IT Deployments: Then and Now

There’s a stark difference between the IT implementations that were happening a few years ago vs those that are happening nowadays. Instead of focusing on routine IT infrastructure related projects, IT heads are now focusing on implementing projects that can bring about significant change in the organization. Here are the key things that I've noticed:

Anil Chopra, Group Editor-Technology

Mobility is on every organization’s agenda:

This is one area that’s top priority for just about every CIO, be it a utility company creating a mobile app for its consumers to manage complaints, billing, etc. or a cement manufacturer empowering its field force with a mobile app that provides warehouse supply status, or a healthcare provider allowing patients to access their medical records on mobile. Mobility has become the glue that binds their IT infrastructure. In fact, many organizations are now embracing a ‘mobility first’ strategy.

Integration platforms are in demand:

As organizations look to make mobility a part and parcel of their day to day working, the challenge lies in integrating them with existing back-end business applications like ERP, CRM, analytics, etc. This can become a serious security concern because it requires giving access to enterprise applications from outside for any device (smartphones, tablets, mobile devices, IoT devices, etc.) from anywhere and to anyone. This is why integration platforms, APIs, SOA frameworks, etc. are in demand. They allow organizations to control what data can or can’t be shared by an application. As a result, they become a stepping stone to the organization's digital transformation journey.

Application consolidation and legacy transformation are high on the agenda

Legacy systems transformation and upgradation is high on many CIOs' agenda, to allow access to applications from mobile devices, and to allow different applications to talk to each other. Organizations are therefore aggressively looking to upgrade those applications that are not able to do this. We’ve noticed companies change their platforms, consolidate multiple applications into a single one to improve manageability, and even chuck out existing branded off-the-shelf enterprise applications for in-house developed ones. Every organization seems to feel a strong need to bring in greater agility, thanks to all the digital disruption taking place.

Small agile teams being setup to experiment and fail early

Organizations are realizing the need for a more agile IT infrastructure, so besides transforming their legacy systems, they’re also setting up small IT teams or demo labs.  These are meant to experiment with new technologies and implement projects in short times. They’re supposed to roll-out early and also fail early so that they can continue improvising until they introduce something new for the users.

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