Developers seen as crucial to pandemic recovery

Developers are key to recovery from the pandemic according to 91 percent of UK businesses in a new survey, and 95 percent see them as crucial to digital transformation projects too.

But the study from cloud communications platform Twilio finds that the majority are not yet unlocking the full power of developers.

The research, which surveyed 400 CTOs, CIOs and other senior IT decision makers in the UK, finds that nearly all (96 percent) believe the role of technology is important in responding to the challenges of the pandemic, with 68 percent saying it's 'very important'. In line with this, their perceived value of developers for the overall success of the business is starting to be realized. Before the pandemic, 31 percent said that developers were 'vital' to the performance of the organisation, which has jumped to 41 percent since.

However, less than half (47 percent) of organizations engage developers at the start of a project, with the majority only bringing them in later down the line, for example when briefing them to build the solution, rather than help to shape it to meet business needs.

"The organisations that solve customer problems with software are winning in the pandemic, as they continue to actively engage with their customers, even without face to face interactions," says Marcos Placona, head of developer relations EMEA at Twilio. "Developers are a creative workforce who can solve major business challenges and create invaluable customer products, if they are given the opportunity -- they do not simply write code. Organisations that bring them in from the onset to understand objectives can unleash their power and therefore the power of the code they write."

Respondents from the financial services sector overwhelmingly recognize the value of technology as 'very important' to respond to pandemic challenges (84 percent), compared to an average of 68 percent. Moreover, their perception of developers as 'vital' to the performance of the organization has jumped from 42 percent pre-pandemic, to 51 percent since it began. Developer involvement in strategic decision making also jumped considerably from 26 percent being 'heavily involved' to 40 percent.

You can find out more on the Twilio site.

Image Credit: Sergey Nivens / Shutterstock