CFOs are looking for software that drives innovation and breaks barriers without breaking the bank. No-code platforms are the ideal solution.
This article is part of an ongoing series about adopting a no-code platform—and how to discuss the benefits of no-code with key decision-makers in your enterprise. We’ve covered engineers, CIOs, and CEOs; now we’re tackling Chief Financial Officers (CFOs).
For CFOs, everything comes down to dollars and cents, so they won’t make a move on a new enterprise application development platform before they crunch the numbers. They’re looking for software that breaks barriers without breaking the bank. By emphasizing these three key advantages, you can convince your CFO that no-code platforms are the ideal solution.
Chief Concerns of the CFO
A CFO is the highest-level executive responsible for managing the financial actions of an organization. As the top-level financial controller, they oversee all cash flow and financial planning, guide business decisions, and make reasoned investments in new technologies. CFOs have significant input in the company’s expenses and will want a guarantee that investing in no-code is fiscally responsible.
The CFO’s number one concern is controlling costs. This includes managing technical debt, making sure that the organization’s IT budget is being used effectively, and minimizing the risk of IT project failure. CFOs are also concerned with compliance, both with the accounting principles set out by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and with guidelines from HIPAA and PCI (dependent on the industry). Lawsuits, fines, and compliance penalties from failing to update faulty code can easily cost your enterprise millions of dollars if you’re not careful. Finding an app development platform built with these concerns in mind might seem like a tall order, but no-code is up to the challenge.
The Financial Advantages of No-Code
As a no-code advocate in your organization, here’s a shortlist of no-code’s advantages that will help your CFO understand why adopting a no-code platform is in line with their objectives.
1. No-code maximizes productivity and makes the most of your IT budget.
No-code indirectly keeps costs down by stretching every dollar of your IT budget a little further. With no-code, users from throughout the organization (regardless of formal technical experience!) can build sophisticated applications and bring their ideas to life. This means CFOs won’t have to constantly shell-out money to pay for highly specialized engineers or continually buy off-the-shelf software that the enterprise will inevitably outgrow. Bringing app development in-house with a no-code platform cuts costs without sacrificing customization and innovation.
Watch this webinar replay to see how no-code accelerates innovation in the insurance sector.
No-code also maximizes your IT budget by increasing employee productivity. Less-experienced team members can contribute directly to IT projects by building out workflows with components, while more experienced developers are freed up to work on more complex projects. Not only does this chip away at your project backlog, but it also helps you get products to market faster. The CFO will understand better than anyone that the sooner you get products to market, the faster you’ll start seeing a return on investment.
2. No-code boosts employee retention.
We mentioned that no-code will help your organization stop relying on hiring or outsourcing expensive IT talent, but it’s also important to talk about how no-code benefits the IT talent you already have. No-code controls costs by increasing the satisfaction of your existing employees. For example, if your technology is still code-based, a lot of developer time will inevitably be spent debugging software and completing tedious backend maintenance tasks. Eventually, your IT talent will want to work on more innovative projects—and with the ongoing IT skills shortage, it won’t be long before a recruiter from another company snaps them up.
Replacing an unhappy and unchallenged IT employee is incredibly expensive. In fact, businesses in the United States lose $1 trillion each year due to voluntary turnover. When you add up recruiting, onboarding, retraining, and potential relocation costs, CFOs know that high employee retention is ultimately a cost-saving goal. A no-code platform eliminates tedious development tasks and allows employees to efficiently create complex applications, which in turn empowers them to focus on the value-adding work they signed up for. The result? Happier employees who are more likely to stay at your company.
3. No-code helps prevent IT project failure.
Enterprise IT projects are notoriously expensive and notoriously prone to failure. The average large-scale IT project winds up 45% over budget, 7% over time, and delivers 56% less value than predicted. Needless to say, this is a huge concern for CFOs.
No-code can help ensure that projects are delivered on time and on budget by making the development process more collaborative and more efficient. One of the primary reasons why IT projects miss the mark is because enterprises have to contend with a deep divide between business and IT. With a typical siloed internal company structure, the business team delivers their idea to the IT department and then the developers disappear for months to execute it. It’s not uncommon for the IT team to unintentionally miss the mark because they can’t easily share their progress, in which case they have to go back to the drawing board again and again until it’s right. This slows down the entire development process and rapidly depletes budgets.
No-code allows business team members to participate in the app development process and impart their own vision directly into their initiatives—no more silos, no more games of enterprise telephone. With a no-code platform, CFOs will see more projects come in under budget and start immediately delivering value.
When you add everything up, Unqork is an aPaaS solution that’s sure to satisfy any CFO. Once your CFO understands that no-code can maximize their IT budget, boost employee retention, and help more IT projects come in on time and under budget, they’ll happily join the no-code movement.
You Might Also Be Interested in
