Transforming industries through digitization is the core principle of many startups. And low-code tools give any startup an advantage when it comes to application development, yielding both quick and long-term results. Traditionally, building applications and integrations required developers that would dedicate weeks (sometimes even months) of their time to programming features from scratch. But that proved to be time consuming and resource intensive.
Low-code tools make building applications accessible for anyone. Some of the benefits include:
- Speed
- Democratized development
- Less maintenance
- Decreased costs
- Improved flexibility
With a drag and drop user interface, developers (and non developers) can create apps and integrations without needing to write complex code. The accessibility provided by low-code tools has proven to be especially necessary during the pandemic. Quickbase, a platform for building low-code apps, developed templates that can be used to build common types of emergency response applications. Various organizations have utilized these templates to build apps that track vaccination efforts, COVID-19 test and quarantine locations, contact tracing, and more. Startups, in particular, can make use of low-code tools to increase speed of innovation, enhance collaboration, and scale operations quickly and reliably.
Transforming your startup with low-code PDF tools
Increase innovation
Development time plays a huge role in the ability to innovate quickly. And for startups looking to continuously build and improve upon their product, time is of the essence. Finding ways to free up limited engineering resources is a great way to speed up innovation. With the addition of low-code tools, engineers can offload substantial amounts of development work and save 50-90% of time spent on coding. That’s a lot of time.
Seso, a full-stack labor marketplace for the agriculture industry, sought out a low-code solution when they needed to automate hiring and employee record keeping. Instead of tasking their engineers with building something from scratch, they partnered with Anvil and created a custom paperwork solution using our PDF Workflows and APIs. As a result, they were able to save months of engineering time and better use that time for higher-order work and innovation.
Enhance collaboration
Cross-functional collaboration is essential to startup success, especially in the early stages. It enables teammates to build strong relationships and bridge the knowledge gap between teams. But collaboration can be difficult when you have processes that require a high level of specialization- like coding.
This is where low-code tools can play a transformative role. Thanks to the availability of libraries and drag-and-drop features, anyone (regardless of technical proficiency) can create solutions without needing to write thousands of lines of code. By implementing low-code tools, companies can abstract away traditional development and empower teams, such as operations and business, to break down traditional organizational barriers. The result is a more fluid work environment with enhanced collaboration between technical and non-technical teams.
Scale operations quickly and reliably
Being able to scale operations quickly and with minimal resources is a goal consistent across all startups. With growth hacks and productivity tools in abundance nowadays, the idea of speedy growth is alluring. But the inclination to scale quickly often comes at the cost of scaling reliably. So, how does one prioritize both simultaneously?
Having a powerful low-code tool with flexible APIs is ideal for startups looking to scale quickly and reliably, while giving developers the option to deeply integrate down the line. Anvil Workflows, for example, gives operations teams a way to implement end-to-end paperwork automation in the short-term without needing any coding expertise. Workflows empowers anyone to collect, manage, and share structured data to PDFs and other pieces of their tech stack. When engineering resources become available, our APIs can be used to embed Workflows via code at any time.
The development of applications and integrations used to require developers who would write custom code. But spending weeks or even months on product development is costly. With the abundance of low-code tools today, startups can easily build digital solutions while achieving both quick and long-term results. The accessibility of low-code has proven to increase innovation, enhance collaboration, scale operations quickly and reliably, and decrease time to market.
If you have questions, we'd love to hear from you at hello@useanvil.com.