[Download] Gartner: What are Citizen Automation & Development Platforms?

For several years now, awareness of the potential of citizen development to supercharge organizations has been growing steadily. Empowering non-developers to automate processes, integrate systems, and build software solutions independently of IT has been found to increase organizational efficiency and agility, and set organizations up to adopt composable operating ecosystems. Gartner IT Symposium earlier this week, Gartner analyst Milind Govekar told the assembled that he believes application development is moving to “low code or no code” in general—and that, come 2025, most internal business applications will be developed via low-code or no-code builders by the people who use them.

Come 2025, the market for such tools is expected to hit $45.5 billion.

But what are these tools, exactly? What are some examples? How should they be evaluated and, ultimately, used?

Citizen Automation and Development Platforms

That’s the focus of the report published recently by Gartner, “Innovation Insight for Citizen Automation and Development Platforms.” In the report, which readers can download here, Gartner calls this new class of tools that target the need of citizen technologists “citizen automation and development platforms (CADPs).” According to Gartner, CADPs are “represented by the evolution and convergence of… technologies such as low-code application platforms (LCAPs), integration platform as a service (iPaaS), robotic process automation (RPA) or intelligent business process management suites (iBPMS).”

Low-code/no-code

In other words, these sought-after and future-defining tools can center around a variety of functionalities and capabilities. Still, according to Gartner, they should be “low-code or no-code” in terms of accessibility, and must, overall, “provide SaaS-based, self-service access and built-in governance of application and automation creation activities.”

In the Innovation Insight Report, Gartner identifies typical use cases in which CADPs should be deployed, along with what benefits CADPs can provide. These can include improved business efficiency, efficacy and agility; increased productivity, and reduced burden on IT specialists—which is crucial: according to Gartner, there are 1,365,500 software developer vacancies at American businesses, today, while only 65,000 developers graduate from the college system every year.

CADPs also increase an organization’s innovative capacity, along with its ability to more rapidly implement innovative technology. As Gartner writes, “When users have access to intuitive, self-service tools, they can independently build solutions to solve their individual, team or departmental process challenges. As a result, citizen technologists can accelerate business-driven hyperautomation.”

In the report, Gartner likewise shares best practices for using CADPs to increase efficiency and performance (while minimizing technical debt).

The hype is real

And, finally, they share a selection of vendors to consider “If your organization is ready to explore citizen automation and development platforms.” We’re proud to share that Tonkean was included.

It’s becoming clear that low-code/no-code technology that falls into the CADP technology category—such as Tonkean’s no-code process orchestration platform—will prove fundamental to the future of the enterprise. As Gartner has elsewhere made clear, it’s time to start paying attention; the hype is real.

If you’re ready to learn more, check out the report below, which you can download free of charge, courtesy of Tonkean.

Download the report here.