What can technology leaders do to keep up with the changing technology. I would segregate this into 2 sets of problems. How to upgrade your existing apps to newer technology. And secondly keep on the cutting edge of technology.
When you see your products being obsolete, technology leaders should identify the need to adapt quickly. They need to build the business cases to make an investment in upgrading the underlying technology. This is no different than building a business case for a new product or tool but adds a couple of dimensions. Leaders need to consider following end objectives while building the case for an technology upgrade.
- Will this investment help us bring in additional business (more customers).
- Will this investment help us achieve greater operational efficiency hence decrease support costs
- Will this investment help us give us edge over our competition
- Will this investment give us a launching pad for next gen
- Will this investment help us sustain in the market or we will be extinct like dinosaurs.
- Will this investment help us build intangible benefits like employee development, ease of hiring in newer associates, motivated employees etc.
- Keeping long term in mind, What is the cost of delaying the upgrade
Like any business case they need to consider the costs associated. They need to think about following
- What is the direct cost (hours, licenses, infrastructure) associated with it. Without considering all the costs a true business case cannot be built.
- What are the indirect cost associated with the change. Some of the indirect costs are management costs, employee perks, employee trainings, support costs.
- What is the disruption factor. Since you will be dedicating parts of you energy in a technology upgrade, what will lost time cost you in terms of your competition.
Answers to above will get you a very clear ROI on investments you are going to make on a major technology upgrade. You need to identify the break even point in terms of time and presnt your case accodingly. If you decide to go ahead with the upgrade (and rightly so), leaders need to put in right plans to go about the upgrade. A few approaches to go about are
Big Bang upgrade - In this approach, you can slow down or stop making upgrades to your existing platform and dedicate most of you energy in upgrading the the existing platform. Addition of newer features is stopped(or extremely slowed) until the new platform is up and running. If your business permits, this approach gives you certain advantages
- Faster time to market
- No rework in 2 platforms
- Less maintenance costs as you do not have to support multiple platforms for long.
- High operational efficiency.
- Cleaner code bases.
On the flip side, disruption is higher to existing business and if the opportunity cost is higher, it might make sense.
Gradual Upgrade - In this approach, teams will start identifying the modules on 2 axis scale of ease of implementation and impact to business. modules easy to upgrade and having more impact to business will be taken up first followed by items in 2nd or 3rd quads and finally from 4th quad (see Pic 1).
This approach is used when the disruption cost to existing business is high and big bang upgrade is not possible. Advantages with this approach is to buy more time and ability to perform upgrade with fewer resources available.
Upgrade New modules - If ROI on upgrade to existing modules is not high, then you might choose to develop newer modules/apps in latest technology and not upgrade existing apps. This will eventually lead your demise :) but it can be used to buy time while upgrading your organization skillsets.
Once you choose the strategy to upgrade, Technology leaders need to lay the ground work appropriately or they will fall flat on there faces.They need to plan for
- Right skill set for resources and sometimes they need to look outside besides training existing resources
- Ensure training to build the right skill set in the team.
- Infrastructure requirements for upgrade.
- Ensuring organization buy in and its vision for long term.
- Short term needs should not jeopardize the upgrade plans.
Keeping up with the changing technology is another challenge which technology managers need to keep in mind. As they say prevention is better than cure, keeping your platforms constantly on pace with changing technology is a better way. It is estimated that it could cost you as much as double the resources on a technology upgrade than regular upgrades. So the question is what can Leaders do to keep up. Well there is no defined recipe for this but a proactive approach helps a lot.
- Keep innovation as part of your budget. During your yearly Budget exercise, dedicate some % to technology upgrades or research.
- Formally evaluate your technology strategy with your team and management and propose recommendations.
- Keep in mind that your CEO does not understand the implications of outdated technology, it is your job to explain it to the entire organization.
- Encourage your team to be trained on new technology. Institute processes to keep your employees well informed
- Have discussion forums in your teams and across to make sure ideas are exchanged.
Keep in mind that technology change is a interesting challenge for your team and organization.
Thanks
