The Digital team will next have availability in the year 2032. Please do raise your request for your App though - we will add it to the Backlog. Agggghhh!
You’ve done the research. You have a solid business case. You know that your Business App will solve major hurdles in your organisation. But it’s all on hold because there simply aren’t enough people in the Digital team. That Digital Team. That Precious Digital Team. That team that everyone is waiting on but they’ve all been allocated to some major Customer Experience project or something.
Does anybody care that behind that thin veneer of digital website beauty is a whole business operation that is still using emails, spreadsheets, meeting rooms, and archaic I.T. systems that predate mobile phones? All you need is a quick Business App that supports your team doing regular work even when they are away from the office. Isn’t being business agile in the back-office just as important to Customer Experience anyway?
Believe it or not your I.T. or Digital Team know that Business Apps or mobility solutions will have a great impact on your business in the next 5 years (see for example the UBM Survey of 400 technology decision makers, March 2017). And because of the demand for Digital work they are also likely to have a growing headcount - at least for team members that work on Digital projects. So what’s the problem?
The fact is that the demand for Digital or Mobility solutions is growing at an exponential rate, but the supply of Digital developers to fulfil this demand is growing linearly:
To the best of my knowledge, this type of technology phenomenon was first illustrated by Gartner’s Gareth Herschel. As is his expertise, back then he was talking about the demand for Analytics and the supply of Data Scientists.
But back to you and your Business App. What you are experiencing on the demand side is the emergence of this Digital Gap. Whilst larger organisations might get more done because they have the cream of the Digital Developer community, ultimately everyone suffers because there simply aren’t enough people in the world that can ever do that kind of work.
When you get a shortage of supply in any form, people will find a way to allocate the scarce resource — prioritise. And that prioritisation is rarely resolved using scientific means. Usually it’s an approach of ‘who has the loudest voice?’! The other thing that happens is that those Digital Developers start to earn heaps of money but that’s a story for another day.
Nice depressing thoughts though, right? Your KPIs could get smashed if you delivered that mobility solutions, but it might never happen. And to deflate your balloon completely — the problem will just keep getting worse as that gap between Digital Supply and Digital Demand keeps growing. But, like every human problem in history, necessity is the mother of invention. Or is that innovation?
Techies started to solve this problem with the emergence of App development platforms. These development platforms give the Digital Developers a faster start — a bit like having a house built from ready-made plans and commodity components. But in the same way that you still need a builder to build from a ready made plan, you still need a geek to use an App development platform. What evolved was more geek productivity than business productivity.
So, the tech community came up with their answer but not quite the answer you were looking for. Your App still didn’t get prioritised on the Digital Backlog, even though the development time might’ve shifted from 5 months to 3.
A better answer is if you don’t need those web developers at all. I know, right? These people are so gifted and in demand that we want to get rid of them! Or maybe they should be be put to work on designing the LEGO® pieces whilst someone far less technical gets to use them to build actual business solutions. Maybe that someone who is far less technical, is you?!
Welcome to the new Citizen Developer world of App or business solution creation. The geeks call it No Code-Low Code but we all know what it really is — it’s a cape and superhero powers to improve your part of the business! Take control of your destiny!
Yes, yes, yes! You can get your App done without that huge battle. Although when you take some time to think about it then you may come to the conclusion that, ‘of course I would, but I’ve got no time to actually do that myself’. But asking for few days of effort to build and test your Business App has got to be better than asking for a few months of effort from a highly skilled digital team. And there are companies out there that are already offering to build Apps using these new environments. You can tell who they are because they’ll be quoting 20% of what their competition are asking, and doing it in a fraction of the time. Just remember to ask them if they use a No Code-Low Code approach.
Still don’t know if this innovative Business App building approach is right for you? Here’s an online tool that will help you decide. Or follow my Blog where I’ll be updating with examples from the field.
