Many companies’ IT landscapes are built around large, customized systems and a monolithic architecture. Solutions that once perfectly suited the business needs can today be cumbersome and time-consuming to maintain. In a time where many businesses experience constant change and want to seize new business opportunities, it becomes problematic if IT platforms are rigid and outdated. We need solutions that are geared for quick adaptation, can meet new demands, and, most importantly, ensure easy access to data. And this can be achieved easier than you may think.
A company’s success can reflect its digitalization
Businesses must be able to quickly deliver on development tasks, ensure modern and agile solutions, and robust performance – all of which often clash with a sea of operational tasks.
Many companies are still stuck in manual processes and inefficient workflows. This drains the company’s ability to operate efficiently, which could be significantly improved if, for instance, these processes were automated.
We are convinced that companies that are well advanced on their digitalization journey have a major competitive advantage.
Ambitions must be sky-high
It's no secret that many companies are starting to move their infrastructure, applications, integration, and data from on-premises environments to the cloud. This ensures the scalability and flexibility needed.
However, we still encounter companies that hesitate because they have to invest money upfront to modernize their IT landscape. And yes, the cloud journey can be a more expensive solution in the short term compared to the existing on-prem model.
But as all strategists know, we need to be able to look ahead and see things from a broader perspective. Think of the cost of wasted work hours, declining competitiveness, and lost revenue from not executing the strategy the company will rely on in the future.
Azure cloud platform makes your systems communicate
A good starting point for the digitalization journey can be reviewing your integrations. The modernization journey and the shift from on-prem to the cloud mean that you need to rethink your system integrations and build a secure bridge from the old solutions to the new ones.
Here, it is beneficial to explore Microsoft’s Azure Integration Services, which is Microsoft’s go-to platform for integrations and API management in Azure. Think of it as a complete toolbox, where all the components needed to create a modern event-driven microservices architecture are readily available.
The strength of the platform is that it allows you to easily connect your respective systems (both on-prem, Cloud, and SaaS) in a "loosely-coupled" setup – so the business is always updated with the latest information and data. When you need to replace old solutions with new ones, you simply disconnect the old ones and connect the new ones. It’s that simple.
Recommendation: Break the journey into steps
It will be difficult to realize a company’s strategy with an outdated IT setup – which is why it’s crucial to kickstart the digitalization journey. Of course, it can seem overwhelming in terms of both time and money if one thinks everything needs to be done all at once – but the journey can easily be broken down and taken gradually.
We recommend that companies:
- Prioritize efforts based on the company’s strategy. Where are improvements and features needed that the current IT setup cannot deliver to support the strategy and customer journey?
- Analyze the company’s current situation and identify goals and priorities for the transformation. Is there a need to modernize applications, migrate older infrastructure, improve security, ensure access to data, or implement better DevOps practices?
- Begin the transformation based on the prioritized action plan.
Good luck with your transformation. If you need any kind of inspiration, please fill in the form below.
Contact us