Airtable, a low-code platform, recently announced the completion of a $270 million Series E financing from Greenoaks Capital Management, WndrCo, Thrive Capital, CRV, Caffeinated Capital. It is valued at $5.8 billion. This round comes just six months after the previous $185 million Series D round.
The Low code platform (Airtable) was founded in 2012 in the US to provide efficient office platform for enterprises and ordinary users. The platform allows users to store and manage various soft files in a database, while the platform also supports collaborative office to improve user productivity.
This message, and undoubtedly let domestic low code manufacturers confidence. Although low code/no code has been hot in China for some time, the concept of low code is not new, just like the so-called “new wine in an old bottle”. The underlying logic of visual programming has a long history.
What is visual programming?
Visual (Visual) programming is a new programming method, it is mainly to let the programmer use the software itself to provide a variety of controls, like building blocks to construct the application of various interfaces.
What are the advantages of visual programming?
1, visual programming is to let the programmer use the software itself to provide a variety of controls, like building blocks to construct the application of various interfaces. You don’t have to write a lot of code or even know a lot of syntax and apis to do something, especially for people who can’t program or are interested in programming, which is a great experience.
2. Provide modules and work well.
3, the same effect, using visual programming tools to operate, simply drag several controls in the workspace, and make some options and draw arrows between them. In a non-visual programming tool, you have to figure out how to type commands, which is a lot harder than a visual programming tool.
What is low code/no code development?
Above simple explanation for what is a visual programming, and low code/no code development tool is through the visual way of interaction, originally need to write code to implement the abstract business logic, data configuration and product design through more intuitive, more intuitive way for people to present and configuration, which significantly reduces the threshold of programming technology.
As long as you can figure out what logic you want, these visualization tools can implement the software, which is the greatest value of no code. On the other hand, low code provides a more complete package of features, allowing engineers to write less code to implement more features, thus reducing engineer duplication and improving development efficiency.
There is no distinction between no code and low code. Often, low-code tools are complemented by visual tools, while no-code tools allow users to extend functionality through code or apis. A lot of business can be presented clearly through visualization, but not all abstract logic lends itself to visualization. As an earlier generation of “code free tools”, Excel offers the function of macro functions, which allows users to customize complex functions by writing VBA code in addition to the tool’s prefabricated formulas.
As a result, a code free platform must often integrate effectively with low code. The vast majority of application scenarios and the vast majority of users don’t need to use low code, but the platform must need a access to the necessary stronger flexibility allows for advanced users can directly by low code or write code for more freedom of configuration, to ensure the output of flexibility and cover more long tail application scenario.
After Gartner put forward the concept of low code in 2014, it soon became widely adopted. They estimate that by 2021, the low-code market will be worth $13.8 billion, growing at over 22% a year; In 2022, the market will further accelerate growth, with a growth rate of more than 30%.
The history of low code/no code?
(1) 1980: The Fourth Generation programming Language (English name: Fourth-Generation Language, abbreviated as 4GL) appeared
The fourth generation programming languages were considered to be very advanced programming languages during this period, requiring a lot of time and effort, thus affecting programmer productivity. Fourth generation programming languages are designed and developed to reduce the time, cost, and effort required to develop different types of software applications.
Fourth generation programming language mainly features provided by the database management system as the core, further constructs the development of high-level software system development environment, such as design, report generation, many window form menu generation system, graphics, image processing system and decision support system, and provides users with a good application development environment. It provides a powerful means of non-procedural problem definition where the user can tell the system what to do rather than how to do it, thus greatly increasing software productivity.
Later in the 1990s, with the development of computer software and hardware technology and the improvement of application level, a large number of 4GL commercial software based on database management system has been widely used in the field of computer application development and become the mainstream tool for database application development. Such as Oracle Application development Environment, Informix-4GL, SQL Windows, Power Builder, etc. They play a great role in shortening the software development cycle and improving the software quality, and inject new vitality into the software development.
(2) 1991: Microsoft introduces Visual Basic (one of the early large-scale Visual programming tools)
With the release of Windows 3.0, more and more developers took an interest in the graphical operating system, and a flood of Windows applications began to emerge. However, the development of Windows programs is very different from traditional DOS. Developers have to put a lot of energy into developing GUI, which makes many people who want to learn Windows development afraid to take steps.
In 1991, Microsoft showed off a product called Thunder, and all the developers were amazed that it could “draw” the required user interface with a mouse, write the business logic in simple BASIC, and generate a complete application. This new “Visual” development, like Thunder, broke new ground for Windows developers.
The product was eventually named Visual Basic, using event-driven, Quick Basic syntax, and a Visual IDE. The latest development experience that Visual Basic 1.0 brings is event-driven, which is different from traditional procedural development. At the same time, VBX controls bring the concept of Visual components into Visual Basic. Visual Basic 1.0 is the revolutionary Basic, its birth is also a great story in the history of VB.
(3) 2000: Visual web creation tools began to appear on the market
Time came around 2000, with the rise of the Internet, the market began to appear visual web page making tools, including Macromedia Dreamweaver (later acquired by Adobe) and FrontPage in Microsoft Office suite. These two tools were very popular at the time and helped define the role of the interaction designer, because until then all software and web pages were built by engineers, and all interactions were designed and implemented to the engineer’s liking.
With these tools, for the first time, people with less technical background can get involved in creating beautiful static pages. At that time, the dominant form of web pages was still raster-cut static pages, so each page contained not only the layout of the page (that is, what it looked like) but also the data itself. With Dreamweaver and FrontPage, websites no longer rely on experienced engineers, junior programmers, and now so-called designers and content writers to create static pages on their own.
Of course, by “static” I mean that a page is not dependent or very dependent on the dynamic loading of backend server data, that is, a page is the same regardless of who opens it when or how.
(4) 2014: Forrester introduced the concept of low code/zero code
The word “low-code” comes from a 2014 report by Forrester, a world-renowned market research company. It proposed a development platform that can quickly generate applications without coding or with a small amount of code. This kind of platform is for IT experts or civilian programmers, in order to quickly deliver applications, to solve the problem of long cycle and high cost brought by the traditional software development mode, the customer group is mainly software development companies or medium and large enterprises with IT experts.
No-code development (NO-code) : Based on a low code development platform, IT is aimed at business people, not IT experts. Business personnel can design and use applications according to the actual requirements of the business. New requirements can be added independently without relying on IT experts. There is no strict design-time and operational boundary.
(5) 2015: Low-code platforms start to be released one after another
The low code market began to heat up in 2015. Giants such as AWS, Google, Microsoft and Oracle are entering the low-code space. Siemens announced the acquisition of Mendix, a leader in low-code application development, for 600 million euros. During the same period, OutSystems, a low-code platform for rapid application development, received $360 million in investment, and the low-code platform market began to take off.
(6) 2018: Gartner proposed the concepts of aPaaS and iPaaS
APaaS, short for Application Platform as a Service, is a cloud service that provides a development and deployment environment for application services, according to Gartner. The aPaaS platform provides the ability to build applications iteratively, make applications available out of time, scale applications on demand, and integrate applications with other services.
As for IPAAS, Gartner defines it as “a set of cloud services that facilitate the development, execution, and integration of flow governance with any on-premises and cloud-based processes, services, applications, and data, either in a single or multiple cross-organizational setting.
(7) 2021: The Chinese market gradually forms a complete low code/no code ecosystem
At the beginning of 2021, Alibaba’s Dingding officially released version 6.0 on January 14, emphasizing that low-code platform will play an important role in the future enterprise digitization process. Zhang Jianfeng, president of Ali Cloud intelligence, believes that “low code development” based on the integration of cloud nails will become a new generation of software development. It hopes to grow 10 million nail apps in the next three years, allowing digitization to quickly turn into productivity.
With the entry of IT giants such as Tencent, Alibaba and Huawei, a low-code ecosystem has taken shape in the Chinese market. At the same time, domestic software manufacturers have launched low-code platforms (such as Dingyida, Weisin Informat, and Light Stream). This means that the adoption of low code development in China has been accelerated and could even explode in the coming years.
5. Why low code is recommended for enterprise digital transformation?
(1) Reduce procurement costs Traditional enterprise digital systems often need to find multiple suppliers for procurement because of different business modules. For example, OA, CRM, BPM and other systems cannot be satisfied within one supplier. However, if the low-code platform is purchased, the requirements of customers’ OA, CRM, BPM and other systems can be realized only through configuration. Can save more than 90% of the procurement cost for enterprises!
(2) Fit business scenarios
Low-code systems support visual configuration of the system’s data base, process specifications, and operating interfaces. The program development and design threshold is lowered, so that managers and even front-line business personnel can personally participate in the configuration and development of the system, which can reduce the cost of communication between business requirements and technology research and development. Improve the system demand reduction degree, to create a more suitable application system for business scenarios.
(3) Flexible expansion
Low code platforms have better scalability. Different from the traditional management system, from the design of data tables to the creation of processes, low-code platforms only need to complete operations in the user interface, without entering the code level to modify. The benefits are more flexible system changes and fewer new bugs. A low-code platform enables rapid iteration, helping organizations adapt to rapidly changing market environments.
What are the current low code practices?
(1) Traditional dairy enterprises break data barriers through low codes
In the production process, the management of equipment, production, personnel, products and other aspects is needed, and the management mode and process of each system are completely different. Therefore, the overall management and control of project information is faced with no small challenge, and all departments need to spend a lot of manpower and time to summarize and report data. Low code platforms can play an important role in this area:
● System construction, low code according to different business scenarios, flexible construction of management system. From equipment maintenance to production control, from product storage to employee performance. Can be easily covered.
● Data center, low code platform with its own flexible database structure advantages, can facilitate the docking of all kinds of production management system, and can also carry out secondary processing of data. Provide managers with more valuable data information.
(2) Financial industry leading enterprises to introduce low code to improve internal development efficiency of 80%!
As the R&D department of the group, it receives a large number of development requirements submitted by each branch every day. Although these requirements are relatively simple in process, a large number of basic program design and development also cause great pressure to the r&d team inside the company. With the promotion of cost reduction and efficiency increase within the enterprise. Then a low code platform is undoubtedly the best solution. Through the low code platform, technical staff can save a lot of repetitive work content, through the drag-and-drop configuration can quickly build routine applications for business departments, to achieve rapid online.
Seven, low code outlook
(1) Front-line management personnel become the backbone of system construction, lowering the threshold of application research and development with the low code platform. Front-line management personnel only need to master basic system operation rules and complete the construction of most processes according to their own understanding of business processes. Module componentization also greatly reduces the risk of bugs during configuration. If a fault occurs during system application, administrators can adjust the fault in a timely manner. The low code platform transfers the final discourse power of the application to the users, so that the front-line managers will become the core force of the future enterprise application construction.
(2) Achieve one-stop management and break data barriers
When low-code platform can provide enterprises with various business scenarios for management applications, the advantages of low-code platform can be immediately reflected in the “one-stop”, through simple system association, can realize data dependence and interoperability between applications. For example: the customer relationship management system performance, directly related to the administrative management system performance appraisal. Data flow does not need to be exported and imported repeatedly in each system, breaking the data barrier and greatly improving work efficiency.
(3) Expand into more areas of low-code scenarios
As technology continues to advance, low-code platforms have moved from imitating Excel forms scenarios to building process management with workflows to adding visual drag-and-drop components to build static pages. The low code platform is also working to implement more scenario services and low code for the whole business of the company.
Eight, epilogue
According to Gartner, at least 500 million new applications or apps need to be developed to meet all the digital transformation scenarios of Chinese enterprises. This huge demand, if according to the traditional product research and development mode, not only the cost is high, product output and supply are also limited.
The emergence of low code platform can not only solve this problem, but also give play to the characteristics of low code configuration flexibility and high reuse, and provide enterprises with more high-quality and high-quality application services.
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