Introduction
As companies grow older, the software they originally built their IT platforms on ages with them. These aged platforms become increasingly obsolete as new, faster software is developed and released. Continuing to use an outdated IT system will hurt the company in the future. Due to the sheer number of technical innovations that are constantly entering the market, a company that doesn’t stay on top of their systems upgrades will soon be left in the dust, as the competition moves forward with the latest technology. Modernizing your IT platform using generally accepted best practices will make your system easier to maintain, increase your competitiveness on the market, and improve your user satisfaction levels.
Easier Maintenance
Old IT platforms have the potential to become very problematic very quickly. It could be that the people who know how to run the system are retiring in the next few years and that the system is based on an old coding language that isn’t common knowledge, or that the company that created the platform isn’t in business anymore and thus can’t provide maintenance for their product. Whatever the reason, when old IT systems malfunction, it is very hard to get them back up and running in a timely and cost-effective manner. New systems will be much easier to maintain because your employees will be familiar with their structural foundations for years to come.
While completing an IT modernization project might seem more expensive than just repeatedly fixing the old system, it is actually financially smarter to pay the upfront costs of IT modernization. Old systems will break more often than new systems will, and you also have to keep in mind the money that will be lost while the rest of the company waits for the system to be fixed. Even though IT modernization has some upfront costs that seem daunting, it is still much more cost effective than continually fixing an old system.
In addition to saving money, IT modernization will also save time. Because the IT department will no longer having to struggle with an old, complicated system, they can turn their attention to other tasks. They will have more time to focus on user support and projects to make the system run even better. Having a modernized IT platform also means the company will have faster response times to new market demands or other issues that arise. This agility in the software is invaluable to companies in an age when speed is everything.
Increased Competitive Advantage
Modernization equals survival for companies looking to compete on the online market. Other companies are constantly growing and evolving when it comes to technology. Startups, by virtue of their nature, are almost always using the newest technologies because that’s the best that is available when they start their company. In order to be competitive, you have to be up to date with the current advances in technology.
IT modernization allows you to configure your IT platform so that you can easily integrate with new technologies, instead of having to struggle to get the new tech to work with an outdated system that wasn’t built for easy integration. It also means that when new technologies become available, it will be simple to implement them within your system because the system was designed with the capacity to integrate as smoothly as possible.
Improved User Satisfaction
Due to the fact that computers are now common tools, and have been for decades, users have base-level expectations about what their experience will be like online. Big companies like Amazon and Google have set the bar for user experiences; people expect a fast, reliable, and frictionless experience. While not every company is going to be able to compete with these and other tech giants, companies should understand that they need to provide a comparable user experience. Otherwise, users (whether they be an employee or a customer) will become frustrated and are much more likely to switch over to a competitor who offers a better, more streamlined user experience.
The older the IT platform, the more likely it is that the user experience it provides isn’t up to current user standards. Modernizing the platform helps meet user demands because the IT platform is up to date and designed to be as user friendly as possible.
IT Modernization Best Practices
Undergoing IT modernization can be intimidating for a number of reasons. Usually, the systems that need the most work are the very systems that are so integral to a company’s functionality that no one has dared touch them for fear of hurting the company as a whole. This fear means that instead of updating the system as time passes, companies have elected to try to add to the system in order to make it more up to date. Unfortunately, this just leads to more confusion down the road due to the fact that the system is now a combination of many different software types and installs.
These reasons have understandably held companies back from modernizing their IT systems for years, but by keeping in mind a couple best-practice methods, IT modernization becomes much simpler. First, make sure that everyone on the modernization team has a good understanding of the old system and the goals of the company moving forward. Having this understanding will ensure that the end result of the modernization is something the company both needs and wants. Second, it is generally a good idea to hire a team of outside professionals to aid your existing IT team in implementing IT modernization. Your IT team brings their in-depth knowledge of the old system, and the professional modernization team brings their experience which helps speed up the process. Modernization experts also know the best, and least painful, ways to modernize IT platforms.
Conclusion
IT modernization provides so many benefits for companies. It allows for easier maintenance by having a standardized platform that saves you both money and time. It increases a company’s ability to compete in a very competitive market by making it simple to integrate with the newest technology. It helps improve user satisfaction by providing a user experience similar to what users are accustomed to due to the influence of tech giants like Amazon and Google. Even though IT modernization can seem like an impossible task due to the complexity of the software involved, having an in-depth knowledge of the software and a good team of experts to guide the process make it a relatively painless effort that will benefit the company greatly.