The problem with old legacy point solutions and how to replace them with agile digital workflow

 Integrating and replacing point solutions

Whilst digital workflow is not always embraced fully and properly it would be remiss to state that nothing is in place when we work with a customer. There are certain tasks that whilst not perfect do function and deliver to the business. Typically when created this was looked at as a single project and handed to a developer or teams of developers and the task was completed and delivered. There are a few points around this that are key to understand and recognize.

The system was never designed to be changed and if it is that takes a lot of work and expense to do so, even then it won't do much outside of what it was originally designed to do. We know this is a huge drain of productivity but we need to be realistic and know that these systems take time to phase out. The operational risk of transferring the old data could be very high and also you wouldn’t want to run the risk of losing this key information. There is a way of phasing this in over time and transform your operations gradually,

The developer has moved on and no one has the knowledge to change what he created, this means starting all over again. It is quite common to have had a lot of developers all “fixing” the system to try and keep it working. This leaves you with a lot of duplicate source code. Without getting too technical and geeky this results in a “tangled” system that is hard to unpick. Allied to this the more of these “fixes” the slower and less responsive the system will be.

No mobile working is achievable. We all work mobile now, its part of the DNA of society. Whereas a few short years ago to be handed a digital tablet to complete a task on would be something you would mention to others, nowadays it’s a very common thing and the norm. Being able to mobile work is crucial for flexibility and to be without it is very limiting and leads to key information being forgotten before people return to their desk or not transferring paper notes to the system when they sit down again.

Cost of running the system.  This becomes expensive when trying to change and quite often the costs have run away and no one even knows how much it really is costing. Allied to that what about hidden costs?

Wasted time waiting for a slow and unresponsive system. We have all worked with systems that are glacial in nature and also with a system like this quite often have to start all over again after a crash.

Staff unrest is common with these type of systems, let's face it if you work for a company that is great in lots of ways but when you actually sit down to perform your tasks and its frustrating to do so it's going to alter your perception of the company and the job. People have been known to leave because they don’t want to spend all day on a clunky system and workflow and that is understandable. The cost of replacing staff is huge and also it’s a sure way of letting key personnel and talent slip through your fingers.

Training is expensive and also difficult to deliver on old hard to fathom system.

When implementing a new system its folly to adopt a blanket “rip and replace” policy. There needs to be a measured and calculated approach.

Sometimes systems are so bad that a business-critical process needs to be taken away from the old system straight away. If this is the case then the key thing is to run the new digital workflow system concurrently in one location until you know it works and then slowly repeat this task until all locations are covered and the old system is gone. If this is not the case there is a slightly more measured approach below.

You can start integrating systems that won't halt the business so for example your HR onboarding could be a place to start. Even if this had some teething problems you could still trade quite comfortably whilst this was worked through. We have had several instances where we worked out the flow of this and simply manually completed the tasks side by side until the digital workflow is completed. This does not take long and even if the digital workflow needed to be taken back to the drawing board and a new workflow created the business still functions fine while the project is ongoing. The whole point of a digital workflow solution is to show what the old system cannot do and replacing that and where you are not quite ready to replace bridge the gaps in the meantime until its eventual inevitable removal and replacement.

Scalability is key when entering this space, there is no point integrating something that is good for your business now but if you plan large and aggressive growth you don't want to be stuck with something that you have outgrown. A cloud-based flexibl solution is key and also its key that the solution is working with a multiple of large organisations. This means that as processes are developed in multiple clients you benefit from the best practice. The caveat is if the customer has paid for some bespoke work and decided they don’t want this feature released to all clients which of course happens but in the main, a good digital workflow system will benefit from being across a myriad of clients and industries.

Security is key as a lot of old systems fail in this regard. It's imperative that when you move across you have the highest level of security and is penetration tested regularly. There is simply no point going through all the work and having to do it again due to security issues.

Training should be simple and easy. The old system requires a lot of training and certain employees become go-to people to deliver this. A modern digital workflow system should be easy to train on and in most cases so intuitive it can be picked up and used with minimal training at all. Much like a good selling application on your smartphone, you don't need training on them or they wouldn't be adapted. Digital workflow should work in exactly the same way.

Adding Layers

In the case that you have a solution that’s too cumbersome to use but cannot replace it in one go as it has too many links and interdependencies across the organization. You can simply overlay something to assist and remove the employee's user issues. This way you can simply input what you need at the front end without having to change everything straight away. In the background, you can work out and gradually phase out the old legacy system in the background.

Making sure the solution is easy to use.

As mentioned above a new system should function like a best selling app. This should mean the user has the absolute base amount of information to enter. By adding dynamic workflow you can also make this intuitive for the user.

There should be easy concise buttons and the user should never be in any doubt where he goes next.

There should be a feeling of uniformity across processes so everyone becomes very familiar with the system and does not really need to think because it’s the same every time.

Speed is key. All tasks should be able to be completed quickly and easily with the minimum of fuss.

Expanding the system

There is little point in making the transition and ending up in the same place as before. If you recall it was not so long ago that you would “future proof” your laptop with extra memory and ram in order for it to last and what happened? If you are anything like me every time you did that within 12-18 months you felt it was old clunky and slow. There really is no way to future proof a solution anymore. The only option is to migrate to something that can be altered exponentially.

Application program interfaces.

Your old solutions were never designed with anything other than the task at hand because they dint know what was coming later down the line and just focused on the now. With a modern digital workflow solution, you can deliver results and have visibility in real-time which is something old systems typically cannot do. Quite often you will spend an inordinate amount of time trying to extract data upon request from your old systems and people expect real-time information nowadays.

By utilizing API’s because they safely and securely retrieve the necessary data from the old system and enable the new digital workflow solution and the old point solution to talk to each other. These are useable over and over enabling you to keep up with the changing needs of your organization at all times.

Some notes about API’s

As these are a vital bridge its very important that you don’t implement something that simply gives you the same issues as the point solution it links to IE: its difficult to amends and develop over time. This is why its important to make sure it's thoroughly documented. A perfect API document will include things such as data structure and its members. This means you can confidently move forward with your union between new and legacy.

Simplicity is key, it should be able to be worked with and amended without having to look hard for the next step in the process. Changes should be fast and simple.

Without it being complete it’s a waste of time to implement. Any missing elements or very difficult coding will make it difficult to work with and as mentioned take you back to square one.

Things to avoid when integrating

Don’t cut and paste.

Just because you have worked one way with an old solution does not mean that you simply copy it with something modern. There are so many new elements to digital workflow and ways of working its keyy to look out in the market and seeing how people are working. Colsult indurstry think tanks and ultimately work with a digital workflow system that is also used with major brands and similar organisations. This way when you replicate an element you get everything you had but also so much more besides.

Consult the employees

A big issue is old clunk ways of working as we discussed and you can have the best ideas in the world but who knows better than the person on the front line? There is a reason that even with all of the computer modelling and technology in formula one that they still put a driver on the track to test drive, there is no substitute for first hand experience. Besides this it will mean you solve their frustrations, retain them and improve epmployee job satisfaction.

Take your time

Updating your old point solution is not something to rush. If you don’t take the right steps and with caution you end up with twice the problem and dopuble the frustration. Test and measure and pilot in small phases with limited people. Work out the kinks before trying to expand across many people and locations.