Low-Code Decision Management for Higher Business Agility
Low-code/no-code programming is a method of designing, building, and deploying digital solutions using minimal code or no code at all. Instead of a traditional software development kit (SDK), low-code/no-code development platforms employ intuitive drag-and-drop features and visual modelling tools to create, test, and run software applications.
This approach essentially turns programming from a technical to more of a visual task.
The upsides of low-code/no-code development are pretty obvious. Most notably, there are barely any programming or coding skills involved in low-code/no-code development, meaning business users can easily build complex systems on the fly. Also, developing without writing code cuts programming time considerably. Systems that would typically take days to build can take mere minutes on a low-code/no-code platform.
That’s why the low-code/no-code approach has become so popular among enterprises. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 70% of new applications developed by organizations will use low-code or no-code technologies.
Let’s look at the value low-code/no-code development brings to business automation.
Low-Code/No-Code Approach in Decision Management
With the proliferation of customer and employee-facing digital systems, apps, chatbots, and websites are now tasked with making critical business decisions based on virtual interactions. And this is a good thing in a world that’s increasingly reliant on digital technologies.
There are several tools, such as IBM’s Operational Decision Manager, that enable business users to automate and programme decisions in digital experiences. However, business decisions are not set in stone. Business decisions are governed by business rules, which are themselves highly dynamic.
Understanding Business Rules
Business rules are criteria used to guide day-to-day business actions and operations. Rules dictate how various business processes are performed. For instance, business rules may determine the services or products available to specific customers, each employee’s privileges and duties, the step-by-step procedures for service/product delivery, and the company’s policies.
You can have business rules around the following categories:
- Eligibility — What are business users and customers allowed to do or access in certain scenarios?
- Validation — Are user inputs and interactions valid for the particular use case or request?
- Computation — How do the back-end systems process information?
- Process — How are the various requests routed and handled?
- Authority — Who or what can make or override certain decisions?
Business rules change from time to time. The governance around customer, employee, and stakeholder interactions with the business must keep pace with rapidly changing business, market, and regulatory landscapes. Also, as the business grows, it might need to change how it does things, meaning that the underlying rules must also change.
“For about 20 years, we’ve been working with a large custom broker. And over the years, we probably changed the business rules around custom clearance at least once a month.” — Alexandre Lanoue, VP & Leader, Business Reimagination, SIA Innovations
Changing business rules in digital systems often means reconfiguring or coding new instructions in enterprise software applications. The update can take days and requires skilled programmers to pull off. Surely, with modern programming technologies, updating business rules and, by extension, decision management shouldn’t be this difficult, time-consuming, or demanding. That’s where the low-code/no-code approach comes in.
The Benefits of Low-Code/No-Code Decisioning Automation
Why is the low-code/no-code approach in business automation so important? To answer that, let’s discuss the top five benefits of automating decision management using low-code/no-code techniques:
Faster Decision Management
Low-code/no-code decision management speeds up development cycles. This means faster designing, prototyping, and deployment processes for decision-based digital business solutions.
Speed is essential when it comes to decision management. As we mentioned earlier, the slightest changes in business rules may demand a major update in a system’s decision flow. And the sooner you can make such updates, the sooner they can take effect. Keep in mind that delays in decision management can result in service downtime, hurting customer or employee digital experiences.
Bridging the Tech Divide
With a low-code/no-code development platform, any business user (with enough rights) can create and deploy functional digital solutions. This possibility fosters citizen developers within the organization. Citizen developers are employees who create digital tools for themselves or others using the resources available to them.
Without the need for coding or programming skills, any employee can become a citizen developer. This bridges the tech divide that stands in the way of in-house solutions development, democratizing and accelerating innovation.
Considerable Cost Savings
Citizen developers can take over automating and updating business decisions in digital systems. That way, you won’t have to pay a professional developer to run updates whenever a business rule changes. Additionally, low-code/no-code components standardize development procedures, reducing the burden of program maintenance and the associated costs.
Increased Productivity
Low-code/no-code decision management empowers teams to build their own digital solutions on demand. Departments and even individual employees don’t have to wait around for a programmer to code or update a software application. Employees can do their job without interruptions while augmenting their efforts as needed with digital capabilities.
Improved Agility
Business agility is a measure of how quickly an organization adapts or responds to new challenges and possibilities. The more agile your business, the faster it maneuvers around obstacles and seizes emerging opportunities.
Low-code/no-code puts decision management in the hands of business users, making for faster, more efficient, and more effective decisions. Changes in business rules can be dealt with almost instantly and without expending too much energy, time, or money. This affords the business a high level of flexibility and agility, enabling it to seamlessly tackle emerging issues.
Conclusion
Low-code/no-code development is truly a game-changer when it comes to business automation and overall digital transformation. This effortless programming approach puts you in control of the digitization efforts and scope.
When applied to decision management, low-code/no-code development boosts business agility by enabling fast, low-cost, and efficient solution deployment and iterations.
Don’t get left behind; leverage the power of low-code/no-code decision management to become more agile. SIA Innovations will help you get started by putting up the necessary platforms and guiding your teams through the automation processes until they can build functional solutions on their own.
That’s what we do here at SIA Innovations; we empower organizations like yours to achieve mission-critical business traits, such as agility, cost efficiency, and excellent customer/employee engagements, by adopting modern enterprise technologies.
We are only a call or a message away. Tell us all your technical pain points, and we’ll show you the solutions that work.
