Navigating the digital crossroads

Timing is everything; don’t ignore the signs that point to application modernization.

How to know when it’s time for a modernization approach

It’s no secret that technology has transformed the way we do business. Digital tools have made it easier than ever to market and provide services for the widest potential audience. However, digital transformation has also created a digital dependency. To retain a foothold within any industry and continue to provide the highest quality of goods and services, digital applications are essential. For better or for worse, technology is an intrinsic part of doing business.

All of this contributes to a common issue many organizations grapple with; how to step into their next era and embrace strategic enterprise modernization. It’s all well and good to understand how antiquated processes and legacy systems are hindering growth, but that doesn’t automatically inform what comes next. An intuitive strategy must be deployed to make a modernization approach successful.

This begs the questions; when is it necessary to overhaul your tech stack? How do you know when it’s time to modernize?

We’ve broken it down into these 3, tell-tale signs.

1. The drag of downtime

Because organizations rely so heavily on their tech stack for conducting business, poor performance in any application has a domino effect. Performance degradation in an application can look like slow response times, frequent crashes or system unavailability, and repeated user complaints.

While it might be painstaking to think about a total overhaul of your infrastructure, it’s important to consider what’s at stake and what’s being lost due to performance problems. Sure, the cost of software downtime can be more detrimental for a business-to-consumer versus a business-to-business company, but the negative impact on process efficiency and productivity is equal.

Even if you think you can tolerate the hiccups and downtime, these will undoubtedly worsen with time. Ultimately, it makes more sense to adjust to new tools, rather than continue to use applications that can no longer keep up.

2. The integration imperative

With multiple tools and applications to maintain, seamless application integration is a key component of any thriving digital ecosystem. If you’re experiencing a lack of application program interface (API) support, compatibility issues with more modern tools, and manual workarounds for data sharing, you have an integration problem. This means you’re not just spending more money on maintaining your legacy applications, but you’re spending more time and money to make sure they “play nice” with your other software. Whether it’s immediately apparent or not, this eats away at fiscal resources, and hinders business agility and innovation.

If you have a bunch of tools and none of them feature ways to safely connect to your integration ecosystem, it might be time to look for a new stack.1 With modernized tools, integrating information from one application to another isn’t a challenge—seamless exchange is facilitated by built-in APIs and a digital process that factors in data sharing.

3. The security mandate

Cybersecurity protocols and practices are necessary, especially with the ever-evolving threat landscape. But did you know that legacy applications carry a greater risk because of their outdated security protocols? If your legacy systems don’t have the necessary support for security patches and updates, if there are frequent notifications about breaches or vulnerabilities, and if there’s a lack of compliance with modern security standards, your applications’ security is compromised.

These might sound like hypothetical problems, but it’s still not worth the risk. On average, organizations lose $5.87 million in revenue from a single non-compliance event.2 There can also be significant reputational damage and consequences for a brand that experiences a security breach or is found to be noncompliant, and that’s a much harder cost to calculate.

Our modernization approach

To be successful in your modernization approach, you need a carefully executed strategy, starting with your legacy applications. Based on meetings with relevant IT teams, software audits, and careful consideration, you can determine which course of action is right for your organization. This might look like rehosting, refactoring, rearchitecting, rebuilding, or replacing applications, or a combination of these things.

It’s best to roll these updates out in phases and prioritize the tools that have the biggest business impact—knowing that this “behind-the-scenes” work will have to happen alongside daily operations. Identifying adaptable teams and individuals with the right knowledge to carry out the modernization approach also helps increase your method's efficiency. The other possibility is partnering with a digital services or managed service provider who can help your organization put their plan into action and hit their modernization goals.

At CAI, we’re experienced at navigating the many nuances of modernization and can meet you wherever you are on your journey. Check out our eguide and you can learn more about how to get started with legacy application modernization.


Endnotes

  1. Expert Panel, Forbes Councils Member. “15 Signs It’s Time to Upgrade Your Company’s Software Stack.” Forbes. January 19, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2024/01/19/15-signs-its-time-to-upgrade-your-companys-software-stack/.
  2. Brady, Tim. “The True Cost of Non-Compliance.” Colligo. May 14, 2024. https://www.colligo.com/cost-of-non-compliance/.

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