When it comes to the technology of your business, modernization, automation and cloud migration create a three-headed monster. They all go together, but they can’t all be done together. So in the grand scheme of things, if you can only do one thing at a time, what’s the order of operations to follow? What’s the most cost effective and efficient way to accomplish these tasks? There are really two ways to get this done: waves or slices.
If you go in waves, you’re moving horizontally. It likely means that you have a lot of old and aging systems, you have a lot of problems in a lot of places. So you’re essentially going to start rolling things forward in general. You’re going to start with modernization. As you’re modernizing, you’re looking for ways to automate and/or looking for ways to migrate to the cloud. Determining what system are ready and what systems needs adjustment as proceed.
Ensure you view the process like balancing a budget. You’re investing, but you’re also going to save money. Running new systems is always cheaper than running old systems, and automation means less manpower. The cloud means that you’re paying on demand for scale, so you’re always going to reap some sort of return. You want that return to exceed your investment because that’s your savings.
The trick is figuring out where the system is that’s going to give you the biggest lift technically and the biggest economic return. What can you get rid of that eliminates a security risk, can be automated, can get rid of unnecessary work for people and make your business more efficient? As you see the savings come in roll them forward. Reinvesting the savings into the process of modernization, automation and cloud migration. This approach builds a culture around continual improvement and modernization.
The other option is do to things vertically, or in slices. In this scenario, you locate the wort offender. What system breaks the most, or causes the most problems? Tackle that one first. It might take longer than some of the other systems you are moving, but it will have the most meaningful result. If you were to take a system that doesn’t break as often, but will take less time to move to the cloud, you might not see any results at all. It’s understandable to want to do something as quickly as possible, it’s always easier to motivate people when they can see the fruits of their labor. But if the results are meaningless then it can actually be demotivating.
Starting with the oldest systems, or the systems the break the most, first, can make convincing people to get on board difficult, but it is imperative. Working on those systems will take longer, but regardless if you’re going in waves or slices, the impact is greater. You’ll end up seeing meaningful results, and make your business more efficient and secure in the process. And results yield buy in.
Remember Modernization, Automation and Cloud Migration (MAC), in that order.