The rapid advances in low-code and no-code platforms is helping non-techie business people to help themselves.
By 2024, 80% of IT products and services will be built by non-developers, according to a study by Gartner Research.
Low-code or no-code software development appears to be having its moment now thanks in part to moves by Amazon Web Services with Honeycode, Microsoft’s Power Platform, Google’s Appsheet, and products from the likes of Appian, ServiceNow and Zoho.
A new category of Business Buyers
A new category of buyers outside of the traditional IT enterprise are driving the trend. These buyers now occupy a larger share of the overall IT market, Gartner says. Today, total business-led IT spend averages up to 36% of the total formal IT budget.
Rajesh Kandaswamy, distinguished research vice president at Gartner, commented. CEOs now treat digital business as a team sport, he said. He added that it is no longer the sole domain of the IT department. “Growth in digital data, low-code development tools and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted development are among the many factors that enable the democratization of technology development beyond IT professionals”, according to him.
COVID-19 has accelerated development of new products and services
Technology encroachment into all areas of business and among consumers creates demand for products and services outside of IT departments. These buyers’ needs do not always fit neatly into offerings from traditional providers.
The COVID-19 crisis has compounded those needs, Gartner says. That has only expanded the amount and type of use cases technology needs to fulfill. In 2023, Gartner anticipates that products and services that did not exist pre-pandemic will be generating $30 billion in revenue.
Gartner analysts said the rapid expansion of cloud services, digital business initiatives and remote services opened the door for new possibilities in integrations and optimization. They expect high-profile announcements of technology launches from nontech companies to proliferate over the next 12 months.
“The availability of business technologists provides new sources of innovation and the ability to get work done. Thus, technology and service providers will need to extend their sourcing of ideas and technology development into new communities, whether they are based on citizen development, their own customer communities or other sources,” said Kandaswamy.