eBook

4 STEPS
TO CREATING
A LOW-CODE
COMPANY
CONTENT
INTRO ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................03

STEP 1. REVISE YOUR TECH STRATEGY ...............................................................................................................................................................04

STEP 2. EMPOWER EVERY EMPLOYEE TO BE A DEVELOPER .......................................................................................................................07

STEP 3. SELECT A LOW-CODE PLATFORM ..........................................................................................................................................................11

STEP 4. ENSURE CROSS-DEPARTMENTAL ALIGNMENT AND TRANSPARENCY ......................................................................................14

REAL-LIFE SUCCESS STORY OF ISRAEL NATIONAL ROADS ..........................................................................................................................16

CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................17

7
INTRO
For many generations, 2020 has been a life-changing year. Along with great challenges, it brought great opportunities. The pandemic put some
organizations years ahead of where they would have been expected to be right now. According to KMPG, “80 % of leaders have seen the digital
transformation of their businesses accelerating during the pandemic. The biggest advancements have been in the digital transformation of operations,
where 30% say that progress has put them years ahead of where they would have expected to be right now.” The recent McKinsey research reveals that
digital adoption has taken a quantum leap (up to 10 years for some regions and industries) at both the organizational and industry levels.

Do you know what it takes to be among those that overcome challenges and strengthen resilience? It takes creating a low-code company and leveraging
low-code technology capable of accelerating both customer-facing and operational processes.

We all know that human nature provides us with the ability to adapt quickly. But how can organizations adapt quickly enough to keep up in this new
reality? The foundation of any successful enterprise has not changed; it requires people, processes and technology. A successful leader is able to master
the discipline of managing all three pillars.

For processes and technology to work harmoniously and efficiently, you should empower people with appropriate skills, experience and knowledge to
create, optimize and automate operations that are key to reaching business goals.

Of all three, owning technology is more often than not, the sore point. Leaders have always known they are to pick people for their team and build
processes, but tech has been an IT staff’s responsibility.

In this eBook, we’ll take a look at how business leaders can take ownership of technologies used in their companies to automate operational processes
and how that will contribute to the creation of a low-code company. Most importantly, we will review why now is just the right time for the transformation.

3
 Step 1. Revise your tech strategy
For a long time, the threat of digital disruption and subsequent need for digital transformation
has been driving IT strategy in organizations across various verticals all over the world. As the
role of technology in both professional and personal lives increases, businesses need to innovate
faster and deliver top-notch experiences to both employees and customers to stay ahead of
their competition.

Both mobile and web development are escalating, challenging IT departments to keep up
despite limited resources. Application complexity and IT backlogs are growing. Unbalanced
budget, shortage of skilled developers, and misalignment between business and IT units are
among other top challenges IT departments are facing today. These force digital and tech

STEP 1
leaders to constantly search for a solution.

Revising tech strategy should be the initial step towards implementing change in any
organization. It will become a framework for decisions and actions to execute over the short-,

REVISE YOUR
medium- and long-term.

TECH STRATEGY Three main aspects to consider while revising your tech strategy are:

• Assess if your approach to IT resource planning fits your company needs

• Find out if your employees are empowered with the right tools and freedom to using
technology to the company’s benefit

• Ensure technologies your company is equipped with today will still prove effective in 2-5
years

The revision might show off there is a room for improvement not only in your tech stack, but
also, security or the process management approach. You might find out that your company
specialists lack initiative and are not invested in change or not competent enough to be high-
performing.

Now you should assess whether any of the gaps you spotted can be fixed by equipping
employees with technology that embraces every employee to be a developer and automate
business ideas quickly and easily. This is where a low-code platform comes in handy.

4
 A low-code platform can address the following challenges:

Growing application complexity Shortage of skilled developers

Enterprise applications are highly As development backlogs increase and
complex—custom development is often budgets dry up, IT departments are
necessary to achieve sufficient depth and constrained, facing a shortage of skilled
breadth of functionality. developers to address the growing number
of projects.
Growing IT backlogs
IT backlogs are growing as enterprises’
Misalignment between business
and IT

STEP 1
internal business and external market
expectations are changing, and IT Inability to keep up with changing market and
departments with already limited business expectations could be detrimental
capacities are having difficulty to an enterprise’s competitive position,

REVISE YOUR
keeping up. particularly in terms of critical customer-facing
operations.

TECH STRATEGY
Imbalanced IT budgets
The majority of an enterprise’s IT budget is spent on ongoing maintenance of legacy systems,
which leaves little leftover for innovation and new application / process development.

Thousands of companies around the world are already benefiting from low-code development
approach. It contributes to the simplification of the software building process, thus allowing
businesses to reap direct benefits from their data and processes with less effort.

The application of low-code development is not limited to a single industry or company type. In
fact, businesses from various fields and of various sizes can use it. It allows them to innovate and
move towards digitization in an affordable and the most efficient way.

Revising IT strategy is the first step to creating a low-code company. When you define and sign
off any changes in approach to IT resource planning needed, you may proceed to the next stage.

5
 68% 66
days

STEP 1 Average number of apps deployed by

large firms increased by 68% over the
last 4 years.
It took companies an average of 55
days to fill a tech role in 2016, but that
jumped to 66 days in 2019.

REVISE YOUR (Wall Street Journal) (CNBC)

TECH STRATEGY

10%

Just 10% of IT is allocated to generating

new business value.

(McKinsey)

6
 Step 2. Empower every employee to be a developer
The next step to building a low-code company is empowering business users to automate
processes quickly and easily. First and foremost, you should foster the culture for any employee
in any division of your company to willingly demonstrate the initiative and be able to suggest
ways to optimize their job or processes in their unit. In a low-code company every single
employee is capable of creating apps that meet their unique business needs.

Almost every company is rich in proactive people. Nevertheless, some workers are hesitant to
show eagerness for action for fear of overstepping boundaries. Rather than discouraging this,
take steps to improve employee initiative by changing employee mindsets.

STEP 2
The most common problem is fear or uncertainty of how they'll be received by management,
which prevents some employees from presenting their ideas to leaders. Managers and
employers are not always open to suggestions from their teams. Furthermore, when an idea is
accepted but added to a long backlog and postponed by months, it frustrates and discourages

EMPOWER
your staff.

You should develop policies and frameworks that will explain the process everyone could follow

EVERY
should they decide to optimize their work and automate a business idea. The key point here is
not to limit, but provide freedom for anyone, who knows business processes well and is willing
to build apps without coding inside a drag-n-drop visual interface.

EMPLOYEE In order for employees to take initiative, they need guidance on what they are encouraged
to do to improve their performance. Ensure that all employees have proper tools, policies,

TO BE A reference materials and training. So that when they take initiative to automate a process for
their department, they ensure it aligns with operations in other departments and units. Your
employees should know who governs all apps that are created by business users and what

DEVELOPER frameworks they could use.

While empowering everyone to become a developer, you’ll need to ensure IT staff plays a key
role in the process of operations automation and takes ownership of security and system
administration, complex integrations and overall consistency of the IT landscape.

7
 How citizen development is changing business
Even without deep technical knowledge, a marketer or accountant can use a low-code platform
to quickly create an app that addresses their specific needs—transforming them into what are
commonly called citizen developers.

Consider a marketer who needs a dashboard to pull together results from the numerous
campaigns they monitor. Instead of repeatedly checking multiple sources and collating
that information into a spreadsheet or other tool, their efforts could be streamlined with a
customized solution.

Business users, including marketing managers, sales reps, service professionals, and human

STEP 2
resource personnel can create, configure, and deploy customized apps without software
development skills. Not only does this save time for business users, but it also reduces the
burden on IT and ensures all users can better contribute to the organization’s success.

EMPOWER
Low-code platforms reduce the amount of needed development operations tasks. Such
software facilitates a quicker deployment and implementation process that enables developers
to deliver faster. As a result, generated bug-free code drastically reduces maintenance

EVERY
requirements and reduces the time spent for operational activities to speed up the application
development and deployment.

EMPLOYEE The following capabilities of a low-code platform will enable non-tech employees quickly and
easily build applications they need:

TO BE A
DEVELOPER
Visual modeling tools Out-of-the-box functionality
Creating apps using visual methods and Leading low-code systems provide OOTB
models is faster than developing using code. (out-of-the-box) functionality, which
Powered with visual modeling capabilities, eliminates the need to build core modules
low-code platforms use built-in components for apps from scratch. For example, some
to represent any information in a form that is low-code platforms include modules for data
readable to anyone—from regular business management or modules for customer-facing
users with no tech skills to professional apps, such as service management or sales
developers. processes management.

8
 Reusability Application lifecycle management
One major aspect of low-code development’s Low-code tools simplify and streamline several
OOTB functionality is the usage of stages in the software development lifecycle,
pre-configured modules and functionality such as debugging, testing, and deployment.
for apps. These modules have common core They give users access to information about
functions needed for several apps, and they the apps created and their development and
can be reused to develop different solutions give them the ability to revert to previous
more quickly. It’s essential that a low-code versions if needed for better application

STEP 2
platform allows users to reuse prebuilt or lifecycle management.
newly-developed modules, plug-ins, and
entire applications to develop necessary apps
faster.

EMPOWER
EVERY
Security Scalability
EMPLOYEE No matter how functional and user-friendly
a low-code tool is, if it’s not secure, it is not a
Low-code system should be scalable. It should
be able to handle an increase in users as

TO BE A sufficient solution. Make sure that a low-code

development platform offers proper security
your business grows, whether that be twenty
employees or two thousands.
to protect apps you build and the platform as

DEVELOPER a whole before you start using it.

Reporting and monitoring Multi-device compatibility

Apps developed using low-code can monitor In addition to the ability to use the
workflows and processes to keep track of low-code platform on any device running
their effectiveness. They can also track the major operational systems, its cross-platform
performance of other apps, and are useful for compatibility allows users to build apps that
analysis purposes. can run on all core platforms and devices.
9
 One of the biggest accelerators of apps and processes development can be achieved when, in
addition to a flexible low-code platform, organizations can leverage ready to use components,
connectors, and templates. These components can be effortlessly added to further simplify and
speed development. This supports organizations to significantly decrease time to market and
with solutions, which are tailored to their particular business needs.

Being open to suggestions and providing the right tools is key to embracing employee initiative.
If you establish an open-door policy and provide professional tools for your team, they'll feel
comfortable with driving change and presenting new ideas.

STEP 2 60% 68%

EMPOWER
EVERY
Nearly 60% of all custom 68% of IT developers agree
apps are now built outside that low-code is viable for
the IT department, the development of mission-

EMPLOYEE
companies report. critical applications.

(ImpactMyBiz) (ImpactMyBiz)

TO BE A
DEVELOPER 72%

72% of low-code developers create

applications in three months or less,
compared with six months or even
years to develop applications using
traditional development.

(ImpactMyBiz)

10
 Step 3. Select a low-code platform that fits your company needs
and unique processes
Determining your requirements and researching the market are integral parts of choosing a
low-code platform. It’s a good idea to assemble a selection team that accurately represents
key areas and functions of your organization. You might want to get input from multiple
stakeholders to ensure your selected platform considers a broad assortment of needs. As a team,
put together a list of requirements for the platform, keeping in mind your strategic objectives.
Determine the types of features the platform will need to have. To help prioritize, group your
requirements into categories, such as mandatory, important, and nice to have.

Researching the market using analyst reports is highly recommended when selecting a

STEP 3
low-code platform for an organization. Leading analyst firms like Gartner and Forrester will
be great guides for identifying and summarizing standout offerings. These firms are well-
known and respected for their thoroughness and unbiased analyses of enterprise technology.
With their reports as a backdrop, research the low-code platform market and start collecting

SELECT comparison information. Work with your selection team to come up with a rubric for accurately
assessing and comparing your options.

A LOW-CODE When evaluating a solution for your organization, pay attention to the following aspects:

PLATFORM
1. Cloud deployment 2. Data centricity
Cloud became the primary option for most It’s crucial for successful businesses
organizations in recent months. Ensuring to quickly access large amounts of data.
security for your corporate and client’s data Low-code platforms that put a heavy focus on
might be challenging for CIOs and IT directors. data make it easier for developers to deliver
Be picky—check with your vendor what data more connected applications in the shortest
centers they own or rent. On top of security, time possible. Make sure that the platform is
cloud deployment speeds things up a lot. capable of integrating with any data—this will
There are no settings to configure–simply click allow you to create data-centric applications.
a button and off you go. You also get instant Designing data-centric apps provides a whole
access to the latest updates, features and new level of connected experience to users,
technologies. giving them the relevant information in real
time.

11
 3. Cross-platform support 4. Pre-built components, apps
Using a single all-purpose development & templates
framework is essential for businesses that Ready-made components, templates and
want to stay competitive across all available apps dramatically accelerate delivery of
channels. A cross-platform solution can be bespoke apps. Check if your vendor provides
used to build web, desktop, and mobile apps, pre-built solutions that can be used right
for any type of the device and application away and dramatically save time on process
architecture—web or native. automation.

5. Flexibility 6. Artificial Intelligence

Flexible, open, and scalable frameworks and Machine Learning

STEP 3
enable businesses to develop apps that
perfectly fit the specific needs of a business AI and ML tools allow users to perform
or its clients. When choosing a low-code multiple operations automatically and help
software, look for the one that is flexible, them take the best possible decisions at each

SELECT allowing scaling up and down based on the step. Search for a platform that offers easy-
transaction volume coming from the users. to-use yet comprehensive mechanisms that
Also, it would be great if the platform includes help configure new predictive models, re-train

A LOW-CODE built-in services for testing, analytics, and

deploying the applications.
them to keep the models up-to-date and view
the prediction results to analyze the most
influential factors.

PLATFORM 7. Process management capabilities

It’s highly recommended to choose a software that provides a complete set of tools to effectively
manage business processes, including process modelling, execution, monitoring and analysis.
Focus your efforts on finding a platform that ensures the maximum efficiency of business
process management in your organization.

Once you’ve identified potential platforms, use your rubric to assess and shortlist them. Recall
your requirements. You want a platform that’s robust and scalable, but not one that has a lot of
unnecessary bells and whistles. You don’t want to pay for features you don’t need.

In general, the more requirements a platform meets—and how well it meets them—the
better choice it is. Though you’ll also consider other aspects, such as overall cost, timeline to
implement, and how well it integrates with other enterprise systems.

12
 75% 65%

STEP 3
Low-code will make it to the By 2024, low-code application
mainstream in 2021 with 75% of development will be responsible
development shops adopting this for more than 65% of application
platform, according to Forrester's 2021 development activity.

SELECT predictions for software development.

(TechRepublic)
(Gartner)

A LOW-CODE
PLATFORM
25%

The Global Low-Code Development

Platform Market size is expected to reach
$46.4 billion by 2026, rising at a market
growth of 25% CAGR during the forecast
period.

(KBV Research)

13
 Step 4. Ensure cross-departmental alignment and transparency
Cross-departmental collaboration is a reflection of a healthy internal culture. When employees
communicate effectively and understand each other’s roles and functions, your customers feel
the difference. Learning what other departments do and working with them on collaborative
projects helps employees reduce chaos in the workplace and avoid losing sight of the
organization’s other moving parts.

Focusing on facilitating alignment as a top-down initiative should be one of your central

priorities in a low-code company. Ensure your departments work without silos and everyone
understands what's the end goal of all operations. Make sure objectives of various business
units do not compete, team members are open to communications with cross-functional

STEP 4
departments, information flows are available to every employee, and tools that are in use in your
organization transition every piece of data between divisions smoothly.

Not only does software have to pass leads from marketing managers to sales representatives

ENSURE CROSS-
and include the information about touchpoints with support managers, it also has to be a single
source of truth regarding all actions your employees make.

DEPARTMENTAL
The unique capabilities of low-code software allow for “citizen developers,” i.e. any skilled
or unskilled person developing apps, to create the features, apps and processes they
need to automate and optimize their work in a fraction of the time traditional coding and

ALIGNMENT AND
software development takes to do so. Low-code can erase the communication gap between
professional developers and users, as they are both developing on the same platform. The
boundaries between IT and non-IT are erased when using a single platform, meaning that

TRANSPARENCY miscommunications related to the development of needed apps are diminished significantly as
everyone begins to speak the same language.

Furthermore, with low-code software, the tools and features necessary for the entire company
no longer need to be disjointed or stand-alone. In fact, low-code platforms allow for the
development of these features to exist on a single platform, aligning departments and
simplifying workflows. The sales team may have a completely different workflow than the
service team, but with low-code, they do not need two different platforms to help automate their
operations. The unifying aspect of low-code platforms helps align various business units, leading
to better collaboration and communication between them.

Enabling low-code development also helps eliminate shadow IT and improve IT governance
within your organization. Adopting a powerful low-code platform allows you to take control
over the quality of app development in your organization. You can rest assured all the apps that
are being developed by various departments meet standards set and are compatible with the
company tech ecosystem.
14
 Thanks to encouraging collaboration between business units and developers, a low-code
development approach has a long-term impact on a business. It provides visibility and
transparency, thus understanding how workflows might be further optimized and enhanced
across an organization.

80% 94%

STEP 4 80% of businesses use social 94% of companies report that "agility

ENSURE CROSS- collaboration tools to ensure long-term

collaboration among the team.
and collaboration" are critical to their
organization's success.

DEPARTMENTAL (McKinsey) (Deloitte)

ALIGNMENT AND
TRANSPARENCY 82%

82% of business respondents indicated

that harmonizing business processes is
of high importance.

(Capgemini)

15
 Real-life success story of Israel National Roads
Following its strategic objective to improve the quality of life for commuters and the overall
efficiency of mass transit, the Government of Israel entrusted the Ministry of Transportation
(MOT) with the mission to connect the country with a modern network for faster and more
efficient interurban roads and railroad tracks. To achieve this goal, the Ministry required a digital
platform that would ensure coordination between the infrastructure companies.

Modernizing the interurban road network has been one of the key strategic projects for the
Israeli government. Supported by the government, Israel National Roads took over the mission
to upgrade the country’s road infrastructure and build a wider transportation network. To lead
such a complex project successfully, the company required a sophisticated software solution to

REAL-LIFE serve as a consolidated project-related data environment and a collaborative tool for multiple
stakeholders to manage long-term, multi-stage operations.

SUCCESS Israel National Roads Company aimed at achieving operational transparency and streamlining
processes and thus opted for Creatio’s low-code platform for process management and CRM.
The combination of the system’s ready-to-go tools and low-code capabilities allowing users to

STORY OF create custom solutions in a matter of minutes, made Creatio the perfect fit for the company.

Utilizing a single platform for managing infrastructure projects simplified the process

ISRAEL immensely and brought visibility to all the development stages. Thanks to the seamless
integration with Israel’s mapping services, the system gives the ability to check the interests of

NATIONAL
other companies in the chosen area and automatically creates a list of necessary documents
for each and every company that influences the process. Once the documents are filled out, the
system sends the request to these engaged entities in order to receive the required approvals.

ROADS
"The decision of the Israeli government to choose Creatio to establish a national system for
coordinating infrastructure works is a very right decision. Undoubtedly, it will contribute a
lot to all of us—employees and ultimately also to the citizens who will benefit from the proj-
ect results."

Nir Ron, Product Manager

at Israel National Roads Company

16
CONCLUSION
For those organizations that thrive to stay competitive in times of constant change, creating a low-code company should be a top-
priority. By turning your business into a low-code company, you increase agility and strengthen resilience of your business, which is
especially important today.

Being a low-code company implies decision-making freedom. This includes decisions on how multiple departments can do their job
best, what tools do they need to get that job done as well as defining when exactly to expect the result. The best part is that all of the
above can be done fast by both professional developers and business users without any IT skills. Ability to automate processes in minutes
without heavy involvement of the IT department is a distinctive feature of a low-code company.

Considering the numerous advantages of low-code, it is no wonder why businesses around the globe are shifting their focus from
traditional software development to encouraging the rise of citizen developers in multiple departments instead.

The future is low-code, where everyone can be a developer using platforms such as Creatio without deep coding skills. The world of
business doesn’t require the expansion of IT departments, but rather the encouragement of citizen developers via the implementation of
low-code platforms. An advanced low-code platform saves time, resources, and enables employees to automate their daily tasks so they
can tackle bigger and more creative assignments. In the modern era, anyone can be a developer–a citizen developer–and the companies
they work for will reap the benefits.

Being a leading global software company, Creatio provides a unique low-code platform for process management and CRM that merges
two technologies into one: a low-code platform with a business process management engine and world-class out-of the-box apps for
sales, marketing and service on top of the platform. This helps our customers create a low-code company.

17
 ABOUT CREATIO
Creatio is a global software company providing a leading low-code platform for process management and CRM. Its
intelligent products accelerate sales, marketing, service and operations for mid-size and large enterprises.

Intelligent low-code and process

management platform with out-of-
the-box solutions and templates

Try it free

www.creatio.com [email protected] USA: +1 617 765 7997 UK: +44 20 3384 0040 Australia: +61 261 452 888 © creatio. All rights reserved.