In a Harvard Business Review article, Thomas C. Redman references a project by AT&T, the world’s largest telecommunications company, where the simple task of reducing invoicing errors uncovered something shocking: over 40% of invoicing data contained errors that cost the company tens of millions of dollars. Even in 2021—the age of digitalization—poor quality data is wreaking havoc in businesses, costing the United States a staggering $3 trillion per year.

Low-Code. This is a new term for many, and it raises questions. The first is “What is it?” Suffice to say, low-code is a new way to build software applications that is faster and better than traditional coding. A more urgent question is “why do we need it?” What kinds of shifts has the world seen that have caused something like low-code to gain prominence? We need to take a few steps back to understand how business and the tech industry have evolved.

Did you know it takes an average of six months to build and deploy a basic enterprise app? It’s time to get our hours back. Low-code platforms like Appian cut that dev time in half or more. Design your apps securely and quickly using visual workflows so you can spend your time coding creative custom features instead of working on non-value adding, monotonous development tasks.

At the recent Mobile World Congress in Los Angeles, it was clear that 5G tops the innovation agenda in the telecom sector. In fact, 5G will account for two-thirds of total mobile connections in North America by 2025. This goes far beyond the telecom industry though, enabling significant potential for enterprise digitization.

As insurtechs and tech giants continue to disrupt the market, traditional insurers are under increasing pressure to modernize and keep pace with customers’ digital expectations. This trend shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, global insurtech investment reached a record $7.1 billion in 2020, with overall funding up 12% from 2019, according to Willis Towers Watson. It seems like everywhere you look there’s new technology promising to solve business challenges or inefficiencies.

According to a recent report by Appian, 84% of companies surveyed have turned to low-code tools to reduce the strain on their IT departments. In the same report, 43% of organizations surveyed reported greater agility and 43% reported reduced cost. Given these numbers combined with rapidly changing market conditions, companies must embrace digital transformation. Below, we’ll discuss the benefits of low-code development platforms and how it enables companies to remain agile.

Financial services industry leaders overwhelmingly choose low-code platforms to manage their automation—81% of industry-leading companies say they are ahead or far ahead of competitors in adopting low-code platforms. What makes platforms so appealing to these companies? Well, many things, but not least the way they enable non-technical employees to design and manage applications and automation workflows with little to no developer support. In other words, their ability to democratize automation.