Companies and business leaders are facing daunting challenges, including economic headwinds, market volatility and geopolitical tensions. What’s more, businesses that understand the flexibility in technology integration are trying to take steps for digital transformation to survive and grow.

A multinational software company, SAP has announced the launch of a new low-code solution that enables everyone with minimal technical expertise to create and augment enterprise applications, automate processes and design business sites.

SAP Build, the new offering built on the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), a portfolio of SAP products and technologies for application development and integration, debuted at the SAP TechEd conference.

SAP promises to lower the technology barrier in developing cloud-based solutions with less code with the SAP Build platform for organizations that have difficulty finding employees in the digital transformation impasse.

Drag-and-drop simplicity

The SAP Build platform, which allows organizations to embark on a digital transformation journey without coding knowledge and technology expertise, offers a secure and business-compatible road map.

It is an application development method that increases coding from textual to visual with drag-and-drop simplicity.

It is possible to prepare a completely visual application instead of a complex coding process. Users of all skills, regardless of their positions, are all able to use low-code solutions to create enterprise business applications.

The demand for software developers has never been higher, said Julia White, chief marketing officer and executive board member at SAP, as she cited their offering regarding the gap of skilled labor in an environment where many companies say "we are a tech company."

"The shortage of skilled labor does not only create gaps and decelerate innovation and growth but also causes a high rate of burnout among developers," White said. "Therefore, we see the adoption of less coded/non-coded methods, that is, software development, in which little or no programming skills are required, as a way for enterprises to address this challenge."

Bringing out expertise

Taking this one step further, White said they believe that the key to more effective business transformation and a way for businesses to address skill shortages is to bring out the expertise of those who know the business best, that is, business users themselves.

"Financial analysts, supply chain operators, production line managers, procurement specialists, marketing people. Through training and investment in low-code/no-code solutions, businesses can take the power of software development out of the back office and put it in the hands of people who use it every day to innovate, execute tasks, connect, and more," she noted.

"As an additional benefit, this approach also relieves the pressure felt by many information technology professionals tasked with major infrastructure overhauls and digital transformations."

Empowering business users

SAP Build is a low-code solution that puts SAP’s world-class enterprise technology in the hands of business users, giving them direct, secure access to the end-to-end processes, data and context they need to make smarter decisions and drive innovation quickly.

It aims to empower business users with minimal technical expertise to create and augment enterprise applications, automate processes and design business sites with drag-and-drop simplicity.

"SAP Build brings together the world’s most powerful business applications with a platform that’s been designed to rapidly unleash business users’ expertise," said Juergen Mueller, chief technology officer and member of the executive board of SAP.

"In a volatile business landscape, SAP Build and the full suite of innovations we’re launching today – from our new partnership with Coursera to enhancements across our enterprise portfolio – help customers future-proof their business and extract maximum value from their technology investments."

In-depth visibility

With SAP Build, business users have the full power of SAP BTP and business application data from SAP at their fingertips. Users can integrate systems; intelligently monitor, analyze and automate processes; and build applications for the last mile of innovation – all without moving their data to an external system.

With SAP Signavio solutions natively integrated, users of SAP Build also get in-depth visibility into all their processes, so they know where to focus to achieve the greatest impact as they innovate and automate.

Based on in-depth process analysis, SAP Signavio can recommend over 135 pre-built automations, which can then be deployed using SAP Build Process Automation.

More than 275,000 process reference points from 4,000 customers and 1,300 use-case-specific workflows and automation let users instantly tap into the full spectrum of business expertise built into SAP technology.

SAP Build also works with non-SAP software systems. And the new SAP Builders program helps users ramp up quickly and connect with their peers through hands-on sessions and forums for sharing the best practices.

Upskilling 2 million developers

SAP says it recognizes the increasing premium put on the skills and insights only professional developers can deliver.

It has thus announced an initiative to upskill 2 million developers worldwide by 2025 to "further its commitment to creating opportunities through learning and development for all."

In this framework, it said it is partnering with pioneering learning platform provider Coursera Inc. to help people launch careers within the SAP ecosystem and empowering underserved audiences in technology.

As the skills gap and search for talent within the technology industry become increasingly prominent issues, the World Economic Forum (WEF) predicts that 97 million new jobs will be created by 2025.

This has created a sense of urgency for companies to find professionals to fill their ever-growing technical skills needs. However, the number of future tech employees is notoriously limited. Within this small pool, women and minorities are often overlooked.