‘Tech modernisation should not be about complex integration’

Choice is wonderful, fuelling competition in stores and online via virtual shopping baskets across digital devices.

However, when it comes to grasping the challenge of modernising the technology stack, the choice hasn’t always been as attractive.

Commit to a potentially career-defining (or ending) high-expense, risky, all-consuming wall-to-wall programme of replacements and upgrades, or keep the creaking, increasingly obsolete architecture on life-support for another business cycle (or another CEO)? Neither is a mouth-watering prospect.

When leadership demanded better digital experiences – particularly when it became a necessity during the pandemic – they weren’t always willing to accept the requirement to pay off the underlying technology debt to get there.

Like an old car, “make do with what we have for another year” was an outcome frequently reached.

“The architecture’s vintage and accumulated technical debt is often served by a shrinking pool of talent, and missed or rejected opportunities to modernise will come home to roost”

This will be the case if you look under the bonnet of many of the UK’s largest retailers. In truth, it is a scenario with some obvious financial advantages – the IT estate will be fully depreciated, using on-premise hardware with just one or two individuals responsible for administering minimal maintenance.

Conversely, replacing the system will be expensive and a move to cloud-based solutions will hit the P&L.

However, the architecture’s vintage and accumulated technical debt is often served by a shrinking pool of talent who can keep systems running, and missed or rejected opportunities to modernise will eventually come home to roost.

This could manifest as systems that fall over during peak trading periods or via vulnerabilities from a cyber-security perspective, where legacy systems are increasingly unable to be sufficiently patched or made GDPR-compliant.

Tech modernisation should not be about complex integration. In fact, that should be the last option.

Rather, plotting a path to shrink antiquated monolithic systems, while preserving the ‘heart’ in the form of systems of record, will afford you freedom to deploy an approach where either best-of-breed solutions or in-house developed microservices can connect to this core.

In the midst of a muddled IT estate, company boards want to understand the fastest path to business value. They want accurate, insightful management information and an enhanced customer experience that isn’t dependent on the gravitational pull of a black hole of legacy sunk tech debt.

Increased agility (and, of course, security) can be best viewed initially from your customers’ vantage point. From there, work back to simplify their journey as well as the steps you need to take as a business to surface the richest data to inform decision-making.

I’ve seen this hybrid – or, as it is increasingly framed, ‘composable’ – approach to technology deliver incredible results at astounding pace, particularly where focus shifts from a complex system build to surfacing the data that will be most beneficial to running the business.

“Retail businesses cannot limp on with aging technology indefinitely. They will experience greater difficulties in accessing data and tech support and see heightened exposure to cyber vulnerabilities”

In this scenario, months of development time give way to a few days of integration development and data pipeline builds to support analysis and insight, delivering business value more rapidly than was possible before.

Ultimately, retail businesses cannot limp on with aging technology indefinitely. They will experience greater difficulties in accessing data and tech support, and see heightened exposure to cyber vulnerabilities.

This unplanned ‘strategy’ stands in the way of becoming a data-led business with a consumer focus. And, if you believe that the pursuit of a data-centric view is tied to a lengthy and costly wall-to-wall ERP technology replacement programme, it’s worth remembering that history has shown that whatever you might be building now will more than likely not be what you need when it’s finished…

The good news is that an either/or scenario is no longer necessary. You no longer have to choose between the rock and the hard place.

Returning to the topic of choice, today’s options are more liberating and progressive. Choose how to maximise existing tech with emerging tech. Choose how to act on the data insights you gather. And, ultimately, choose how to build a better experience for your customers.