A low-code platform means anyone can be a developer, and perhaps a data scientist too

A low-code platform Democratizing application development And it gives business professionals of all kinds the opportunity to create their own software solutions to the challenges they face.

That’s certainly true of engineering giant Rolls-Royce. At Rolls-Royce, Chief Digital Information Officer Stuart Hughes oversees the implementation of his Microsoft Power Apps platform.

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Aerospace and defense giant teams up with Microsoft to help host staff low code Technologies and building tools that increase productivity and support research and development.

Additionally, Hughes expects everyone to start developing their own applications.

“How we use the Microsoft Office Suite today is exactly how we will use it with the Power platform in the future,” he says. “I think it’s a very productive tool for employees.”

Low-code apps developed so far include a 24/7 on-call system for the company’s R&D department, a Kudos app to help employees deliver praise, and an analytics dashboard to visualize key information. And so on.

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Hughes calls these apps ‘micro-innovations’ and estimates that the benefits of these small improvements will translate into total cost efficiencies and savings of £8m to £10m by 2022.

Research shows that Rolls-Royce isn’t alone in its efforts to: civil development.

According to Gartner, organizations of all kinds are increasingly turning to low-code development technologies to meet the growing demand for rapid application delivery and highly customized workflows.

The analyst expects global spending on low-code development to reach $26.9 billion in 2023, up 19.6% from 2022.

Gartner also predicts that developers outside formal IT departments will make up at least 80% of the user base for low-code development tools by 2026, up from 60% in 2021.

With line-of-business employees increasingly reluctant to do their own application development, is low-code/no-code the future of software creation?

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“It’s just another tool,” Hughes said, suggesting that services like Microsoft Power Apps should be seen as a primary arsenal of tools that companies can use to enhance their digital transformation efforts. increase.

This change is important because IT teams are under tremendous pressure.According to research more than half Staff (56%) report that their role is becoming more stressful over the years.

Rolls-Royce knew that as the demand for digital transformation continued to grow, it would be nearly impossible for IT teams to complete an endless to-do list.

So while some IT professionals may view the rise of low-code development as a threat to their role, Hughes believes that no-code tools enable large companies to become smaller and more focused. We believe we have the opportunity to create better solutions more quickly.

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“It’s about leveraging skilled people to do the most valuable work they can do,” he says.

Low-code technology will free up more time for Rolls-Royce developers to support citizen development strategies, ensure effective governance to turn smart ideas into fully formed products, and more. You can focus on higher value tasks.

“This puts things in control for the IT team,” says Hughes. “This gives us more room to innovate. It allows us to find changes that are made to our corporate systems and replace some of these applications when things start to mature. I can.”

For Rolls-Royce, therefore, low-code development is a way to both reduce the burden on IT departments and provide an immediate source for fresh, innovative ideas and applications.

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The company has already had some great successes with its low-code strategy, but it’s looking to do more.

The company recently held the Citizen Digital Expo, which was attended by 500 colleagues from across the company. Low-code developers will be given a booth at his Expo where they can show how their apps work, and those interested will discuss how the tools can be applied to their areas of business. I was able to.

“This event was great for reuse. People saw the stuff and said, ‘I want this,’” says Hughes.

In fact, Rolls-Royce makes low-code software developed by other citizens readily available.

The company has an in-house app store where you can see if others have developed software to help you meet your business requirements.

Yammer and Teams also have online communities where people in the company can chat about low-code techniques and apps in development.

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Rolls-Royce offers an in-depth four-day Microsoft training course for those who want to get hands-on.

Hughes’ team also created an internal guide to help employees get started with Power Apps, working with internal “Champion Super Users” to spread the benefits of low-code approaches and share best-practice techniques. I’m here.

Democratizing software development has allowed Rolls-Royce to cut costs and increase efficiency from its business.

Hughes believes there will be more to come from the Power platform and outlines a desire to train citizen data scientists.

“I truly believe that everything we do is moving us towards that destination,” he says. “With data science, we can extract tremendous value.”

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Hughes says the transition to citizen data science is not easy. For now, low-code tools are still focused on the IT professional’s activity.

But he expects the move to data science to happen in the not too distant future.

“Everything has to be in one place and clean,” he says. “But I think that being able to unlock the power of big data and data science in a civil environment is something we can do within the next five years. I think it will go a long way.”

As befits a company that builds aircraft engines, Hughes expects low-code data technology to act like a “co-pilot,” working with employees to achieve set goals.

“It helps them do their jobs better,” he says. “I think people will use data more and more people will take on roles related to data analysis. And hopefully, we will be able to democratize the fields of data science and machine learning as well. Just like data science and machine learning. Just as some elements of the software development process have already been democratized.”