Imagine being able to build and launch a business application on the same day. Or add a new feature with no more than a few clicks.

Often described as a new era in business transformation, low-code tools unlock a whole new level of business agility without the technical complexity.

With a low-code approach, organizations can accelerate app and business delivery through visual interfaces and drag-and-drop functionalities, simple deployment, and connectivity to legacy or cloud systems.

Much like assembling Lego bricks, employees with minimum coding skills can drag and drop app components, connect them, and create web or mobile apps.

Low-code developer platforms also enable IT teams to automate workflows, speed up development through reusable components and high-abstraction coding, and build applications without having to research, write, and test new scripts.

Because low-code development removes a lot of the costs required to deploy, run, and maintain business apps, organizations can streamline operations with a minimum upfront investment.

Does low-code really have a high return on investment?

Increasing demand for software automation, the low-entry cost, and reduced development time are driving companies of all sizes to adopt low-code development platforms. These advantages aside, what is the actual return on investment of low-code platforms?

According to a 2022 Forrester study, where customers of a leading low-code platform were interviewed, they witnessed a 506% ROI over three years. One of the biggest sources of cost savings came from improved operational efficiency, adding up to 38% of the total benefits.

What’s more, companies using low-code tools have an easier time getting their investment back. In the same study, Forrester estimates that it takes up to 6 months for organizations to have the low-code platform basically pay for itself.

How low-code can have a tangible business impact

Building a business application requires a sustained investment, especially as the app scales. Ongoing support, updates and security patches, maintaining the codebase as libraries get outdated, and cloud infrastructure costs can all add up.

Low-code development platforms address most of these concerns under the hood, ensuring your app can handle growth without sacrificing performance. Low-code tools offer a cost-efficient and agile approach to modernizing organizational processes, whether it’s business intelligence, faster approval processes, or improved planning.

However, as much as this approach removes technical complexity, this doesn’t mean manual coding can’t or shouldn’t take place. In the end, this is what differentiates low-code from no-code. Working closely with developers can bring that extra level of personalization and customization, low-code tools allowing you, for example, to run JavaScript code.

Case study: building a low-code platform for fast business app development

nedyx® reached out to ETEAM to build a low-code platform designed to help companies of all sizes quickly develop and deploy web and mobile business applications.

The goal was to give citizen developers and business teams the tools they need to speed up delivery, while also empowering users with no prior coding skills to create apps. Organizations can fast-track their digitalization efforts and automate their business with no additional programming training or infrastructure costs.

The ETEAM solution

Our engineering team analyzed a variety of use cases together with our client, as we wanted to give users the kind of flexibility you won’t find in other low-code products. The nedyx® platform needed to cover both the needs of start-ups and small businesses looking to quickly spin up an MVP and the type of complex logic found in enterprise business applications.

Covering requirements of any complexity

To cover an extensive range of business scenarios, our team started by mapping the most important application building blocks.

We defined 7 core widget types (table, text, cell, button, menu, images, charts) you can use to build components and create relationships through an intuitive, functional language we developed called ClearLines. The formula editor also provides in-line suggestions as you type.

Here are just a few examples of business applications you can build with nedyx®, from simple use cases to the most advanced features.

• Desk booking - quickly build an app that allows you to manage and track reserved desks in co-working spaces and view workstation occupancy.

• Analytics and reporting - nedyx® comes with dozens of charts and the ability to connect your app to various data sources to create powerful visualizations and reports, including profit & loss analysis.

• Logistics - build apps that can easily distribute incoming delivery orders based on the delivery area, available drivers, and available storage space.

• Manufacturing and supply chain - nedyx® addresses enterprise-level resource planning needs, from minimizing machine downtime in manufacturing assembly lines to tracking stock levels and ordering spare parts.

Creating a user-friendly language for nedyx®

One of the most powerful features of nedyx® is its intuitive syntax. We wanted to give users who are not familiar with any programming language, a way to add functionality and have full control over their applications through:

• A language you don’t need to learn due to its easy-to-grasp semantics, functions, and parameters.

• A constantly growing function collection, including a formula wiki, tooltips, and autocomplete options.

• The ability to reference custom templates or actual formulas using named #hashtags.

One-click deployment with no cloud setup

Launching your application is one of the most fulfilling moments. It’s also something that you need to do fast, without any additional setup.

With nedyx® going live is as simple as publishing your app with one click and inviting other team members to start using it. No DevOps involved, no advanced cloud configurations - the platform does it all for you behind the scenes!

To enable this, our solution architects evaluated several managed cloud architectures and decided on the Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service Cluster as the best option. Advanced load balancing and security features make EKS Clusters a great option to ensure 100% uptime during busy hours and tight security through features like network isolation and role-based access control.

The figure below illustrates the AWS environment used:

Source: nedyx

Seamless connectivity to apps and data sources

Business transformation is often misunderstood as “out with the old and in with the new”. But this doesn’t mean letting your previous investment in infrastructure and applications go to waste.

One of the biggest advantages of low-code platforms is connecting any new app you create with existing data sources. Organizations can unlock additional value from their core systems like CRM or ERP, without having to go through lengthy, complicated upgrades.

Our engineers worked on providing connectivity to a variety of third-party data sources, including:

• Enterprise business applications like SAP and SharePoint

• Relational databases (PostgreSQL, SQL Server tables)

• Multidimensional databases (Microsoft Analysis Services, Oracle Essbase)

• Data warehouses such as Snowflake and Microsoft Azure Data Lake

Using the straightforward syntax of nedyx®, you can retrieve data, manipulate it, and feed it back without having to write a single line of SQL.

The bottom line

After just 4 months, we were able to launch the first phase of the product which was well-received by several big early adopters.

After 15 months nedyx® went to full production, being embraced by companies across industries to build routine process automation tools.

With the help of intuitive functions, business logic, and reusable components, organizations cut down their implementation cycles and spending.

Different departments now can independently create the business apps they need, minimizing the number of heavy-lifting tasks usually assigned to IT teams.