The Decline of Solution Platforms and the Limitations of Low-Code/No-Code Solutions

Co-Authors: John West and Lars Dyrelund

January is the time to look ahead, and often a time for making predictions for the year to come. If you’re interested in composable architecture and what’s likely going to happen in the wider industry, here’s a great collection of predictions by Kelly Goetsch (“23 Predictions for 2023”) of commercetools . Kelly’s article spans many topics, addressing several current technology trends and market shifts. We at Perfection.DEV generally agree with many of his predictions and would like to comment on two points in his article.?

Before we dive in, it is important to say that we share the excitement for the growth in the MACH Alliance specifically and in the composable industry more broadly. 2023 will be a pivotal year for vendors in this area, and we can’t wait to share more details about our own products in the months to come (watch this space!).

Prediction #8: Further breakup of what has historically been called a “platform.”

Kelly predicts an acceleration in the trend of software vendors subdividing their products into smaller functional units that address specific problem domains in order to position themselves as componentized. He further suggests that within years, buyers will not seek entire platforms to address their business needs, but will instead assemble solutions from components, whether a single or multiple vendor delivers each of the required pieces of the entire solution. While vendors may continue to market their products as platforms, over time, APIs will continue to replace all-in-one platforms.?

We agree that this trend will continue, with inherit benefits for customers that no longer need to purchase bloated and cumbersome products that attempt to address every possible concern for every potential customer. This progress will reduce costs for software customers, provide a greater range of implementation options, and simplify the addition of functionality over the lifetime of each unique solution. In addition to avoiding purchases of unnecessary features, a more competitive market will result in even lower pricing. Software buyers will have more options and won’t have to pay for features that they don’t need or before they are ready to implement those features.??

At the same time, this will require additional software to bind the various pieces of solutions together and fill the gaps between products. Perfection.DEV fits perfectly into this space, giving customers design website flexibility completely independent of vendor offerings. Our tools augment the site preview experience to provide the business user with a unifying layer that identifies and provides access to all of data feeding the website, regardless of its source. Our features enable users to easily navigate and edit records in those back-end systems, to collaborate, and to control the layout, presentation, and styling of assembled pages. This is a good example of the power of composable architecture, where users can pick the right solutions for their needs without losing oversight and introducing complexity. We?thus enable the marketer to move faster without becoming yet another platform disguised as an orchestration layer.?

Prediction #21: Low/no-code customization goes out of favor.??

Kelly predicts that recent trends towards low-code and no-code solutions will decelerate or even reverse in the years ahead. These types of products intend to increase developer productivity and give business users greater control of web experiences by applying predefined patterns without the need for custom development.??

While we are focused on front-end experiences and Kelly is focused on commerce, the team at Perfection.DEV completely agrees with Kelly on this point. Low-code/no-code software vendors overpromise and underdeliver because their approaches cannot possibly meet all customer requirements and expectations.?

One of the problems with low-code and no-code solutions relates directly to the previous prediction: no such vendor can possibly address the ever-growing number of components required to implement a complete solution of any complexity. Using these frameworks will restrict customers to the small subsets of available technologies supported by the no-code/low-code vendor that they select. Worse, the result will be overly simple, inflexible, and appear templated, making it difficult for buyers to truly differentiate their solutions from their competition. Extending such a solution requires customization to the low-code/no-code tooling, which merely complicates the development effort required to enhance the solutions that it abstracts.?

Our experience is that all solutions require development effort to address individual customer expectations. Additionally, organizations should own and understand their solution. There’s simply no getting around the fact that it still takes smart and experienced people to define requirements and implement technology solutions. Low-code/no-code products may appear to accelerate projects in their early stages but will hamstring and stifle customers locked into a specific vendor’s implementation. The experience management industry is ever-changing, and adding features not inherently supported by low-code/no-code tools will always require custom development, which defeats the original intention of the product.?

Rather than forcing customers into templated and inflexible solutions, Perfection.DEV provides owners of data from any source with control over its presentation on the web. Our unique approach lets non-technical users control the appearance of data without the constraints of no-code or low-code solutions, and without the need to involve designers or developers in every detail. Marketers can move faster with tools that are simple and don't require coding knowledge or skills. At the same time, development resources can focus on infrastructure that enables the marketing team. This separation of marketing and development saves time and money to ensure that each team avoids being slowed down by others and can focus on the most important things in their respective areas of expertise. ?

For the new year,?keep an eye on developments at www.perfection.dev.?