Digital Transformation in The New Age of Web Development & Design

The entire premise of web development and design is headed in a direction that’s going to allow everyone to get involved. This is due in part to what’s known as the no-code movement which is a much bigger topic than it’s gotten recognition for. This is essentially programming without needing to know how to program and being able to do so in a user-friendly way. 

For example: 

• Squarespace

• Shopify

• Zapier

• Mailchimp

These are all examples of no-code design platforms that allow users to break into the creative side of web development (using drag and drop), a skill they otherwise might not pick up. This trend suggests an entirely different future for anyone with expertise in design and/or coding. To better understand its significance, let’s go over what exactly it’s changing:

First of all, no-code does not replace the need for software developers, rather it frees them from time-consuming, repetitive, and less intuitive tasks. What this allows for is the team to focus on the overall look and feel of the platforms they create in addition to other complex tasks that go into web development. 

The other key benefit is that web developers and designers will be able to collaborate without the need for as much technical expertise. In addition, small businesses will have accessibility and control when it comes to maintaining their own websites.

Web Development Compared to Web Design

Web design is the front-end, interactive aspect of a website that visitors see. The best web designers use various tools such as Adobe Dreamweaver or Figma to create the most optimal user experience. Visual designers and UX designers create the following:

• Design systems 

• Mockups 

• Wireframes 

• Templates 

• Colour palettes

Once the designs are created, they are passed over to developers to begin development. 

Web development is the execution phase, using code to bring the website to life based on the guidelines created in the web design phase. When it comes to this phase, the actual process of coding is going to be subjective based on the needs of the website as well as the business. Commonly, some of the programming languages used for web development include: 

• JavaScript 

• CSS 

• Python 

• HTML

• Ruby on Rails

The Development Roles

Back-end developers concentrate on the site or applications infrastructure which includes security and hosting. The front-end developers are the ones who then handle the functionality of the platform. And lastly, the full-stack developers are involved in both ends. This process of software development and integration is fundamental not only to creating a solid platform but to sustaining it. 

The Reality of The No-Code Movement

The tools categorized as no-code platforms are great visual builders that are user-friendly and simple to navigate but still, code is being generated behind the scenes. So in short, these tools are great for users who want to give building websites and applications online a shot without having to write code but it is still a stepping stone. 

The no-code movement has a long way to go before it can say goodbye to programmers and even still, someone is at least going to need to upkeep the back end. However, these tools are still incredibly useful for everyone, especially software developers around 50% of which use these platforms. Lastly, these tools are not limited to just websites and applications. For instance:

• Airtable (database creation)

• Ada (create an AI chatbot)

• Zapier (multiple app connection)

• Voximplant (contact centres via the cloud)

There is so much variety that can really only enhance the amount of value software developers and software outsourcing companies have to offer businesses looking to undergo digital transformation. When it comes to scaling a business, some of the key benefits of no-code platforms are as follows:

• Launch speed: In the best interest of company time and resources, no-code platforms enable businesses to release their solutions very quickly. Also, since collaboration between designers and developers is a viable option, the process flow is much more smooth. 

• Flexibility: Businesses go through a lot of changes in their platforms that need to be able to happen quickly. Using these solutions, sales, HR, marketing, and other departments of an organization will have access to build and modify their tools. 

• Cost: Small to mid-sized businesses will love no-code platforms since they won’t have to put a massive budget into engineers when they’re just getting started. 

• Testing: Design concepts and trends can quickly be tested, and once results are uncovered, the team can configure the platform most optimally. 

Lastly

In every industry, processes, resources, workflows, and plenty of other important assets change. So if you think about that, the work we do today won’t look the same in the future. With that in mind, the obvious choice (if you intend to remain in your role) is to embrace the change and figure out how to use it to your advantage. 

Custom software development is at the pinnacle of these changes because, without effective software systems, businesses will have no ability to scale.

Written By Ben Brown

—

ISU Corp is an award-winning software development company, with over 17 years of experience in multiple industries, providing cost-effective custom software development, technology management, and IT outsourcing.

Our unique owners’ mindset reduces development costs and fast-tracks timelines. We help craft the specifications of your project based on your company's needs, to produce the best ROI. Find out why startups, all the way to fortune 500 companies like General Electric, Heinz, and many others have trusted us with their projects. Contact us here.

The Benefits of Process Automation Using Software Development Services

Among the many draws businesses have towards custom software development, workflow automation is among the most recurring reasons. So much so that research is finding around 50% of businesses have plans to implement this kind of automation. Workflow automation? What is that? 

To put it in perspective, nearly 85% of small businesses alone depend on some form of manual task every day. Of that 85%, most likely have ambitions to expand the business, which in order to do so requires being able to focus their energy on more complex tasks. 

Using Automation

Here is an example of process automation:

Think of an e-commerce startup that has to manually input and track inventory or transactions. The owner would spend hours each day trying to keep up and it would become impossible to do manually, especially if the business began to scale up. 

So instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on yearly salaries for people to manage data, the owner hires a team to implement a custom software system that handles these tasks automatically.

This is a very simple example of process automation. The concept is broad and can be anything from automating repetitive tasks to generating and distributing reports, transferring files, or even integrating business applications. 

Process automation is an investment that saves businesses time and money by reallocating their time toward more important tasks. More than that, it gives businesses their most important asset: the ability to scale. We’re going to need more detail to support that claim so with that said, let’s go over the top 6 benefits businesses can expect to see with process automation. 

1. Processing Speed:

   Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the most common user-friendly technology used to automate repetitive manual processes. RPA uses software robots that can produce several times more output in a shorter period than a person could. This not only opens up the capacity of data that can be handled but also condenses the time it takes to do so.

2. Analytics:

   When using RPA, the system is constantly keeping track of what it’s doing and when it’s doing it which is then composed into analysis reports. What’s great about this is that if an error does occur, you’ll be able to go back and see where. When a company first implements this kind of software, it will be really helpful for identifying the speed bumps in any of the organization's current processes. 

3. 24/7 Work:

   Employees only work an average of 8 hours a day, whereas software can always be on the clock. Stack that up next to a 40-hour work week and that’s 80 extra hours of work businesses are getting Monday to Friday without having to give up any benefits.

4. Compliance:

   Certain industries (Insurance, Banking, Healthcare, etc.) have regulation standards that must be met. Automation software like that of RPAs can assist companies in meeting these standards. It adds that extra layer of control and oversight in business processes.

   The software will be built to perform these tasks to the exact specifications outlined and will continuously do so as the company needs it to. As a result, because the process is very consistent, there is not a lot of risk for error and all records are kept in the event an irregularity does occur. 

5. Reducing Errors:

   In organizations, mistakes made by employees add up and can cost millions of dollars (an average of over $60 million annually). Touching again on the compliance piece, automation software is able to reduce this risk of error dramatically by strictly adhering to the process standards.

6. Employee and Customer Satisfaction:

   By switching from a labour-intensive landscape to a process automation system (for repetitive tasks), employees can direct their time and energy toward the other tasks we’ve consistently referred to as “complex”. This just means that the company's resources are being used to address needs that provide value.

   Also, notice the order of “employee” before “customer”— this is because to deliver value to your audience, the ones delivering the value need to be motivated to do so. 

Reflecting

Every industry is different, especially in terms of its long-term goals and short-term needs. This means that when it comes to technology, the resources being utilized need to have a solid strategy behind them. Custom software development is only effective when this strategy is in place and the stakeholders in the organization are aligned with its purpose. 

Businesses who are looking to go the extra mile need to recognize the importance of what they will do with the time and resources they’re freeing up when using an IT service like process automation. Without that strategy, there’s not a lot of value in implementing this technology and that will be an expensive mistake down the road. 

In order to strategize efficiently, talk to professionals to help your business get on the right track.

Written By Ben Brown

—

ISU Corp is an award-winning software development company, with over 17 years of experience in multiple industries, providing cost-effective custom software development, technology management, and IT outsourcing.

Our unique owners’ mindset reduces development costs and fast-tracks timelines. We help craft the specifications of your project based on your company's needs, to produce the best ROI. Find out why startups, all the way to fortune 500 companies like General Electric, Heinz, and many others have trusted us with their projects. Contact us here.

The 5 Biggest Trends in Software Development for 2023

Custom software development is the infrastructure that supports businesses all over the world in a wide variety of industries. In Canada alone, a 2019 survey found that well over 80% of businesses heavily relied on information technology as well as communication technology (pre-pandemic). When the time came that everyone was forced to continue their operations remotely, the reliance built to a point of dependency.

Now, here we are 4 years later and the growing demand for IT services has resulted in Software Architects, Cloud Engineers, and Full-Stack Developers being among the highest in-demand workers for 2023.

Why Do Businesses Need to Know This?

The types of software projects and teams needed to complete them will look very different from one business to the next. For example, a company could need a dedicated team, or simply a project taken over, someone may want to develop an app, and others may even need an entire process automation system built from the ground up.

Software development is still a broad topic that’s at the beginning of the road in terms of the impact it’s meant to have. With that in mind, it’s critical to be aware of what’s at the center for discussion when it comes to software development in 2023, so here are 5 key points to be aware of:

1) Low-Code No-Code (LC/NC): 

Software development is a highly complex process that encounters challenges and can take a lot of time depending on the scope of the project. LC/NC adoption has become popular in recent years as a means of adjusting to the new-age demands of software development and mitigating the complications. 

What this does is enable the creation of applications using templates, pre-built modules, and drag-and-drop features. For these applications to perform without LC/NC, the process would be very long and daunting. A few examples of LC/NC applications include Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, Shopify, and Mailchimp. 

As of last year, around 50% of programmers were using LC/NC to some capacity and reports have shown that everyone who has implemented it has seen ROI.

2) The Prevalence of Cloud Computing:

With the pandemic making remote work the norm for most businesses, cloud computing became the saving grace for many shifting IT demands. It offers a centralized hub for data storage as well as accessibility. 

Beyond simply storing information, cloud computing enables important functions like instant messaging, hosting, as well as disaster recovery (to name a few). A good reason to pay attention to cloud computing in 2023 is the fact that the technology is becoming more mainstream, especially for top talent and remote work which is the norm for around 70% of full-time workers. 

Before last year closed out, the total service spending for cloud computing topped $217 billion. This begs the question: what will this spending look like in the next 5 years? With how digitized the corporate world is becoming, this market could surge dramatically— more so than it already is.

3) The Reign of Artificial Intelligence 

Likely among the biggest buzzwords of 2023 is “Artificial Intelligence” due largely to the introduction of platforms like Chat-GPT and now rivalry application Google Bard. 

AI is pushing the parameters of what people thought was possible with technology and it’s really just becoming accepted by the public. This trend is going to be a significant player in everyone's lives this year.

When it comes to software development, AI offers solutions and methodologies that can enhance the performance of IT systems immeasurably. It reduces errors and boosts process efficiency in addition to its ability to completely personalize an experience for users. 

There is also AI-assisted coding which is a topic for discussion that requires far more detail than we could cover here. But what’s important to note is that investing in the AI market isn’t just for tech companies, even the vast majority of hospitals have plans to use AI. 

You get the picture when it comes to AI at this point. A lot is changing and everyone needs to be prepared for it. The AI market is set to break half a trillion dollars by next year which likely isn’t even a third of what it will be worth in the next decade. 

4) Cyber Security

Cyberattacks are a daunting topic in the IT world, especially when it comes to small to mid-size companies, as they are the most commonly targeted. As more businesses recognize the risk, research predicts that around 65% of the global population will have their data protected by modern privacy regulations this year.

Is this necessary? Absolutely. There’s a vast amount of personal, nevermind confidential business data that could be subject to interference by black hat hackers which is incredibly dangerous. The reliance on systems, like that of cloud computing, demands that any and all vulnerabilities be covered. 

5) IoT Devices

The internet of things (IoT) has been a key area of technology for people to focus on for over a decade now. In 2023, with the advanced capabilities of software development and breakthrough discoveries in technology, these devices are about to become more common and powerful than ever. 

Smartphones, smartwatches, fitness trackers, computerized bikes and scooters are just some of the popular IoT technology trends. Within the next 2 years, it is estimated that we could see more than 26 billion interconnected IoT devices. 

IoT devices rely on professional software engineering to provide the experience they’re meant to for users. The reason an apple watch can sync up with an iPhone is a result of the seamless performance of IoT software systems.

The Takeaway

What’s popular when it comes to software development is always important to be aware of because not everyone may realize how much of a role it plays in everyday life. Everyone wants to get into the digital marketplace, but too often, businesses let impatience get in the way of optimal performance. You can go for the plan that yields results in 6 weeks or you can go all in for the plan that’s going to allow you to boost your ROI dramatically at the end of the year. 

Written By Ben Brown

—

ISU Corp is an award-winning software development company, with over 17 years of experience in multiple industries, providing cost-effective custom software development, technology management, and IT outsourcing.

Our unique owners’ mindset reduces development costs and fast-tracks timelines. We help craft the specifications of your project based on your company's needs, to produce the best ROI. Find out why startups, all the way to fortune 500 companies like General Electric, Heinz, and many others have trusted us with their projects. Contact us here.