailor how enterprise software works internally, giving organizations more control. However, enterprise software platforms should offer intuitive no-code tools that will automate process steps and add machine learning capabilities for intelligent process automation(IPA). With the IPA capability embedded into software, any additional input needed for users can be captured automatically, rather than relying on users to find and perform tasks in other systems.

Time to deployment

The main benefit of using RESTful APIs is that an organization’s external and internal systems can automate processes, expand access to data, and create extensions to their enterprise software on the outside. Here’s where a no-code approach helps to develop new functionalities. New solutions can be built faster, cheaper, and with higher quality. Integrating a low-code, no-code Domain-Specific Language(DSL) into solutions helps create value more quickly.

Business Agility

No-code platforms offer plenty of benefits that can help any organization improve its productivity and efficiency. Additionally, in a world governed by sudden changes in customer demands and behaviour, business agility has become the way to do business. But how exactly do you achieve this with no-code technology?

For starters, think about budget constraints. As previously mentioned, no-code platforms and tools support cheaper and faster deployment. According to a Forrester Research survey, 70% of the organizations think that low-code, no-code platforms are more affordable than traditional development platforms. Additionally, 80% mentioned that these platforms could successfully meet budget requirements.

The next point in achieving business agility is flexibility. Using no-code tools, companies can save much more on resources involved in modifying the software by changing internally, unlike traditional complex builds. Furthermore, it empowers citizen developers to fill any workflow gaps for better results through drag and drop visual methods. In addition to this, the no-code platforms also provide responsive designs that adjust smoothly to different screen sizes. In other words, the write-once-run-anywhere approach eliminates the problem of maintaining different code bases for different target devices.

Another challenge towards business agility is integration. No-code technology can help organizations with this challenge as it allows data integration across multiple systems, giving users a deeper understanding of performance across departments. Some no-code platforms take it one step further by providing out-of-the-box reporting and analytics capabilities, along with an integrated version control system and one-click merge/publish feature. Simply put, with its simple approach to application development, no-code has the potential to redefine business agility. However, careful planning regarding its development and deployment is required to address all the needs of any enterprise.

Conclusion

As organizations feel the increasing pressure to quickly adapt working models to constant market changes, integrating technology into all aspects of their business is a critical factor that determines success. With its numerous features, no-code tools and platforms are becoming a mainstream technology as organizations turn to it to alleviate the support required from IT and development teams. However, success also depends on the accessibility provided by truly open APIs. Once this connection is established, the organization can only rely on a truly agile software backbone to set them up now and into the future.