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Identifying the Need
Organizations of all sizes and types rely on critical applications to enable their core business drivers, but what happens when those applications no longer provide the value the organization requires? This scenario can take shape in different ways:
- Management identifies a major business opportunity that they cannot pursue without adding functionality to some of their organization’s critical applications.
- Following a buyout of another company, an organization needs to modify an outdated but critical application of the purchased organization. The acquired company lacked the resources to maintain the application, but this is now the purchasing company’s problem.
- A newly acquired application provides an organization with most, but not all, of the features needed to provide key benefits, like entering a new market or switching to a SaaS-based model to help become more competitive.
- The organization’s productivity is hindered by the technical debt of poorly written code in a critical application that forces time-consuming workarounds.
Unfortunately for organizations facing these issues, the application’s vendor is often unwilling or unable to provide customizations to address the underlying issues.
This is where application modernization fits into the equation. Application modernization involves updating a critical application by modifying portions of its code to enhance, augment, or add functionality.
Modernizing critical business applications calls for a holistic approach, however, and this involves more than just modifying an application’s code. In many cases, the technology stack surrounding the application will require an upgrade, along with the security solutions with which the app interfaces. Beyond hardware and software, the processes related to the application will almost always require some adjustments as well, which can include updates to documentation and user workflows. Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that the app will deliver maximum value to the organization, its customers, and other key stakeholders.
Considering the complexity of the task, the wise approach to application modernization is to engage a capable business transformation partner experienced in successfully completing app modernization projects. Frequently, this comes down to numbers.
An organization may have a comprehensive plan drawn up to overhaul a critical application but lack the full-time staff to dedicate to the project, making it unfeasible to tackle the project alone. An experienced business transformation partner can step in and fill the void by assessing an organization’s needs and identifying how to modify the critical application to meet those needs. After performing a gap analysis and getting approval for a road map and design plan, the project team’s programmers modify the application’s code to provide the capabilities and functionality the organization needs.
MOBIA’S Advantages
If successfully modernizing a critical enterprise application requires more than just modifying code, then successfully completing a major app modernization project calls for more than a programmer and a project manager. A major advantage of a 600-employee solution provider like MOBIA is that we deploy a large, capable team that focuses on each unique facet of the project, including:
- Business Analysts at the current and future-state assessment and project planning stages, who acquire and capture a comprehensive list of organizational goals that the application must enable at the end state
- Technical Architects who perform the technical analysis of the planning stages and translate the client’s business goals into the project’s technical objectives,
- Application Specialists who cover a wide range of vendor solutions and possess decades of experience in adding or enhancing application functionality,
- Cybersecurity Experts who ensure any new enhancements will be fully integrated with the client’s existing cybersecurity tools and protocols, and
- Project Managers to establish key project milestones, provide a detailed task schedule, and preside over the project to ensure deliverables are completed on time and on budget.
While the types of applications we can upgrade vary widely, all app modernization projects have one thing in common: the need to thoroughly plan the project. An insufficiently planned project can produce an overhauled application that fails to deliver what the client needs, sending the project team scrambling back to the drawing board to provide what’s missing.
To ensure this unpleasant scenario does not unfold, MOBIA follows a standardized six-stage methodology on every application modernization project.
To ensure this unpleasant scenario does not unfold, MOBIA follows a standardized six-stage methodology on every application modernization project.
Our Six Stage Process
Stage one
Discovery and Current State Assessment
Stage One is the Discovery and Current State Assessment. At this stage, we work with the client to gain a comprehensive understanding of the business context. We strive to answer these questions:
- What is the organization trying to achieve?
- How does the business generate revenue (if applicable)?
- How does the application(s) impact how the organization deals with customers?
- What is the experience like for people currently using the application(s)?
- What do the people working with the application(s) need to be successful?
Stage two
Future State Development
Stage Two consists of Future State Development and draws on the insights gleaned from Stage One. During this stage, MOBIA’s project team members convene to share their findings and collaborate to design a complete solution that ensures the modifications to the application(s) will provide the desired business outcomes.
At this stage, we also review the client’s full complement of key business applications to determine which can, and should, be modified. This process of app rationalization is primarily for larger organizations with a high number of applications potentially in scope.
Stage three
Gap Analysis
Stage Three is the Gap Analysis. In this stage, we evaluate the findings of the current and future state evaluations and identify what functionality is missing in the current iteration of the critical application(s) to deliver the desired outcomes of the future state.
Stage four
Initial Recommendations
In Stage Four, MOBIA presents its Initial Recommendations. During this stage, MOBIA will identify how the client can leverage emerging trends in application modernization.
This may include containerization for environments leveraging Red Hat OpenShift, or CI/CD Pipeline technologies such as GitLab. We will also demonstrate how to implement DevSecOps best practices for securing the code during the development lifecycle and address cultural issues like the relationships between senior management, security operations, and software development.
Stage Five
Road Map Development
Stage Five of the process is Road Map Development. Up to this point, we will have provided recommendations to help the client understand what needs to be done. At this all-important stage, the MOBIA project team will develop and submit a detailed, actionable plan that establishes the sequence in which to perform the tasks and the dependencies that must be navigated. Along with a task schedule, the plan describes how we will implement the recommendations in a sensible way to achieve the client’s desired future state.
MOBIA takes a holistic approach to each road map, incorporating strategies for overcoming challenges to the project that may arise. For example, we may address resistance due to budget constraints by prototyping the solutions and conducting an app rationalization presentation for key client stakeholders. In so doing, we conclusively demonstrate how modernizing the critical applications will empower everybody who uses them.
Stage Six
Implementation
Stage Six is the Implementation phase of the project. At this stage, the MOBIA team will complete its final collaboration sessions with key stakeholders and submit a final project proposal with a detailed task schedule and project milestones. After the client signs off on the proposal, our team gets to work on the application itself.
While executing on the design often requires updating the application’s code, much more typically goes into a successful project. Where necessary, our team will update the surrounding technology stack to ensure cross-functionality with the critical applications’ new features. At this stage, we also implement the recommendations of our cybersecurity specialists to ensure every new feature not only follows secure development and operational processes but is also fully integrated with the client’s cybersecurity practice. Finally, MOBIA’s business analysts will update any other internal processes that will be affected by the new features and updates, including workflows and staff roles & responsibilities.
Knowledge Transfer and Support
After we test and enable the improvements to the critical applications, their surrounding technology stack, and related processes, MOBIA continues to fulfill its role as a long-term partner. While MOBIA offers postimplementation support and periodic reviews of the application(s), we focus on effective knowledge transfer throughout the project.
Our model is based on working alongside each client when planning and conducting the app modernization project. By making the client’s team part of the entire process, we integrate their input along the way and help them gain a solid understanding of the improvements we’re making. MOBIA assiduously avoids a “black box” approach in which the consultant keeps the customer at arm’s length during the project and then hands the client a final product they must now maintain but about which they know very little.
As we close out each project, we conduct final training workshops, coupled with informal knowledge transfer discussions with client end users and administrators, to ensure our customer is fully knowledgeable about the enhancements to their critical application(s) and how to use them. MOBIA also offers ongoing support services customized to the client’s needs.
Summary
For any large organization looking to seize a new business opportunity, update its processes to remain competitive, or just streamline its day-to-day operations to be more efficient, modernizing the critical application(s) on which its products or services rely isn’t just a good idea, it’s mandatory. The good news is that an experienced and capable business transformation partner can do the job. However, when selecting a service provider, be sure to ask these questions:
- Where do you assess and incorporate business needs into your planning stages?
- Does your project scope include the processes and environment surrounding the critical application (e.g., technology stack, user workflows, automation, compliance, and administrative overhead)?
- How do you transition from recommendations to actionable tasks?
- How do you integrate security throughout the project?
- How do you engage, and impart knowledge to, clients throughout the project?
- How do you support the application once the modernization project is complete?
- In what ways have you applied these practices into previous application modernization projects for other clients?
These questions separate the conventional service providers from the trusted partner who will take the holistic approach required to carry out a successful application modernization project. When critical applications need an upgrade, the job must be done right the first time because extended disruptions or downtime are too costly to accept. However, when an experienced business transformation partner is at the helm, you can rest assured that your application modernization project will succeed and provide substantial benefits to your organization.
Ready to explore how application modernization can enable your organization to achieve its strategic goals? Schedule a call with a MOBIA Solutions Architect, or assess your organization's readiness to modernize your applications
Ready to explore how application modernization can enable your organization to achieve its strategic goals? Schedule a call with a MOBIA Solutions Architect, or assess your organization's readiness to modernize your applications
