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Jonathan Clark of Macro4 talks…
Decommissioning legacy financial systems and how this flows into business analytics.
When you are focused on decommissioning legacy finance applications, there are two key aspects that can sometimes be overlooked – what comes before and what comes afterwards. There is an often repeated joke where someone asks for directions and the answer they get is “Well I wouldn’t start from here”. This nicely sums up the need for preparation before embarking on a decommissioning project. The other aspect upon completion of a project is “OK, what now?”
Where do I start?
This is where a solid framework for effective software asset management comes in. Simply put, if an enterprise doesn’t know what legacy financial applications they have then decommissioning them is going to be tricky! Cloud based services (that are very easy for anyone in an organisation to subscribe to) and the ’shadow economy’ (where specific individuals or teams have access to data that is available only on request!) are often sources of hidden legacy applications that a less than stringent audit can miss.
The three-minute explainer video from SAM Charter covers this brilliantly.
What do I do next?
When a clear view of IT assets has been established it is possible to determine what applications are targets for decommissioning.
This Application decommissioning white paper is an excellent guide on the steps involved in delivering a successful decommissioning project.
I’ve decommissioned my legacy applications – now what?
Aside from the many benefits that come from decommissioning legacy applications (reduced cost, digital transformation, security, ease of use, compliance and customer service etc) there is another advantage to having a central repository of historical data and that is access to the valuable insights locked within that data. For companies that have had data hidden in silos for years (or decades!), a successful decommissioning project can be the first time they have been able to apply business analytics to the whole of their organisational data and not just the information available in their current systems.
The following All3Media decommissioning legacy finance applications case study from HAYNE highlights the advantages of a single view following multiple acquisitions.
Ideally, the three components of asset management, decommissioning and analytics become part of an ongoing virtuous cycle of efficiency and insight within a company.
What next?
Contact HAYNE to gain a deeper understanding of software asset management and what your ideal programme would look like, why certain applications should be decommissioned and how to do it.[vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1973″ img_size=”medium”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”607″ img_size=”medium”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner]