Why disjointed legacy apps need to be better manage
Organisations everywhere face a common issue in managing the myriad of applications that support their business functions. Manufacturing, logistics, customer support, sales, billing, finance, human resources – all these functions and more are often encumbered by a mishmash of systems and processes that can seriously hamper productivity if left unchecked. Streamlining legacy applications can bring huge efficiency and cost saving benefits.
Traditional to cloud-based
It’s not uncommon for companies to find themselves with a complex matrix of apps built up over the years as new apps are added - some built in-house and others supplied by third party vendors - often without retiring older apps. Supporting technologies can range from traditional mainframe resources to modern cloud-based hosting platforms. Worse, the skills needed to properly support old technology and software may no longer be available in house.
Greater innovation
This disjointed environment is inefficient and costly to manage and maintain. Workflows are cumbersome and inflexible. Rapidly changing business needs are unfulfilled. Innovation is choked.
Improved efficiency
There is also a lack of visibility of the true performance being achieved. Dashboards reporting system performance as green can too often mask red flags when it comes to customer satisfaction.
The good news is that a more effective way to manage the applications landscape can turn the situation around, but it must be coordinated, efficient and automated.
Legacy applications management success story
When a top-tier insurance organisation struggled to manage and optimise its business applications, NTT DATA successfully transitioned the company to a best in class application management service.
This service successfully reduced the number of adverse, app-related incidents by 40% in year one, as well as resolving any remaining issues at a rate 25% higher than previously, thanks to better support coverage and application knowledge.
What does a well-managed app landscape look like?
Continuous improvement
Apps are best managed in the same way as products. Once implemented they need to be continuously evaluated and maintained. And once they reach their natural end of life, they need to be decommissioned or re-engineered. In this regime of continuous improvement, errors are rapidly identified and fixed, systems are regularly maintained and patched, and app performance is optimised.
Simplification
This can all be highly resource-intensive, which is why NTT DATA’s Dynamic Applications Management & Outsourcing (DynAMO) solution is the right approach for many organisations looking to efficiently simplify their app environment.
Mission critical support
NTT DATA works with clients to understand their mission-critical needs, no matter how complex, and apply an app management solution tailored to those needs. Instead of offering traditional outsourcing solutions, NTT DATA is flexible and adaptive, focusing firmly on continuously reducing overall costs by simplifying the client’s application estate.
We helped an accountancy body by centralising applications onto a single platform which reduced costs by £0.5m per year
Proven approach, bespoke solutions
NTT DATA takes the time to understand each organisation’s situation and find the best way to optimise performance and drive down total costs. Yet, providing tailor-made solutions does not mean reinventing the wheel every time. NTT DATA’s wide-ranging experience has enabled us to build a four-step framework that can successfully deliver results, project after project. In fact, NTT DATA’s DynAMO framework has proved so successful that we have never lost an AMO contract renewal in the UK to a competitor.
DynAMO encompasses four stages: engagement, analysis and planning; transitioning-in; service delivery and optimisation; and transitioning-out.
Dedicated transition managers ensure the NTT DATA team is brought rapidly up to speed with each customer’s systems and how to run them.
A continuous process of improvement
Leading-edge tools
We have also invested in developing our own, leading-edge tools to support the DynAMO process. These are built in-house using our long experience of customer issues to ensure they are relevant to the day-to-day challenges companies face with their legacy app environments. Our tools help us to automate the analysis of incident trends, exposing recurring issues and fast tracking root cause analysis and permanent fixes. These tools also underpin our Continuous Service Improvement regime.
Continuous modernisation
NTT DATA’s promise for DynAMO clients is one of continuous modernisation, with streamlined processes and workflows improving core business outcomes. These in turn deliver improvements in innovation and automation that feed into better performance monitoring and predictive analytics, which can both provide a significant boost for the customer experience. This combines with a razor-sharp focus on cost optimisation to help clients shift significant resources from ‘run’ to ‘grow’.
One team, many capabilities
NTT DATA’s one-team approach enables clients to work directly with our team members both on the front line, doing the work, and those in our distributed delivery centres around the world. Our local teams consist of experts who specialise in providing a tailored level of support direct to UK customers.
We can apply our well-proven, DynAMO framework, best practices and tools for monitoring performance to any business function. This provides a range of business-boosting intelligence, such as Dynatrace to support predictive fault assurance.
We promise to deliver continuous modernisation with streamlined processes and workflows resulting in greater innovation
Brochure - 10 min read
Are your legacy systems automated
How a streamlined app landscape boosts productivity
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