The Cancun conundrum….Are we there yet? - Part 1
Consider this…you want to vacation in the much talked about Cancun to explore those mysterious Mayan ruins that always fascinated you. Off you go to your friendly neighbourhood travel agent (err.. ok.. maybe… sidestep.com or travelzoo.com) to help you plan the whole trip. How would it be if the agent told you about the latest and greatest on Cancun, how the trip to Cancun is the soul's journey into the distant past that will transform you as an individual (all right..you get the point...)…but with one catch - he will not tell you nor does he know how to get you to Cancun from where you live today say, Boulder city, CO. He only knows how good Cancun is and why you should vacation there!
While you naturally shake your head in disbelief on the likelihood of such a scenario today, this situation closely reflects today's technology world. Business executives are constantly told how technology can transform their businesses, capture new markets/customers, dramatically reduce their costs, drive step change in their margins etc... There is an endless stream of technology vendors flashing their wares on how their technology can solve world hunger… but with one catch - just like the friendly travel agent they have no idea how to help you move from your existing technology landscape to the promised land. How will a bank with a 52 million customer base move their core banking platform from a legacy Hogan system to a modern world core banking platform with zero/minimal risk? How do you provide a seamless zero downtime transition from an 24X7 anytime anywhere internet banking infrastructure to a modernized platform? How will a transportation & logistics provider transition from a legacy track & trace system that is used by users in 223 countries globally to a modern Transportation Management system? How does a global auto insurance business seamlessly cut-over from a legacy claims processing system to a modern claims processing platform that can cut processing costs into half or automatically detect fraudulent claims through advanced analytics? How does a telecom giant transition risk free from a legacy billing system that processes millions of transactions of subscribers worldwide to a modern billing platform with zero errors?
There are very little standard answers to these questions. This is the question the CIO faces everyday as they constantly juggle the parameters of "more from less" mandate (read less IT budgets than last year but deliver more), risk, performance, regulatory compliance, modernize etc..
The deep chasm between new technology that is available today and the legacy systems is a reflection of the evolutionary nature of technology that is still growing up. An ever emerging set of standards, new sets of platforms, open source-proprietary software dual etc.. is also clear symptomatic evidence of the state of affairs. There is no one automated way to migrate all my bank's customers to a target platform…oops there is not even one single source of customer data in the bank. (A separate solution termed "Master data Management" promises to solve this age old problem. Details of this on how Michael can be stored in IT systems as "Mike" or "Michael" thereby causing chaos in businesses is another day's post). Then there are business processes to be changed, change management, risk management etc.. A consistent clear-cut transformation journey that is robust and risk free is amiss from solution vendors…and herein is the real challenge.
(Contd.....)
Comments
Hi
My 2 paise on the subject is present at the posted URL. It is actually a strategy to modernize and rationalize an investment bank's IT Division. My opinion is that the clear path for modernation is not yet in the sight although multiple opinions exist like yours and mine.
Thanks
Posted by: Anusheel Tandon | June 3, 2008 08:18 PM