SalesforceLightning is a popular CRM solution for established global enterprises and up-and-comers alike, and for good reason. It offers robust, flexible solutions for building applications within the Salesforce platform, plus a wide range of additional functionality and features teams have come to know and trust.
Despite its many strengths, Lightning does not automatically meet the requirements of every organization — at least not right out of the box. For example, enterprise companies often require very specific user workflows, some of which are simply not possible with the pre-configured CRM or Lightning components. That typically means turning to custom code — an expensive and time-consuming option.
Skuid, however, offers an appealing alternative for companies that want to move faster, cut costs, and create more user-friendly applications. Below, we’ll go through some of Lightning’s major limitations, then discuss how Skuid can help teams bypass these hurdles (and those that come with custom coding) with al ow-code/no-code platform.
The limits of Lightning
Common concerns surrounding Lightning include limited user experience and a lack of accessibility. As a CRM, Salesforce simply doesn’t come with the design capabilities of, say, a design studio or wire framing tool. Still, today’s app users have high expectations around UX, and have grown accustomed to consumer-grade digital experiences when interacting with a business or even internal application. As a result, a poor UX can have negative consequences for adoption, user satisfaction, and even brand perception.
Accessibility is a particularly worrisome concern for government agencies and firms in the public sector. For example, apps built in Salesforce Lightning aren’t automatically508-compliant. Given President Biden’s Executive Order on Diversity, Equity,Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce, this can put an organization in legal hot water. Plus, apps that aren’t accessible exclude a number of potential users, some of whom could become its biggest adopters and advocates.
So, where does that leave organizations that want to meet (or even exceed) UX expectations while also achieving compliance and accessibility standards? For many, it means turning to custom code.
The costs of custom code
When trying to build the seamless and fully branded user experiences that they want, many app development teams quickly find that Lightning comes up short in these areas.Custom code is one way to work around these limitations but comes with its own set of challenges. For example, it requires tasking or hiring developers with coding custom components and logic, and comes with an extensive time commitment. That commitment doesn’t stop when the app is launched, either; custom code then must be maintained for the life of the application.
This approach might work if your app’s customization requirements are minimal and straightforward.You’ll also need access to skilled developers with experience in multiple disciplines like Javascript, CSS, Apex, and APIs. In addition, you’ll have to block off large amounts of time for coding, testing, security compliance, and iteration, as well as for ongoing maintenance and support.
If, however, your app has to deal with sophisticated use cases, your developer resources are already constrained, or you’re on a tight deadline or budget, custom code is no longer feasible. That’s where Skuid comes in.
No code, no problem
Skuid supercharges theLightning experience by drastically accelerating the design and development process for custom business applications. With Skuid, teams can build new apps, components, and custom pages about 8–10 times faster than hand coding.
Skuid delivers aLightning-native, declarative alternative to writing Lightning code, which makes working with Lightning much simpler and less expensive to maintain. For over eight years, customers large and small have used Skuid to develop apps natively in both Lightning and Visualforce/Classic. And the outcomes are hard to ignore. For example, one client used Skuid to build custom functionality in Lightning that had taken eight hours to hand code in just one hour. Another created an application that a systems integrator had struggled with for three months—again, in just an hour. That kind of return-on-development effort translates into velocity that is unheard of when it comes to traditional application development.
In addition, Skuid can extend Lightning with a custom page that leverages the Skuid native Salesforce package. The Lightning App Builder or Community Builder can be used to drag in a Skuid Lightning page component (provided by Skuid when you install it into your org). Then, simply provide the name of the page you created with Skuid asa property to the Skuid Lightning page component. The result? A Lightning component that has been automatically created to contain the page you rapidly developed with Skuid (as opposed to. hand coding the entire app). To see this process in action, check out this short video.
Want to experience Skuid’s low-code/no-code platform for yourself? Request a custom demo today.
