Applications designed in the past may be holding your organization back from embracing the future. Modernizing and migrating those applications to take advantage of the digital revolution can unlock hidden value and empower future growth, but getting the most out of application modernization involves following some critical best practices.

• Gain an understanding of your core business and functional needs and the role each application plays in current and future business processes.
• Ask what has changed since the application was originally developed, and what kind of architecture decisions were made then that no longer make sense now.
• Determine how to take advantage of advances in technology that have driven more affordable solutions such as computing power, bandwidth, data storage.
• Approach application modernization processes as part of a comprehensive strategic process that views the interactions between applications as just as important as the applications themselves.
• Modernize and harmonize data as well as applications to ensure every application views the same data at the same time, all the time.

There are also best principles and questions to ask throughout the application modernization process:

• Do you have a plan that takes advantage of efficient and effective lean development principles?
• Does your plan include measurable milestones and timelines tailored to your specific business and technical requirements?
• Do you have measurable KPIs not just for the project (timeline, budget, features) but also for your broader business objectives (cost, labor or time savings)?
• Do you have ongoing support after deployment to support users and continue business process optimization?

Don't let outdated legacy applications hold your organization back. With a clear understanding of business objectives and an application modernization strategy to help you reach them, existing tools can work in unison with new applications to unlock data's full value and prepare your organization for future growth.

If you’re interested in learning more about what could be done to bring your applications into the modern digital era, contact us today.