Professional Thesis - Template 1

ESSEC EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
Executive Master in Digital Transformation
Autumn 2020 Core Track
PROFESSIONAL THESIS
for the Executive Master in Digital Transformation
HOW THE NO-CODE MOVEMENT IS CHANGING THE WAY PEOPLE WORK AND
WHAT ARE THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF NO-CODE TOOLS FOR THE DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION OF BUSINESSES?
ONAY, MUSTAFA MERT
Date of the thesis defense:

Chair of the jury: MALAURENT, JULIEN
Thesis supervisor: MALAURENT, JULIEN
Table of Contents
Table of Contents 1
Introduction 3
Acronyms / Synonyms 4
Executive Summary 5
Part 1: Introduction to no-code 7
1 The fundamentals of no-code 7

1.1 What is the no-code movement? 7
1.1.1 No-code vs. Low Code 8
1.2 No-code tools and what they do 9
1.3 Faster software with low code 9
2 History of the evolution of code into no-code 10
2.1 The Gartner Hype Cycle 11
2.2 No-code is not a new idea 13
2.3 The evolution of code & the abstract layer of no-code 13
2.4 Taking a hint from other mediums 16
Part 2: Audience & State of No-Code 17
3 The no-code audience and possibilities 17

3.1 Who is no-code for? 17
3.2 Innovators: Makers, Developers, Entrepreneurs & Start-ups 19
3.2.1 Makers 20
3.2.2 Developers 21
3.2.3 Entrepreneurs 22
3.2.4 Start-ups 24
3.3 Businesses: Small & Local, Mid-size, Agencies and Large size 25
3.3.1 Small & Local Businesses 25
3.3.2 Mid-Size Businesses 26
3.3.3 Large Corporations 27
4 State of no-code 28
4.1 Top benefits of the no-code movement 28
1
How the No-Code Movement is Changing the Way People Work and What are the Contributions of
No-Code Tools for the Digital Transformation of Businesses? – ONAY, Mustafa Mert – 2021
4.1.1 Shorter Learning Curves 29
4.1.2 Increasing productivity to drive Innovation 29
4.1.3 Providing Cost Effective Solutions 30
4.2 Limitations and drawbacks of no-code 31
4.2.1 Platform Dependency 31
4.2.2 Limited Scalability 32
4.2.3 Security Issues 33
Part 3: Contributions of No-Code Tools for The Digital Transformation of Businesses 34
5 No-Code for Digital Transformation 34

5.1 Role of No-Code Tools in Digital Transformation 34
5.2 Key Areas of Benefit 36
6 Recommendations 38
6.1 Role & Use Cases of No-Code in Design Thinking: Scaling the Prototyping 38
6.1.1 Building an MVP from Low Fidelity Sketch 40
6.1.2 Building a No Code Prototype from an Idea 42
6.2 Role & Use Cases of No-Code in Big Data: Facilitation of Data Visualization 44
6.2.1 No Code Tools in Big Data Visualization 46
6.2.2 No Code Tools in Big Data Machine Learning for Predictions 48
6.3 Role & Use Cases of No-Code in Process Management: Automation of Workflows 50
6.3.1 Customized CRM campaigns with Automated Workflows with No Code Tools 52
6.3.2 Automating Approval Process Workflows with No Code Tools 54
6.4 Role & Use Cases of No-Code for Digital Business Models: Building from Scratch 56
6.4.1 Building a Profitable Business only with No-Code Tools 57
How to Overcome the Obstacles in Massive Adoption 58
Conclusion 60
Bibliography 62
2
Introduction
This professional thesis discusses the No-Code development happening in the world
and its potential support to the digital transformation of businesses. We live in a fast pace and
continuously changing world, and the digital transformation of any size business is crucial to
remain relevant to the consumers. In this fast-paced environment, businesses are searching for
quick, agile, and budget-friendly solutions that can help facilitate this transformation.
This document will address the low code / no-code development and evolution
happening in the world, the audience of these tools whereas touching the details of benefits
and potential drawbacks.
The set of recommendations will be covering four key topics in the digital
transformation of the businesses, in Big Data, the Design Thinking process, Process
Management Systems, and even building digital businesses from scratch.
With all these topics mentioned, the document will answer the question of; How the
No-Code Movement is Changing the Way Teams & Individuals Work and What Are the
Contributions of No-Code Tools for the Digital Transformation of Businesses?
3
Acronyms / Synonyms
SaaS : Software as a Service
MVP: Minimum Viable Product
PC: Personal Computer
GUI: Graphical User Interface
LC/NC: Low Code / No-Code
IP: Intellectual Property
AI: Artificial Intelligence
ML: Machine Learning
AutoML: Automated Machine Learning
CEO: Chief Executive Officer (of a company)
IT: Information Technologies (to represent the department)
HR: Human Resources (to represent the department)
DTC: Direct to Consumer (as a sales channel)
CRM: Customer Relationship Management
4
Executive Summary
No-code (and Low Code) movement idea sprung in recent years to democratize the
power of creating webpages, applications, automated workflows, and many more on the
internet. According to some studies, less than 0,3% of the world population can read and write
codes in the world, considering the vast majority of the population have access to the internet,
there can be an excellent potential for non-technical people to visualize new ideas.
When we think about Gartner’s Hype Cycle, the creation on the internet is in the phase
of high awareness, the knowledge is low but not precisely in the plateau of creativity since the
number of capable people are not there yet, and this is the point where no-code tools are in
action. No-code tools are not hardware inventions, but their impact on the software creation
medium is significant. This is the innovation people have been waiting for to make software
creation truly democratic and at the hands of everyone who wishes to solve digital problems
regardless of having a technical background.
There are many types of no-code tools available; either a user can create an application
by just using primary drag and drop features, or if a company has big complex data by few
clicks, these tools enable the user to read the data efficiently. Furthermore, the no-code tools
link several company applications and data to create seamless automated workflows.
The advantages of these tools are many to be count; however, to summarize, the top
three advantages of no-code platforms are; having much shorter learning curves (when
compared to learning how to read and write the code), they also allow quick iterations and
changes when something new needs to be created or something to be edited, which allows
increasing the level of productivity of the user and they allow the companies to have
5
cost-effective solutions since they have pricing options of usage (when compared to hiring a
full-time software developer)
All significant initiatives derive some drawbacks; many different tools were generated
in the past years, and choosing the right tools still matter because the companies might depend
on the tool selected. Linked with the choice, it may not also be scalable within the different
transformation areas that companies need, and also, since no-code tools allow to create from
templates and creation happens on the tool, it may create some security and rights issues.
The no-code tools are both for everyone interested, and they are for all types of
companies around the world, either for a start-up owner or a big enterprise. Everyone needs
these tools because the no-code tools have a significant impact on the digital transformation
of businesses. An entrepreneur can create their application idea from scratch, whereas a big
corporation can limit the paper or mail trail in the company by creating an automation
solution.
The critical areas of digital transformation of businesses are creating design thinking
processes for new idea generation, insightfully using big data for strategic decision making,
facilitating process management, and even creating a business or solution digitally native
from scratch.
The role of no-code solutions is to facilitate and make the solutions available for all the
employees. No-Code tools help users to create close to final prototypes in their design
thinking process. They help users to make understandable data visualization for creating
meaningful insights. At the same time, they are allowing any company to streamline and
automate its workflows or approval systems. Moreover, even possibly combining all these
aspects, no-code tools can help creating to form a digital business, solutions, and projects
from scratch without needing any coding know-how, creating a digitally transformed business
or project from scratch.
The no-code movement is not new, and it is in our lives for a while to make our lives
easier. They make our lives more comfortable both in our projects and in creating
easy-to-implement solutions in our professional business lives. The more the tools are
6
developed, the more they become available and easy to use for digital transformation of
people and the companies
Part 1: Introduction to no-code
1 The fundamentals of no-code
Today, everything runs on code. Our modern lives all run on code, from traffic lights
on the street to calling someone on your smartphone. And yet, only a fraction of the world
population has the ability to understand this language that our lives heavily depend on.
According to a study conducted by IDC, a global market intelligence firm, in 2014,

only a fraction (0,24%) of the world population today can read and write code. (1) This
staggering number is undoubtedly increasing every year, thanks to global access to the
internet and consumer electronics becoming widely available. However, given the population
growth and the increasing demand in digital systems, the growth rate of code-savvy
individuals is not enough.
Imagine living in a country far away from your origins and not able to speak the native
language. You can’t communicate with people around you. Life would be difficult to navigate.
Now imagine that the people you meet on the street cannot speak that language and depend on
interpreters who are only a fraction of the population. Everything would be a hustle, and
nothing would be efficient. Interpreters would have way too much power and less among of
time to cater to the citizens. It just wouldn’t work.
7
Just like it is not working right now with
code and software. We have an ever-increasing
demand for new software, yet only a few developers
can build that software, while non-technical people
who are working their day jobs and are unable to
code. But there is another way. A concept can
empower people who don’t know how to read or
write code to build digital products and solve their
digital problems without knowing to program or
becoming a developer. It’s called the no-code
movement.
1.1 What is the no-code movement?
No-Code is more than just an internet

movement inside maker culture. It is essentially an
idea to democratize the power of creation on the
internet. And the movement is gaining speed and
momentum thanks to recent technological
innovations. No code and low code, as it’s also
known, is the way non-technical people can create
technical products without having to touch the code
that runs them.
1.1.1 No-code vs. Low Code
Both terms are used interchangeably inside the movement, symbolizing the ability to
create digital products using software-as-a-service tools that will later be mentioned in this
chapter. However, there is a distinction between the two terms based on the required
knowledge, how they operate, the purpose of the usage.
As can be inferred from the names, to build a no-code software, you don’t need to
know how to code, whereas low-code is a bit more advanced as minimum technical
8
knowledge is usually required. However, it is worth mentioning that working with low code
as a non-technical person is still possible and still is not necessary to have a computer science
background.
The main difference between the two concepts is perhaps the way users interact with
each other. While both use a visual environment to manipulate code using buttons and dials,
low-code Software as a Service (SaaS) tools have an additional layer of working as they
require a connected backend. In contrast, no-code
tools can be used with templates only.
No-code is an excellent fit for building standalone websites and apps, while the best
use case for low-code is to create a more integrated and complex applications. End products
in no-code can be updated frequently and are perfect for quick deployment of new ideas, such
as prototyping. On the other hand, low-code products are more suited towards businesses
since they usually end up being a substitute for inefficient processes. Low-code applications
have a longer expectancy too.
Briefly, no-code is revolutionary for non-technical creators who want to make ideas
come to life fast and cheap. In contrast, low code is most helpful in increasing the efficiency
of developers and solving business problems in the digital world.
1.2 No-code tools and what they do
An essential part of no-code is the SaaS tools that enable everyone with primary
internet access to build software. These tools are applications that you can access using the
world wide web and visually program to create your applications using only a graphical user
interface. At Krit, a no-code tool for businesses, put it in their blog post written by Laura
Bosco, 2020, “no-code tools unlock doors that were previously slammed shut for anyone who
couldn’t code.” (3)
The no-code tools unravel the issue of a creator necessitating to be a programmer to

produce a technical product. This means that as a creator or as a business, you have the
freedom to put your budget on building memorable user experiences rather than focusing
heavily on development and programming infrastructure.
9
No-code tools are taking care of the security, maintenance, and scalability so that you
can focus solely on improving what matters most, the customer experience. When you don’t
have to worry about code or running the backend, you can give customers an optimal
customer experience. There is an ocean of no-code tools available on the market for everyone
to utilize. It is almost impossible not to find a couple of these tools that solve your need. Most
importantly, if there isn’t one, you can always build your applications using SaaS tools.
1.3 Faster software with low code
No-code (and low code) is not only for non-technical people either. It can be hugely
beneficial for the 18.5 million people spread across the globe, the developers and
programmers who make the world go round.
Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding no-code is the illusion that
with no-code comes the demolition of existing digital infrastructures and the obsoletion of the
developers. This couldn't be further than the truth. No-code and low-code software and the
product users build with them still run on the code as we know it. The only difference is how
users do it. This means that not only will developers not cease to exist, but on the contrary,
they will have a much more critical role in the future.
The developer's role in the age of no-code will be analyzed in the upcoming chapters.
Still, for now, it is essential to note here that no-code and low-code can be excellent assets for
technical creators like developers and programmers. Low code especially is a much faster
way for technical people to begin building apps and testing ideas.
Instead of starting a project by writing dozens of lines of code setting up the systems,
programmers can quickly create a primary landing page or a product with several clicks and
cut the initiation time drastically—no more starting from scratch for developers.
2 History of the evolution of code into no-code
10
The world of no-code is a world where technological barriers do not impede ideas. The
majority of the people who are getting involved with no-code might think that this reality has
only been existing for the last few years, but it is not. Much like any emerging technology, the
idea of creating digital software without coding is not new. It has existed ever since the
invention of personal computers. Even though it has picked up a substantial amount of steam
over the past few years thanks to high-speed internet and global access to powerful
computers, the no-code train has left the station long before.
2.1 The Gartner Hype Cycle
Humans are bound with a purpose to move forward. It is in our nature to make things
better and systems more efficient. We do this by ideating new concepts and acting on the
ideas by innovating. Innovation plays a big part in our lives, and technology is the brand-new
sector that drives innovation today, especially since we live in the new age of the industrial
11
revolution that has been evolving for more than a century. Innovation never stops, and new
technologies keep popping up. All are different and unique in their rights, but they always
follow the same pattern. Let’s take a look at what this pattern is.
The Gartner Hype cycle, as shown above, is a graphical representation generated by

the American research firm Gartner to illustrate the maturity, adoption, and social application
of emerging technologies. This chart shows how the expectations (or hype) of any emerging
technology changes over time and how it affects the knowledge and awareness of it by the
masses.
The model of representation has five main stages, which all start with a technology
trigger. This trigger is the ground zero of the emerging tech. At this stage, the new technology
is just an idea. This trigger can be an academic study or a simple prototype that allows other
people in similar fields to interest in the idea. The trigger allows the idea to gain attention and
awareness by promising to solve a specific problem. The sudden awareness builds up the hype
for the new tech, and the expectations rise as the teams working on prototypes begin to
promise release dates for the first application. The release of the prototypes marks the peak of
inflated expectations. This peak is when people interested in this new tech, dreaming about
using it for various applications, face reality. Because almost always, this hype is met with
disappointment as the prototypes never meet the expectations.
Let’s look at one of the most famous examples, Personal Computers. In the early ’80s,
the PC concept became mainstream after the revolutionary invention of the semiconductor
silicon chips that paved the way. After a few years of hype in the media and tech circles, the
first PCs came out. They were bulky, expensive, loud, and did not have any software to
accompany people with their needs. Even though the trigger set the hype slope upwards and
awareness peaked, the tech did not work as imagined.
This is because the emerging tech is nowhere near completion at this stage and the
knowledge around it is not yet broad enough to make it optimal for mass use, which brings us
to the trough of disillusionment. Here is the thing, just because an early prototype did not
work, it does not mean that the life of this emerging tech is over. There is a reason it appeared,
most often due to a need, and it will not die until it reaches its potential. At this phase,
12
however, the expectations are low. People are still aware of it, but nobody expects the tech to
stick. The trough is where most emerging tech fails and never makes a comeback.
As time passes and the people working on this new tech become more knowledgeable
and start fixing significant issues, the expectations rise again. People who have been
disillusioned with the new tech start believing in the teams again realize that even if the tech
does not live up to the initial hype, it can still be hugely beneficial. This is called the slope of
enlightenment, where the tech progresses as intended and the real-life use case.
2.2 No-code is not a new idea
Regarding the Gartner hype cycle as the norm for emerging technologies, we can see
that no-code also follows a similar path. The term no-code surfaced in 2019. However, the
concept of building things on a computer without coding is nothing new in the early 2000’s
tools like Dreamweaver, FrontPage, Flash, and so many more dramatically reduced the barrier
to creation who were beginning to learn the new programming languages for the web like
HTML that is to this day the cornerstone of every website and application.
Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt, describes the effect of these early no-code
tools in the article The Rise of No-Code, 2019, “Their (programs like Dreamweaver) impact
on today’s tech ecosystem is understated, and today we are seeing a new wave of tools that
are making creation more accessible and reinventing the way things are built for the
internet.” (4)
Thanks to early adopters like Ryan, the idea of creating on the internet without
technical barriers have now reached new heights. The effect of these early tools and programs
changed the way we interact with our electronic devices. Before they came along,
manipulating a computer to do your work required high-level programming; now, we click,
drag, and drop using a mouse like a finger on the screen start to emerge as well.
2.3 The evolution of code & the abstract layer of no-code
As it was mentioned in the very first chapter, code is the cornerstone of our daily life.
It controls everything, yet only a handful of us can control it, and it is a black box for the rest
13
of us. Code is the way we communicate with the computers that run the systems we rely upon.
It is the building block we use to communicate our needs to a physical box.
A computer consists of two main parts. The physical parts are the hardware and the
instructions we give to the computer to execute commands which we call the software. These
instructions have a language of their own, consisting of two signals, 1s and 0s. This is called
binary. It is like morse code where the combination of these two opposite signals, in morse
code case, the short beep and the long beep, spell out words. The computer's binary works
similarly. Computers have millions of tiny circuits that can be on or off to interpret the binary
when we write it, and every circuit output, whether it is a 1 or a 0, is called binary digits or a
bit for short. So, everything coders do with computers is a series of on or off charges. It all
works when the sequence of those charges represents logic flows that make up the algorithms.
Furthermore, the algorithms are simply sentencing to ensure the computer does the job we
give them. However, writing programs with 1s and 0s are not scalable, thus came the
invention of computer languages. The more abstract we could make them, the more they
became close to human language.
The Netflix documentary Explained in Season 2 explains the binary coding by a great
example; 99% of our body consists of only six elements but the way they bond and arrange
with one another to form more complex structures make us come to life. Even an incredibly
complex organ like the brain that gives our consciousness is, in essence, just another
configuration of these six elements. Much like element atoms becoming molecules, molecules
become cells, cells becoming tissue, and tissue becoming a set of organs and skeleton; the
more abstract it gets, the more human it becomes while still having only six distinctive units
of atoms. So as our body, abstraction does not affect how the computers communicate as well.
They still speak with 1s and 0s, but the abstraction layer represents how we organize these
bits with what we can speak. Binary stays the same, but we control and write faster, more
efficiently, and much more straightforward.
So then what happens? Binary language created assembly languages; however,

different assembly languages cannot run on different computers. In order to streamline this
process and make sure we can run one application on all of the different computers, a user
needs high-level languages. The high-level languages come in different shapes and sizes as
14
each of them serves a specific function in our need to solve digital problems, not unlike how
cells come together in various ways to form a different type of tissue. Heart muscle is tougher
than bone marrow to endure the continuous beating of the body's engine like the same way
C++ is used to control motors of an airplane versus JavaScript running animations on users'
tablets.
However, the high-level languages are still not clear enough for most people who
desire to use a computer. All of them still use logic to operate. This is a massive barrier since
the code cannot impact most people's lives with the only existence of programming
languages. To make a significant impact, there had to be another leap towards making the
computer friendlier and easier to use for everyone.
Enter the Graphical User Interface or GUI, the invention inside the invention that
paved the way to the no-code revolution. GUIs are the ways that we interact with screens
every single day. Whenever users are pointing with a mouse, typing with a keyboard, or
touching a phone with a finger, they use GUIs. The GUI is how we manipulate the high-level
languages by using easy-to-understand point and click functions and display code easily if we
need to change it for more appropriate use.
All these newfound layers of abstraction reached new heights when the most critical
revolution came to be present, the internet. All the worlds' information suddenly became
available to everyone with an internet connection. It was indeed a game-changer for the
world's need for access to information, and it would not have had the impact that we know it
did if GUIs were not present. It will be an inefficient experience if users had to write five lines
of code every time, they want to read the newspaper. Instead, with GUIs, click a few things,
and you are there.
Nevertheless, this still does not answer the genuine need for democratization of the
creation on the internet. Yes, with GUIs, we can write books and produce movies to tell
stories, but we still cannot write the programs and software with GUIs and we rely on experts
to do it for us. So, the GUI solved the problem of computers not being accessible to the
general public and unleashed a vast potential to create except for the creation of software
itself.
15
That is precisely what no-code is for. It is yet another layer of abstraction on top of the
GUI that uses the GUI as the base to manipulate what is underneath. With no-code tools (aka.
SaaS), you can command assembly-level algorithms, program high-level applications, and
generate user-friendly GUIs without ever touching the codes that run each one. More human,
has immense potential to understand what code does, just like the previous layers did.
No-code is the most recent layer of abstraction, perhaps excluding artificial intelligence and
machine learning, that allows more and more people to use the computer to build software
without requiring to learn how to code.
Table1Development of Coding
2.4 Taking a hint from other mediums
Speaking of no-code not being a brand-new concept, there is another pattern that is
worth noting. The need for no-code derives from the hunger to democratize the creation of
software on the internet. The internet is a vast medium that has only entered our lives less
than a century ago, and we are still trying to get the hang of it. So, can we look at other
mediums that we humans rely on to convey ideas and send messages and see a pattern to
democratization that would also fit the internet? The answer is yes.
There are three examples mentioned in the 2019 e-book of Webflow, a platform or tool
where anyone can design and build custom web pages without needing to code in book
publishing, music, and movie industry.
Let’s take the music industry; for example, creating a record would have required
network in the industry and significant capital for studio time in the past. With the invention
of the home recording technology and publishing platforms like Spotify or Deezer, producing
and distributing music is facilitated. Much like any emerging democracy, the reformed music
16
industry faced many problems during this transition but in the end, the medium evolved to be
a more democratic platform. Today, anyone can record a song and make it available to the
entire world with a few clicks, even if they are not a professional musician.
The same pattern continues into the movie production as well. In the past, producing
movies was pretty expensive, and that was the reason why the production was limited only to
those who could afford it. As cameras became smaller in size and more affordable, people
who have had no access to this realm suddenly could become indie filmmakers themselves.
Today, we have 4K cameras inside our pockets, and anyone can whip out a smartphone in a
second and start recording their story. The democratization of filmmaking is still trending and
has reached a new high thanks to streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch, and anyone
who desires to be on camera.
Publishing, music, video movies are all vessels in which we convey our ideas and
explore how to communicate our desires with strangers using the same medium. Software is
also similar. It is the way we solve daily life problems and make systems, services, and
businesses better. It is yet another medium to express creativity and make our ideas seen.
However, is it genuinely democratic like the rest, just because we have the internet?
Unfortunately, not, due to the high barrier for entry. Much like publishing in the middle ages,
music before the internet, and filmmaking in the 20th century, creating software today
requires skills and technical knowledge.
That is, of course, if we disregard the importance of no-code. It may not be a physical
invention like the typewriter or the handheld camera, but its impact on the software creation
medium is significant. No-code is the innovation people have been waiting for to make
software creation truly democratic and at the hands of everyone who wishes to solve digital
problems regardless of having a technical background. Democratization of mediums is
essential for everyone, and it is the catalyzer we all need to move forward. Keep in mind that,
as also said in Webflow’ s E-book, 2019, “the more access people have to a medium, and the
easier we make that access, creativity and output and innovation go through the roof.” (5)
Part 2: Audience & State of No-Code
17
3 The no-code audience and possibilities
If the no-code movement is the democratization of software creation, it means that it is

for all people. While many groups can benefit from the full potential of no-code, it would be
not very smart to assume that everyone would be using it for the same reasons. Like any other
invention that democratizes a medium, no-code is yet another gateway for people to express
creativity and solve problems.
3.1 Who is no-code for?
This chapter will focus on how both individuals and businesses can utilize no-code for
the best use cases that fit them, alongside a healthy amount of data to support those arguments
and some future predictions made by top research firms who have undoubtedly taken a close
interest in the concept of no-code and low-code development.
The table below reveals a general summary of the demographic of the no-code
movement to date. As mentioned above, the users are categorized into two; individuals (or
innovators) and businesses, as the adoption behavior is wildly different for both. There will
also be an informed analysis of each subgroup's opportunity areas and weaknesses inside the
two categories derived from the market research data of over 15 studies conducted on no-code
and low-code while exemplifying the best use cases for each.
Audience No-code Opportunity Threats & The Best Other

Groups Adoption Areas Weaknesses Use Case Key Statistics
Learning time
for a LC/NC
tool is on - 24% no prior
Create live
INN average less exp. using LC/NC
No virtual MVPs, get out
OV Very than 1 month - 40% are
Makers threat or ideas faster and
AT high for 70% of non-technical (6)
weakness validate them
OR makers (6) (6) (Danielle
quickly
S (Danielle Goodman, 2018)
Goodman,
2018)
18
Average app
42% plan to
development
Reduced deliver at least
time < 5 Reduce the
salaries due to 10 LC/NC
months, more burden of
Catching LC/NC application /
Developers time to focus repetitive tasks
Up reducing solution within 1
on other with
dependency year (7)
projects (7) automation
on developers (Outsystems,
(Outsystems,
2018)
2018)
The main reason
LC/NC tools for using LC/NC
Emerging
are great Create new is the ease of use
LC/NC tools
options for solutions and & short learning
Entrepreneur Increasing can be clunky
creating forms more businesses curve stated by
s Demand and there may
and collecting in a smaller 20% of
issues with IP
early customer time frame entrepreneurs
claims
data (11) (AI
Multiple, 2021)
LC/NC tools
12% of LC/NC
Speeding up reduce
startups stated platform
development development
Niche that backlogs reliance may
Startups time and fast time by 90%
Solutions Only improved after affect the
experimentatio (12) (Red Hat &
(8) (John efforts switch
n 451 Research,
Rymer. 2016) tools
2018)
Audience No-code Opportunity Threats & The Best Other
Groups Adoption Areas Weaknesses Use Case Key Statistics
Businesses LC/NC apps are
relying too Automate used to replace
BU The flexibility
much on the process paper trail by
SIN of LC/NC
Low paper workflows in 42% of Small
ES Small & Local allows faster
Adoption trail may sales, Businesses (13)
SE switch to
hesitate to marketing, and (42 Low Code
S digital systems
change operations No Code
behavior statistics, Cem
19
Dilmegani,
2021)
82% of
mid-size
Majority of tech
businesses
Dilemmas workers (44%)
agree that app
surrounding Automate prefer to work in
development
using a 3rd customer data mid-size
Niche outside IT
Mid-Size party tool collection, business (14)
Solutions Only reduces
vs. building analysis, and (Sarah
workload (9)
in-house reporting Overmyer,
(Alison
LC/NC tools Startup vs.
DeNisco
Giant, 2019)
Rayome,
2017)
46% of all
69% of L.C.
employed in US
accelerate Integrate
Need for work in a large
transformation intra-departme
Large For Digital approval in size business
efforts w/ ntal apps and
Corporation Transformation the enterprise (14) (Sarah
LC/NC (10) transform
bureaucracy Overmyer,
(Outsystems, business process
Startup vs.
2019)
Giant, 2019)
Table2 Audience of No-Code & Low Code Tools
3.2 Innovators: Makers, Developers, Entrepreneurs & Start-ups
Starting from the individual innovators is exceptionally crucial as this movement is

primarily spearheaded by makers, developers, and other innovators who make sure the
democratization lives up to its full potential. In this democracy, the innovators are the core.
Innovators, or sometimes referred to as citizen developers, are the creators who are
part of the internet culture. They are responsible for spotting inefficiencies in digital systems,
ideate new concepts, and implement software solutions that can be consumed by anyone
20
interested. Most of the time, these innovations are small in size and aim to answer a problem,
and the end products tend to be open source and free.
3.2.1 Makers
The vast majority of the citizen developers identify themselves as makers. Since
no-code lowers the bar for entry in generating new software, anyone decent can become a
maker. In recent years, there is an uprise in the number of makers that have branched off from
the internet culture to create the maker community.
In the past, makers were innovators of mechanical systems who played with industrial
items, metals, and plastics to generate innovations. This movement was prevalent at the
beginning of the industrial revolution that inspired people worldwide to get involved with
science, which eventually bred the engineering field that is still responsible for coming up
with most of the innovations that make our lives faster, easier, more efficient, and overall
better. Much like today's maker community is using digital systems and no-code to build a
new enthusiasm.
The founder of Product Hunt, Ryan Hoover, considered to be one of the pioneers of
the no-code movement, explains the makers this way, The Rise of No-Code, 2019, “These
makers are no longer only people who are engineers with side hustles. No-code is creating a
new wave of makers from different backgrounds and perspectives.” (4)
According to research by Danielle Goodman, 2018, 24% of all makers have no

experience using a low-code or no-code tool. Combined with Ryan's statement, this creates a
compelling narrative around the no-code movement that not only intensifies the interest but
also reassures the fact that anyone can create a digital solution. More than 40% of the makers
who have a business background are therefore non-technical. (6)
As evident, makers are the perfect adopters for the no-code movement, and even an
employee in a company is not disqualified for becoming a maker. Considering that the
average learning time of a no-code tool, up until users can create a brand new software
without outside help is around a month for 70% of all makers, needing developers and
21
programmers to solve a digital problem is now a thing of the past. According to Danielle
Goodman’s Infographic: Low-Code Application Development Trends, 2018. (6)
In addition, there seemed to be any risk or weakness in using no-code for makers as it
is fast and easy to learn, does not require too much commitment, and can yield results very
quickly. However, as it will be mentioned for all other subgroups of demographics, there is a
best use case of no-code for makers. That is the ability to actualize an idea quickly.
There are numerous designs, mockups, and prototyping tools that might be considered
as no-code but not quite. With tools like Invision, Figma, Adobe XD and Sketch, users can
create a mockup design for an eminent idea and showcase it to the world. However, it does
not go any further from there. The mockup created is static and is not intractable. No-code is
one step beyond that as well. Because no-code tools can also be used as prototyping and
design tools, plus they are just faster. When someone has an idea, it makes sense to build it
with no code since the prototype automatically becomes an authentic product that users can
test and give feedback. As mentioned in Webflow’ s E-book, 2019, “All of that also means
that static design tools — in the broadest sense — become less and less valuable. Which
means fewer disposable artifacts — and lowered software costs.” (5)
3.2.2 Developers
Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions around the conversation of no-code is the
notion that somehow no-code will eliminate the need for developers; this cannot be farther
from the truth. No-code and low-code tools are still run by code, and the end product
produced by the non-technical is still code-based. We cannot create a digital system or
software without code; we can only make the development so abstract that it gives the illusion
of not writing code.
While no-code will eventually shift the role of a developer, it is essential to note that
developers and programmers can also be the beneficiaries of this movement. Unlike the
makers and entrepreneurs, developers are technical workers. They are responsible for making
systems more efficient, including the tools that citizen developers rely on. Developers are
seeing a growing interest from business professionals to solve their problems but are also
keen to keep governance control on IT-related issues.
22
After all, anything digital-related is their line of work, and while allowing
non-technical professionals help to reduce the repetitive work like setting up computers,
giving data access, and changing passwords. In one of the interviews, a developer in charge of
his company develops some no-code solutions. He is a developer who loves to work with
no-code tools because he believes that the tools he creates with no-code solutions help the
non-developers in his company access the information they need without needing to reach
him.
As also Sheryl Koenigsberg, head of global product marketing at Mendix, 2021, puts
it; “With low-code and no-code, they (developers) can give business units skill-appropriate
tools to solve some of their problems, while ensuring that anything they build goes through a
centralized process for quality and security” (15)
According to a research report of Outsystems The State of Application Development

Trends, 2018, 42% of developers working for enterprise companies plan to deliver 10+
low-code or no-code apps within one year. This comes from the fact that building a solution
with these SaaS tools is much faster than traditional coding. To compare, the average delivery
time of a simple business application is usually around five months with coding, while
delivering a similar project using the low-code tool can be as short as a week. (7)
Briefly, developers using and enabling others to use no-code low-code tools elevate
their field of work. They can deliver solutions faster, avoid rework and allow more time and
space to work on more complex and exciting software problems, like solving logic and
architecture of algorithms. Enterprises using no-code (and/or Low Code) solutions will most
likely need fewer developers and ease up the high demand for developers across the globe,
leading to the salary average for a developer dropping.
3.2.3 Entrepreneurs
Makers and developers are not the only innovators who can harness the potential of
LC/NC to shift the way they do things to innovate. Entrepreneurship is one step beyond being
a maker since it requires a financial risk on top of everything else. Entrepreneurs are people
who build businesses out of solutions they develop to problems with the intention of profiting.
New ventures will always have risks, and building a business requires more than just the
23
ability to create but also manage and operate. LC/NC can help with all of that to create a new
wave of non-technical founders.
Entrepreneurship starts with an idea. Nevertheless, that idea is useless if it stays only
as an idea. We have to get it out in words and images to explain in ways that others will
understand. In the beginning, a simple sketch or a set of images might be enough to show our
concept to early adopters and potential investors. If we have basic design knowledge, we can
even design interfaces and create a prototype.
A prototype is not the real thing unless that prototype is also built with no-code. As the
idea develops and evolves, it becomes easier to make changes and improve the concept. With
the eventual goal of validating the idea, no-code saves entrepreneurs so much time, literally
merging the concept design with the prototyping phase while immediately making the product
live, ready to be used by the early adopter users.
Entrepreneurship, in essence, is turning a novel idea into a profitable business before

the competition catches up or market changes. With the cost-effectiveness and speed, no-code
brings to the table, hypothesizing and validating new venture ideas is the best way for an
entrepreneur to fail fast and succeed even faster.
As also mentioned in Table 2, AI Multiple’s Low Code / No Code Development

Platform Study, 2021, shows that 20% of entrepreneurs who rely on LC/NC solutions use
them for their simplicity. LC/NC can also be used by entrepreneurs who are not building
digital solutions. Manufacturers, marketers, store owners, and other entrepreneurs can build
websites to tell their stories or sell their goods by just using these solutions. (11)
The journey of aspiring to be an entrepreneur, turning an idea into a side hustle, and
then creating a business out of it after validation can be on another level with no-code as the
possibilities are endless. To name a few, it is possible to; build a website or an online store,
manage clients and communities, store & visualize all the data, handle scheduling and
appointments, design interactive quizzes & polls to collect data, embed widgets inside
websites, and do so much more. There are hundreds of different categories of no-code tools
that entrepreneurs can benefit from.
24
It is also crucial to note here is that not all tools work properly or have the capability to
solve problems. Just like an entrepreneur’s idea, there are bound to be glitches. However,
since most are easy to learn and practice, any entrepreneur to use LC/NC for their work can
find one that suits.
3.2.4 Start-ups
One step beyond entrepreneurship is managing a start-up. The term has been passed
around as a buzz phrase for companies formed by small groups of technical and non-technical
innovators, which makes it appropriate to put them underneath the larger category of
innovators. Unlike others in the list, start-ups are increasingly adopting no-code and low code
products to make them part of their development stacks and improve their business models
and operations.
Taking the start-ups as a whole, it is safe to say that no-code assumes a different role
for each type. While a logistics company may find more use in using a backend no-code tool
like Airtable to manage delivery operations, an e-commerce brand utilizes it for optimizing
marketing and sales. Although it may be safe to assume that when it comes to developing a
product, LC/NC is most helpful. According to The Forrester Wave’s John Wymer report,
2016, 12% of start-ups using low-code or no-code tools in their stacks have stated that their
backlog has improved thanks to them. (8) Also, as stated by developers, development times
are also dropping in such operations. According to Red Hat & 451 Research, 2018, using an
LC/NC tool in development reduces the time to launch by 90%. (12) This means more time to
deploy new features, more time to test, and more time to optimize.
LC/NC is great for start-ups, especially if the need is to speed up development time
and open up space to do more tests on user experience. However, there is a catch. Using a tool
also means creating a dependency on the tool. Companies rarely switch tools, and when they
do, the decision is not easy. This dependency is a risk, relying on a tool that may even become
redundant in the future. That is not to say that start-ups should not trust any LC/NC tool and
the teams behind it but rather be cautious in planning. Moreover, the caution must be
intensified when agreeing on using these tools as some of them have clauses that mention the
Intellectual Property (IP) is owned by the SaaS tool and not by the creator.
25
In other words, based on what the start-up does, a right no-code niche could be
selected to solve, optimize or automize a part of the newly formed business while making sure
that the decision is made with intention and be cautious about consequences.
3.3 Businesses: Small & Local, Mid-size, Agencies and Large size
The innovators may fuel the economy train, but businesses are the proper locomotive
that pulls everybody forward. There are multiple million small to big businesses around the
world. This staggering number may look smaller compared to more than 500 million
entrepreneurs worldwide, but keep in mind that each business has at least ten employees per
company and can go above a million in multinational corporations. So, all these workers must
have access to a free, fair playing ground for software creation. That is not the reality today.
Although most businesses are digitally transforming thanks to, in large part, no code that is
empowering business users to take over functionality previously owned by technical users by
abstracting complexity and centering around a visual workflow, it is not nearly enough for
small, local, mid-size or large businesses alike.
3.3.1 Small & Local Businesses
No doubt that the next step for any startup with a successful start is to grow. The next
step in this growth is becoming a small business. On top of that, since most small businesses
are also local businesses like florists or carpentry stores, it is wise to consider all in one
umbrella and see how they behave around no-code.
First up, the overall adoption of LC/NC in small businesses is pretty low as some do
not bother with scaling, and most are used to the old ways. The ones that use no-code
solutions in their daily operations usually need to market their products or services better
online without needing a developer, which would most certainly be an extra financial burden.
A most common example of this is e-commerce stores creating landing pages and product
catalogs to market and sell goods online. In other words, the use of no-code is mainly
centered around solving specific marketing problems or promoting a particular product.
26
The potential of no-code for small and local business come in two-fold. The first and
most obvious one is improving and increasing digital presence, as was mentioned above, and
the second is streamlining process automation or digitalizing operations.
Think of a local restaurant that wants to increase its income by attracting more
customers. They can put up a nicely designed and clean website to promote their food and
allow people to find them on digital services like maps or local listings. The website they put
up is for them to create a new digital presence on the web, which, if connected to a solid
delivery backend, can also act as a streamlined order delivery tool that would create a whole
new customer base without ever needing a developer.
Digitally transforming a small business with LC/NC can be beneficial in ways that are
specific to the business. Here are some examples: Businesses that sell goods can save
significantly on costs by reducing the need for human interaction, primarily through online
sales. Marketing and advertising firms can increase their efficiency rates and improve their
efforts by implementing simple Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)
systems that keep learning from previous practices. Small agencies and freelancers can
streamline invoicing in order to increase revenues. Small businesses with special regulatory
compliance needs can make fewer errors using digital compliance systems powered by
no-code. Higher customer satisfaction for almost all of them thanks to interactive web
experiences and faster, more accurate delivery of necessary information to whoever needs
them instantly with the help of the internet—higher employee satisfaction leading to increased
productivity thanks to eliminating repetitive tasks.
3.3.2 Mid-Size Businesses
The mid-size businesses are a relatively more minor portion of the industry vs. the
small and local businesses; however, they have relatively higher sales volume, and on top of
this, they have kind of departments formed in the company. This makes even a critical task
since being out of business would cost much more than a small business or start-up, whereas
the opportunity to become a big enterprise is much closer.
Like all the other categories, these businesses also require a robust digital
transformation to succeed; though a mid-size company is a bit in shape with some
27
departments forming, fixing the basics with digital solutions that would help them. Before
things get more complicated, starting to eliminate repetitive tasks from the employees,
creating personal digital workspaces, and automating workflows are crucial. Before a
company getting drown by a paper or mail trail, they need to act.
This is exceptionally the no-code tools can be advantageous for these businesses; the
no-code tools can help take the unstructured data or process, classify automatically,
auto-extract and map, reconcile and give back as a structured data and process. While the tool
helps to do that, the only thing that needs to be done is to know what outcome the company
wants from it. This means even a non-developer can be in charge of these processes.
It is also significant that the mid-size companies agree on this; 82% of mid-size
businesses agree that app development outside IT reduces workload, according to Alison
DeNisco Rayome, 2017 (9). Since IT development is significant in these companies, taking
the easy work like automating flows to eliminate some repetitive tasks. For example, the
onboarding process of new employees for HR, building the database of the employees,
managing the flow of tasks from an essential no-code tool is straightforward.
Let us take one step further and talk about research and development; as said initially,
mid-size businesses may be one step away from being multimillion-dollar companies, and
creating new ideas is always important, which brings us to prototyping. With no-code tools,
the employees of the mid-size businesses can create their prototypes, iterate them, try them,
and see if they can turn them into an authentic product that can make the next step for their
business.
All in all, either for optimizing the internal process to become more efficient in daily
business tasks or helping to create some novelty, the no-code tools have a crucial role in
developing the digital transformation of these businesses.
3.3.3 Large Corporations
LC/NC is especially beneficial for big corporations since they already have IT
departments and internal tools to track work and data. However, of course, as they say, heavy
is the head that wears the crown. Being a big enterprise does not mean that all processes are
efficient, automated, or appropriately used data. There might be even cases where the IT
28
departments or developers might find themselves using inefficient tasks like fixing internal
tools. According to Retool’s latest survey with developers and IT leaders, more than 57% of
the companies dedicate a minimum of one employee to fix internal tools. Which, in the era of
rapid development, this is just a waste of time and money, Gadgets 360 Newsdesk, 2021,
Flexiple Co-Founder Shares NoCode Tools That Help Him Run $2-Million Startup (45) On
top of the inefficient allocation of resources, the big enterprises have the considerable
problem of bureaucracy. The time a corporation spends from thinking about a solution to
implementation is very long, and even in some cases, it makes the solution obsolete at the
time of implementation.
One other significant challenge that large corporations tackle is data visualization as
the company and the revenue grows from the number of people working to available data
sources of the company generates. These companies require high-quality data visualization
solutions so that from top management to field employees can speak the same language to
operate for a single goal of the company.
LC/NC solutions can take an important role here to solve the emerging need for better
integration of departments. There are companies in the world that are benefiting from LC/NC
solutions. 69% of large corporations are accelerating digital transformation efforts with
LC/NC, according to report from Outsystems, 2019 (10). Startup Magazine’s No-Code trend
speed up tech vendor process article also states, 2020, “Pfizer, General Electric, and Zurich
Financial are among the fast-growing number of companies that have adopted various
no-code solutions in creating custom software. For example, no-code platforms can aid in
migrating legacy apps that are costly to maintain. It can also be used in creating new tools
that can access all company data in real-time and turn it into insightful statistics.” (25)
These solutions for big enterprises come back also with some potential challenges,
such as people using the tools will need training, and though no-code tools are relatively easy
to learn due to the wright of changing people in the roles, it might take some time to set the
functioning of the tool and maintained adequately. However, big enterprises implementing
tools are still easier rather than providing heavy, challenging coded applications written from
scratch.
29
All in all, taking the unnecessary workload from developers about maintaining internal
process tools, making from top management to the intern of the company easily read the data
in similar visualization model with few clicks or automating basic workflow processes are
very easy, budget-friendly, and beneficial with LC/NC tools for enterprises’ digital
transformations journey.
4 State of no-code
As in every innovation or business model, No-Code Solutions and tools also come
with some advantages & drawbacks. Saving cost & time for the companies and individuals
make creating easy and accessible on the other hand, being limited in terms of functionalities
and scalability problems are coming up as drawbacks and risks of adopting these tools. We
will talk about three top benefits and three limitations and drawbacks.
4.1 Top benefits of the no-code movement
The top benefits are having Shorter Learning curves (especially vs. learning how to
code), Increasing Productivity for driving Creativity, and, providing Cost-Effective solutions.
4.1.1 Shorter Learning Curves
As mentioned from the beginning of the paper, the world has a growing demand for
software development. According to DAXX’s Blog Post on The Software Developer Shortage
in the US and the Global Tech Talent Shortage, 2020, a developer talent-hiring company, “As
of 2020, the global talent shortage already amounts to 40M skilled workers worldwide. By
2030, the global talent shortage is predicted to reach 85.2M workers” (16)
Nevertheless, here comes the LC/NC tools; the main idea of these tools is to give the
ability to non-technical people to learn and adapt quickly for creating. Furthermore, these
tools allow people to learn very quickly; according to an interview conducted, it is found that
with only one week of onboarding to a tool, any person without any prior experience could
use a no-code tool because individual is figuring out how to use these tools, whereas learning
code could take up to years to master.
30
However, one other learning from the interviews is that prior knowledge of coding may
make things easier even in learning how to use no-code tools. A tool being a no-code does not
mean that the tool is easy to use; yes, the beginner tutorials may make it to be understood
easily, but as in every job we do, a previous experience in coding will help people using
no-code tools easier and learn faster.
To wrap up, of course, we cannot make a timing comparison, but obviously, learning
code may take months to years; being a master in some no-code tools can take days and
weeks. Alternatively, to make it more concrete with an example learning how to create a
website on wix.com is much easier than learning JavaScript to create the application or site.
So, though the no-code tool users be a coder in 1 week, they can help streamline the job of
developers by quickly learning how to create applications or workflows to close the skill gap.
4.1.2 Increasing productivity to drive Innovation
An unskilled person can learn how to use a no-code tool in few days because the tools
are relatively easy to use. As discussed, prototyping previously, prototyping is a way to create
and learn from the mistakes and go back to fix those mistakes. Imagine changing a code in a
website; it may take hours or even days to fix some of them.
For an unskilled person, when they learn how to use the basic features of R & Phyton,
one single line of mistake in the code might need one hour to be fixed, or Laura Bosco also
explains her experience with HTML coding with these words in the blog post What you need
to know about no-code prototypes, 2020; “When I worked for an agency as a project manager
- I only tried to make one HTML change on a client website. It took a developer 2 hours to fix
my contribution” (17)
The no-code tools save time, but due to ease of use, it increases productivity as well.
With less risk of manipulating the coded documents to break it, according to John Rymer
from Forrester in the blog post Why you need to know about Low-Code, Even If you are not
Responsible for Software Delivery, 2018, “…these platforms can propel software
development to 10 times the speed of traditional processes. Faster development means more
leeway to focus on design.” (18)
31
Thanks to the No-Code tools, from scratch to ideate prototyping to creating a business
can take few months when we have a good idea. A real-life example from Dani Bell, the
founder of Scribly.io, stated in Clive Thompson’s article The New Start-up: No Code, No
Problem, 2020, without any previous coding knowledge, just using multiple no-code tools
created her company and “Nineteen months later, her company—Scribly.io—had around 23
clients and was doing $25,000 a month in recurring business.” (19)
So, when we have a good idea that we believe can generate money, a person does not need
any coder support; using several different tools to show the creativity drives innovation that
can generate cash in a short amount of time.
4.1.3 Providing Cost Effective Solutions
Contrary to the belief that, since the companies need to use multiple different no-code
tools, it creates high costs, but it is well cost-effective compared to hiring developers for a
project. According to Ann Mooney from Soltech, How Much Does Custom Software Cost,
2021, for companies to create custom software may cost, $50K-$250K or even a creative
design may cost between $8K-$16K. (20)
However, most of the no-code tools are offering free entry-level services, either in the
way that the users can access the limited features or users can access full features but in a
limited amount of time. From experience, if a user wants to create an essential website or an
application and is not looking for custom solutions, any No-Code tool offers free service. But
of course, if the user wants to use custom features, unique integrations, or any upgrade in
updates, they have to pay some amount (which changes per platform)
The other point that can be mentioned is the iterations; most of the time, developers are
charging their times and pretty strict with their workload limits. Moreover, when we overbook
the developers or designers, they tend to charge even more than the original base rate.
However, iterating, changing, or fixing the design, workflow, or application is much cheaper
(or even free of charge) with no-code tools.
Let us take the example of website development for an enterprise. The company
representative briefs the agency or develops a proper webpage with proper coding. The
designer and developer book a particular time, and with an expected reflex from the enterprise
32
project manager, there are multiple revisions. However, with every revision comes an extra
cost from the developer, which possibly breaks the bond between the two parties. On the
contrary, let us take the case of the external agency creating the website with a no-code tool
and just charging one extra iteration possibility for the project manager and giving them
access to edit the no-code created a website, so the essential (or no-brainer) iterations to be
done by non-technical people. The no-code tools even allow the agencies to give away the
basic tasks to non-technical people, saving time and money for their developers.
To summarize, though it is technically impossible to calculate the exact difference

between hiring a developer and using a no-code tool, both saving time (which is also money)
and building more efficient solutions, no-code tools also come with cost-effective aspect.
4.2 Limitations and drawbacks of no-code
On the other hand, the limitations and drawbacks can also be summarized in three
points as having Platform Dependency (being tied down to the tool you use), Scalability
Issues (especially seems to be an issue for big enterprises), and Security Issues (such as not
having Intellectual Property Claims).
4.2.1 Platform Dependency
If we count how many different tools or even different categories of no-code tools
exist, it can take up to days. From data analytics visualization builders, to website builders,
form process automation tools, to web application builders and, mailing automation tools.
However, with variety and diversity, it also generates incredible complexity.
Either as a maker or an enterprise, we need to choose the adequate no-code tool; of

course, the users choose the tools according to needs; however, if the tool is getting outdated
or even bankrupt, it all has to start from scratch. The users are tied down to the tool they are
using, and if it goes down, the user needs to find a new tool to do the same application
created.
The one other drawback of platform dependency is that each tool has its capabilities to
its extent, so the user is tied down to the capabilities of the tool, and if the user has an idea and
33
the tool cannot provide the user cannot do anything but accept the fact unless the tool
upgrades itself.
Let us take the case of an enterprise; in one of the interviews, one of the big enterprise
companies has more than 190 Marketing Technology tools (some of them are no-code tools),
and every year some of them are losing their capabilities. The other problem in the big
enterprise is that implementing a new solution takes much time; there are substantial
bureaucratic processes inside the companies, so it is always risky for an enterprise to depend
on No-Code solutions.
As Anne-Laure Le Cunff states at MakerMag’s Should non-technical solo makers

learn how to code, 2018, “...you are at the whim of the companies providing these no-code
products, many of them are fast-moving startups themselves. Should they decide to change the
way their solution works, or their pricing, or to be acquired or shut down, you may have to
change the fundamental structure of how your product works.” (21)
To summarize, all the no-code tool users need to be aware that there are thousands of
no-code tools available, and every day a new member is added to this family. The priority
should be the right tool to use but also be ready for possible changes.
4.2.2 Limited Scalability
The no-code platforms come with many advantages such as flexibility of the
frameworks they provide with customizable features, basic drag and drop abilities which
offers a user-friendly experience; however, with these great features; there are also some
scalability issues, especially becomes a problem when a company is more at enterprise scale.
Different departments may need to use no-code tools from small to big companies, and
with the nature of the tasks, the solutions can be different. This detail raises the scalability
issues; since the tools are limited in some capabilities, and each tool depends on its limits, a
company or a start-up may have various tools that may not be possible to speak with each
other.
While companies try to automate or design elements easily with such tools, due to
limited capabilities, it may end up in an abundance of tools that may not speak to each other
34
or even operate with each other. At the end of the process, the companies may have a huge
bill to pay that cannot be scaled further in their business. Various selection of tools is still
vital.
4.2.3 Security Issues
Security issues are an essential topic to be tackled while working with no-code tools.
The critical concept of low code or no-code tools is that the platform user does not own the
code but creates something that had been prepared on a pre-written code. Furthermore, most
of the time, the so-called citizen developers use pre-deployed templates or flows driven from
past successful examples, which may create similar-looking workflows or websites or
applications in similar fields.
Alternatively, let us look at the data piece; a tremendous low code or no-code solution
the market is offering users is the data visualization solutions. In case of sending weakly
encrypted data to the tool, it may create problems of security breaches.
There are many different cases where the users should be aware of the security of
information or IP claims of the works that had been done. There are two different sides to
protecting the work and the tool. The tools should be vetted and fixed for any liabilities, and
as the DevOps article clearly states, this is not an essential thing, Louis Vistola, Security Risk
with No-Code/Low-Code Tools, 2021, “Simple scanning for known vulnerabilities is not
enough. A solution must understand the way components of a citizen developer application
change over time and interact with one another.” (22)
This takes us to the role of the users; using pre-prepared templates, using the
applications or designs organized recently can be a fast and easy way; however, the user
should also be very vigilant and be aware that they are claiming the rights and proprietorship
of the applications that they develop. Always partnering with legal or IT partners is the best
way to be sure while using these tools.
Part 3: Contributions of No-Code Tools for The Digital

Transformation of Businesses
35
5 No-Code for Digital Transformation
The big buzzword Digital Transformation is omnipresent; either a startup wants to

create their business with a digital business model, or a big company wants to completely
change their business and working model since nearly everything can be digitized. McKinsey
Digital Global Survey, Why Digital Strategies Fail, Jacques Bughin, Tanguy Catlin, Martin
Hirt, and Paul Willmott, 2018, called out that only 8% of the businesses believe their business
model will make sense in this digitizing world. (23)
From grown companies to new businesses, everyone requires digital transformation.

Yet, to complete the digital transformation in a company, there is a need for a solid partner to
deliver, such as tool providers, external agencies, or third-party platforms. Besides, at the core
of all these, the IT and developers need to complete the tasks that the companies have in
mind.
However, there is a problem about skilled developers taking a role in digital

transformation. As also suggested in the previous chapters, the demand for technical talent is
outpacing the supply. This is also the key reason why we see many developers or technical
people encouraging young students to be a part of coding seminars or workshops.
Here where the no-code tools are present to assist, no-code is a revolution for the
non-technical audience; these tools are approachable, fast, and risk-free to test and learn new
concepts or solutions, they can serve the business in terms of data analytics, process
management, prototyping or even building a digital business from scratch.
5.1 Role of No-Code Tools in Digital Transformation
The crucial role of no-code tools is there to generate citizen developers. Citizen
developers are the people who are interested in creating something but have no skills in
developing software by coding. The big companies are not far away from Low Code /
No-Code area. Google bought AppSheet, a low code platform from marketing project
planning to IT ticketing, from Inventory List Builder to Employee Onboarding. A person with
low or no skills in development can build apps about these topics in just a few days.
36
Furthermore, this is not only for digital businesses; even from non-profit organizations to
manufacturing, all companies can benefit from these solutions.
How does a low code to no-code development journey look like? Is it true that we still
need to have some coding know how even after developing the application? The answer is
yes. The journey is almost always looking like no-code, → low-code → code. If the no-code
product becomes successful, the user can:
- Scale as much as the tools allow them to scale

- Hire a developer to translate the no-code into a more robust code run elsewhere,
- Hire no-code experts to find workarounds to improve performance and streamline
processes, or partner with an agency that can do all the things above and more.
A more diverse group of people will be included in the movement. By lowering the bar of
entry, we expect to see different people with unique stories to solve their needs with no-code
and, in the process, allow others like them to benefit from their creations which should also
fuel inclusion.
Of course, with the recent pandemic, everything has a new edge. Before the pandemic,
there were questions about the cost implications and possible necessity of digital
transformation, but now it becomes a must-have for companies. Moreover, when it combines
the potential lack of developers and a digital transformation as must-have no-code tools, take
the hotspot right there. According to DevOps and the experts, Bill Detwiler, What Software
developers should know about 2021, 2021, “85% of engineer leads believe that the
implementation of low-code or no-code solutions will become a standard within their
companies in the next few years.” (24) This is becoming the case due to the advantages
explained in previous chapters, increasing productivity thanks to ease of use, cost-efficiency,
and ease of learning.
The role of LC/NC tools are there to help because every company in a digital
transformation process needs easy-to-use and adapted tools, but also it allowed some real
quality time-space for real developers. Ignas Rubežius, the CEO of The Remote Company,
explains this advantage of LC/NC tools; “The tools using the no-code approach get everyone
on the team involved in the creative process. Until now, web development required the
37
involvement of IT professionals who oversaw every step of the process. With the help of
no-code tools, teams can do most of the work themselves, and the IT department can jump
onboard later if needed.” Lanna Deamer, Startup Magazine, 2020. (25)
All in all, the role of no-code tools in digital transformation allows non-skilled project
managers, marketing managers, sales coordinators, supply chain representatives to create their
workflows, automation, websites, mobile applications, and many more without needing IT
professionals and letting the developers focus on more essential and complex to solve issues.
5.2 Key Areas of Benefit
Before going into the details of some concrete examples where no-code tools can be
helpful for the digital transformation of businesses, let us point out the four topics discussed
in the next chapter.
Digital transformation is not only about technologies such as Machine Learning,

robotization, and artificial intelligence. It also means agility in processes, creating meaningful
insights from data, automizing the old paper trail internal workflow, or it can even mean
giving birth to an idea completely digital.
There are four critical categories in the digital transformation of businesses where
no-code tools can be useful. No-code tools can help companies accelerate their transformation
process with innovative solutions and help all companies gain agility in doing business
transformation. The four categories where no-code tools can enable to transform and digitize
companies are:
- Helps users to create close to final prototypes in their design thinking process,
- Assists users to make understandable data visualization to create meaningful insights
from their big data,
- Allows any company to streamline, automate the workflows or approval systems and,
- Possibly combining all these aspects, no-code tools can help to create a digital
business and project from scratch without needing any coding knowledge, which
means building up a digitally transformed business or project from scratch.
38
Design Thinking in the digital transformation of the business is crucial because the
core of design thinking allows the companies and the employees to solve complex problems
by letting the end-users interact with them. Just in the place of letting end users interact, there
come the no-code tools. No-code tools are not only in our lives to create final applications or
websites, but they are there to create prototypes. They are making flexible prototypes for
companies that can change and iterate according to consumer feedback—more details in the
next section.
Big Data is the buzzword and the reality of each company when it comes to digital
transformation; turning the vast data into some meaningful analysis is not always the easiest
thing. According to a Forrester survey published in Forbes, 85% of the company
representatives want to use data for their decision-making, and 91% of them accept that
improving the use of data insights is challenging, according to Saket Sharma’s Data is
Essential to Digital Transformation article in Forbes, 2020 (26). Furthermore, right here, the
no-code tools get to the spotlight, with primary drag and drop functions allows users to
streamline the data and turn them into a more insight generatable format.
According to Thomas H. Davenport and Thomas C. Redman’s Harvard Business

Reviews article Digital Transformation Comes down to Talent in 4 Key Areas, 2020, after
technology and data process transformation takes place at the heart of digital transformation;
“Transformation requires an end-to-end mindset, a rethinking of ways to meet customer
needs, seamless connection of work activities, and the ability to manage across silos going
forward.” (27) Furthermore, the no-code tools can help the companies transform the
processes and connect and manage the tasks. Generating automated workflows with just a few
drags and drops is possible with no-code tools—more details in the next section.
Furthermore, finally, from designing an application to creating simple automated

workflows and turning big data into insightful figures, when it combines all of these, a person
without a single line of coding expertise can build a digitally born business. A maker can
transform its idea from a piece of paper to a prototype which can transform into a website or
application, automize the process in the workflow of this business and make its life more
effortless, track the sales and data with basic knowledge to even generate more significant
sales. These are all possible with no-code tools, and they can transform a maker into an
39
entrepreneur or a start-up owner and even further steps into a business owner. to start-up
owner and even in further steps to a business owner. The following section will provide
concrete examples of how prototyping in design thinking, big data visualization, process
automation, and digital business creation can be done through no-code tools.
6 Recommendations
6.1 Role & Use Cases of No-Code in Design Thinking: Scaling the
Prototyping
This section will contain where the no-code tools can be used in the prototyping stages
of the projects & processes. The section will include mentioning of the Design Thinking
process & real-life examples.
Prototyping Role in Design Thinking Process
No-code tools are the ideal medium to serve in the prototyping stage of the Design
Thinking process, which is a key in the digital transformation of businesses. Before going in
deeper on how no-code tools are serving the needs of prototyping, let us remember what
design thinking was. The design thinking method is divided into 5 phases, 1. Empathize, 2.
Define, 3. Ideate, 4. Prototype, 5. Test. Design Thinking is a non-linear process; after the
ideation process, working prototypes are needed to put our ideas to use and test them to see
what is working, but also these prototypes will help to spark new ideas where we have to
change them or even scrap all and create new prototypes to test.
Prototypes are built so that designers can think about solutions differently; it helps to
fail quickly and cheaply, resulting in time and money-saving in an idea that turns out wrong.
As Tim Brown (CEO of IDEO) says, Rikke Friis Dam and Teo Yu Siang, Stage 4 in the
Design Thinking Process: Prototype, 2020, “They slow us down to speed us up. By taking the
time to prototype our ideas, we avoid costly mistakes such as becoming too complex too early
and sticking with a weak idea for too long.” (28)
No Code Tools in Prototyping Process
40
No-Code tools are taking the stage in the rapid prototyping process; as discussed since
the beginning of the paper, no-code application development platforms are helping
non-technical ideators to materialize their ideas. A no-code application design company Krit
(an app design & development company that helps startups plan, build, and ship web and
mobile apps), explains prototypes in 5 different groups; Andrew Asking, 5 examples of
no-code prototypes, 2020, “Low fidelity: a rough representation, such as a sketch or
wireframes, High-fidelity: a detailed representation, such as design mockups, No-code: a
prototype built without any programming, Wizard of Oz: a manual, or behind the scenes,
implementation of a software idea, MVP: a robust prototype made for market use.” (29) As
seen in these different types creators or ideators can design a sketch on a paper to even create
a Minimum Viable Product.
So, in this context, there needs to be a mention of two use cases of No-Code tools for
Prototyping, either a user has their own low fidelity rough sketch, and in this point, a
No-Code tool can help to create their product without needing to know how to code, or there
can be an alternative case where the user can use the no-code tools to build their MVPs.
No Code way of helping to prototype
The No-Code tools come with their advantages for the users to choose them in the
prototyping stage of their projects. There are three angles that we can look into: Blastasia
Blog Post The No-Code way of Prototyping, 2020 (30), Malgorzata Maksimowicz, No-Code
Platforms as a prototyping tool for designers, 2020 (31):
i) Flexibility of the no-code tools to create complex interactions
Some UX Design tools do not allow creating complex interactions during the
prototyping phase. No code platforms help reflect the desired interactions and provide new
possibilities of imitating the experience of an authentic product.
ii) Budget-friendly aspect of the no-code tools
The cost of hiring a developer costs more than paying the fees of a no-code platform.
Even for some No-Code tools utilizing their features are free until a specific period.
iii) Freeing up the quality time of the software developers
41
When a prototype is made by a no-code tool, a citizen developer can do it from
scratch, which will also mean that potential iteration in the prototype after the Testing phase
can be done by a non-technical person. If a developer spared this time, it would be costly and
a waste of quality productive time.
The use cases of Prototyping with No Code Tools
As mentioned in the previous topic, there are two use cases for No Code tools to help
prototyping: turning a prototype sketch into an MVP using a No-Code tool or creating the
prototype from scratch using a No-Code Tool.
6.1.1 Building an MVP from Low Fidelity Sketch
The below example is coming from a company called B3i Analytics, and this
company provides Business Intelligence solutions to Research Universities. Before this
company was founded, the founder started to sketch its idea on excels, where it shows the
consumers how they can extract some solutions or some strategic performance assessment.
These workbooks contain data like economic and political figures. However, as it can be
understood from the context, the only tools used are some basic excel workbooks which are
completely rough sketches that include thousands of data. The spreadsheet can be found in the
screenshot below. (Figure 3)
42
Figure 3 Raw Data for an Idea (B3i Excel Prototype) Kritter, Case Study, how a
non-technical founder landed Yale as a customer, 2020 (32)
This table is an excellent example of Low Fidelity or High-Fidelity prototype, which

may be a bit more complicated than it sounds and helps the No Code platform to develop a
Software as a Service from this prototype. The tool helped the B3i create is SaaS explains this
as, Laura Bosco, 2020, “The spreadsheet is super complicated, but since he had taken the
time to put his concept into a spreadsheet form, we had quite the head start. If he had not had
something to show us, it would have taken us weeks or months to figure out what he wanted.
However, since he had it already laid out, it made the transition into development much, much
easier.” (3) In the end, the tool they developed together is looking like below. A great visual
explanation of the prototype created. (Figure 4) While in excel you need to do your analysis
more manually, the MVP created by the No-Code tool will help you to have clickable,
43
automated, drag and drop featured, or easy-to-use final products.
Figure 4 Final Prototype with No-Code Kritter, Case Study, how a non-technical founder
landed Yale as a customer, 2020 (32)
To sum up and summarize this section, when ideators or a creator come up with even
an elementary sketch of their ideas or plans, the No-Code tools will help them to create more
visually pleasing and convenient tools. This is also a subject that is explained in the
beginning. The no-code tools will allow the users to jump from being just a maker to an
entrepreneur, or even, in this case, this big step made the company a ten-client portfolio
startup.
6.1.2 Building a No Code Prototype from an Idea
For this topic, the example will come from a personal experience in a big enterprise
company. Working in the cosmetic industry, we serve our consumers with 1 to 1 physical
experience in stores (of course, on top of the online interactions). However, with the global
pandemic, consumers had to acquire new behaviors; as a company, we had to lead new means
of engagement and services, merging intimate virtual interactions and commerce, which in the
44
end will develop a new source of business, and this new source of business is called Virtual
Selling.
Virtual Selling is described in the Estee Lauder Companies as an activity that involves
mutual interaction between brands and consumers, using multiple tools and channels in a
virtual environment with the immediate goal of securing a sale. The formats of activities can
differ from Live Chat on brand.com, Live Streaming services with shoppable features, Instant
messaging, Virtual Masterclasses. Moreover, these formats are to be executed by some agents
such as Beauty Advisors, Education Teams, Influencers, and Customer Service Support.
However, this concept comes up with also some drawbacks, especially when it comes
to the brands without any Direct to Consumer (DTC) channels such as brand.com &
free-standing stores. There are several drawbacks such as, there is no platform that a brand
can interact with their end consumers, which will need either a social media platform or a
retailer channel to communicate, there are no places where a brand can use consumer database
due to privacy reasons since the consumer data belongs to the retailer. Furthermore, to solve
this problem, we needed to come up with a solution, but since the Virtual Selling Concept is
entirely new and we need to explain what we need as a brand without any DTC channel, we
needed to show this in a very detailed prototype.
As discussed in the beginning, now the prototyping is for everyone, the tool that we
used called proto.io, this no-code tool provides a service to bring the ideas of any people to
life, which can be a maker and an employee of a big corporation. Since this idea was coming
out of mind, there was no budget allocated, so the platform we used is completely free for the
first few weeks.
With no code prototyping tools, it is effortless to put the ideas on a paper, drag and drop
interfaces of the platforms allows builders to create something without any skill required, and
the significant advantage of these platforms is that it allowed us to show the project almost
like a final product. (Figure 5 & Figure 6)
45
These two images were showing the actual prototypes we created. First technical
advantages, straightforward to complete, this does not cost anything since the full features can
be
used for free in the first 15 days, an idea came up from scratch, but there were easy to use
templates where it allowed to create prototypes from, and it took only 2 hours to visualize the
ideas in the best way possible.
This prototype shows the idea of creating a mobile application for the Tom Ford
Beauty Virtual Clientele experience since the brand does not have a DTC channel. This
prototype shows how to book a 1 to 1 Virtual Consultation, create & join Virtual
46
Masterclasses, have a direct link to retailer.com to show, and have 1 to 1 WhatsApp
Consultations with real Beauty Advisor, or even find a store near the user. Building this
prototype is essential because the no-code platform allows us to visualize the front end and
describe how the backend process (booking, matching, answering) will work.
To summarize this section, when ideators come up with an idea, no code prototyping
tools help quickly, cost-efficiently, and conveniently put them in action. The best part of this
is, anyone can build a prototype almost close to the final product, so if the idea is accepted,
the user can also make it into an accurate final usable product just in a matter of days.
6.2 Role & Use Cases of No-Code in Big Data: Facilitation of Data
Visualization
The following chapter will explain how the No-Code Analytics tools can be used in
the companies to turn the data into insights and help to analyze & predict. Data Science is a
crucial topic in the digital transformation of the business, and the no-code tools will help
democratize the solution.
Importance of Data Analytics & Intelligence
Data, Data Analytics, and most importantly, turning data into insight and action had
always been critical assets for companies. Frost & Sullivan's December 2020 Cloud User
Survey, the Big Data Analytics business's size is expected to increase to $68B by 2025, and
now 51% of the company leaders consider data as the most pressing issue. (33)
Data is a pressing topic because, in the post-pandemic companies' digital

transformation agenda, it changed how the IT departments spend more time, energy & budget
to improve the remote working and collaboration capabilities and accelerated some new
initiatives. According to Google and IDG Communications' recent study, Howard
Blumenstein, 2020, among 2,000 IT leaders across the globe, 55% of companies are either
delaying or canceling an IT initiative. However, 32% of these companies either introduced or
accelerated a project of improving the use of data analytics. Within the same research paper, it
is stated that 37% of the companies globally are using Big Data Analytics, Artificial
Intelligence, and Machine Learning Technologies; however, from the same audience, 36% of
47
the respondents are Insufficient IT and developer skill set to be a top pain point impeding the
innovation. (34)
Role of No Code Tools in Data Analytics & Intelligence
R, SQL, Python are the programming languages that an average university student
heard of when it comes to Data Science. Each one of them having different tools and features
serving similar needs. Today, when it comes to coding languages, as discussed in the
beginning, it is very dependent on highly technical people, who are hard to find and hire,
which also comes with a high cost. GetApp concluded a survey with 500 US medium-size
businesses, and it seems that 68% of the marketeers need more data visualization features and
54% of the accounting people need more predictive analytics features in their daily business,
Lauren Maffeo, Most Businesses Don’t use Data the Right Way, 2020. (35)
The no-code tools promise to democratize the data science tools so business leaders to
marketers can use the data even though they are not high-level experts. The marketeers,
salesperson business leader or an accountant can visualize a data within seconds with graphs,
charts, diagrams.
The most known example is Tableau; Springer explains Tableau in their book,
Handbook of Big Data Technologies, 2017, “thanks to its Cloud analytics platform, Tableau
allows users to manipulate data through a simple web control panel.” (36) There needs to be
two words pointed out from this sentence, manipulating data & simple web control panel,
because these are the two words explaining how no-code tool Tableau is helping the users.
Any user can manipulate the data through a simple control panel which any user needs only to
know click, drag, and drop.
The Use Cases of No Code Tools for Big Data
There are two essential use cases identified about how the no-code tools are helping
creators to entrepreneurs to big enterprises in terms of turning data into insights. The no-code
tools enable the businesses to connect and visualize the data in few clicks, and also how the
no-code tools help to grow businesses by having data predictions in seconds by creating
machine learning algorithms and predicting outcomes within minutes.
48
6.2.1 No Code Tools in Big Data Visualization
49
No code data visualization tools are provided for creating an easier way represent the
big data sets visually; even if there are a thousand lines of data, the user can create
dashboards, reports, charts, graphs, maps, and much different variety of tools in few clicks.
There are several advantages of the no-code tools that need to be pointed out:
i) Easy to connect: From Google Analytics to SalesForce data, social media analytics to
CRM data No Code tools allow users to have all the data connected at a single source without
any coding needed but just linking them in a single platform
ii) Saves time & budget: The user does not need to analyze every different data from
different sources; with just a few clicks, the reports needed, or the graphs required can be
created. The tools come with some investment; however, they are much cheaper to recruit a
Data Scientist to analyze all.
iii) Ease of Iteration & Learning: Even though there are updates in the data or a need to
onboard a new person to use the tool, the time and expertise needed to be trained and make
the necessary changes are straightforward quick.
The following images will show an example from a No-Code Data Visualization
platform, which most of the similar platforms come with similar features. They can link
directly to platforms like Google Analytics or Shopify, handling hundreds of public templates
that any user can use after uploading their data and managing hundreds of different
dashboards from different sources when needed. The first table below shows a portion of
more than 100 templates. Moreover, note that these are available templates from only one
website, whereas data visualization is available in hundreds of different no-code tools.
50
Figure 7 Databox.com Dashboard Alternatives
Moreover, the picture below shows a real example of how a sales overview looks from
an actual e-commerce website; the user can personalize the raw data uploaded to the system
by just selecting few data points.
Figure 8 Databox.com Sample Dashboard created with sample data
51
So, when a user wants to visualize their thousands of data lines, no code tools help
them create the charts or summary data in few minutes. Data is already a precious asset for
the companies; the most crucial part is to create meaningful actions from them, this can be
done through data scientists who are rare to find and expensive, but also anyone can pay to
get access to no-code Data Visualization tools, embed them to each other and a click to
visualize the data to be able to get insights from it. There might be drawbacks such as
limitations of usage or not every data set can be integrated; however, the solutions are
upgrading themselves to be even more helpful every day.
6.2.2 No Code Tools in Big Data Machine Learning for Predictions
The No Code tools which are helping the companies to create quick Machine Learning
capabilities enable the users to start making predictions from a CSV file in minutes without
need of knowing any coding skills or even a setup process. Forbes article from November
2020 explains these tools as Auto Machine Learning (AutoML); “There’s a huge variety of
AutoML tools out there, which begs the question: What should you learn? Fortunately, the
best AutoML tools are the easiest to figure out, so these are nothing like learning Python, R or
SQL.”, Joey Bertschler, Why Automated Machine Learning is Becoming a Must Have
Business Intelligence Skill, 2020 (37) These auto machine learning algorithms can be
customized per the customer need and with just integrating the database that they own.
Nirman Dave, the owner of the AutoML platform obviously.ai explains the No-Code
principal and their user like this in an article on TechCrunch; “These are people that work
with a lot of data but they’re not programmers themselves, and these are the kind of folks we
designed these tools for. The goal is that you understand the data, and you can take that data
and use the software to build a model really fast, without waiting for hours or days.”
Catherine Shu, Obviously AI, no code startup for data analysts, increases its seed round to
$4,7M, 2021. (38)
The below example will help to make it more visual. Akkio is another company that is
providing Artificial Intelligence solutions to have data-driven solutions. Just from the below
dashboard step by step, a user can start using a prediction tool; the video from Akkio explains
steps:
52
1- Upload the Data: User teaches the application which consumers are accepted to
enroll into their mailing database
2- Machine Learning Starts: From the complete database, the AI piece works and
understands what are the patterns of consumers that accepted to be a part of the
mailing database
3- Potential Consumer Lead Data Upload: After the machine understands the pattern,
a new set of data is uploaded to the system
4- Machine Understands and gives feedback: From this example, the machine
predicts that from 500 potential consumers, there will be 25 of them who will
accept to enroll in the system
5- Results: So, the company takes action to make specific communication to these
people.
Figure 9 Akkio Sample Scenario Case Study
To sum up and summarize this section, creating machine learning does not anymore
require expert people; if a company has the right tool and knows what to do with their data,
any non-technical person can create their AutoML tool in few minutes. The Machine
Learning No Code Tools will crunch the big data to create meaningful insights and potential
action plans. The Return on investment can be significant in these cases, a Pro Account of an
53
AutoML platform can cost up to $2,000 in a year, but even this can be won back with a single
loyal consumer in just a few days.
6.3 Role & Use Cases of No-Code in Process Management: Automation of

Workflows
This section will contain where the no-code tools can be used in workflow automation
to replace paper and email-based processes. The section will contain case studies, market
research & real-life examples.
The Importance of Automating the Workflows
54
The companies need this automation system for several reasons; the first is that the
organizations are drowning in documents. According to the Results from an Association for
Information and Image Management (AIIM) survey (Figure 10), almost 40% of the
employees think that the paper-based process creates an inability to monitor workflow
progress.
Figure 10 Results from an Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM)
survey of 447 respondents from North America, Central America, Europe, Australia, Asia,
Ireland, and Canada (38) Catherine Shu, Obviously AI, no code startup for data analysts,
increases its seed round to $4,7M, 2021
On top of this loss, the employees in the workflows come up with a cost as well;
according to Laserfiche (Process Automation & Streamlining company) suggests, David Roe,
AIIM: Paperless Office Still a Pipe Dream As Mobile Capture Market Gets set to Explode,
2013, that “an office spends $120 searching for every misfiled document and loses 1 out of 20
documents outright … and on top of this 20%-time savings based on filing and retrieval
efficiencies, eliminating misfiling and workflow inefficiencies. Increased efficiency, as well as
55
greater staff productivity, can save up to 6,000 hours annually or 2.4 full-time staff
positions.” (40)
So, it means that the companies can find better ways to drive business process
efficiencies and reduce costs through workflow and process automation.
The Role of No Code in Process & Workflow Automation
No-code platforms can help build excellent project management tools without
knowing how to code with basic drag & drop features to automate the workflows. These
platforms can handle everything from modeling the workflow or the process to user
experience and screens for the end-users and process analytics dashboards for continuous
improvement.
To explain the advantage of using no-code Business Process and Workflow

Automation, let us see an actual purchase request process model from a low code workflow
automation platform, levity.ai. The perk of no-code is in the details, modeling this flow with a
straightforward approach, automating the process with primary drag & drop modeling,
improving the flow just by changing the command with one click, and on top of all these,
having an actionable analytical dashboard. As seen from the examples, all these perks also
lead to an essential aspect, timesaving. According to a case study from FlowForma,
56
Flowfroma BPM becomes a strategic asset for Eurofund, 2021, with their business automation
system, it is 75% quicker to build new workflows (41)
The Use Cases of Building Automated Workflows with No Code Tools
There are two important use cases identified: Automated Workflow Creation with No
Code tools, Customized and Personalized Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Campaigns, and creating easy-to-use approval processes, which can apply to mid-size
companies to enterprise companies.
6.3.1 Customized CRM campaigns with Automated Workflows with No Code Tools
The importance of consumer data evolves in the post-pandemic era; it is about

capturing the correct data or storing it correctly and how the companies make use of them.
The brands & companies are now trying to understand if the customers are one-time buyers,
lapsed customers in the last six months, or returning visitors to create personalized
communications. So now, in 2021, it is not only about understanding what CRM is, but it is
essential to put the data in proper use; or Patrick Johnson, CEO of Hybrid Theory, explains it
like; “You have to have the ability to not only explain what the CRM does, but also work with
your clients to make it perform to fit their needs.” Rodric Bradford, 2020, The outlook for
CRM in a COVID and post-COVID world (42)
Now in this new era, No Code Process Automation Solutions are also taking place in
the CRM business. Below can be found a comparison of how the process of a CRM activation
looked before compared to how a No Code CRM Activation Platform can help change how
the teams work on this topic.
57
Table 2 Traditional Workflow 1
Table 2 showing how a CRM activation setup process needs a Project Manager
Briefing Visual Designer to create the template, Data Manager to extract the correct data, an
email provider to send the communication, and report back to the project manager. However,
with the help of a no/low code CRM activation platform, the Project Manager does not need
to brief different people but only manage a single platform where it can help the manager to
segment and filter the data need (since the big consumer data already included to the system).
So no need either a data scientist to extract data using an SQL code, it helps the manager to
build their email template (since the template is already available in the system) even change
the text on the visual without knowing an HTML code, take the report of the activation in 1
single click and even create an automated flow of consumer communication. (Table 3)
So, let us deep dive, into building the flow of consumer communication; the table
below is created using Braze, a customer engagement platform used by businesses for
multichannel marketing. This basic chart is created by filtering data needed and using the drag
& drop feature of the tool for creating multiple sophisticated campaigns through Canvas to
automate tailored messages according to the customer's lifecycle journey. This journey has ten
different steps, selecting multiple variations, multiple messaging. With all steps, the beauty of
this is the project manager does not need anyone to create the triggers, just like building a
wireframe, the user can build within one single canvas, what the consumer will receive if they
58
are the purchaser or non-purchaser, if the consumer responds after the first message or not and
much different automation. Millions of data lines and millions of different consumer flow
chances streamlined into one canvas with just moving the mouse from one place to another.
To sum up and summarize this section, when a project manager wants to create how
and when their enormous pool of consumers receives the sequence of the communication they
need, the manager can use primary drag & drop features to create who receives the desired
communication at what stage. With the help of no-code workflow and process automation
tools, anyone can drag and create the programs in just a few minutes.
Figure 12 Creating real time workflows of communication on No Code CRM tool (Braze)
6.3.2 Automating Approval Process Workflows with No Code Tools
Most organizations experience pain when it comes to organize, manage, submit, and
report the approvals. No matter what type of jobs users are doing the users are doing, getting
to know how to get the approval, understanding the flow in the right way to know whom to
ask what, the actions and next steps are taken and if necessary, going back in the process to
59
correct the action. There are different types of approval processes, from purchase approval to
design template approval, IT approval process, to accounting approvals.
There are some significant benefits and advantages of using no-code approval process
automation tools. These tools come with customizable templates where the user can edit
existing workflows; it allows easy tracking across responsibilities, improving transparency
and compliance; as always, they are cost-effective and intuitive.
Automating the approval process overcomes the manual process's drawbacks and
weaves accountability and productivity into the fabric of the approval process. Below is an
example of an automated workflow; as can be seen, it is just a matter of boxes and lines tied
to each other, showing what the steps are and who the responsible people are behind a new
laptop purchase. Each line represents a real-time action; in case of a change, the link can be
broken and replaced with something else or seen on the menu on the left side; a new step can
be added to the process. (Figure 13)
To sum up and summarize this section, project management is not only about creating
a workflow on how to start and finish a project, but it can also help companies, especially the
big enterprises, solve their overly complicated approval processes. The No-Code tools allow
the companies to automate their approvals from Human Resources to Accounting to IT
departments. The companies do not need to outsource these approval processes anymore, but
using a single tool, an essential onboarding, and the drag feature will help streamline this
process.
60
6.4 Role & Use Cases of No-Code for Digital Business Models: Building
from Scratch
61
This section will contain where the no-code tools can be used to build business or
solutions from scratch. The section will contain case studies, market researches & real-life
examples.
The Advantages of Being Digitally Native Company
Digital Transformation is a journey for everyone; even if a company is born from

digital roots only, they need to keep innovating to transform. Nevertheless, having digitally
native employees and creating or developing the business to become digitally native is also
very crucial.
If a person or a company is digitally native, it means that they are flexible, agile, ready
to try, fail and learn, and also, they are eager to proliferate. According to ComCap's Q1 2020
report, Evolution of Digital Brands Report, which analyzes the digitally native vertical brands,
around 200 digitally native vertical brands raised more than $9,8B in the last decade. (43)
This fact is applicable not only for digitally native companies or people but also for the
traditional companies trying to transform digitally.
Another question that we can ask what about the companies that are not born digitally.
Moreover, there are where the no-code tools come to help; even if the company is selling a
physical product or a company created from traditional market dynamic roots, no-code tools
are there to help transform the businesses from scratch to be built or changed digitally.
The Role of No-Code in Building Digitally Native Models
Creativity is limitless, either for a person who wants to build their own business from
an idea or for an employee working in an enterprise to create custom digital solutions.
Furthermore, both of these profiles do not have to be coding experts to build their online
solutions. Furthermore, these people were dependent on developers and IT team members to
help them create their solutions; now, they need some websites, software, and click and drag
skills to create these digitally native solutions. The need of each builder (or, as we called
previously, the ideators) can vary in many different ways.
Building digitally native businesses with no code can be for different people but also
in different ways. It can be either a student with an idea but does not have any money to hire a
software developer or a person with a full-time job who wants a side hustle and additional
62
income. The ideas can be in different forms; a start-up builder might have a product or a
service where they want to sell. On the other hand, aside hustler needs an additional income
and helping the local business to create their web design, application development,
e-commerce website or social media management. The common point for both cases is that
they are digitally native solutions, both people do not need a software developer at the
beginning stages, and all the talent they need is creative thinking.
6.4.1 Building a Profitable Business only with No-Code Tools
The super-powered no-code tools fulfill the needs in single needs but mixing and
matching different no-code tools can even help a business be built from scratch. In today's
world, people cannot complain of not pursuing the dreams of becoming successful
businesspeople because of not having enough means to develop a business. In some instances,
an entirely digital business can run on less than $100 of no-code tools. These ideas can be
from building an e-commerce store to create a dating application, from creating a Content
Marketing Service platform to a basic paid newsletter brand creation.
Let us take an example of a website that sells products. Step by step an entrepreneur
can use, Build the Website by a No-Code Visual Builder Tool, Build a Store in Website by
No-Code E-Commerce Tool, Automate the CRM of the business by No-Code (linking the
data & emailing), Manage the backend of the business and data using No-Code end to end
solutions, which means that even with four stacks of no-code tools any person can run a
business. Moreover, the advantage of the no-code tools is that they can interact and talk with
each other; each tool allows the other no-code tools to be embedded into their tools.
Let us see a real example from Flexiple co-founder and CEO Karthik Sridharan where he
states that they have their start-up business which is claimed to be over $2M revenue which is
operating on $80 no-code tools. He mentioned how they used the No-Code Tools in each step:
1- Built Marketing Website: "We built our entire website of Flexiple.com containing over
50+ pages on Unicorn platform"
63
2- Built Database Storage and Information Websites: "To help individuals laid off due to
COVID, we built a page listing those who could be hired"; a simple page where people can
upload information
3- Automated Workflows: "Almost all our dynamic flows are handled by Zapier or
Integromat. User signup 🡪 storing their data in our database 🡪 sending them a mail."
4- Created Login & Membership systems: "We built a dashboard for new projects viewing,
sharing invoices, etc. using the above set of tools – MemberStack" Gadgets 360 Newsdesk,
2021, Flexiple Co-Founder Shares NoCode Tools That Help Him Run $2-Million Startup (44)
To sum up, since the beginning of the recommendations, we talked about automating
and creating critical actions in businesses' digital transformation. We can also see that we can
combine each use case to build our business solely depending on no-code tools. A final word
to say about will be, of course, from becoming a start-up to a big business, the role of
developers can not be forgotten, no-code built business is a tremendous start for ideators,
becoming further profitable still relies on developer communities.
How to Overcome the Obstacles in Massive Adoption
Low-code and no-code comes with a lot of benefits and creating ease to our lives.
However as discussed in the sections above there are some limitations. However, there are
also open avenues on how these obstacles can be solved to set for massive adoption.
It is true that low-code and no-code has lowered the bar of entry for software creation.
Yes, you do not absolutely have to know how to write, read or even understand how to code
but you still need to be familiar with some basic concepts. The barrier is low, but you can still
trip and fell without even realizing it that would most likely make you stay away from this
amazing opportunity to create. There is however a very simple and a very obvious solution
that works 100%. Education. Learning to do anything is a lot faster and less stressful when
there is a guide to help you through. Whether it is a book, video tutorial or even someone who
can teach or mentor you, education is essential in the process of mastering no-code tools.
The form of education can vary, however. If you are a novice computer user, it would
be a good idea to start with learning the basics. How computers operate, how internet works
64
and why code and data is the gold of the new era. If you are a consistent internet user with
basic knowledge, then it might be a good idea to look for training and tutorials on your
specific needs as a creator. You can learn to master a tool and make it your sandbox or learn
how to build a specific product using different tools. There are a growing number of them
around the web. If you are an internet sleuth or a coding master, you can elevate your game by
deep diving on a low code product or go one step further by studying the role of AI and
machine learning in the no-code idea and improve the workflows of your fellow no-code
makers and eventually become the teacher yourself. The possibilities are limitless as long as
you keep learning and getting better with intentional actions with education at its core. That’s
how you can lower the entry to the ground and gain the minimum required knowledge.
One other drawback of no-code as it is the case for most if not all SaaS products is the
fact that whichever platform you choose to build your product becomes your anchor point.
This is due to the way these tools are structured. All no-code tools have different interfaces,
data structures and models that would make your product built on one won’t work on another.
This is understandable since the developers working on their products each have their own
way of working and make things easier for everyone else in their own way. That being said, in
essence all these software (as a service) run on similar programming languages.
With the help of what is known as translators, which requires coding, one
programming language can be translated into another and some translators can even interpret
developer algorithms and turn each into a single uniform algorithm that is most efficient.
Keep in mind that interpretation of code is a new technology and requires high power
Artificial Intelligence but nonetheless can well become a solution to platform dependency by
removing the gates around the no-code tools that doesn’t allow you to migrate your work
from one to another at the moment.
No-code tools are never meant to be huge ticket items that big companies will invest
on to keep operations afloat. Startups and small business can definitely rely on no-code since
they are relatively in small size and rapid scalability is not a priority, but for enterprise every
decision to get a license for a new tool must be evaluated thoroughly. During this evaluation
the question of scalability should always come up. Since most of the no-code and some of the
65
low-code tools are not built for scalability, obtaining such tool for the company may seem like
a great idea at first but reveal itself to be inefficient in the long run.
The healthiest thing to do in situations like these is always referring back to the
formula. No-code to low-code to code. Starting fast and starting small is essential for any
project and scaling up as needed is always sustainable. So, yes, while no-code has scalability
issues, you can find a very easy workaround for that limitation and make sure you scale up
your project with tools that can also scale up as you go.
In order to summarize the businesses might face with challenges and drawbacks while
choosing or implementing no-code solutions. In order to overcome these challenges, there are
3 key notions that can solve and make no-code tools to be adopted massively. Educating the
users of these tools to use it efficiently, using translators for adapting different no-code tools
so that they can talk to each other and in order to solve scalability there is always the option to
go back to coding because the tools will offer a very easy workaround.
Conclusion
In conclusion, throughout the paper, we discussed how the no-code (and low code)
terminology was created, who can benefit from these tools, critical components of the digital
transformation of the businesses, and how no-code can create benefit in these areas.
No-code has many different areas of benefit, we cannot count how many different
tools are available today, but about a hundred different topics thousands of different tools are
available. Today number of these tools is increasing, but the problem is that they are not being
used in a well-thought-out program. Instead, the individuals or the companies are using it for
ad-hoc projects or solving some fundamental problems. However, if the no-code tools are
correctly used with a straightforward program including several stakeholders in the
companies, they can escalate the pace of digital transformation in the businesses.
Automating the workflows by no-code tools to optimize business processes will help
any company or individuals create quality time for developers since any company department
can quickly do it. From top management to interns of a company, if they can visualize the big
66
data and even create insightful actions, it will be a big win for the company to take corrective
actions, which are possible with no-code data visualization tools. On the other hand, for either
a creator or a big enterprise, putting the ideas on actual prototypes is significant, part of the
design thinking process. The no-code tools help any non-developer user create, test, iterate,
and even help create a final product, allowing the companies to innovate even at a faster pace.
Yes, the digital transformation in these three sections is crucial, and on this, even
companies can use every single one of these tools to create their digital products, brands, or
solutions. Which will mean already digitally transformed products or solutions can be born
from scratch.
The no-code tools help digital transformation will not end here, with developers
creating more no-code tools for the non-technical people. Maybe the next step will be no-code
tools to create easy to learn coding tools or developed machine learning applications created
by no-code tools. Let’s stay tuned.
Bibliography
(1) Abel Avram, 2014, IDC Study: How Many Software Developers Are Out There?
https://www.infoq.com/news/2014/01/IDC-software-developers/
(2) Pandasuite Blog, 2019, The Power of Low-Code/No-Code App Development

https://blog.pandasuite.com/low-code-no-code-app-development/
67
(3) Laura Bosco, The truth about no-code: big benefits, enormous opportunity, limited
capabilities https://www.krit.com/blog/no-code-low-code-nontechnical-founders
(4) Ryan Hoover, 2019, The Rise of No-Code,

https://medium.com/@rrhoover/the-rise-of-no-code-e733d7c0944d
(5) Webflow, 2019, E-book: The No Code Revolution,

ebooks.webflow.com/ebook/the-no-code-revolution
(6) Danielle Goodman, Blog, 2018, Infographic: Low-Code Application Development Trends,
https://www.mendix.com/blog/infographic-low-code-application-development-trends/
(7) Outsytems, 2018, Research Report, The State of Application Development, 2018: How IT
is Responding to Digital Disruption and Innovation,
https://www.slideshare.net/OutSystems/the-state-of-application-development-2018-how-it-is-r
esponding-to-digital-disruption-and-innovation
(8) John Rymer, 2016, The Forrester Wave™: Low-Code Development Platforms, Q2 2016,
https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Forrester+Wave+LowCode+Development+Platforms+
Q2+2016/RES117623#
(9) Alison DeNisco Rayome, 2017, Report: 60% of apps are built outside of IT, and that's a
good thing,
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/report-60-of-apps-are-built-outside-of-it-and-thats-a-goo
d-thing/
(10) Outsystems, 2019, The State of Application Development, How IT is responding to

Digital Disruption and Innovation,
https://www.outsystems.com/local-gov/-/media/C5EB8216432C45E69BABC286A6A3C6A4.
ashx
(11) AI Multiple, 2021, Blog, Low Code / No Code Development Platform,

https://aimultiple.com/low-code-platform
68
(12) Red Hat & 451 Research, 2018, Intelligent Process Automation and the Emergence of
Digital Automation Platforms,
https://www.redhat.com/cms/managed-files/mi-451-research-intelligent-process-automation-a
nalyst-paper-f11434-201802.pdf
(13) Cem Dilmegani, 2021, 42 Low Code/ No code Statistics in 2021,

https://research.aimultiple.com/low-code-statistics/
(14) Sarah Overmyer, 2019, Startup vs. Giant: Tech Workers Weigh in on Company Size,
https://www.indeed.com/lead/tech-company-size
(15) Joe McKendrick, 2021, Low-code and no-code is shifting the balance between business
and technology professionals,
https://www.zdnet.com/article/perspectives-on-low-code-and-no-code/
(16) DAXX, 2020, Blog Post, The Software Developer Shortage in the US and the Global
Tech Talent Shortage in 2021,
https://www.daxx.com/blog/development-trends/software-developer-shortage-us
(17) Laura Bosco, Krit Blog Post, what you need to know about no-code prototypes. My
surprising journey,
https://www.krit.com/blog/whats-it-really-like-for-a-non-technical-person-to-build-an-app-wit
hout-code
(18) John Rymer. 2018, Forrester Blog Post, Why You Need to Know About Low-Code, Even
If You’re Not Responsible for Software Delivery,
https://go.forrester.com/blogs/why-you-need-to-know-about-low-code-even-if-youre-not-resp
onsible-for-software-delivery/
(19) Clive Thompson, 2020, Wired Article, The New Startup: No Code, No Problem,
https://www.wired.com/story/new-startup-no-code-no-problem/
(20) Ann Mooney, Soltech Blog, How Much Does Custom Software Cost?
https://soltech.net/how-much-does-custom-software-cost/
69
(21) Anne-Laure Le Cunff, MakerMag, Should non-technical solo makers learn how to code?
https://makermag.com/non-technical-makers-nocode/
(22) Louis Vistola, 2021, Devops Article, Security Risks with No-Code/Low-Code Tools,
https://devops.com/security-risks-with-no-code-low-code-tools/
(23) Jacques Bughin, Tanguy Catlin, Martin Hirt, and Paul Willmott, 2018, McKinsey
Quarterly, Why digital strategies fail,
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/why-digital-strat
egies-fail
(24) Bill Detwiler, 2021, What software developers should know about 2021: Low-code, AI
code testing, COVID-19's lasting effect and the skills needed to stay on top,
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/what-software-developers-should-know-about-2021-low
-code-ai-code-testing-covid-19s-lasting-effect-and-the-skills-needed/
(25) Lanna Deamer, 2020, Startups Magazine, No-Code trend speeds up tech vendor process,
https://startupsmagazine.co.uk/article-no-code-trend-speeds-tech-vendor-processes
(26) Saket Sharma, 2020, Forbes, Data Is Essential To Digital Transformation,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/12/03/data-is-essential-to-digital-transfo
rmation/
(27) Thomas H. Davenport and Thomas C. Redman, 2020, Digital Transformation Comes
Down to Talent in 4 Key Areas,
https://hbr.org/2020/05/digital-transformation-comes-down-to-talent-in-4-key-areas
(28) Rikke Friis Dam and Teo Yu Siang, 2020, Stage 4 in the Design Thinking Process:
Prototype,
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/stage-4-in-the-design-thinking-process-pr
ototype
(29) Andrew Askins, 2020, Krit Blog, 5 examples of no-code prototypes: Invision,
spreadsheets, and more, https://www.krit.com/blog/five-examples-of-no-code-prototypes
(30) Blastasia, Blog Post, 2020, The No-Code Way to Rapid Prototyping,
https://www.blastasia.com/post/the-no-code-way-to-rapid-prototyping
70
(31) Małgorzata Maksimowicz, 2020, No-code platforms as a prototyping tool for designers
https://withintent.com/blog/no-code-platforms-as-a-prototyping-tool-for-designers/
(32) Kritter, Case Study, How a non-technical founder landed Yale as a customer, 2020
https://www.krit.com/blog/turning-a-small-solution-into-a-big-opportunity-with-steve-shulma
n
(33) Frost & Sullivan Visual White Paper, 2021, Why Embedded Analytics Is the Future Of
Data Utilization
(34) Howard Blumenstein, 2021, Google: Data analytics and intelligence tools to play a key
role post-COVID,
https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/data-analytics/post-covid-data-analytics-and-intellige
nce-tools
(35) Lauren Maffeo, 2020, Most Businesses Don’t Use Data the Right Way [Research],
https://towardsdatascience.com/most-businesses-dont-use-data-the-right-way-research-e1dcc8
1a5627
(36) Handbook of Big Data Technologies. (2017). Germany: Springer International

Publishing
(37) Joey Bertschler, 2020, Why Automated Machine Learning Is Becoming A Must-Have
Business Intelligence Skill,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2020/11/23/why-automated-machine-learning-is-becomi
ng-a-must-have-business-intelligence-skill/?sh=6409a8364734
(38) Catherine Shu, 2021, Obviously AI, a no code startup for data analysts, increases its seed
round to $4.7M,
https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/05/obviously-ai-a-no-code-startup-for-data-analysts-increases
-its-seed-round-to-4-7m/
(39) David Roe, 2013, AIIM: Paperless Office Still A Pipe Dream As Mobile Capture Market
Gets Set To Explode,
https://www.cmswire.com/cms/document-management/aiim-paperless-office-still-a-pipe-drea
m-as-mobile-capture-market-gets-set-to-explode-021975.php
71
(40) DataMax Texas, 2021, Blog Post, Workflow Assessments: Are you paying far too much
for little to no efficiency? https://www.datamaxtexas.com/workflow-assessments
(41) Flowforma.com, 2021, Case Study: FLOWFORMA BPM BECOMES A STRATEGIC

ASSET FOR EUROFOUND Block E, EastPoint Business Park, Dublin 3
(42) Rodric Bradford, 2020, The outlook for CRM in a COVID and post-COVID world,
https://martech.org/the-outlook-for-crm-in-a-covid-and-post-covid-world-2/
(43) ComCap Evolution of Digital Brands Report, 2020,

https://www.comcapllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/2020-Q1-Evolution-of-DNVB_Fina
l.pdf
(44) Gadgets 360 Newsdesk, 2021, Flexiple Co-Founder Shares NoCode Tools That Help
Him Run $2-Million Startup,
https://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/no-code-nocode-tools-flexiple-karthik-sridharan-twitter-r
un-startup-low-cost-2461678
(45) Kevin Garcia, 2021, The state of Internal Tools,

https://retool.com/blog/state-of-internal-tools-2021/
Planetstoryline, 2020, Data analytics and intelligence tools to play a key role post-COVID,
https://planetstoryline.com/data-analytics-and-intelligence-tools-to-play-a-key-role-post-covid
/
Andrew Speight, 2020, Will no-code work wonders for your startup?,
https://www.widg.io/will-no-code-work-wonders-for-your-startup
Wephisto, 2020, The no-code revolution, https://wephisto.com/the-no-code-revolution/
72

Professional Thesis - Template 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Professional Thesis - Template 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Professional Thesis - Template 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

ESSEC EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

Executive Master in Digital Transformation

Autumn 2020 Core Track

for the Executive Master in Digital Transformation

ONAY, MUSTAFA MERT

Date of the thesis defense:

Thesis supervisor: MALAURENT, JULIEN

Part 1: Introduction to no-code 7

1 The fundamentals of no-code 7

3 The no-code audience and possibilities 17

5 No-Code for Digital Transformation 34

SaaS : Software as a Service

MVP: Minimum Viable Product

PC: Personal Computer

GUI: Graphical User Interface

LC/NC: Low Code / No-Code

IP: Intellectual Property

AI: Artificial Intelligence

ML: Machine Learning

AutoML: Automated Machine Learning

CEO: Chief Executive Officer (of a company)

IT: Information Technologies (to represent the department)

HR: Human Resources (to represent the department)

DTC: Direct to Consumer (as a sales channel)

CRM: Customer Relationship Management

Part 1: Introduction to no-code

1 The fundamentals of no-code

According to a study conducted by IDC, a global market intelligence firm, in 2014,

1.1 What is the no-code movement?

No-Code is more than just an internet

1.1.1 No-code vs. Low Code

1.2 No-code tools and what they do

The no-code tools unravel the issue of a creator necessitating to be a programmer to

1.3 Faster software with low code

2 History of the evolution of code into no-code

2.1 The Gartner Hype Cycle

The Gartner Hype cycle, as shown above, is a graphical representation generated by

2.2 No-code is not a new idea

2.3 The evolution of code & the abstract layer of no-code

So then what happens? Binary language created assembly languages; however,

2.4 Taking a hint from other mediums

Part 2: Audience & State of No-Code

If the no-code movement is the democratization of software creation, it means that it is

3.1 Who is no-code for?

Audience No-code Opportunity Threats & The Best Other

3.2 Innovators: Makers, Developers, Entrepreneurs & Start-ups

Starting from the individual innovators is exceptionally crucial as this movement is

According to research by Danielle Goodman, 2018, 24% of all makers have no

According to a research report of Outsystems The State of Application Development

Entrepreneurship, in essence, is turning a novel idea into a profitable business before

As also mentioned in Table 2, AI Multiple’s Low Code / No Code Development

3.3.1 Small & Local Businesses

3.3.2 Mid-Size Businesses

3.3.3 Large Corporations

4.1 Top benefits of the no-code movement

4.1.1 Shorter Learning Curves

4.1.2 Increasing productivity to drive Innovation

4.1.3 Providing Cost Effective Solutions

To summarize, though it is technically impossible to calculate the exact difference