Leading No-code Technology Company, ‘Quixy’ sparks conversation on Citizen Development

Across the globe, the number of people who know how to code and how to write software are about 0.5% of the workforce. Keeping that in mind, now if this 0.5% people have to build digital solutions for the rest of the workforce of the world, it’s an enormously lopsided equation. Over the last few years the usage of digital solutions has been on a constant rise, with organizations boasting growing demand for digitizing their functions.

Against such a demand backdrop, rises the novel concept of citizen development. Mr. Gautam Nimmagadda, Founder & CEO, Quixy elaborates on the phenomenon and its scope. Quixy is a a new-age technology company which allows business users with no tech background to automate workflows & processes, and build enterprise-grade applications, using simple drag and drop design. The idea of digitization/ automation sans code accelerated during the pandemic, which proved to be a challenging time for businesses and governments to adapt to the digital at a low cost.

Briefly explain the concepts of citizen development and citizen developer in the backdrop of no-code technology.

The idea behind citizen development is to ensure an accountable and transparent relationship between business users (citizen developers) and IT personnel. It enables non-technical individuals to work in tandem with programmers and contribute equally toward innovation. Citizen development does not compete with the IT teams, rather complements by contributing to the solution development process and therefore reduces the workload and brings forth innovation and high quality.

Democratization of software development is the key to current enterprise innovation challenges. Users become citizen developers and build bespoke applications using no-code platforms to realize such democratization of software development.

What is the scope and scalability of no-code technology in the context of Enterprise Application Development?

According to Gartner, the market for no-code application platforms will increase by more than 30% by 2022. The growing presence of distributed, remote workforce and the need for deeper and wider digitalisation to ensure greater resilience and efficiencies has forced businesses to agile frameworks that emphasize quick solutions and shorter development cycles. 

No-Code has evolved from being able to build simple forms to now building enterprise grade solutions – both ancillary and core systems as well. There are multiple instances where core ERP functions have been built on No-Code platforms – giving the right combination of agility with process & data driven systems. To successfully implement and scale no-code and citizen development, it is crucial to place an IT and business user collaboration model in place. Other significant steps include creating a framework for governance and reskilling and upskilling your staff with future-ready skills such as digital literacy and citizen development.

Your vision is to create 1 million citizen developers. How close are you to the vision, or what is the current pace for the rise in citizen developers?

I think we have made significant progress. Through our innovative marketing we have made No-Code a topic of discussion in many forums across the world. From being totally unaware of No-Code 3 years ago, we now frequently come across audience who are trying to evaluate the right platform for their needs.

 We have more than many thousands of users on our platform and through them we are continuously reaching further in spreading the knowledge and encouraging more citizens to convert to citizen developers. In three years since its inception, we have been successful in making a mark. We were recognized under the Top 100 Fastest-Growing Products across the globe for the year 2022 by G2. We currently serve 75+ customers with more than 15 industry verticals around the world. The number has been continuously increasing and

How is your company helping the creation of citizen developers? Are you on a positive spectrum towards this goal?

Our journey of creating citizen developers can be described on two fronts. One is where we are educating users about no-code, citizen development and the immense possibilities and benefits it brings. Second is that we feel it’s highly important for people to find us approachable. No-code will continue to be out of reach or something that only major players can use until users believe that technology like it exists and can be simply adapted. We have been actively participating in conversations around no-code, whether online or offline, to make that possible. Given the promise that no-code provides for businesses, there is no doubt that we are moving in the right direction to achieve this aim.

The demand for software developers is at an all-time high. How can no-code help in tackling any shortfall in the availability of IT experts?

There are two major challenges that companies face today; firstly, it takes time for an amateur coder to turn into a skilled and knowledgeable developer. And secondly, they struggle to locate the right technical expertise for the right position and are helplessly managing a growing IT backlog with a small pool of experienced engineers. Companies need to build complex applications quickly and with fewer engineers to mitigate the impact. 

With the advent of no-code, business users are empowered to build solutions themselves. This frees more experienced programmers to handle projects of that require

Can no-code help in accelerating the business development cycles of organizations? Better than their coding counterparts?

Absolutely. The essence of citizen development is to put the power of IT in the hands of business users or non-IT professionals. Imagine creating priority-specific apps with just a few weeks of no-code training. 

Today, no-code acts as a rescuer when there is a lot of unmet solution need that central IT teams cannot fill. The DIY developer, also known as the citizen developer, solves issues as they arise so quickly that they are unlikely ever to be done by software developers. As I mentioned, developers and architects can focus on the problems that require technical skills instead of domain knowledge. It leads to better business outcomes and enhances overall productivity.

What is the cost of no-code application and software development compared to traditional coding?

Developing solutions with no-code can bring the cost down by 50%-90% compared to traditional software development. And that is just one aspect. In terms of resources such as time, no-code eliminates the longer development cycles and can help you build a solution 10x-20x faster.

Beyond monetary advantages, what else can no-code technology offer?

There is a whole list of benefits that businesses can realise with no-code. It brings quality, innovation, agility to the digital solutions of an enterprise and therefore hyper-accelerates the digital roadmaps of an organisation, making it resilient, efficient and future-ready. Businesses can achieve the goal of higher inclusivity with users actively engaging in creating applications. And as users create solutions, managers can prepare a training path for non-programmers to help them understand the scope and nitty-gritty of citizen development. This way, each individual can feel equally empowered and contribute toward rapid innovation.