As automation and digitization transform the world of business, various well-resourced incumbents who were once dominating the industry are losing out to upstarts. Conventional enterprises eyeing the e-commerce space fail to match with the services offered by digitized marketplaces like Amazon. Automative companies are still falling behind Tesla’s initiatives, and even after making significant investments, no taxi service has been able to ward off Uber’s rise.
So, why only a handful of companies are surfacing as the pioneers in the data-driven world?
Zero legacy baggage is one of the reasons.
Companies jeopardizing their reputation, branding, and relationships while attempting unproven feats are suffering from industrialist’s dilemma: legacy systems that once led to the success in the industrial era are holding incumbents back today.
Organizations relying on legacy systems have a huge legacy baggage that conflicts with the needs of digital business models.
Truth is, legacy systems are not equipped to tackle high-data volumes arising in the ecosystem and keep pace with the high volume of real-time transactions. Constrained in existing value chains, they are not able to foster deep relationships with their customers. Aging legacy systems are also vulnerable to security breaches that make organizations difficult to work with. In the worst case, such enterprises might resemble a leaky bucket, where they encounter a new breach as soon as the previous one is fixed.
They are also expensive to operate and maintain which leaves less room for innovation. Fresh opportunities are compromised. Additionally, legacy technology lacks agility and efficiency to outperform digital competition.
Other drawbacks of legacy systems include:
The inability to handle multiple data types Manual integration and customization Little visibility into data flows Poor error ID and resolution processes Increased latency in data movement, mainly due to one-off or customized integrations Moving Past the Legacy Systems In order to eliminate these drawbacks, legacy systems have to be transformed. Enterprises can rely on modern technologies such as an integration platform to transform old legacy systems for capturing information in real-time and then processing it to provide a delightful experience to end-consumers. Without making dramatic changes to legacy systems, integration platforms can utilize their knowledge and power and connect them with modern systems to process the multitude of information residing in these systems. This is how Uber could make a rider’s experience easier and more convenient than taxicabs did. Amazon, Tesla, and more share similar stories: Their success is established on the ability to provide a new level of intimacy to digital relationships using an integrated environment. 3 Ways Integration Platforms can help Enterprises Improves Onboarding: Integration platforms allow firms to onboard new applications and partners faster up to 80%. With features like pre-built templates, interactive dashboard, etc., such integration platforms optimize onboarding experience, allowing firms to personalize their offerings and better orchestrate how they serve customers. This helps to create a strong first impression on the customers, thereby improving Net Promoter Score (NPS), customer experiences, and customer satisfaction. Improves IT Productivity: IT can focus on governance role as it no longer has to procure, install, and maintain a multitude of systems as well as integrations between them, increasing IT productivity. Further, a significant reduction in operational costs can be realized while IT time can be spent on improving business operations. Integration platforms also enable organizations to drive their digital transformation initiatives, but without requiring expert IT resources to pull levers within each business to make changes and evolution come true. Improves Security: Integration solutions offer a secure, end-to-end encrypted environment for allowing data exchange and transfer in real-time between varied applications. Every user is individually authorized and authenticated immediately when they are registered to the application, and thus the risks of security breaches are greatly reduced. To conclude, integration transforms legacy systems to help enterprises tap into fresh business opportunities with improved onboarding, increased IT productivity, and improved security. Certainly, this doesn’t mean the transformations will be straightforward or pain-free. Whether the change happens using a revolutionary (big bang) or evolutionary (band-aid) approach, enterprises will have to make some difficult decisions indeed. So, are you ready for the change?