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Building a Roadmap To IT Modernization

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Technology advancement is accelerating. To lead the way, a business must bring value by using the most current technology available. By modernizing legacy applications, businesses improve their agility and their clients’ user experience.

IT modernization brings an organization’s existing software and hardware up to current standards. The goal is to align IT with the organization’s ever-shifting business strategies, but this is a big task. It helps to have a solid roadmap firmly in place. 

Upgrading legacy systems takes planning and organization. Be sure to look at applications, systems, services, and infrastructure while planning. Keep in mind the overall picture as you modernize. 

Another factor that must be fully understood is the budget. Today, companies spend up to 80% of their budget on legacy systems. Compare the costs of a legacy system vs. the costs of IT modernization to make a case for the change to your organization’s executives and investors.

Strategize and assess before creating a roadmap

Strategically, creating a roadmap puts your company in a good position for future upgrades, as it will address any concerns ahead of time, and will outline the activities that need to take place. Without addressing the concerns and activities ahead of time, there is no chance for a successful upgrade.

The following things should be reviewed while creating your roadmap:

• Company goals 

• Customer experience 

• Technology assessment

• User experience

• IT needs and wants

• Budget and timeline

• Communication of the changes

• New architecture

• Execution of the upgrade plan

Understand the scope of your project

As in, truly understand it. Many companies underestimate what they are getting into when they look at IT modernization. 

Create budgets; create timelines; interview stakeholders, and talk to IT resources with your company. Get a second opinion from an IT firm outside your company. Outside firms have a unique way of looking into a company, finding the details that are often overlooked by people who use the technology every day.

Review alternatives

Conduct a risk analysis of what happens if you don’t modernize. Also, conduct a risk analysis of alternative methods of modernization. Find projects that have the lowest risk, and also make the most sense for your company. Be prepared to highlight these preferred alternatives with the management team, so they truly understand what is involved. 

Outline your roadmap

Finalize your timelines and costs. Lay out your overall goals. 

Once you have that information, you can start to plot your mini-goals. Plan the iterations and migrations. Outline the personnel that you will need to reach these goals. 

Using IT architectural diagrams will help you define each goal and the steps you’ll need to achieve it. These diagrams should define migration options, buy-versus-build options, and business capabilities.

Show the system’s future architecture in your model diagram to explain the reasoning behind your decisions.  All the deliverables within the roadmap must serve a purpose. Customize them to meet the needs of your business, to manage the program you are about to put into place and to share the outcomes with stakeholders and management teams. 

This roadmap is your justification for moving the business forward and creating an IT modernization project within your company. The roadmap must be laid out and fully understood by the team managing the budget, or your project won’t get off the ground. 

How to Create a Strategic Plan for IT: SWOT Analysis

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Every business needs an IT strategy, but not all IT plans are created equal. In a recent study, out of nearly 1,800 executives surveyed, only 14% believe their digital strategy had been successful. This leaves us wondering — what can businesses do to avoid becoming part of this statistic? 

Luckily, there’s an answer, and it’s the SWOT analysis.  

The SWOT analysis 

The general principle behind the SWOT analysis is that it helps you understand the current state of your business, and how you can make it more profitable. In an IT context, this means understanding your IT situation and how you want it to improve. 

The SWOT analysis is based on four factors: 

  • Strengths (S)
  • Weaknesses (W)
  • Opportunities (O)
  • Threats (T)

To fully comprehend where your IT infrastructure is right now, and the direction you want to take it in, you should consider each of these factors in turn. So, how do you go about applying SWOT to your business? 

Strengths

There’s something you can offer customers that your competitors aren’t supplying. This is your unique selling point or USP. Your IT strategy should directly support your strengths. Ask:

  • What’s great about your IT infrastructure?
  • How does it help you build your client base?
  • What you can do to ensure that your client base grows? 
  • How you can improve your existing IT to best support the direction you’re taking your business in?

Weaknesses

Every business and every IT infrastructure has weaknesses. Your job is to identify and mitigate them. Consider:

  • How vulnerable you are to cyber attack?
  • Are you doing enough to protect sensitive and personal data?
  • How are you losing sales, and if there’s anything you can do to reverse this trend? For example, perhaps a seamless cloud-based platform will let you keep track of successful sales tactics so you can apply them easily to future transactions? 

Opportunities 

Think about the gaps in the market and how you can fill them. Focus on how your IT strategy fits into this growth. Ask, for example:

  • What is your customer looking for?
  • Can you offer something that your competitors aren’t?
  • What to do to ensure your IT infrastructure supports your expansion plans?
  • Is it time to seek outside help, such as from a managed IT services provider?

Threats 

You’ll want to understand the threats affecting your business. You should be asking:

  • Are you doing enough to keep up with your competitors?
  • Are there any new products or applications on the market which make your services obsolete, or less relevant? 
  • Are you keeping up with the latest cybersecurity threats affecting your business, and is there anything more you could be doing? 

Once you’ve compiled your SWOT analysis, you can devise an action plan for moving your business forward. Think about how to minimize your risk exposure while maximizing your opportunities. 

Finally, be sure to revise your SWOT analysis at regular intervals so that you have as complete an understanding of your company as possible.  

Summary 

The bottom line is that at least 35% of IT strategies fail because the strategies are insufficient for a company’s digital needs. With the SWOT analysis, you can be sure that you’re covering all the right IT bases and planning for your company’s long-term success. To find out more about SWOT and IT strategies, contact us today.