The growth of digital information is not slowing down. In fact, IDC expects Global DataSphere to grow at a CAGR of 25,8% through 2023, creating one trillion gigabytes of new data globally. Therefore, it is not surprising that most organizations are already beginning to prioritize digital transformation projects before the pandemic. IT leaders at these companies correctly predicted that digital maturity would have a direct impact on everything from competitive differentiation to accelerating customer satisfaction and speed-to-market initiatives. What many did not predict, however, is how quickly IT is expected to respond to how and where all employees work in 2020. The pandemic has forced us to quickly overcome a series of challenges, new challenges. The teams worked to prepare and test networks for additional traffic, support collaboration between virtual teams, and provide secure remote access to data and systems. At the same time, organizations needed to separate signal from noise to identify new business opportunities. Almost overnight, business resilience plans, or the need to keep the lights on and meet the most basic needs of customers and businesses, rose to the top of the priority list. Stories abound of IT managers performing heroic feats to enable large numbers of employees, once tied to the office, to work remotely, in many cases jeopardizing transformation projects already underway. Things are now slowly starting to unravel as we move towards the “next normal”. Many organizations have noticed that the parts of their businesses, or those of their competitors, that are adapting most quickly to these changes are those that have previously favored the transformation. In fact, research indicates that IT leaders are accelerating investments in digital transformation in response to their learnings during the pandemic. However, what is noticeably different now is how they plan to do it. This year, organizations are determining how to run their business and stay resilient, while successfully balancing the progress of digital transformation.
Stay away from removal and replacement strategies
Before the surprises of 2020, the trending approach to digital transformation was a rip and replace strategy. The idea was that the best way to tackle new problems was to start from scratch with a completely new technology, one that you could customize to your specific needs and adapt to the data you planned to manage. The critical flaw in this way of thinking was the time it took to make such a change and the risk exposure that followed when the systems of record were cancelled. Not only that, more often than not, new cyber security vulnerabilities surfaced as data moved from one system to another. Ultimately, when resources had to be immediately reallocated amid the pandemic, organizations that were in the midst of such a reform found themselves particularly compromised. That's why IT leaders are now taking a different approach to transformation. Rather than rip and replace, they seek to modernize core business systems. By seeking open, integrated, and backward-compatible technology, companies can leverage what they have, scale to digital maturity faster (often at lower cost), and avoid unnecessary risk. To highlight the benefits of this alternative approach, a recent survey noted that those who started from scratch had a 26% success rate and a 20% failure rate. In contrast, those who followed a modernization strategy achieved a 71% success rate versus a failure rate of just 1%.Successful IT modernization
The key to a successful IT modernization is understanding where you are today and where you want to go. It sounds simple on the surface, but it's much more complex once you start putting it into practice. To help you out, there are specific frameworks on the market that are designed to provide a clearer path forward. When you start updating your apps, there are also a number of crucial steps and considerations. These include removing platform dependencies and enabling API/SOA so important business functions can be reused. In addition, it is also essential to modernize data and ensure applications comply with the latest supporting technologies, as well as internal and regulatory guidelines. Last but not least, promoting the right culture to support change should be at the heart of everything you do.Balancing "run" and "transform"
The next standard is upon us, and it's up to you how to do it. It is clear that digital transformation will continue to be essential for most companies to remain competitive, engage their customers, and expose new business opportunities in the future. But what we've learned over the past year is that an air of caution must also be factored in. IT leaders need to be pragmatic in the way they pursue change so that it doesn't interfere with the way the business currently operates. In short, a balance must be found between "running" and "transforming", especially when the future is opaque and the stakes are high.- Joe Garber, Global Director of Strategy and Solutions, Micro Focus.