Companies innovate with low-code and fusion development
Most companies today recognize that they must digitally reimagine the way they operate to meet changing customer and employee expectations. But doing so requires building new software solutions—and a lot of them.
More than 750 million new apps need to be created in the next two years to keep up with demand. That’s more than all the applications built in the last 40 years. Yet the United States currently has a shortfall of more than 4 million professional coders, and the need for qualified developers will only continue to outstrip the supply.
The answer to this challenge is full-company development. That means empowering everybody from business users to IT admins to be able to build the necessary digital solutions. We can’t teach everyone to code in the next couple of years, but we can deliver hundreds of millions of new solutions through fusion teams and low-code development.
Two new methods for high-value software development
This opportunity has led many organizations to explore two related methodologies: low-code and fusion development. In low-code development, employees in any role can create enterprise-grade business apps using drag-and-drop functionality and visual development tools. These “citizen developers” don’t need coding knowledge to build apps. Instead, they focus on bringing their unique business knowledge to low-code development.
Low-code development is already used by many companies with the Microsoft Power Platform. For example, Shell has 800 citizen developers in its manufacturing teams. They’ve developed 75 DIY applications that have improved the reliability and efficiency of manufacturing operations. Cumulatively, Shell saved more than $35 million in the first year. Based on this success, the company already has 200 more apps in the pipeline.
Fusion development gathers citizen developers, professional developers, and users to collaborate and use low-code development tools. Together, these hybrid teams build apps, enrich them with custom functionality, and give feedback on real-world performance.
According to a recent economic impact study from Forrester, app-reduction costs drop by 74 percent when teams adopt low-code and fusion methods. This means that businesses are seeing a 188 percent boost in their return on investment in three years.
How low-code and fusion development are helping companies
Beyond creating more digital app experiences, low-code development also enables companies to automate many classic challenges like processing payments. Reducing the amount of employee time and energy spent on routine tasks helps them to refocus on rewarding activities in line with important business outcomes.
As one example, Western States Caterpillar Equipment Company is adopting fusion development to streamline its business operations. It has a team of only five professionals with varying coding expertise. But this team used agile principles and fusion development methods to accelerate the turnaround time of rental equipment. Now, with the Return to Ready app on the Power Platform, 75 percent of the company’s fleet can be rented within a day of its return.
Accelerating app development to drive digital transformation
Today, 97 percent of Fortune 500 organizations use the Power Platform in at least one department. Low-code and fusion development are helping to unlock full-company development in which all employees are empowered to build our shared digital future. That is the only way that organizations can build the 750 million new apps needed to run modern operations.
I invite you all to check back in the coming weeks to read two more blogs in this series about how low-code and fusion development are changing businesses and the world of work.
To learn more about fusion development in the meantime, check out this event from our innovation series: Deploy fusion development to improve collaboration and reduce costs.
