According to a recent estimate, large, legacy solutions account for an average of 40 percent of total IT spend for business entities. Do your core business systems consume the lion’s share of your annual IT budget? If you answered yes, join the club.
But the big question is: is the money well spent? And if not, how can those funds be better used?
For a growing number of Australian ICT leaders, the answer to the first question is ‘not necessarily’. They recognize that it’s time to renovate and reboot if they want to drive innovation from within, gain productivity and save money.
It’s a smart stance to adopt, at least in the eyes of Khalid Kark, head of Deloitte’s CIO program in the US. He recently noted that old technology could get in the way of innovation and growth.
“Many CIOs recognize that legacy core systems lack the flexibility needed to develop and scale innovative and disruptive new technology solutions,” writes Kark.
Charting a new course
Those open to doing things differently may want to consider a range of possible approaches.
“Organizations saddled with legacy systems can rehost, replatform, redesign, rebuild, or replace them — strategies that vary in impact, cost, risk, and value,” notes Kark.
At Nintex, we see forward-thinking local enterprises opting for what might best be called a “composable” or modular core, replacing on-premises, “greater than Ben Hur” platforms and solutions with simple alternatives complemented by compatible, easy-to-use install plugins.
It is a model that is highly compatible with hybrid and remote working. It makes adding new features and functionality easy and quick without the risk of disrupting business operations.
Small businesses already understand the benefits of this approach as they have long been able to tap into huge ecosystems of niche apps centered around core financial solutions, most notably the cloud-based accounting software platform Xero.
In 2022, it was time for medium and large enterprises to join in a flexible, modular approach.
Put process improvement at the heart of your upgrade
A major upgrade presents a significant opportunity to rethink the IT platforms and solutions that power your operations and the processes that underpin them.
By mapping and analyzing workflows across the enterprise, you can identify opportunities to do things smarter, faster, and better by replacing tedious manual processes with automated digital alternatives.
After two years of remote work, employees probably have enough to contribute to this score of what works, what doesn’t, and where process redesign would have the most impact.
The end game is efficiency: increasing productivity and reducing human error. A bonus is greater employee satisfaction, thanks to freeing employees from the daily grind of repetitive, routine activities, freeing them up to perform higher-level tasks that add value to the business.
Tools to make the task easy
Historically, company-wide process assessment has been time-consuming and expensive, but that is no longer the case due to technological advancements. Digital process management technology makes it easy to document the status quo and analyze the potential impact of process redesign.
And by leveraging low and no-code process automation tools, employees across the enterprise can make changes that were once the exclusive responsibility of highly skilled professionals and consultants.
Laying the foundation for a more agile future
The past two years have prompted many organizations of all sizes to rethink their operations and processes and seize opportunities to do things differently, saving time and resources.
If that’s what drives you in 2022 and beyond, maybe it’s time to work with them to overhaul your company’s core systems.
