Advertisement - The last two years forced many medium-sized and enterprise companies to rethink. The topics of "digitalisation" and "digital transformation" gained even more importance due to the changing market situation. According to the German Digitalisation Index (as of November 2021), 46% of medium-sized companies managed to adapt their business model and own processes at short notice due to the pandemic. For the rest, too, the modelling and automation of business processes will become a key success factor. Because in addition to increasing efficiency, flexibility and cost savings, automated decision-making processes also enable the scaling of business areas. With NoCode automation tools, this even works without burdening IT departments.
NoCode applications are one of the biggest trends of the last few years and will play a central role in companies in the future. The approach of visual programming is not new. For decades, attempts have been made to reduce the amount of programming code to be written and to make components reusable. And this in a way that is understandable even for people without a technical background. Applications range from website, web app or mobile app builders, to visual database editors, to NoCode automation tools. The term "NoCode" does not mean that classical programming code is dispensed with in every respect. However, the user gets by without any programming knowledge at all, while clicking together digital applications in intuitive drag-and-drop editors.
NoCode automation tools like Workato work according to the "if this, then that" principle. According to this, there is a triggering event, followed by various actions. Data flows into the entire process, which can be automatically processed, edited, saved or sent. Workato supports a wide range of apps that can be linked together. These include applications such as Salesforce, JIRA, Freshdesk, Amazon Web Services and many more. In addition to the existing apps, the company's own applications can also be integrated in order to seamlessly integrate Workato into the business processes.
We can see what such an automated process can look like using the example of an order in an online shop. If a customer sends a new order, this receipt is perceived as a trigger for the execution of an automation.
Building on the data received, automated invoicing to the customer and a parallel upload to the company's own accounting programme can then take place. A shipping label is then generated for the physical product and the appropriate department is notified to prepare for shipping.
The advantages of NoCode applications are obvious. NoCode allows for faster and more cost-effective development of digital applications and automated processes. The amount of IT professionals is notoriously scarce and the demand for IT projects is simply too great to manage. NoCode breaks down the entry barrier into the world of software development and also gives employees from business departments tools to directly implement their own projects.
At the same time, this leads to problems of understanding between IT and business specialists being resolved. Where IT employees often do not interact closely enough with the business processes, employees from the specialist departments can now take action themselves. NoCode tools thus lead to more self-determination in everyday work and create space for the important things by automating repetitive and manual tasks. This also reduces the number of error sources that arise from the manual processing of tasks.
Many SMEs and enterprises are still lagging behind when it comes to digitalisation. For many companies, the lack of IT expertise is the reason why they are treading water on this topic. NoCode tools like Workato can help here. Where previously programming skills were needed to link different applications and exchange data, today employees from the specialist departments can set up the automations themselves. This creates freedom and saves resources for the company.
Where previously key figures were laboriously researched and entered into Excel or paper lists, NoCode Automation ensures that KPIs are read, prepared and compiled directly from the systems of the IT infrastructure. This not only enables the standardisation of various reports, but also the continuous tracking of the most important company key figures.
Companies in the SME and enterprise sector are exposed to a constant change of requirements in the course of digitalisation. Processes and systems must be continuously adapted or realigned. NoCode automations are subject to a high degree of adaptability. Changes within the processes can be implemented and tested in a few simple steps. Process optimisations are no longer a problem.
Medium-sized and enterprise companies work with huge amounts of data every day. This raises the question of how reliable NoCode tools are when it comes to processing thousands of processes and data sets every day.
Workato processes millions of data records from its customers every day. These include Visa, Deutsche Bahn, Adobe, HP and Logitech. The fact that Workato masters scaling is underlined once again by a certification from the data warehouse provider Snowflake. According to this, it is possible to process up to half a million data records per second with Workato.
In addition to scalability, factors such as compliance and data security are important for the operation of NoCode automation solutions. Workato has a data centre in Frankfurt where data from European customers is stored and processed. The company also has SOC-2 and SOC-2 Type II certifications for data security.
NoCode automation tools such as Workato enable employees from all departments to optimize and automate processes. Communication barriers between IT and business departments are eliminated, resulting in shorter implementation times. By reducing repetitive and manual tasks, the company's own specialist staff become more independent and self-determined and can free up time for key areas. At the same time, it is possible to optimize processes at short notice at any time so that rapid changes can be responded to.
