Pegasystems CEO Calls For Deeper View Of Low-Code

Code is low level. Because the software code behind enterprise applications and data services is a low-level substrate entity, it is generally regarded to be a lower-level element of an organization’s operational fabric. Although even the most ardent technophobes now have a basic understanding of what an app is, the software code that most employees use every day exists somewhere down in their device's chipset, or somewhere up there in the ether that forms the web and the connected cloud.

Throughout the last decade (and actually somewhat before that time as well), our software developers have been offered the opportunity to shortcut and accelerate a proportion of their core tasks through the popularization of low-code techniques and platforms. Along with so-called no-code functions designed for business users, the market for these tools has swelled in recent times.

The low-down on low-code

But popularization rarely comes without hyperbole and misalignment, so we now stand at a point where we can think about how these software services actually apply to the coalface of business.

Founder and CEO of enterprise AI ‘decisioning’ and workflow automation platform provide company Pegasystems Alan Trefler reminds us that there has indeed been a lot of hype and that - as he puts it - not all low-code tools are created equal. Because of this disparity and the lack of any identifiable one-size-fits-all approach, we need to remember that deploying low-code platforms to transform a business at scale (and across departments) can be achieved, but only with close collaboration between business and IT.

“What is needed is a common set of governance principles and an IT-sanctioned design that makes it easy for business users to use applications to drive true value,” said Trefler. “There are too many low-code tools being used today that operate at the periphery of the business. When we talk about low code, it’s imperative to draw a distinction between applications that can truly transform an enterprise and something that has single-use value – say to enable an HR intern to create a wellness app, for example. Allowing individual users to create one-off applications for small teams or departments is a perfectly fine thing to do – but it isn’t going to transform employee or customer experiences. Enterprises that are looking to use a watered-down approach to low-code technology to meaningfully improve operational efficiency or radically simplify customer experiences are going to be left behind.”

Consistent organizational outcomes

To have an enterprise-level impact, Trefler and the Pega team suggest that low-code tools must be able to provide consistent outcomes across an organization – including organizations with operations in multiple geographies or that sell dozens of individual products. These tools must support workplace elements such as cross-functional planning, control, oversight (i.e. due diligence to assess & quantify corporate risk) and cost management at the software application development stage. They must also enable both the business and IT functions to work together in new team structures, working to a common set of business goals and governance principles. This is essential to ensuring that the use and implementation of the latest technologies scale in a secure and manageable fashion.

“The end user’s experience must also lie at the heart of enterprise-grade low-code tools in a way that is simply not possible with more lightweight alternatives,” insisted Trefler. “Today’s users expect all apps – including those built with low-code platforms – to provide a brilliant UX (User eXperience) and work across devices and form factors. They also expect to see that they support accessibility requirements and be able to deliver a consistent and intuitive user experience. Having the design systems built into your low-code platform of choice is essential to delivering great experiences – even when the apps are being built by citizen developers who may not have design experience.”

For users already familiar with writing tools like Grammarly, with intelligent assistants and copilot technologies on our smartphones and smartwatches, or with the kinds of stylistic content advice offered by a modern Content Management System (CMS), this guided design experience should be familiar enough. For employees who have never come into contact with such tools, the adoption process should still be quite intuitive.

Fingering periphery tinkering

“Put simply, there’s a significant difference between platforms that support this [baked in design-centric] approach and those that do not. Low-code is not just for tinkering on the periphery of the business. Done correctly, it can transform the mission-critical and customer-centric operations at the heart of an organisation, delivering optimized workflows that give an organization a competitive advantage,” asserted Trefler. “This [evolved] type of low-code is designed to deliver powerful, scalable software without burying business logic in code - which is in fact the source of much technical debt - and enable an enterprise to achieve the transformative outcomes it seeks in relation to revenue, customer relations and competitive differentiation.”

Does the Pegasystems chief think his company’s platform goes beyond periphery tinkering? Well, what self-respecting CEO wouldn’t? It is at least refreshing to hear a corporate leader in this space call out a) what a platform should and shouldn’t have inside it as key callout features and functions b) what users should - and perhaps more significantly - should not be doing with low-code platforms today and where expectations should be set, as well as c) only using the term ‘User eXperience’ once (one imagines he held back, which we’re grateful for) here.

If the low-code software platform industry is going to talk about that dreaded term digital transformation, then it should at least point to the what, when and why of those elements of work that are being transformed.