Most organizations have economized considerably during the last two years, and recognize that this approach must continue for the foreseeable future as the economic environment remains volatile, and keener competition for revenues dictates the need to be lean and mean. At the same time, it is broadly accepted that strategic needs in the next economic phase dictate the earliest possible organizational transformation, in order to be best positioned for the more intense competition that is fully expected in recovering markets.
Ovum believes that there are increasing expectations of the role of IT to support and enable the recovery, through accelerating business transformation and increasing business agility. The most mature areas of business-critical technology and IT infrastructure are often those in which opportunities for transformation remain untapped – despite deep understanding typically being available of the risks and architectural disadvantages entailed in their continued use, as well as the readily evident cost issues. Modernizing these technologies would unlock funding that can be used to strengthen and grow the organization, and overcome any disadvantage relative to competitors who might already be achieving the benefits of more cost-effective and productive operating models.
This White Paper explores a number of practical ways to achieve this, including optimizing mainframe development and testing processes, platform migration, and process modernization. It also looks at the benefits, return on investment (RoI), and relative risk factors for these options, and includes real case studies of the results of modernization programs as experienced by practitioners.