Realising the Potential of Digital Business Applications

Innovative software is transforming entire industries, however dated applications still hold back far too many organizations. The solution? Digital applications that leverage both documented, published interfaces and cost-effective computing resources. They help organizations unlock the information contained within their legacy systems, then combine it with information from disparate sources — including external sources from cloud-based applications or partner systems — to deliver in-context results to dramatically improve business outcomes.

A changing world sounds like an exaggeration? It’s not if you consider:

• Insurance companies find that business is quickly moving online. In a recent survey of consumers in 18 countries, nearly 80 percent said they expect to use digital channels for insurance interactions within the next few years. Insurers are responding by building both strong Web presences and rapidly evolving mobile apps.
• Healthcare providers are being challenged by new websites, such as doctorcareanywhere.com, which lets consumers communicate and receive prescription medications from doctors online and PatientsLikeMe.com, which compares an individual’s treatments, symptoms and experiences with those of other patients.
• Banks are under pressure to respond as consumers shift activities to online and mobile applications. Large banks have closed hundreds of branches and eliminated thousands of jobs as their ranks of mobile-banking customers continue to skyrocket.

The list of software-transformed industries goes on to include automotive, film, media, education and many others. Entire disciplines are being transformed by software, too. These include sales, marketing and HR.

Driving the transformation is a modern approach to building and delivering software. In contrast to yesterday’s monoliths, today’s digital applications are assembled from information services via Internet APIs. These systems cross integrate information with context to unleash value. They also support today’s focus on the cloud and mobility. These digital applications are effective at combining information, but they’re frequently slowed by legacy gaps that create information friction.

Organizations that ignore the benefits of digital applications do so at their own serious peril. They may become slow to innovate. And without the best information and services, they may spend far too much on IT operations in a “do-it-all-myself” model.

Older enterprise applications remain the dangerous norm for far too many organizations. These programs were created prior to the era of mobile ubiquity and cloud infrastructures. At the time, they were exactly the right software for the job. But since the technology world has changed, these applications seriously constrain an organizations’ ability to gain leverage in the “information economy.” They also limit speed, agility and flexibility — precisely when these capabilities are in such high demand.

The goal, then, is to open up these older applications and make data (and its value) accessible using an approach that is both more cost-effective and less risky than wholesale replacement. With this strategy, organizations can release the full value of their legacy application’s information to benefit the business. The best way to do it? With modern digital application architectures.

The Power of Digital Applications

Many digital applications loosely couple to legacy software. The old applications are largely left intact, while the new digital applications unlock the value of the information by accessing it through newly built or freshly enhanced APIs. These API-based services can also help organizations combine information from older, back-end applications in new and powerful ways. The resulting information can be used to enrich customer experiences and improve employee decisions. By adopting modern digital applications, organizations can lead in their industries, make innovative changes, display high levels of agility and dramatically improve both their speed and precision. They can deliver innovations to market quickly and effectively, make full use of both cloud and mobile computing, respond swiftly to the changing needs of customers and grow revenue while lowering costs. Organizations that resist digital applications, by contrast, will struggle to keep up. Some will lose market share. Others will become takeover targets. Still others will wonder why their financial results lag. In many cases, the answer rests in the older applications — often residing in antiquated data centres — that lock up their data, limit business agility and consume operating budget.

For the Biggest Benefits, Start Small

While many roads lead to digital enterprise applications, some will get there faster and with greater efficiency than others. To promptly deliver incremental value, consider starting small. Small projects offer multiple benefits. Compared with larger projects, they’re easier to fund, more likely to succeed, better suited for quick feedback and measurement, and easier to adjust to shifting business requirements, budgets or deadlines. To prioritize projects, IT organizations can rank proposals on a variety of criteria, such as value, complexity, risk — even timing. The ideal starter project will have high value, low complexity and risk and be positioned at a noncritical time on the business calendar. (You wouldn’t want to launch a new retail application on Dec. 24!) Cost savings are generally more attractive and easier to achieve than revenue enhancement. And all other things being equal, the bigger the potential benefits, the better. The move to digital applications will also introduce developmental and operational procedures and benefits. DevOps practices — from agile-based methodologies and centralized code-development repositories to continuous delivery — offer inherent benefits in this new ecosystem. Frequent application enhancements actually reduce risk and link the development community to the operations team in a way that energizes the business and encourages continuous improvement. That’s not to say that initial efforts to create digital applications should be modest and lack ambition. Far from it. But to avoid running over budget, having scopes changed, delivering poor-quality software and missing deadlines, stay away from unwieldy “big bang” technology projects.

Embrace the new digital app world Applications and the way they are developed have been changed forever. As all companies become software companies, what differentiates them will be the way they embrace the new world of digital applications. Will they use DevOps and continuously deliver new improvements? Will they stay in touch with users’ demands for a consumer-like experience? Will they unlock the data captured in their legacy applications? IT organizations face a big challenge in locating the funds, skills and energy to accommodate this transformational shift. But by creatively reallocating resources and partnering with industry pioneers, any business can release its full potential with digital applications.