The Future of Low-Code and Collaboration
The way we work is continuing to change – and the categories of tools need to change to reflect it. The work that truly drives revenue no longer fits neatly into a structured process. Rather, it’s the dynamic work that involves many stakeholders, assets, materials, and processes that makes the biggest difference for organizations. And our software needs to fit the bill.
This week, Forrester named Quickbase as a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave™: Low-Code Platforms for Citizen Developers, Q1 2024. We believe that combined with our focus on collaborative work management, this recognition shows how we can help organizations manage and execute these dynamic, complex projects in key industries.
Our work has changed – our tools need to as well
Organizations needs are rapidly changing. The way that we do work and what we need to be successful is different than it was even just a few years ago. Today, manual work and offline processes won’t cut it – our own survey data found that 67% of respondents waste between 10 and 20 hours per week chasing data from different people and systems. Low-code is no longer a consideration, it’s a must-have. Organizations are moving beyond deciding to adopt low-code, and are instead focused on how to optimize their low-code strategy. At the same time, the continued explosion of generative AI is transforming how work gets done, expanding what is possible with a low-code application platform. Products now have to solve complex challenges, and support business-critical, enterprise-level work.
AI is also a major driver, complementing low-code/no-code capabilities by making the application development process simpler. Like how low-code empowers citizen developers, AI will further expand everyone’s ability to automate processes.
Four key market shifts
We’re seeing four key changes to the market:
The convergence and melding of categories
More and more solutions continue to crop up, as low code and no code tools become more common. With this wide variety of solutions available, it can become incredibly difficult to differentiate between what’s available within a category. The growth, convergence, and changing of traditional categories in the low-code space lends way to a future with new categories that better reflect what businesses need. When categories can match the solutions that businesses need for success, the market is much clearer.
Increased specialization – and opportunity
As these categories converge and change, vendors can take different approaches and offer different capabilities to how they serve the market, instead of focusing solely on low-code capabilities. While some vendors are making major strides in low-code visions, there are still major differences in what each one offers and what they help organizations get done. This specialization is extra relevant for highly-complex industries that are otherwise underserved by larger, ‘monolithic’ low-code platforms.
At Quickbase, we’re focused on where collaborative work management and low-code collide. To us, being recognized for collaborative work management in The Forrester Wave™: Collaborative Work Management Tools, Q4 2022 as well as in The Forrester Wave™: Low-Code Platforms for Citizen Developers for Q1 2024 gives us a unique perspective on what can best support organizations in their most complex, core work. We see this as Dynamic Work Management – the management of the flexible, multi-dimensional work that actually drives revenue. The success of Dynamic Work Management is when organizations can see, connect, and control their most complex projects.
Certain industries, like construction and manufacturing, find a lot of success with this combination of low-code and collaborative work. These industries have projects that have a distributed workforce and resources, assets to track both digitally and physically, people in the field to keep track of, and complex portfolios of work to navigate. These industries are the ones that need to handle the speed and scale of their teams, projects, and organizations overall. It takes robust capabilities with integrations, data sharing, and getting the right information to the right people, at massive scale.
A demand for AI innovation
AI innovation has been all the rage recently, but for good reason – it expands what’s possible in our work and completely reframes how we can get work done. It also takes the power of AI to handle what industries like construction and manufacturing need for success. Quickbase received the highest possible score in the Forrester Wave™ report on low-code platforms for citizen developers in the AI-Assisted Development criterion, which we think shows that our approach to AI is realistic and set to solve a major need in the market. Our AI approach is specifically designed to impact key use cases – complex projects, tracking and allocating resources, critical processes and workflows, compliance procedures, and installing product and services. We’re also focused on expanding data analysis capabilities, the next stage of what people demand of their AI tools.
Enterprise scale
Currently, collaborative work management spans from small-task management to enterprise-grade work management tools. Work management solutions aren’t focused on being “low-code” or “no-code” – instead, people want automated solutions that support their dynamic work, and support that work quickly and with less friction. The work that people are most focused on accomplishing and optimizing is the work that involves more stakeholders, more software and more tools, and drives revenue. That work is best managed and accomplished with Dynamic Work Management.
The critical capabilities
We’re proud to be recognized both for our low-code development solution and our ability to support the needs of collaborative work management. The collaborative work market is changing to focus more on enterprise-level needs, and the low-code market is becoming more focused on automation. Sitting between these two categories is exactly what motivated and led us to create a new category – Dynamic Work Management. We believe our place in the Wave on low-code platforms for citizen developers outlines Quickbase’s unique ability to allow citizen developers to achieve dynamic work outcomes. And in our opinion, our position in the Forrester Wave™ for collaborative work management shows how organizations need to better take on the enterprise-level work that is most important to their business. The blend of these two types of work is what is needed to manage the dynamic work that organizations focus on today. And as these markets continue to evolve, we’re excited to see how Dynamic Work Management will be valued and successful going forward.
