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What is your legacy software system doing for you today? What is it costing you to do it? Is your current software slow, unscalable, and lacking in modern features like mobile apps, APIs and IoT integration? If it’s been years since your company committed to a major software product modernization, now is the time to consider an upgrade. This is the CTO guide to legacy software modernization.
Why Should Development Leaders Update Legacy Products?
Among CIOs surveyed by Logicalis, more than half reported dedicating 40 to 60 percent of their time to managing legacy IT instead of being able to redirect that time toward strategic activities. In fact, four in 10 CIOs name “complex legacy technology” as the main roadblock to digital transformations for a variety of reasons:
- Maintenance & Support: Maintenance costs can exceed the original development budget within five years of the initial product release.
- Integration & Compliance: Failure to update your products to remain compliant with changing industry regulations can lead to hefty financial penalties.
- Security: Legacy software that isn’t on the cutting edge of software security can lead to a data breach – and data breaches cost software product development companies an average of $4M, according to IBM.
- Lost Business Opportunities: Lack of innovation can impact your business’ long-term profitability and competitiveness.
- Organizational Agility & Efficiency: The average efficiency of your software product development team can increase up to 80% through the usage of a modern PaaS with automation tools and prebuilt components.
Failing to stay ahead of the modernization game gives your competitors a leg up on you; if you’re getting beat by the competition, you need to ask yourself three questions:
Do your competitors have the upgrades that your products do not?
Legacy software is a roadblock to future efficiency. Oftentimes, these legacy software programs are complex and deeply intertwined with the inner workings of your organization. As the CTO (Chief Technology Officer), you are responsible for identifying new technologies and evaluating the business case for investing in them.
What Platform/PaaS Features Should CTOs Look for in a Modernization Project?
Did you know that only 30 percent of the businesses that need to modernize their legacy software actually succeed? When choosing a new platform to develop and modernize your product, you should look for:
- Pre-built application components built into the platform that:
- Minimize the amount of “plumbing” code your team needs to build
- Drive consistency and simplicity into your codebase
- Improve readability and maintainability of your code
- Maximize reusability/longevity of the assets you build
- The platform should offer development options for web, desktop, and mobile cross-platform access to data.
- Localization and globalization features that support growth into new markets.
- Within the same integrated environment, the new platform should facilitate the following for the software product:
- Designing
- Building
- Testing
- Deploying
- Monitoring
- Updating
How Do CTOs Start the Modernization Process?
When it comes to modernizing your legacy software, understand the problems with the current system and take the time to determine what you need. Don’t invest in technology that isn’t going to bring a return for your business. Comb through the legacy system and note what is working, what is not, and what isn’t used anymore. Start a list of pain points and opportunities to streamline and be more efficient. Make sure you consider future growth when working on your software modernization. It doesn’t need to just work now, but going forward. Have a clear strategy for implementation by following these four steps:
Discover
Work with sales, marketing, and product teams to determine what business objectives you need to achieve with the modernization of the software products.
Decide
Does your product design and software development team have the skills needed to modernize your software product in a timely, efficient manner? If not, choosing the right complementary development platform and support infrastructure should be your first priority. If your in-house software developers have the skill set, do they have the right infrastructure, leadership, and development platform?
Design
Your product design and engineering team should generate:
- High-level architecture blueprints/system maps
- User Experience (UX) Models
- Believable estimates for the required effort with realistic delivery dates
Modernize
Implement the platform your development team will use to execute this modernization and train the team on its usage. It is important to ensure that the legacy system can coexist with the upgrades as the transition is taking place. These strategies will be most successful with an expert. Once you decide to invest in modernization, you have to create excitement and buy-in for your team.
Your Modernization Strategy
Driving toward a low-maintenance future is key to an effective, pragmatic modernization strategy. Not doing so would be tragic. This all serves to better enhance the end user’s experience and raise your customers’ satisfaction levels. To ensure your business is getting it right, and optimizing your efforts for this transformation, remember these five helpful tips to include in your modernization strategy:
- Set Clear Objectives – direct company resources and establish performance standards.
- Analyze Resources – appoint Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to ensure the right people take on the right tasks; analyze the skill sets of technical team members.
- Assess Different Approaches – decide if you want to completely replace the legacy system (Rip & Replace), move it to another architecture (Rehost/Replatform), or freshen the legacy interface and offer a more modern experience while maintaining the legacy system (Incremental Approach).
- Measure Improvements – set clear objectives and measure results.
- Stabilize Leadership – make sure organizational stability is in place prior to implementation of the modernization strategy.
Don’t let the fear of change keep you from acting. Use the tips from this CTO Guide to Legacy Software Modernization to analyze your legacy systems and find opportunities for modernization and then commit to a plan of action.
Regardless of the approach you choose, hold yourself and your team accountable for delivering net new value to your customers in one way or another every 90 days as you progress.
I’m sure after reading this, you have questions that need answers and ideas to share, which is why my calendar is always open to you.
Schedule 10 minutes with me today to talk about what modernizing your legacy software could look like for you.