Realizing the promise of low-code/no-code – CIO

Businesses that adopt a low-code/no-code-enabled platform find they’re freed from heavily depending on dedicated IT when non-technical users can more easily pursue application development. But low-code/no-code’s value far exceeds this key benefit.

In today’s world, as technology changes at lightning speed, a low-code/no-code platform provides the critical foundation enterprises need to quickly adapt to modern technology, paving the way for future growth. With low-code/no-code, companies are able to operate nimbly, painlessly incorporating important emerging technologies as they arise.

“Low-code/no-code enables change quickly and it allows for business adaptation through so many potential and growing use cases,” says Alex Zhong, director of product marketing at GEP. “It fosters creativity and it helps to spur business innovation.”

For example, low-code/no-code is essential to helping companies with a pressing current issue: figuring out how to integrate technology like generative AI into operations. A low-code/no-code platform gives enterprises the support they need to seamlessly adopt generative AI and quickly see business benefits. This is especially important as nearly half of executive leaders say they have recently increased their artificial intelligence investments, according to a recent Gartner survey.

“Low-code/no-code makes it easy to integrate with generative AI like ChatGPT,” says Suprakash Das, GEP’s vice president of engineering. “You don’t have to go hire data scientists or AI experts to build the capability by hand to bring this to market and drive value from it because configurable AI capabilities are baked into the low-code/no-code platform.”

This ability of low-code/no-code to seamlessly incorporate and work with new types of technology like generative AI also lays the groundwork to streamline supply chain processes and solve companies’ real-world challenges. Quickly automating many manual tasks is simple with low-code/no-code.

Use case examples of opportunity include:

1. Automating purchase order (PO) approvals. With a low-code/no-code platform and new accompanying technologies, businesses can create workflows that route POs to the appropriate approver based on specific rules. For example, the amount of the purchase, the department requesting the purchase, or the supplier being used. ChatGPT can quickly provide details on current workflows.

2. Managing supplier contracts. Low-code/no-code makes it easy to set up a new process to track contract expiration dates, renewals, and terms. Enterprises can establish an automation process whereby notifications are sent to a manager’s phone well before contracts expire. ChatGPT adds another layer. Managers can ask questions about contracts and easily extract critical clauses needed to understand a renewal. “Generative AI eliminates grunt work,” Das says.

3. Actions based on inventory levels. In the rapidly changing business environment, it greatly reduces the time to automate the process of reordering inventory when levels fall below a certain threshold with low-code/no-code. For instance, the platform can detect when a critical part is on the cusp of dropping to a critically low level and notify the business that action is needed to avoid business interruptions or disruptions in service.

4. Actions for supplier performance. Another key benefit is the ability to flexibly create workflows that not only track supplier performance metrics but also identify areas for improvement.

5. Managing logistics and transportation. Finally, tracking shipments and managing carrier relationships becomes more agile and transparent for companies that are using a low-code/no-code platform.

To stay competitive in today’s challenging business environment, companies must be able to quickly and with less effort incorporate new technologies as they emerge so they can best serve business needs. A low-code/no-code platform makes this possible.

“It’s thinking about how you can modify an application quickly to address business needs,” says Das. “Businesses have a fundamental mandate to keep up with the times, and often they need to change quickly. Low-code/no-code is really helping businesses modify their internal capabilities to better meet external challenges.”

GEP helps companies with transformative, holistic supply chain solutions so they can become more agile and resilient. Their end-to-end comprehensive, unified solutions harness technology to change organizations for the better. To find out more, visit GEP.