Already, I feel as if the term “Digital Transformation” has been overused. However, it may be because I am embedded in the digital industry and not an outsider to the phrase. A lot happens in an internet minute – 450,000 tweets get sent, over $750,000 gets spent online, 3,500,000 Google searches happen, 4,100,000 videos are viewed on YouTube, and nearly 1,000,000 swipes occur on Tinder! The digital revolution has happened and if you haven’t considered how you are going to survive or continue to compete in the age of convenience shopping, viewing, searching and swiping then now is the time!
With a new generation of technology consumers are growing up and demanding what they like to use, your firm has to stay relevant and even your legacy IT systems simply cannot be left untouched because it was too risky to or simply couldn’t be transformed.
[easy-tweet tweet=”Legacy technology needs to evolve and be part of the brave new world of the digital revolution” hashtags=”Digital, Technology “]
As I have mentioned many times before, legacy technology needs to evolve and be part of the brave new world of the digital revolution. Some of the largest firms in the world have gone out of business because of lack of foresight or even greed. Now, you may be thinking “that doesn’t affect me, my business isn’t that dependant on such a culture change”, but let me tell you, it does! If you are in business;, your prospects and future prospects are more part of that change than you are and use more up to date technology than you in the form of social media platforms (and I’m not talking about using Instagram to send a pic of my latté to my friends). Your staff workforce would be happier if you transform (ask anyone under the age of 30), your clients will see you in a different light, and your competitors will see you like another horse in the race for business and not a laggard.
Digitally transforming is not just about being visible across various platforms but, to transform your IT estate to make it easier to use, easier to support internally, easier for your clients to approach you and with the added benefit that new potential business models can be born out of the transformation. I happen to like the Flynet story in a big way as they have taken one of the oldest elephants in the room and made it sexy. Their software services are so easy to use and implement, which makes you think “why didn’t I think of this before?” No change needs to be conducted to legacy mainframe kit (although the infrastructure isn’t really legacy anymore), and with a simple HTTP service in front of the infrastructure enables (within 15mins from install), your green screen app to be present on any device, anywhere. It was a pleasure interviewing Rhiannon Dakin, Marketing Manager at Flynet – please take a look at her video for her take on how Flynet add value to legacy environments.
Neil Cattermull, Director of Cloud Practice, Compare the Cloud
Neil's focus is on developing cloud technology and big data. You can often find him advising CXOs on cloud strategy.