4 min read

Digital Transformation Has Changed in a Post-Pandemic Era

Digital transformation is necessary, but many of today’s enterprises find it difficult to keep up in a post-pandemic era. Here’s how no-code can help. 

The coronavirus pandemic transformed a distant digital future into a present-day push. In fact, according to McKinsey, digital transformation efforts accelerated by three to four years because of the pandemic. Also, modern enterprises are now 3x more likely to have 80% of total customer interactions take place online.

Thanks to this surge, the road to digital transformation has a bit gotten smoother for some enterprises. According to Twilio’s COVID-19 Digital Engagement Report, many of the obstacles that previously stifled digital transformation have already been conquered. 33% to 38% of surveyed firms in the United Kingdom cited the need for executive approval, a lack of coherent strategies, and time constraints as specific barriers that have fallen away post-pandemic. As a result, 77% of U.K. respondents said they’d increased their budget for digital transformation.

And yet, some enterprises are still grappling with the industry-wide disruption caused by the pandemic, and digital transformation is just as challenging as it was before the pandemic—if not more so. Here are three challenges that CIOs encounter most often when trying to go digital in the wake of COVID, and how no-code can solve them.

3 post-pandemic digital transformation challenges

1. The focus on cybersecurity

Cybersecurity risks have proliferated with the rise of rapid digital transformation. Typical modernization initiatives took between three to five years to complete pre-pandemic. Now, in a post-pandemic landscape where enterprises need to modernize and modernize fast, the same digital projects take one to two years to complete. Unfortunately, strict cybersecurity measures sometimes fall by the wayside as enterprises rush to transform. 

Prior to the pandemic, web applications accounted for 32% of all cybersecurity threats and 90% of web applications still have vulnerabilities that sophisticated actors can exploit. Between legal fees, loss of reputation, operational disruption, and other consequences, a single data breach can cost an enterprise $8.64 million. Web applications are still vulnerable in our post-pandemic era with the majority of employees working from home and accessing business-critical information from afar. 

An enterprise-grade no-code application development platform can help you go digital without sacrificing security for speed. When you eliminate code, you can build high-quality applications faster while shrinking your application’s attack surface at the same time. All applications built on our platform live within a single-tenant cloud-agnostic infrastructure, so you don’t have to share server space with other users and worry about unintentional data loss. Also, the Unqork team takes care of your application’s backend security work for you. Rigorous penetration testing, regular in-house application testing, annual SOC Type 2 examinations, and constant vulnerability monitoring safeguard your critical data. With a no-code platform like Unqork, you can get the best of both worlds—speed and security, all at once. 

2. Balancing the need to both modernize and cut costs

Despite a rebounding economy, a vast majority of tech teams continue to operate with smaller pandemic-era budgets. According to Apptio, 80% of CIOs continue to cite ongoing pandemic-related pressures to reduce costs even though digital development projects already account for only 17% of an enterprise’s total IT spend. Perennial cost-cutting concerns can prevent long-term modernization efforts from getting off the ground.

According to Apptio, 80% of CIOs continue to cite ongoing pandemic-related pressures to reduce costs even though digital development projects already account for only 17% of an enterprise’s total IT spend.

Unqork’s no-code platform allows you to modernize outdated legacy systems without breaking the bank. You can make a fast transition to a code-free ecosystem by breaking down monoliths into microservices or integrating your old legacy systems with modern ones without maintaining an editable codebase. This will save you tens of thousands of dollars on maintenance costs and technical debt alone, which in turn makes it easier to embark on a digital transformation. Plus, you can accomplish all of this while unlocking three times the cost savings on the total cost of ownership via reduced maintenance and DevOps expenses. 

3. Enduring the tech talent shortage

The tech talent shortage plagued CIOs even before 2020, but a COVID-affected labor market has made conditions worse. According to a ManpowerGroup survey, the industry-wide talent shortage tripled in the past decade and now peaks at a 15-year high; technical skills remain the second hardest skill to find. What’s worse, Korn Ferry estimates that more than 85 million technical jobs could go unfilled by 2030. It’s unlikely that code-dependent enterprises will be able to find the talent they need to fuel digital transformation efforts.

No-code citizen development helps CIOs navigate the prolonged tech talent shortage and put their digital initiatives back on track. With a little training and a little input from the tech team, non-tech business users can use no-code’s visual interfaces, templated flows, and drag-and-drop functionality to create the web applications they need. This means firms no longer have to outsource development jobs or hire expensive engineers to get the job done. Instead, you can now divvy up work between citizen developers and your tech team to transform and scale up as quickly as possible.

 

No one wants to be coworkers with the code monster.

Quality digital transformation at the speed of no-code

The time for digital transformation is now, but that doesn’t mean cybersecurity concerns, cost restraints, and talent shortages exacerbated by the pandemic have gone away. With Unqork’s no-code platform, today’s modern enterprises can digitally transform faster and for less. Want to learn more about how no-code can be used at your organization? Schedule a personalized demonstration with one of our in-house experts. Also, sign-up for the Unqork newsletter to keep up-to-date on the latest in the world of no-code.

Take a self-guided tour of Unqork’s Codeless-as-a-Service (CaaS) platform

Take the tour!