Whitepaper - Empowering Business Users for the Next Era of Digital Transformation
Why access to the right tools is essential A major factor hampering the business-led customization and automation push from reaching enterprise scale is access to the right tools. Everyday business innovators need a set of tools that make it easy for everyone to practice continuous innovation in a secure and controlled environment. When evaluating potential platforms to enable business users to activate data or automate workflows, ease of use/low IT support tops the list, followed by compatibility with existing apps already in use, and the ability to integrate data from multiple sources and platforms. (See Figure Theresa big disconnect between having the right tools in place and making [business-led development a companywide effort Gildersleeve explains. In many cases, companies still think of development as an IT-led effort. Yet if the business isn’t involved, IT can only drive so much change. You need to make sure everyone knows [business-led] development is a company initiative, that everyone plays their part, and that it doesn’t happen in disconnected silos.” Based on the IDG findings, LOB users and those already indoctrinated in low-code platforms have much greater confidence in non-IT professionals ability to dive into customization and automation. Fifty-nine percent of LOB respondents said they were confident or very confident in non-IT professionals ability to integrate data on their own, even from multiple data sources. Users of low-code tools were twice as likely to be confident in LOB’s ability to pull off data integration. In comparison, less than half (49%) of IT professionals felt non-IT users could be effective in driving customizations and automations, with only 19% confident that business users had everything they needed to get the job done. While both groups cited security risks and the lack of IT resources and time as major barriers to business-led development, LOB users were more concerned about the organizational and human barriers (issues like internal processes, governance structures, and lack of leadership buy-in) as opposed to tools. Legacy systems and technologies were an obstacle cited by 34% of IT respondents. Mostly enterprise-wide on a regular, ongoing basis Mostly enterprise-wide, but on a limited, irregular basis n IT Sample n LOB Sample FIGURE 2.
