CRM giant, Salesforce has just launched a series of new tools (called Lightning Platform Mobile) that will allow marketers to create their own mobile apps – without needing to involve any developers.

Put simply – it works in a similar way to website building platforms such as Wix; allowing you to easily create customised Apps using their pre-built components (nearly two hundred pre-built components are also available in the Salesforce AppExchange) and app templates. Using the tool, you can convert data in spreadsheets into apps and the UI can be created and adjusted with a few clicks.

Once your app is built, you can use Salesforce to publish it directly to the App Store or Google Play, and the platform will handle the packaging and submission.

Salesforce dropped Lightning Platform Mobile on Thursday, saying that it was created to “Empower anyone to easily build, extend, and launch mobile apps”.

Why Should You Care?

Until now, creating an app has been a complicated process that few businesses could handle in-house. Once Salesforce makes it possible, marketers (who are Salesforce users) will be empowered to create the apps they need, by themselves.

The ability to build and publish mobile apps without involving a dedicated team of software developers is likely to create new opportunities and fresh possibilities for marketers. Also, now that Salesforce has done it, it’s likely that we’ll see more of these DIY app platforms pop up, making it easier for anyone to build their own apps.  

To learn more about it, you can view the platform features here.