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A 70% reduction in IT expenditure may seem impossible for any company these days but one international financial services organisation is seeking to do just that.
More specifically the stated aim is:
"…to reduce and maintain an (IT) expense ratio of between 3 and 5 percent across the division (down from 10-15%), and to reduce back office costs significantly. Further benefits anticipated are improved data flow within the division, exploiting our information assets, streamlining existing business processes, better client integration using Internet technology and establishing a global, low-cost environment."
How?
Migration of legacy COBOL code to a distributed computing environment is how. This document summarises these and other potential benefits available from SoftwareMining's Transformation Technologies & Services.
Reduce Costs
The primary objectives for migration projects are always the same - to improve operational efficiency and reduce the cost of doing business. The primary ways in which the exploitation of SoftwareMining's services enable these objectives to be achieved are:
- Reduction of IT hardware and software costs through the standardisation of IT platforms
- Corresponding reduction in head count
- Improved operational efficiency and effectiveness via the sharing of IT platforms
- Integration of IT systems with clients & suppliers
- Removal of expensive, 'specialist' systems with high support costs
Improve information assets
Accurate information is reliable information and hence much more useful. It is information on which business decisions can be made with confidence. High quality information that communicates something important rather than something irrelevant is key, as it offers knowledge and, as the saying goes, Knowledge is Power. SoftwareMining helps clients in three key ways regarding quality of information:
- Improves the quality of the information at every point in the process
- Provides the means for capturing clean, accurate and consistent data to improve decision-making.
- Automates the end-to-end flow of data, transforming that data into information and hence useful knowledge.
Flexible and future-proof
Today's business landscape is truly within a global village, requires collaboration with all manner of complimentary organisations and, as the rate of change only seems to increase, puts ever greater demands on companies to be extremely agile and hence able to respond to dynamic and unpredictable markets. It is in this evolving and changing world that SoftwareMining can deliver truly enormous benefits to owners of legacy systems. Through SoftwareMining they can:
- React faster to new business opportunities - achieved via reduced complexity.
- Deliver an IT architecture to enable, rather than choke, business evolution
- Build IT systems that can change and be adapted to meet these business requirements as they occur
Invariably such changes are easier to develop and maintain within a uniform system comprising of industry standard third party components such as Oracle Database, BEA or IBM Application servers, Java language, and Sun Servers. The alternative, integration and further enhancement of multi-platform applications, although perhaps offering reduced initial investment, will invariably result in further complications in the future development of the overall IT system. The end result of this is reduced flexibility, adaptability and productivity.
E-Business enabler.
The collaboration demanded from today's businesses operating within the global village does not just come with flexible and adaptable systems. Although that is important, it is the power of the Internet that has produced a step change in the way organisations trade with each other, exchange information and interact for mutual benefit. Whilst the Internet as a whole was initially over-hyped it is now undervalued with much nervousness around IT investment in Internet technologies.
The application of SoftwareMining's tools to legacy code unlocks the value in the applications, enabling them to exist in an Internet-ready environment without huge investment in specialist e-commerce applications. In addition, they can then be connected to existing e-business architectures, ERP applications and B2B exchanges, etc. This can mean all the opportunities that e-business brings - closer client relationships, the locking in of suppliers, new channels to market, new market sectors, etc. - all because SoftwareMining makes the difference in connecting legacy applications to an e-business world.
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