Low-code Development benefits every company’s IT department in that it lets everyone create their own apps. Mary from accounting can now create her own account receivables app using data that the entire department of their company uses.
But IT experts have some of the most significant and most challenging jobs in general. On top of code, software, or installations needed, they also have to contend with new technologies coming out.
Thankfully, low-code development allows your IT team to build apps that can help them, as well. Here are the best ones to create.
1. Ticketing
Ticketing systems may look simple, but they rarely are when you have to code them. You have to create user interfaces for customers, for people handling the tickets, and for managers. You have to design the database. And you have to deal with lines and lines of code.
A ticketing system should allow an end-user to contact IT for help or clarification. End-users should be able to create an account, create a new ticket, or view open tickets.
IT should be able to see all open tickets they need to respond to, as well as the ticket details, and a place where they can input their replies. Meanwhile, IT managers should be able to check on their staff’s work, edit replies, and see reports on who’s the most productive, and manage their employees.
You can do all these without having to write a single line of code with a no-code platform. You can start creating a table where you can specify all the details you will need to solve the ticket.
Tables with no-code platforms are a matter of adding fields, specifying the data type, and assigning a label for each domain. You can even have areas that auto-populate, and make sure each record is unique.
Forms created on these platforms are also more secure. For instance, passwords are automatically encrypted if you want it to be. What’s more, access roles and permissions are easy to designate.
Apart from the table, you can also create the necessary forms for all apps.
Then we get to the good part: the logic elements. This is where no-code platforms shine. You only have to drag and drop logic elements, fields, and conditions needed for each.
Other than these, you can also customize the look of your forms. You can handle authentications, allowing you to use social media logins, single sign-on, and other ID services.
What’s more, a good no-code or low-code platform should allow you to easily manage your apps. You can have an overview page where you can describe the app, add notes or screenshots, and everything you need to identify the app and post documentation.
2. Knowledge Base using Low-code Development
Admit it; the biggest productivity killer in IT is the constant flow of inquiring employees who ask about specific features in your app and how to use them. An IT knowledge base will help end-users find the answers to their questions without having to consult IT on how to do it.
Your knowledge base can contain training documents, video tutorials, frequently asked questions, and even flowcharts for the most complex processes.
According to a McKinsey report, an employee will spend 1.8 hours of each workday looking for documents and information. Knowledge workers, on the other hand, spend around 2.5 hours per day doing nothing but search for information.
With an IT-focused knowledge base, end-users will lessen the amount of time they spend looking for a document, or how to troubleshoot software. Plus, you don’t have to deal with them as well.
What’s more, you don’t have to do it yourself. You can have the entire IT team pitch in, and maybe some end-users from other departments who have been using a particular software or app.
And if there are IT materials that only certain people can access, you can assign user-level permissions to different levels of users.
3. IT Project Management
Project management for IT professionals includes everything that’s on the pipeline: software, hardware installation, rolling out virtualization, cloud computing initiatives, network upgrades, and hardware installation, among others.
With low-code development, you can have an IT project management app that can show you all of your projects and their respective status. You can also have individual profiles for your users. Whoever is responsible for a particular task will be able to create their own projects and also view what others are working on.
You can even add a comment log on each project page to encourage communication among project members and urge suggestions from outsiders.
4. Make Excel Come Alive
While technically not an app, no-code platforms are great for making Excel spreadsheets come alive. This is one of low-code development’s best features and has the most utility.
You can think of Excel spreadsheets as the boring version of database. You are basically looking at rows & columns of numbers and information. It’s hard to make sense of it.
With low-code development, you can input Excel spreadsheets and create webpages and dashboards. In effect, you make the data more readable and useful to end-users.
5. Get a Handle on Tasks with Low-code Development
To-do lists are yet another way to ensure that everyone on your IT team is doing their jobs. This is also to guarantee that deliverables will be ready when you need them.
IT managers can assign tasks to their members and have them sorted by project. They can also filter their lists by employees, allowing them to assign tasks to those who have a lighter load.
You can even go further and add visualizations that will help you see the progress of each project or employee. You can also have the app send e-mails or SMS when a task is assigned.
Photo courtesy of Michael Himbeault.
