Low code vs No code: A comprehensive comparison

low code vs no code

The rise of low code and no code platforms has played an essential role in the 21st century. These innovative technologies are not only making app development accessible to citizen developers, but are also breaking down barriers and democratising innovation across industries.

The most common question raised in terms of low code & no code platforms is what is the difference between the two? Although they aim for the same goal, to bring speed to the business by decreasing software development time in a go-to-market approach. Still, there are a number of significant differences between “low code” and “no code” platforms.

Let’s take a closer look at each approach and understand better.

What is No code?

No code refers to a development tool that empowers non-technical users to build applications. Instead of writing code, no code platforms offer visual-based interfaces and pre-built templates, allowing users to simply drag and drop components into logical sequences to build fully functional business applications. In the background, the platform automatically generates the necessary code, making the app functional.

However, no code does have its own downside: while it enables users to build applications rapidly, they are limited to the provided templates. This limitation results in reduced flexibility and scalability when attempting to incorporate highly customized features or integrate with existing systems.

What is Low code?

As the name suggests, low code platform enables developers to write custom code when necessary to meet specific and complex business requirements. Unlike No-Code platforms, Low-Code platforms include automation capabilities, component reusability, and integration capabilities, making them capable of handling scalability and ensuring cross-platform compatibility.

In summary, low code offers a middle ground between traditional coding and no code solutions, making them suitable for a wide range of users, from citizen developers to software developers.

Low code vs No code: The differences

Now that you have a grasp of both low code and no code platforms, how do you determine the ideal choice for your needs? While these two simple workflow applications share many common traits, there are a few fundamental differences that are crucial to consider.

The following table presents the main differences between low code and no code –

low code vs no code

No code vs Low code: When to use what

When selecting between low code and no code development for your project, it’s essential to consider your application’s specific requirements and characteristics. Here are some factors to keep in mind:

The Complexity of the Project

Low-code platforms are well-suited for applications that involve moderate complexity and customization. They balance visual development and the ability to incorporate custom code when needed. On the other hand, if your project is relatively simple and doesn’t require extensive customization, a no-code platform might be more suitable.

Development Skills and Resources

If you have developers with coding expertise and the ability to write code, a low-code platform can provide the flexibility to incorporate their skills while benefiting from the visual development environment. On the other hand, if your team consists mainly of non-technical individuals or you have limited development resources, a no-code platform allows you to create applications independently without relying on coding skills.

Time Constraints

Low-code development is faster than traditional coding, making it a quick way to get your app to market. But if time is tight and you need to build a lightning-fast simple app, no-code is faster because it doesn’t involve any coding.

Scalability and Future Needs

Low-Code platforms provide greater flexibility and extensibility, allowing you to incorporate custom code and integrate with external systems. No-code platforms, while more limited in customization options, are ideal for projects with specific requirements that foresee little future expansion.

A few industry use cases

Low-Code has versatile applications across multiple industries. Here are some prevalent use cases:

Manufacturing Sector

Procurement Management
  • Vendor Profile Management: Streamline vendor profile management by creating custom applications and simplifying the process of storing and updating vendor qualifications and pricing data.
  • Purchase Request Management: Users can easily build purchase request systems to streamline and automate the request submission and approval process.
  • Purchase Order Tracking: Track and approve purchase orders in real-time with custom-built applications, reducing manual intervention.
  • Procurement Analytics: Utilize reporting capabilities to generate detailed reports on procurement costs and trends, aiding in cost optimization.
Supply Chain Management
  • Material Tracking: Track the movement of materials and products through the supply chain, providing visibility and control over the entire process.
  • Supplier Relationship Management: Build applications to manage supplier relationships, enhancing collaboration and communication.
  • Supply Chain Analytics: Generate reports on supply chain efficiency and costs to identify areas for improvement and cost reduction.

Healthcare Sector

Patient Management
  • Outpatient and Inpatient Management: Efficiently handle patient admissions, discharges, and transfers, ensuring seamless patient flow within the healthcare facility.
  • Patient Onboarding and Registration: Develop user-friendly onboarding and registration processes for patients, reducing paperwork and enhancing the patient experience.
  • Patient Portal: Create a comprehensive patient portal for appointment scheduling, accessing test results, reviewing medication history, and improving patient engagement and self-service.
Maintenance Management
  • Maintenance Tracking: Efficiently track assets and equipment in healthcare facilities, ensuring timely maintenance and minimizing downtime.
  • Maintenance Task Scheduling: Develop applications to schedule preventive maintenance tasks, ensuring the proper upkeep of critical equipment.
  • Maintenance Reports: Utilize reporting capabilities to generate detailed reports on maintenance costs and equipment repairs, aiding in cost control and asset management.

Financial Sector

Customer Onboarding
  • Customer Profile Management: Applications facilitate the creation and management of customer profiles, including critical information such as contact details, financial data, and risk appetite.
  • Onboarding Process: The technology streamlines the customer onboarding process, including essential Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks, reducing manual work and ensuring regulatory compliance.
  • Reporting: Comprehensive reports on customer onboarding activities are generated, offering valuable insights for decision-making and compliance audits.
KYC (Know Your Customer)
  • Identity Verification: Applications simplify Know Your Customer (KYC) checks to verify customer identities and financial statuses, a crucial aspect of compliance.
  • Automated KYC: The KYC process can be automated, ensuring adherence to regulations, including Aadhaar and PAN compliance.
  • Activity Reports: Robust reporting capabilities provide clear overviews of KYC activities, aiding in compliance efforts and identifying areas for improvement.
Loan Origination
  • Streamlined Loan Applications: Technology assists in creating and managing loan applications, simplifying the process for both customers and financial institutions.
  • Loan Origination Solutions: The loan origination process, including underwriting and verification, can be automated, enhancing efficiency and reducing processing time.

To Conclude

Both low-code and no-code solutions come with their own advantages. Choosing between the two can be tricky due to their similarities. The best approach is to look at your current needs and decide accordingly.

Get in touch with Amoga experts to embark on your low-code journey today! Amoga is a low-code work platform that empowers businesses to build enterprise-grade applications 10 times faster and at 25% lower cost than traditional software. Organizations can break free from complex software limitations with features such as Pre-built App templates, App Studio, Visual UI builders, Form Builders, and Customized Workflow. Book your demo today and start building apps with Amoga.

Async Communication: Make your remote team communicate better

async communication

From the past two years, remote working has become the new normal, giving rise to an asynchronous approach, connecting from anywhere, at any time. It is a way to communicate, collaborate and coordinate with employees across countries from different time zones through email, team communication tools, Google Docs, etc.

According to the recent research by  Harvard Business Review, companies have seen an increase in productivity by using online tools for asynchronous communication.

Is It Time to Let Employees Work from Anywhere?

The objective of this article is to give you a clear idea of asynchronous communication and how it helps in remote work success. But, before going into the details, let us first understand the difference between synchronous and asynchronous communication.

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous

Synchronous approach: Simultaneous exchange

By definition, synchronous is anything that happens simultaneously, in sync. Therefore, when we speak of synchronous communication, it indicates a relationship in which the sender and receiver are interacting at the same time, whether they are in the same place.  

In this way, messages sent are immediately received and answered by other people. The communication happens in real-time, where the feedback is instantaneous.

Examples of synchronous communication –

  • Face-to-face meetings
  • Video conference
  • Digital notifications via Slack, WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, etc. (if the recipient responds in real-time)  
  • Asking the teammate at your desk a quick question

Asynchronous approach: Flexible exchange

In asynchronous communication, the communicating partners do not enter into a conversation in real-time. It means the sender and receiver interact at different times, at the time that is most convenient for both. For instance, when someone sends you an email, you open it and respond hours later.

Examples of asynchronous communication –

  • Email
  • Discussion forums
  • Letters or other direct mail Project management tools  
  • Company virtual workspaces  
  • Text messaging via mobile devices

Challenges associated with synchronous communication at workplace

This highly synchronous way of working would be understandable if it produced results, but there is increasing evidence that all the overhead of real-time communication makes it difficult to focus, drains employees’ mental resources, and often makes it difficult to progress at work.  

Let’s briefly look at the main problems associated with synchronous culture –

  1. Constant interruptions
    The biggest drawback of synchronous communication is that it favors interruptions. When you work in a work environment that favors this kind of culture, you generally have more meetings and your colleagues come more often to interrupt you to ask you things. It can, therefore, sometimes be difficult to concentrate and do deep work.
  2. Loss of freedom
    When you receive a text message or email, you have the freedom to read it and respond to it later. With synchronous culture, this is impossible. If someone calls you or schedules meetings or comes to talk to you, you can’t ignore them and come back to them later. You must stop what you are doing to respond to him. This constraint gives less freedom.
  3. Creates unnecessary stress
    The expectation of being constantly available means employees have no control over their schedules. They spend business days reacting to requests rather than proactively setting their own agenda. Researchers also found that people who make up for time lost to workplace disruptions by trying to work faster lead to more stress, greater frustration, time pressure, and effort. This kind of synchronous culture can quickly lead to burnout.

Benefits of Async communication at work

Working remotely has long been synonymous with working in unsuitable environments for professional activity. This implies less predictable working conditions and obstacles to productivity (children, noisy neighbour’s, work, etc.). Asynchronous way of working in a telework context thus has the merit of allowing employees to regain control over their time management!  

But it is not only beneficial in a telework context. Many companies that still have offices are also adopting a more asynchronous approach to prevent their employees from being distracted or interrupted in their work.  

Among the main advantages of asynchronous approach, the most recognized are –

  1. Promotes the quality of work
    Asynchronous work style allows an individual to prepare for a good response by providing enough time. It means a particular answer has been sufficiently thought through, and thus a valuable and high-quality output is ensured. When employees are free to respond on their own schedule, they can focus on more important things, which eventually improves their performance and productivity, and it’s a win-win situation for everyone.
  2. Less stress at work
    Being constantly interrupted by notifications and messages makes work unproductive. With each interruption, there is a new cycle of concentration and focus to get back to what you were doing. Little by little, this creates stress, which further lowers focus and productivity throughout the day. Upfront, this will generate dissatisfaction with the job and the company and possibly even mental problems. Giving more autonomy to the employee allows them to plan better, to prioritize what is most important.
  3. Allows greater flexibility
    Isn’t it true that we all seek a perfect work-life balance? With asynchronous work, this goal seems more viable. The possibility of determining your own hours and calendar is the most attractive feature of remote and asynchronous employment. Some are most productive during the day, and some are more productive at night. Thus, asynchronous work culture gives the freedom to choose your own feasible work hours.
  4. Increases transparency
    While communicating asynchronously, one of the most important things is to pass on the information, at a later point in time in written form or in the form of pre-recorded videos and audios. As a result, your team can revisit and discuss the goals of a specific project or the expectations placed on them, leading to more transparency.

    Whether in written documents or recorded videos and audio, asynchronous communication makes it even more evident what is expected of your team and the time frame. This way, everyone knows what they are working on and has access to other project areas for an overall view. Transparency is crucial for your team’s growth and business development – it builds trust and allows your team to truly understand the vision behind the business goals.

Whether in written documents or recorded videos and audio, asynchronous communication makes it even more evident what is expected of your team and the time frame. This way, everyone knows what they are working on and has access to other project areas for an overall view. Transparency is crucial for your team’s growth and business development – it builds trust and allows your team to truly understand the vision behind the business goals.

How to build a more asynchronous culture within your team

The transition to asynchronous communication does not happen overnight. It requires a profound change in your organization’s work processes, habits, and culture. As too many emails have been plaguing workplaces for a long. But, the new modern digital workspace, collaboration tools, and work boards have replaced emails with more contextual and meaningful communication and interactions.

Here are some concrete steps you can take, individually and as a manager, to begin your transition –

  • Over-communicate – ‍When sending a message, include as much information as possible, both in writing and with visual tools. Be clear about what you expect from the other person, do not hesitate to detail your expectations. Set a deadline by which you expect a response/action from him.  
  • Plan ahead – ‍Give your collaborators time to reflect on your message before giving you feedback.  
  • Before meetings, share a common thread or document – ‍Share all relevant information and discuss key points before the meeting so that everyone can fully understand the topic to be addressed.  ‍
  • After the meetings, document your discussions and conclusions – Continue your thread, so people who weren’t there can have all the information they need. You can even experiment with video recording your meetings so they can “attend” them asynchronously.
  • Emphasize trust, independence, and responsibility – Without these values, asynchronous communication cannot work effectively. At the same time, set reasonable team-wide expectations for response times. For example, you can ask your employees to respond within 24 hours.

Wrapping Up

The synchronous and asynchronous forms of communication are two means that will always exist and coexist. There is no way to leave any of them aside, as they are great for different functions. However, in the current corporate context, prioritizing asynchronous approach is the best thing to do, especially in telework or hybrid workplaces. The fewer interruptions help the team be more focused, leading to better overall results.

Challenges of onboarding new employees 

Onboarding new employees

According to the Research by Brandon Hall Group organizations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%. This shows onboarding is as crucial as the recruitment process.  In the end, any successful recruitment will not be successful if onboarding procedures are not in good shape. 

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Data-driven decision-making process: A beginner’s guide

Data driven decision making

There is no doubt, we are in the 21st century, and digital transformation has brought a specific strategic interest: Data. 

“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” 

– W. Edwards

Nowadays, companies seek to have data, more and more, about the users who visit their website and their networks to convert them into customers. But they also need the data to make decisions, to know their customers, and always offer them a plus advantage that makes them loyal. Not surprisingly, competition is fierce in each sector globally. 

So… What does it mean for a company to be “data-driven” and what is data-driven decision? 

Being a “data-driven company” means digitizing and updating the company culture to opt for decision-making based on the analysis of the information offered by the data since these decisions are more objective, faster, and optimal. 

The data revolution is here, and it’s just the beginning… but how does it benefit the decision-making process in organizations? We will discover it for you below. 

What is data-driven decision making? 

Data-driven decision-making is defined as the use of facts, metrics, and data to guide strategic business decisions that align with a company’s goals, objectives, and initiatives. Modern analytics tools such as interactive dashboards, work management platforms, and OKR tools help people overcome prejudice and make the best management decisions aligned to business strategies. 

It is often referred as DDDM or information-driven decision making. It pulls together historical information to analyze trends and make better decisions for the future relative to what worked in the past, rather than making decisions based on gut feeling, opinion, or experience. 

Data-driven decision making for business 

Data is one of the most valuable assets for every organization. It is a gold mine and a very strategic and invaluable resource that has the potential to transform the world, improve the way we live, grow a business, and enable better, faster, and cost-effective business processes. Unlike traditional companies, data-driven companies do not scale linearly, and one of the reasons giant companies like Google and Amazon always experience exponential growth is because their business models are fundamentally built around data-based decision making. 

According to PwC, data-driven organizations can outperform their competitors by 6% in profitability and 5% in productivity. 

Another study also reveals that organizations who enforce data-driven decision are 162% more likely to exceed their revenue targets and 58% more likely to exceed their revenue targets than non-data-driven organizations. 

81% of organizations also agree that data should be at the heart of all business decision-making. 

Before getting carried away by the above mind-blowing numbers, one crucial thing to remember is that data are “just like untapped gold” in its raw form and may not be very informative or valuable right away. Thus, to get the best out of data, the company needs to collect the appropriate data and transform it into a reusable format. That said, here are some key reasons why every organization should start using their data-based decision making effectively –

  1. Helps you understand customer behavior and improve their experience 
    We live in a world where products and/or services are countless, and your current/potential customers have multiple options on where to invest. In addition, competition between product suppliers has never been more intense than before. But without data, it becomes quite challenging even to know who your customers are, if they like your products and services, or if your marketing strategies/campaigns are effective or not. 

    In contrast, you can easily achieve all this with data by implementing customer surveys, extracting and analyzing access data, purchase patterns, etc. In most cases, business profits are closely tied to data-driven decision, customer-centric, and strategic business processes and decisions. Once you collect customer data, you can analyze the data points and gain insights generated from customer feedback. It proves beneficial for customer service, cross-selling, up-selling services, and/or product innovation. 

    For instance, Netflix collects and analyzes customer data to see what types of movies and shows are popular. Afterward, the company uses the insights gained to buy similar titles, if subscribers would also like the new titles based on their previous preferences. The company used this data-driven strategy to increase its business value by more than $50 billion during the peak of the pandemic in 2020. 

    Amazon also leverages consumer data such as browsing history, customer purchases, and preferences to power its product recommendation engine. This data-driven decision approach generates around 35% of the company’s revenue. 

  2. Make better, informed business decisions  
    Data-driven decision is an essential aspect of every business that often involves multiple business executives, shareholders, and millions of dollars that companies cannot afford to lose. With the correct data in hand, the company won’t have to make significant business decisions based on hunches, guesses, wrong assumptions, or uncertain inputs – even in times of crisis. The data-driven decision making will provide the facts, trends, statistical numbers, and insights that the business needs to make informed and calculated decisions or understand performance.

    Every department in an average organization generates (or can generate) valuable data that can be used to create a business strategy, drive growth and profitability. For example,
    • Business executives need data to assess the most significant trends in their market, such as changes in production processes, logistics, or customer price sensitivity.

    • Sales teams need sales performance data to understand and differentiate products that are selling well from products that are hard to sell.

    • Marketing departments need market segmentation data to identify the most willing customers who want to buy from them and speed up the closing process.

    • HR departments need personal data to manage talent better and build more effective global remote teams. – The list goes on!

  3. Assess business performance and understand employee engagement 
    In addition to helping, you understand customer behavior, improve brand awareness, and make better business decisions based on data, data analytics also allows you to measure business performance, build more reliable long-term hypotheses, and a very vibrant workforce. 

    The company can drill down into the data to understand whether it is meeting the most crucial business indicators or not. For example, most professional teams today employ a team of Data Analysts, Data Scientists, and Data Engineers to help support and improve company performance using data. 

    By analyzing business performance data, the company can also understand strategies that have worked and have not worked in the past, business data-driven decision and/or policies that have brought the most returns, business operations and costs that can be optimized, and other business drivers. 


Data driven decision making process 

Step 1

Start with your strategy  

To avoid getting lost in the face of a large amount of data, outline your strategic objectives and avoid analyzing irrelevant information. For instance, this could be as specific as: are you going to look at sales or website performance? Or track business metrics? Ultimately, it will help you later in the process to choose key performance indicators (KPIs) and the right metrics that maximize efforts by taking all construction to a single path and prevent you from wasting team time and energy. 

But, how to ensure that you are measuring the right KPIs? 

KPIs are impactful metric that measures how businesses, departments, and individuals perform when it comes to tracking objectives and key results (OKRs).  

Step 2

Use data backed KPIs

KPIs are the critical point of any performance management system. Some people prefer to work without KPIs, while others prefer to use KPIs from a long list of indicators found on the internet. Thus, it is recommended to invest time in finding specific performance indicators for your business challenges. 

For instance, you want to decide more tangible and specific with KPIs. Then, think and ask yourself these questions –  

  • How will you track execution progress (trend indicators)? 
  • How will you validate the results achieved? 
  • When do you plan to achieve these results? (Setting goals of values) 

Step 3

View the progress  

It is easier to track trends and anomalies when you can visualize the data on a dashboard. Thus, our scorecard can put the performance data for trend and result indicators on the same chart. In this sense, you can visualize the data and roadblocks and take your data one step closer to strategic challenges. 

Step 4

Turn insights into action  

Formulate an action plan based on the current understanding of the situation. It is more important to formulate all the details behind the decision. This approach makes it easier for new team members to join the team, align decisions across the organization, and analyze results. 

Step 5

Analyze the result  

Now, it’s time to analyze the results. The final performance data is not as important as the work your team did along the way. What’s more critical is to analyze the deep reasons for failure/success and suggest strategic improvements. 

To Conclude 

The world has changed, and there is no longer room to be guided only by intuition. Using data-driven decision is guaranteed to choose the best path. Amid this digital age, the generation of data is enormous, and, in the same way, the possibilities of use are endless. 

Institutionalizing Innovation in Workplace

Innovation in Workplace

Pandemic, few experts argue, has slowed business growth for many brands. Cloud-native companies that have pivoted their business models have mostly thrived during the constant disruptions. History suggests that organizations that can flex, adapt to unexpected changes and invest in innovation through crisis outperform competition during the recovery. Institutionalizing innovation in workplace is necessary to remain competitive in any industry.  

Workplace
Let’s deep dive into 3 ways innovation in workplace can be institutionalized –
  1. Foster a culture of innovation and growth
    Fostering a culture of innovation in workplace with a highly creative environment and digital transformation is a top-down approach. Leadership is responsible for driving core values and bringing about a company culture that is inclusive and on a high growth path.  

    When employees feel that their contributions matter and they have scope to experiment, they give their best shot. The expectations are changing and the pandemic has witnessed more employees quit than ever. Experts believe that we’re in “The Great Resignation” and as many as four million people quit in April 2021.  

    Nurturing a culture of innovation in the workplace means –
    • Actively encouraging experimentation across teams.
    • Enabling rapid development and scaling.
    • Observing environment and the market proactively.
    • Making the most of technological advancements.

  2. Failure should not be dreaded
    An agile business can only be successful if there is full support from the leadership in removing the fear of failure. Employees don’t want to take risks because they fear failure will negatively impact their reputation, which inhibits growth for both employees and businesses. They need constant confidence and support so they can fail quickly, learn from mistakes and move on.

    An organization that punishes failure and preaches innovation is a phony organization, to say the least. Fearless action is only driven by the lack of fear. Not every path is straight or successful, and not every idea will be worth investing time into. Perhaps 1 out of 10 ideas will actually make sense. What’s important is to understand that failure does not equal wasted effort. The workplace that rewards failure supports a high growth and innovation culture.  

  3. Operational agility is not a choice
    Operational agility is an essential component of any competitive business model and is the ability to quickly and effectively respond to changes within a company. The 3 key pillars of operational agility are flexibility, robustness, and resilience. Agility is what allowed the leading companies to stand apart during the pandemic.

    Practicing agility at the top sets the culture for teams and employees; leaders who can act quickly, pivot when needed, and scale with stakeholders help organizations to rise above adversity. Gartner estimates that by 2025, over 50% of government agencies will have modernized critical core legacy applications to improve resilience and agility. This goes on to say not just private firms, govt agencies have also felt the need to be agile in order to be sustainable.  

Wrapping Up

Identifying risks and predicting disruptions is not a gut feeling. It requires a comprehensive understanding of the entire value chain: technologies, digital transformation, processes, environment, and customers. The leading organizations today are building new levels of resiliency, institutionalizing innovation in the hybrid workplaces, and aren’t just dealing with the challenges of today. Rather, they have established an innovation culture that embraces changes that are yet to come.