Research Shows That the Lack of Developers, COVID-19 Challenges Are Driving This Trend
SAN FRANCISCO - November 17, 2020 - Internal, the platform empowering non-coders and coders alike to build powerful internal apps on top of their databases, APIs, and business applications, today announced the results of a third-party survey on no-code/low-code adoption by IT leaders. The research indicates that over the next nine months, no-code/low-code will be a priority for nearly all (96%) IT and engineering decision-makers because of the lack of software engineers and new pressure on businesses due to COVID-19.
More than 500 IT and engineering professionals who work at medium-sized and enterprise businesses participated in the survey, which was conducted by Propeller Insights.
The urgency for no-code/low-code is expected to increase further in 2021 in light of the adjustments in hiring and competition for talent. More than 81% of IT leaders said engineering hiring has changed since COVID-19. Nearly 78% expect hiring and headcount-related challenges in 2021. Security and access controls are expected to be a key driver of adoption, with a whopping 95% of IT and engineering leaders admitting to concerns about their employees having access to customer data.
“COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of no-code/low-code solutions as IT and engineering leaders seek out new ways to improve engineering efficiency and empower non-coders to do more,” said Arisa Amano, co-founder and CEO of Internal. “Security is likely to become an important factor for adoption, especially when it comes to the development of internal apps that touch customer data.”
No-code/Low-code Is a Significant IT Priority for Most
When asked how big of a priority no-code/low-code is for their company in the next three to nine months, 22% of the survey group said it was an essential priority.
Twenty-eight percent said it was a high priority. And 22% said it was a moderate priority.
Seventeen percent said no-code/low-code was somewhat of a priority and just 7% said it was low priority. Meanwhile, just 4% said it was not a priority at all.
The Pandemic Has Fueled Demand for App Development, But Ability to Hire Talent is Mixed
The Internal research shows that the biggest challenges IT leaders faced in 2020 included:
- Increased competition for talent: 31%
- Poor reaction to new work-from-home (WFH) policies: 23%
- A developer drought: 22%
- Immigration issues with current staff: 16%
Since COVID-19 took hold, 75% of organizations have implemented a dual-track strategy of traditional methods and no-code/low-code, with 60% of organizations increasing app development once WFH policies were implemented.
Hiring policy changes have been mixed. More than 37% of the survey participants said their companies have been hiring more engineers since COVID-19. More than a third (35%) have paused hiring. Nineteen percent did not alter hiring practices and almost 10% did layoffs.
And, as noted earlier, nearly 78% are expecting increased hiring and headcount-related challenges in 2021. Those challenges include increased competition for talent (45%), a developer drought (18%), and immigration issues related to current staff (15%).
IT Leaders Expect Engineering Teams to Benefit from No-code/Low-code
Close to the entire survey group (99%) said that improving engineering team efficiency is a priority. More than a fourth (27%) said it is an essential priority; 39% said it is a high priority.
Most survey participants (70%) said there are already non-developers in their organizations who build tools for internal use, including apps and scripts, with 79% expecting the trend to continue.
Nearly as many (69%) believe this will have a positive effect on engineering teams.
Security Is Top Concern for Internal Apps - a Potential Driver for No-code/Low-code Adoption
As noted earlier, a whopping 95% of IT and engineering leaders are concerned about their employees having access to customer data, with 47% being extremely concerned, and 36% somewhat concerned. More than half (58%) of respondents said they have had internal data breaches, defined as an incident caused by privileged users with access to sensitive information.
Survey participants said the top potential costs of internal security threats are:
- Legal costs: 60%
- Loss of customer trust: 54%
- Bad headlines in the media or impact to the company reputation: 53%
“Many organizations build internal apps that give employees access to private and sensitive customer data. They need tight access controls. But, unfortunately, most engineering teams don’t have the bandwidth to build that,” said Bob Remeika, co-founder and CTO of Internal. “We expect no-code/low-code platforms that can provide these critical access controls and robust security features to experience further adoption by IT and engineering teams.”
Media Contact
Kourtney Evans
Bospar for Internal
About Propeller Insights
Propeller Insights is a full-service market research firm based in Los Angeles. Using quantitative and qualitative methodologies to measure and analyze marketplace and consumer opinions, working extensively across multiple industries including travel, brand intelligence, entertainment/media, retail, and consumer packaged goods. We use our extensive experience in both research and sample management to ensure all sourcing is fast, efficient, and of the highest quality.
Propeller Insights strives to achieve statistically significant sample that meets the industry standard of a 95 percent confidence level and a 5-percentage margin of error, based on the population being represented for all online quantitative surveys. We work with the leading online sample providers, and the sources we use are based on the project requirements/target, as well as sample size and incidence rate.
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