However, this is much easier said than done. As leaders look to new initiatives to adapt, low-code/no-code stands out as a holy grail solution. Address the pervasive tech skills gap by bringing non-technical employees into the development and deployment process? Check. Identify an affordable way to leverage unique employee skill sets and integrate members from cross-team functions? Check. A new way to think about technical skills, freeing those in traditional developer roles to focus on creativity and innovation rather than execution? Check.

If you鈥檙e considering what low-code/no-code could look like in the workplace, here are some central considerations to keep in mind and mistakes to avoid when integrating citizen developers into your workforce in effort to create a more innovative IT department.

Citizen Developers Are Not 鈥淛unior鈥� Developers, They Have Their Own Unique Skill Set

Citizen developers, employees that utilize strategies to create new or change existing business applications without involving IT departments, often have nontraditional backgrounds, serving in roles like customer service, human resources, and project management, bringing a new wave of perspectives and ideas to the tech and service industry. While many may be inclined to view citizen developers as 鈥渏unior鈥� developers, this couldn鈥檛 be further from the truth. Since citizen developers are connected to other parts of the business, they can provide insight and streamline processes that developers alone are not involved in. Additionally, citizen developers shouldn鈥檛 be considered a one-to-one replacement of developers. Though they can optimize specific business functions, they do not fix technical holes in the workforce.

Leveraging these unique talents has huge benefits for the entire team: reducing the heavy lift on developers by easing the skills gap, opening the path to new ideas and innovative strategies, and bringing diverse and new perspectives to an IT industry that typically . Acknowledging the benefits of their nontraditional skill set is key to reap the benefits of implementing low-code/no-code in the workforce, as it meshes a unique view on the needs of the business, creativity, and coding skills to drive innovation.

Generative AI Will Fuel Citizen and Professional Developer Roles, Leading to Increased Innovation

Gartner research that 61% of corporations have already implemented citizen development projects or plan to do so. This is great news, because as the skills gap continues to without an equivalent number of new graduates to fill the holes, citizen developers are the natural solution for any department. However, as more organizations get comfortable with these shifts, they will also need to navigate the rapid evolution of generative AI, which will take things one step further for both citizen and professional developers.

Generative AI is continuing to evolve 鈥� and it makes the complexity of coding more accessible. In this sense, it is a low-code tool. Citizen developers will be able to leverage generative AI platforms to complete even more complex initiatives, which will free up the deeply technical computer and data scientists to focus on issues that require an in-depth understanding of how the systems work. With citizen developers able to flex their skills by assisting IT teams and traditional developers focused on strategic advancements, organizations are sure to see an improvement in productivity and employee satisfaction. One thing is certain: low-code/no-code tools, like platforms based on the principles of model-driven design, automatic code generation, and visual programming, are unleashing increased innovation, empowering the workforce, and helping to address skill shortages.

The Best Part about Low-Code/No-Code? The Opportunities Are Endless

The barriers to teaching and integrating low-code/no-code are relatively low, and any employee from any background 鈥� formally educated or not 鈥� can begin their coding journey with ease. Providing access to learning and development opportunities like low-code/no-code trainings opens new career opportunities for the existing workforce, encouraging workers to tap into their personal interest in learning developer skills while taking on a more expansive role in the organization. When employees feel that their interest in expanding their role and learning new parts of the business is being listened to, they also take on an increased sense of fulfillment and interest in the job, leading to heightened employee retention.

It may seem intimidating to start the journey of prioritizing new learning and training opportunities, but the benefits are endless. At our recently held , interested participants from across industries were able to learn the concept of low-code software development through hands-on experience. Learners created full end-to-end processes that integrated with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, using 麻豆原创 Build Apps, 麻豆原创 Build Process Automation, and 麻豆原创 Build Work Zone. Through this program, dozens of workers were able to expand their technical knowledge and dive deeper into the world of low-code/no-code.

To begin implementing low-code/no-code strategies in your department, consider leveraging training for all levels 鈥� from beginner to advanced 鈥� and build time into the workday for those who are interested in learning. Putting an emphasis on this opportunity, and on the learning and development of your employees, is sure to make an impact on your teams.

The Future of IT Is Rapidly Changing, But Shining Bright

As technology continues to rapidly evolve, it鈥檚 essential that IT teams are properly equipped to grow alongside it. With low-code/no-code and the rise of the citizen developer, the opportunities are limitless to what the technical workforce can accomplish, with employees of every background poised to get involved in the digital transformation across the industry. Not only will integrating citizen developers into your teams allow your organization to diversify its workforce, but it can also create new innovations in your strategy and address the employee burnout and stress on developers who cannot keep up with the growing skills gap.

Timo Schuette is global vice president of 麻豆原创 Product Learning CoE at 麻豆原创.

Put these forces together, and the question for business leaders becomes, 鈥淗ow do we enable our people to bring their best in a virtual, dispersed workplace that demands collaboration, innovation, and efficiency every day?鈥�

There鈥檚 an important follow-on question at the heart of this business challenge. That is: 鈥淗ow do we reach our goals while also offering people opportunities to grow their skills and thrive in their jobs?鈥�

Digital technologies have always been an enabler, but low-code no-code solutions like 麻豆原创 Build have become an imperative for organizations to keep up with the speed of change while also presenting an opportunity to people to build tech skills.

麻豆原创 Build empowers business users to develop their own customized applications and automated processes 鈥� without needing to be expert software coders.

The are hard to ignore:

• 31% faster completion of projects
• 63% fewer business processes with errors
• 21 hours saved per user per year
• 495% three-year ROI

Concrete examples are always helpful, so here are some ways that I see 麻豆原创 Build changing the game in helping to solve business challenges, including some of our very own at 麻豆原创.

But first, what is 麻豆原创 Build? 麻豆原创 Build is a cloud native, user-friendly platform with visual interfaces, simple drag-and-drop tools, and pre-built templates that can help business users jump-start their own IT projects without needing to be coding experts.

麻豆原创 Build comes with and to help users get started and keep going. With demand for IT support outpacing the availability of those resources, it鈥檚 smart to put business users in the lead with low-code no-code solutions.

Process Automation: Helping Teams Work 15x Faster

One way I see 麻豆原创 Build empowering businesses is through HR process automation. Low-code and no-code platforms allow HR teams to automate time-consuming processes such as onboarding, offboarding, and performance management. This can free up hundreds of hours per year for some staff, giving them the chance to focus on higher-level tasks.

• Example: Standard welcome emails, collecting necessary paperwork, and assigning required training courses. At 麻豆原创, we used 麻豆原创 Build ourselves to automate the creation of offer letters per year, working .

Data Management: Flagging Operational Risks and Opportunities

Next, with low-code and no-code software, HR teams can manage employee data more efficiently and accurately. Dashboards are easy to create, helping managers, leaders, and teammates across the organization to collaborate over key metrics, gain insights into workforce trends, and quickly.

• Example: Creating custom reports that track employee turnover rates, time-to-hire, succession data, and employee engagement scores. This data could be used to signal business and operational risk, evaluate performance, identify trends, and spot areas for improvement.

Reduce Burden: Improve Employee Experience at Scale

Low-code and no-code applications can reduce employee time spent on and give them time back for higher level work. Research shows reduced administrative burden can contribute to improved employee experiences.

• Example: Invoice processing. One 麻豆原创 customer will save up to 160 hours per year on fewer administrative tasks. Their low-code no-code invoice processing solution was up and running 鈥� time.
• Bonus example! Routine high-volume, manual At 麻豆原创, we鈥檙e using 麻豆原创 Build to transform manual closing activities across 120 subsidiaries and realizing up to four times faster processing of closing tasks.

Many of us have heard the saying 鈥渆very company is becoming a tech company.鈥� 麻豆原创 Build puts intuitive tech in business users鈥� hands, helping to get more done in an expeditious, innovative way in ways that matter most.

We鈥檒l be sharing many more customer stories at . See you there!

Sabine Bendiek is chief people and operating officer and member of the Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE.

Here are four exciting trends that provide tech teams and organizations a great opportunity to grow.

The Gig Economy Provides More Opportunity Than We May Recognize

Freelance work is on the rise with a sizable of Americans, nearly 58 million adults, identifying as independent workers.

What鈥檚 most exciting about this trend is that it enables organizations to more easily expand or reduce their workforce based on specific company demand while also providing an opportunity for organizations to diversify their teams and ultimately develop more creative and innovative work. There鈥檚 a common perception that the benefit of freelance work is purely cost savings, but there鈥檚 a real opportunity for organizations to take advantage of this upward trend to both maintain flexible workstreams as well as incorporate diverse thinking.

Low-Code/No-Code Platforms Have Great Potential to Widen the Talent Pool

For decades, there have been limited routes for businesses to implement application development, such as buying apps ready-made from an external vendor or building them from scratch using skilled developers. Today, we鈥檙e witnessing a rise in development alternatives that bring coding capabilities to users who may be interested in code, though may not have advanced experience or a formal degree.

Companies can capitalize on this growing trend by dedicating space for the use of no-code/low-code platforms, supporting employee learning and development opportunities surrounding these platforms, ultimately reducing strain on IT departments and leading increased innovation. If you like to learn more about 麻豆原创鈥檚 free offerings to upskill on low-code/no-code app development, please visit the .

AI Training Cannot Be Overlooked

While the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) is not necessarily something new, its continued role in making certain tasks automated will require individuals to be comfortable performing their work alongside AI, solving problems in new ways. Companies can no longer overlook the need to provide AI training for their tech employees. Doing so will unlock essential skills employees need to utilize this advanced technology and allow employees to uplevel their work and spend more time on strategic work.

Navigating the Hybrid Workspace

With a staggering , it is safe to say that hybrid work is here to stay. The hybrid model can offer numerous advantages such as flexibility and cost benefits, yet this model can challenge employees and managers alike as it still hasn鈥檛 been perfected.

As hybrid work environments increasingly become the norm, companies must provide tech workers with sufficient training and guidance to navigate this new and constantly changing model. This could look like trainings on setting boundaries while working remotely or setting internal hybrid work expectations as a company, such as when meetings can and cannot be scheduled and how to take advantage of in-person moments or intentional brainstorming and innovation. Even though we鈥檝e been working throughout the last two or more years of the pandemic, it鈥檚 important to recognize that the hybrid workplace trend is a specific challenge itself that must be specifically addressed as opposed to letting employees self-navigate.

Technology is rapidly evolving. Simultaneously, the pandemic has witnessed a larger workplace transformation than ever before. In this moment of significant change, we must keep a pulse on how these trends affect both organizations as a whole and their employers, being proactive in offering the learning and development opportunities necessary for employees to thrive.

Sabine Benz is vice president and head of Product Engagement for 麻豆原创 Learning.

Every year, an increasing number of organizations leverage automation and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to drive innovation and improve efficiencies across their lines of business and business application processes. 麻豆原创鈥檚 solution, , is an AI-powered, no-code solution that combines workflow management, task automation, and decision management into one comprehensive, cloud-based solution running on (麻豆原创 BTP).

We believe this recognition serves as an acknowledgment of 麻豆原创鈥檚 continued leadership in these categories and commitment to providing world-class support for our customer鈥檚 mission-critical business processes and applications.

Gain a Competitive Edge with 麻豆原创 Process Automation

It鈥檚 clear that process automation technology is a game changer. Since launching 麻豆原创 Process Automation, we鈥檝e seen tremendous growth in customers embracing automation in impactful ways. , for example, developed multiple automation bots to execute routine tasks. One bot can successfully classify and process over 6,000 e-mail attachments per year, based on if the document is an invoice, auto-confirmation, or delivery note.

麻豆原创 Process Automation helps our customers:

Build with Simplicity
麻豆原创 Process Automation was developed on the bold vision that business users should be able to build and enhance automations and workflows by themselves with low-code/no-code technology, while IT retains governance and compliance. Unlike other RPA vendors, our enables customers to adapt, improve, and innovate business processes and operations without the complexities of using multiple tools.

Automate Faster
Backed by 50 years of running highly complex business processes and applications, 麻豆原创 is uniquely positioned to understand the opportunities of automation and AI. 麻豆原创鈥檚 domain expertise in lines of business, such as finance and HR, and related business processes like and enables us to provide customers with out-of-the-box content. Our prebuilt process content, RPA bots, and templates can make it easy for customers to jump-start innovation and accelerate their time-to-value. When paired with the , leading process analytics and modeling solutions, customers can quickly move from process insights into actions with tailored automation recommendations.

Operate Confidently
To automate and enhance business processes and applications, an organization needs a reliable and secure platform. 麻豆原创 customers can rest assured knowing the 麻豆原创 Process Automation solution is part of 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform 鈥� 麻豆原创鈥檚 trusted, enterprise-grade, multi-cloud platform. This means customers can now focus on empowering their business users to automate processes without having to be concerned about security.

Next Steps

When leveraging RPA technology, the opportunities range from streamlining financial processes, HR onboarding, call center support, and much more. Consider what business outcomes your organization could achieve with this technology. And, if you鈥檙e ready to unlock the full potential automation and AI, take the next step with the following resources:

• Visit the .
• Get hands-on with or .
• Read the .
• Read for a historic perspective and road map updates.

JG Chirapurath is chief marketing and solutions officer for 麻豆原创 BTP.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner鈥檚 research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from 麻豆原创.

By empowering employees with little to no development skills to play a key role in their organization鈥檚 success, businesses can tap a fresh community of innovators to personalize workflows, automate processes, and create new applications. And while increasing their organizational capacity to innovate, they are joining a LCNC movement that will likely produce 65% of new applications by 2024, according to .

Giving Everyone the Power to Reimagine Everything

When organizations first consider letting employees participate in innovation without IT intervention, questions about the difference between low-code and no-code inevitably arise. The main difference between the two approaches lies in how much coding knowledge is needed.

Low-code development allows users to develop and integrate complex applications with intuitive graphical tools and embedded functionalities, requiring only some basic coding skills. On the other hand, no-code development methods apply the same user experience without any need for coding and programming knowledge.

There are countless LCNC tools available that promise to deliver on those capabilities with easy-to-use interfaces. However, most of them can only be used for very well-defined use case scenarios, such as the development of mobile apps, machine learning applications, or workflow automation.

With the low-code and no-code tools available through聽聽(麻豆原创 BTP), 麻豆原创 partners and customers do not need to worry about such restrictions. Instead, they can access a combination of LCNC tools on one platform, along with intelligent processes and technologies, to build critical solutions quickly and profitably.

Accelerating the Pace of Meaningful Innovation

Many 麻豆原创 partners are taking this opportunity to 鈥渋nnovate big鈥� by tackling challenges that, when solved, can significantly improve their customers鈥� business opportunities and operating models. They are setting new bars for a variety of industries, despite the increasingly fast-paced, dynamic nature of today鈥檚 markets.

For example, an 麻豆原创 partner created a fashion rental solution that integrates with e-commerce platforms and core 麻豆原创 solutions, such as聽, , and the聽 portfolio. The partner鈥檚 solution enables retailers and their manufacturers to create and operate under a business model that reduces waste and preserves resources 鈥� improving sales, driving sustainable operations, and helping preserve our planet’s future.

By leveraging LCNC services available through 麻豆原创 BTP, the partner underpinned the solution’s processes with intelligent technologies. It included: 1) machine learning to improve decision-making and quality checks and 2)聽artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled聽image recognition to identify damages, support the returns process, and provide accurate billing. The聽services are also leveraged to help accelerate transaction processing and automate return cycles and other back-office operations, enabling orders to be booked or returns to be processed within seconds.

Integrating the cloud solution with automated store pickup, return, and billing capabilities makes the fashion rental model simple enough to manage from beginning to end transparently, efficiently, and profitably. Best of all, the user experience 鈥� for employees and customers alike 鈥� is meaningful and productive, an industry benchmark for efficiency and sustainability.

Turning Business Challenges into Long-Term Opportunities

As the hype about LCNC tools intensifies, organizations can get lost in the excitement. So rather than choosing a platform that can expand their innovation potential, hasty decisions can result in platforms that pigeonhole use case scenarios and open potential issues down the line.

麻豆原创 partners can play a critical role in leveraging LCNC technologies in ways that go beyond accelerating innovation. They are also helping customers fulfill their potential by improving operational performance, service quality, and revenue growth while addressing their resource challenges. And when you think about it, that influence is incredibly powerful as it empowers employees, regardless of their skill, to deliver personalized experiences that build long-term business success.

To learn more about how 麻豆原创 partners help businesses transition to the cloud with a unified technology platform, explore these articles:

• 鈥�Turning the Cloud into a High-Powered Innovation Engine鈥�
• 鈥�Business Planning and Analytics: The Difference Between Surviving and Thriving鈥�
• 鈥�Turn Business Process Intelligence into the Next Frontier for Growth鈥�

If you’re interested in software partnership opportunities with 麻豆原创, check out聽. If you’re already a partner, check out these exciting initiatives:聽听补苍诲听.

Tom Le is global vice president of Partner Solution Advisory at 麻豆原创.