Pro-Code vs. Low-Code: Which is the Best Solution for Your IT Integration?

Are your professional developers spending all their time writing tedious code for internal IT integrations? Or perhaps they’re spending hundreds of hours on training and certification for traditional enterprise integration platform-as-a-service (enterprise iPaaS) solutions when they could be spending their expensive time on more valuable business activities.

When contemplating your enterprise integration strategy, you need to consider all the factors involved. These may include the technical skills of your current team, your available resources, the project’s total economic impact and return on investment (platform ROI), and how much time you can dedicate to the IT integration project – at each stage of the ‘build, run, monitor’ process.

When developing your integration strategy, one of the first steps is to determine what type of IT integration solution is best for your company.

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Selecting an IT Integration Solution That's Right for Your Business: Pro-Code or Low-Code?

Before making any major decisions about your IT integration strategy, you should recognize the competing priorities of IT integrationsand understand the different types of integrations and their pro-code versus low-code.

There are generally three types of integration solutions; each with different coding requirements:

1. Internal (pro-code) – IT integrations built in-house from scratch, requiring highly skilled pro-code developers to handle the entire integration process of building, running and monitoring.
2. Traditional eiPaaS (pro-code) – Traditional IT integration solution providers require highly skilled software engineers and developers with specialized training and certification.
3. Digibee eiPaaS (low-code) – Digibee’s low-code eiPaaS empowers the entire IT team, without the need for specialized training or expensive certification. This reduces IT integration costs and accelerates time to value because junior developers can handle the heavy lifting while senior developers can focus on higher-priority projects, according to Digibee’s report, 5 (+1) reasons to choose a modern integration solution.

Let’s look at each type in detail to find the best choice for your business.

Professional Code In-House: Why Your In-House Developer Team May Be Reluctant to Outsource What IT Does Best

Many companies default to building and maintaining their own IT integration solutions with in-house professional coders (pro-code). They may have in-house software developers and engineers who take pride in building homegrown IT solutions and are often eager to tackle a large project, such as a multi-faceted integration implementation.

However, according to Digibee's report, 'How to decide on an integration strategy', this type of traditional in-house/domestic approach can create some serious risks and challenges:

• Significant time spent on IT integrations instead of other important enterprise IT projects with high-value outcomes.
• Internal knowledge creates a single point of failure. If only a few internal stakeholders understand the inner workings of the system, this exposes the business to significant risk if knowledge is lost because someone leaves the company.
• The increasing complexity of your technology stack directly impacts how complex your internal integration solution needs to be to scale with your business growth.
• Scope can quickly spiral out of control as in-house IT experts build integrations from scratch with increasing levels of complexity.

Perhaps the biggest risk is that the global market IT skills shortage It is becoming more difficult to maintain an in-house team of skilled developers who can write professional code (professional code) with increasing complexity.

Traditional Integration Providers Still Need Pro-Code Developers

Selecting the right integration platform is an important decision that requires diligence, time, and patience. You may have thought that choosing a traditional provider would be the quickest and easiest path to integration, especially if you already have an established partner relationship. 

However, you may not have realized or considered that traditional integration solutions still require professional code development and considerable time. The months-long implementation and qualification for specialized training or certification, along with their stagnant and ever-increasing IT portfolio, can leave you increasingly frustrated and questioning your decision to opt for a traditional integration solutions provider.

Digibee’s low-code platform reduces risk and accelerates time to value

Any software developer can write code – that's usually their 'happy place' – but what about planning and preparing for when things go wrong?

Digibee natively embraces DevOps principles in our low-code platform, reducing errors and the overall risk of failure. Your business still has the agility to scale quickly and easily with an easy-to-use low-code platform, and you also have visibility, insight, and oversight of the entire integration system. Plus, you can experience fastest time to value.

See how the Digibee low-code platform can accelerate your IT integration project. It doesn’t eliminate the integration details; it simply makes it faster and easier for developers (pro-coders) to interact with different interface components. So there’s less time spent writing code and more time for software engineers to focus on solving problems and delivering valuable results.

This type of enterprise integration platform as a service (eiPaaS) also saves time and money on your IT integration. The simplicity of Digibee’s eiPaaS allows it to leave low-code interactions to less experienced (and less expensive) junior developers, so that skilled (and higher-paid) software engineers and IT specialists can focus on more complex issues and higher-value outcomes.

Comparing the Pros and Cons of Pro-Code vs. Low-Code at a Glance

Integration Solution	Internal (pro-code)	Traditional solutions provider (pro-code)	Digibee iPaaS (low-code)
Resources	Highly skilled software engineers and developers	Specialized training and certification required	Junior developers can manage low-code platform without additional training
Cost	Higher cost of highly skilled in-house staff and lengthy implementation process, plus ongoing maintenance and management costs.	High cost of implementation, training, employee certification, and ongoing system maintenance and management.	Flexible and transparent iPaaS pricing structure. Further IT cost reduction and savings through junior employee engagement, faster time to value (from months or years to days or weeks), plus the ability to ‘build, run, monitor’ in-house.
Time to appreciate	Months to years. Long implementation process based on building internal resources from scratch.	Months. Long implementation process due to training and certification requirements.	Days to weeks. Faster time to review in just 10 days.
Scalability	Limited by the complexity and skills of the internal IT team.	Unlimited scalability with no additional, ongoing costs.	Unlimited scalability with minimal additional costs.
Risks	Single point of failure. Risk of loss of knowledge and accessibility if key employees leave.	Risk of increased costs and forced ongoing partnership.	Control all decisions using a low-risk model.

The Digibee Difference: Low-Code, Low Cost, Low Risk

Digibee has everything covered for fast and smooth IT integration. Digibee’s cloud-native, enterprise-ready integration platform accelerates time to value, reduces risk, helps reduce IT costs, and offers an intuitive platform for a wide range of IT talent to manage, with very little training required to get started.

see how GJP Hotels and Resorts improved their operations and customer service by choosing Digibee over their legacy in-house integration solution. But don’t just take our word for it. Do a cost savings analysis and request a demo to try it out and experience the difference Digibee can make for your business.

Discover all the benefits of Digibee’s modern cloud integration platform, including detailed comparisons between in-house or traditional integration models and Digibee’s enterprise iPaaS solution. Read the Digibee feature, 5 (+1) reasons to choose a modern integration solution.

For more information, visit the Digibee website, Read Digibee Customer Success Storiesou contact Digibee to schedule a demo.