By Tim Vineyard –
In your business, when is the right time to evaluate your current software solutions for replacement? Do you purchase a new packaged solution, or subscribe to a new cloud solution, or should you rebuild with a custom software solution that meets your strategic and specific business requirements better than other commercial solutions?
The advancement in new custom technology platforms, tools, and solutions makes it more feasible than ever to develop custom software for your specific business goals and requirements. Several commercial software solutions also provide enabling capabilities that may also allow customization for your business needs. There are new technology frameworks, techniques, tools, and other innovations that accelerate the custom software development velocity and may reduce the overall costs compared with commercially available solutions.
At IT 4 The Planet, we talk daily with businesses that are concerned whether their current software solutions and systems need to be replaced, updated, or if it is time to completely rebuild. Depending on the scenarios and projects, the project may begin with some of the latest in technology innovation to reduce costs and improve speed of the project while delivering a custom software solution to meet the business needs.
It is important to answer the most critical question – “When is it time to evaluate refreshing or replacing my current software solution?”
The following are key factors to answer that question:
Strategic: Does your business have strategic business processes or key strategic initiatives that are core to your business model and provide that step up on your competition? If you have strategic business processes, then a custom software solution may be your strategic advantage for you against your competitors. We can assist you in developing a plan for your software solutions for the longer term – custom solutions that provide a strategic advantage over best of class solutions that accelerate your business.
Security: Cyber security is one of the greatest risks for any business and it is imperative that all software and technology platforms are integrating and leveraging best of class security tools, solutions, protocols, processes, and best practices to protect the critical business assets. Aging software solutions create opportunities for cyber criminals to locate vulnerabilities to exploit and gain access to highly sensitive customer data and other mission critical business assets.
Support: Every software solution has an end-of-life date. This is the time that the core technology platform is no longer supported by the software vendor and requires either a migration to a new platform provided or requires evaluating a completely new solution for replacement. You should know what the end-of-life date is for each software solution and develop a plan for replacement or an upgrade path for each solution.
Stability: Technology innovation growth has created compatibility challenges for aging software solutions. If your software solutions are not remaining stable or compatible with new hardware and other infrastructure changes, then it is time to evaluate new software solutions that are compatible with new innovative technology hardware and other software solutions. A software solution that has stability and compatibility issues creates costly operational challenges and is only a fraction of time away from severely negatively impacting your business with software failures.
Scalability: Many times businesses may start with software solutions that meet the needs of the business initially, but then are not scalable with the growth and changing dynamics of the business. Every business should develop an IT Strategic Plan to align the technology needs with the growth and business strategy.
At IT 4 The Planet, our team has the expertise to assist you in not only answering the question above, but also to help you navigate the entire technology journey for your business. The following are just a few of the services we offer our clients:
- IT Strategic Planning
- Custom Software Development
- IT Managed Services
- IT Project Management
- IT Solution Selection
- Coaching and Mentoring
- Fractional CIO Leadership
- IT Budgeting, Operations, Execution
Now is the best time to evaluate your existing software solutions for the long term. Stop putting it off and give us a call today! We can help you… It is time, so give us a call today!
