Author | China Software Network Cao Kaibin
Proofreading | China Software Net Haice
Looking back on 2020, the outbreak of the new crown epidemic has not only made digital applications such as remote office, video conferencing, and live broadcast rapidly popularized, but also brought special attention to low-code and no-code development platforms. Due to the urgency of the epidemic, many government departments or enterprises and institutions need to quickly develop some business applications to deal with the epidemic within two or three weeks, even a week, or one or two days. With the traditional development model, this is almost impossible to accomplish, but the magical low-code, no-code platform makes this possible. This is not an accident. With the rapid rise of companies such as Mendix and OutSystem, low/no code platforms have long attracted attention in the United States and other international markets. Behind its interest is the inevitable arrival of the digital economy era? What is the positioning of low/no code platforms in digital applications? Many emerging manufacturers, IT and Internet giants have entered the game. What impact will it have on the future digital and intelligent ecosystem?
In order to understand and analyze these issues in depth and promote the rapid and healthy development of China's low/no code market, Chinasoft.com, together with the China Software Industry Association Application Software Product Cloud Service Branch, and Haibi Research, launched a series of "Forward 2021, China Low/No Code Platforms" Report", conducted in-depth interviews with representative manufacturers in the market, fully reflecting their strategic layout and cutting-edge thinking in China's low/no code market, and further research on this basis, forming the "2021 China China Low/No Code Platform Market Research report". Welcome to follow.
This is the first in a series of reports. Chinasoft.com and the Haibi research team interviewed Li Wei, the head of Microsoft China's Power Platform-the product leader of Microsoft Greater China Business Application Division.
At the Microsoft Technology Conference in 2019, Microsoft released its low/no code platform, Power Platform, for the first time.
What is unusual is that this release was made by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. This professional manager and celebrity CEO who has successfully led Microsoft's transformation to mobile, cloud, and artificial intelligence told people that this is Microsoft's Next Big Thing.
80% of applications will be based on low/no code platforms
Li Wei, product manager of the Business Application Division of Microsoft Greater China, emphasized to Chinasoft.com that the reason why Microsoft attaches so much importance to low-code development platforms is mainly due to the following three reasons.
First of all, the current labor force ratio has begun to change, with millennials and Generation Z taking up more and more. They are the aborigines of the Internet and mobile Internet, and they pay more attention to the experience, personalization, and rapid iteration of various applications and APPs. However, the traditional software development cycle is long and the model is more complicated, which cannot meet the demands of the new generation of staff.
Second, with the popularization of the digital economy, the number of digital applications will increase dramatically in the future. Gartner predicts that the whole society will build 500 million applications in the next five years, which is the sum of the past four decades. This demand will result in a far shortage of professional developers, and the existing professional technical R&D personnel cannot support this demand.
Finally, the downward pressure on the current global economic environment is increasing, and the investment budget for software or application purchases and research and development may also become less and less. This objectively requires a lower cost application development platform.
It is these three backgrounds that will cause low/no code platforms to become the most important model for future enterprise application research and development. Li Wei predicts that in the future, 80% of applications may be developed using low/no code platforms, and 20% of applications will still use the existing R&D model.
This also means that low/no code platforms will become the "application production line" in the digital economy era, and will have a pivotal strategic position in the entire digital intelligence industry ecology in the future.
Microsoft's biggest bet in the enterprise market
It is precisely based on the above judgment that Microsoft attaches great importance to low-code platforms strategically, and is called "Microsoft's fourth intelligent cloud".
At the Microsoft Ignite 2020 conference, Microsoft presented the latest "Microsoft Smart Cloud Matrix" to the industry.
This matrix represents Microsoft's product strategic layout in the cloud computing era. It includes cloud productivity platform Microsoft 365, intelligent business application Dynamics 365, global workplace social platform LinkedIn, the world's largest open source community GitHub, Microsoft Azure cloud services, and low-code application platform Power Platform.
In this strategy, Microsoft puts Power Platform in a special position. China Software Network and Haibi Research believe that the strategic considerations behind it are unusual. Enterprise service is an important battlefield for digitization, and it is also a strategic place where Microsoft has continued to exert its strength and relocate its layout. Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, LinkedIn, and Microsoft Azure are currently Microsoft's core products in enterprise applications, and Power Platform is the enterprise-level intelligent application that Microsoft focuses on.
In fact, in the enterprise market, Microsoft has not achieved the same global dominance as PC software. In the traditional database and ERP market, it has not surpassed Oracle, SAP, etc.; in the cloud computing market, it has encountered the two mountains of AWS and Salesforce.
How can Microsoft take the lead in the enterprise market and establish its core foundation in the digital and intelligent enterprise market?
It is based on such strategic thinking that Power Platform, a low-code development platform, has become a product of Microsoft's responsibility.
Microsoft believes that compared with other giants, it can create a unique competitive advantage in the field of low/no code development platforms, and continue to write its glory in the era of PC development tools.
Low-code platforms are not pediatrics
Many people think that the low/no code development platform can only develop some "pediatric applications" and cannot adapt to the application development of complex scenarios at all.
Li Wei believes that this perception is actually wrong. Various applications can be developed on the Microsoft Power Platform. This is exactly where Microsoft's unique competitive advantage lies.
In Li Wei's view, the development of an enterprise's digital application generally involves five aspects. a) Develop an APP; b) open up various business processes; c) have good visual analysis and presentation; d) integrate AI, positioning and other technical capabilities; e) provide an application management and control platform.
Microsoft's Power Platform is based on the above considerations. It includes four major products: Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power Virtual Agents; among them, Power Automate includes Data Connectors, AI Builder, and Dataverse.
Power BI is a self-service data analysis tool and an important product of Microsoft in the analysis and BI platform; Power Apps is a "universal application development platform", Power Apps allows anyone to write less or less code Quickly build web and mobile applications that can run on multiple terminals; Power Automate is an online workflow service that can connect different applications and services to achieve process automation (RPA); Power Virtual Agent is also a low/no code application, it Allow employees to create and deploy intelligent virtual agents driven by AI.
With the above products, Power Platform has become a unified tool for connecting Microsoft's three intelligent clouds, unifying Microsoft's enterprise applications from the underlying platform. Furthermore, it can help users easily develop various enterprise applications through a simple way of "no code" and "low code", and realize business innovation in the digital age more quickly.
Three unique advantages
What is the difference between Power Platform and other low/no code platforms?
Heby Research believes that it has three unique advantages.
First of all, the rich product line of Microsoft Power Platform is not only a development tool, but also a complete platform that can realize unified management of applications and ensure safety, controllability, compliance, and governance.
Secondly, Microsoft has a unified data platform Dataverse at the bottom, formerly known as CDS (Common Data Service). It is actually a database deployed in the cloud (Dynamics 365), which can uniformly and securely store and manage the data used by business applications, allowing various applications to share the same data architecture. Power Apps can use these data to generate a variety of rich applications. Through Dataverse, Microsoft has realized the data connection of enterprise applications. Not only that, through external connectors, PowerPlatform can also realize end-to-end connection and integration with third-party applications and data. Currently, Microsoft has implemented more than 300 data connectors.
Finally, Microsoft has a rich ecosystem of developers. Relying on PC development tools, Microsoft has numerous developer resources, as well as ISVs and solution providers from all walks of life.
According to reports, the first batch of Microsoft Power Platform has 14 partner solutions. Among them, ChinaSoft International has launched a customer management solution for the insurance industry. It uses a cross-platform mobile application developed by Power Platform to provide insurance agents with classified management, customer management, and policy management services. The on-site inspection solution launched by Best Technology allows on-site engineers to use mobile applications to view tasks on the map, check in with QR codes, and upload multimedia information. Weiding Technology is based on the ServiceMe Process Automation intelligent business process automation platform created by Power Platform to help enterprises unify business process management.
Microsoft Power Platform has officially landed in China in June 2020 and is operated by 21Vianet. This is excellent news for the Chinese market, which has the largest labor force in the world and is fully advancing the construction of the digital economy; for China's low/no code market, it is also the beginning of a new development pattern.