10 The Backbone of Modernization

In an era of rapid technological advancement, the foundations of how we work, communicate, and shape our daily lives are shifting.

Technology has transformed from a useful tool to an indispensable element in our lives within a few decades. The phone and the PC are the most tangible forms, but it goes much further. Smartwatches and cars with autopilot surround us and increasingly dominate our daily existence. This leads to new problems for people, such as ‘FOMO’ or Fear of Missing Out, a proverbial fear of not being connected. This fear is also present in many companies and organizations, and rightly so. Almost no organization can function if the technology fails. We can no longer file taxes, do groceries (who still carries cash?), navigate to a destination (who can still read maps?), or order packages to our homes. The consequences of failure are evident when a company is hit by ransomware. It often takes days to become operational again, if at all. Technology is simply indispensable.

Riding the Wave of Hype

Technology continually makes new promises that do not always align with reality. We are thrown from one hype to another. Today it’s ChatGPT and Udio, tomorrow something new. According to experts, we must surf the wave of hype at the right moment and know how to jump to the next hype wave at its peak. This is achievable for only a few.

On one hand, we have unfulfilled promises – the overhyping and technologies that did not meet the high expectations. Think of Theranos, one of the most notorious failures in the technology and healthcare sector. Theranos promised a revolution in the blood testing industry with technology that could perform quick, comprehensive tests with just a few drops of blood. These claims turned out to be false. Or consider Google’s Project Ara, an initiative for a modular smartphone where users could replace components like cameras, batteries, and screens. The project was discontinued in 2016, partly because it was technically complex and the market was not ready for it.

On the other hand, there are undeniable successes and the enormous potential of technology to drive transformation and innovation. Both are true. The art is to be realistic about what your organization can actually achieve versus what you ambitiously promise to achieve. In our experiences, the right balance involves understanding what you have technologically, what your organization can handle, and how you manage continuity in relation to innovation. Doing nothing is never good.

Gasunie and the Stuttering Modernization

A good example was the management of the gas network in the Netherlands. This was once designed on a Windows 3.1 system that still relied on floppies and custom software. Around 2005, the question arose of how Gasunie could best handle modernization. Even then, it was a system that was almost 25 years old and had little remaining knowledge. It ultimately took a few more years before Gasunie replaced this system with a modern one. The company knew the platform was outdated and that there were more modern technologies. There was simply too little knowledge to understand the consequences of a decision to switch. This is the central dilemma many organizations struggle with. Do I jump on the train today or wait until something even better comes along?

Technology Determines Our Lives to an Increasing Degree

In recent years, technological advancements have had an unprecedented impact on our daily lives and the way companies operate. This period of rapid changes was characterized by the rise and integration of various key technologies that brought both opportunities and challenges. We have previously discussed the impact of artificial intelligence. If we look deeper, many other changes have contributed to this.

Cloud Computing and the SaaS-ification of the Landscape

Traditionally, the data of many organizations was processed on their own servers and storage systems. In recent years, this information has moved to the cloud, a term that stands for paying per use instead of purchasing equipment. The great advantage of such cloud platforms is that companies worldwide can store and access their information more easily.

The high degree of flexibility and scalability of cloud solutions enabled companies to quickly respond to changing market needs without large upfront investments in physical infrastructure. Parallel to the shift to the cloud, more and more applications are being delivered as a service, also known as Software as a Service. Where we used to buy Microsoft products, today you have a usage right that can be canceled monthly.

Information Rules the World

Information rules the world, a statement that has never been more relevant than in today’s digital age. The technological developments of the past ten years have exponentially increased the amount of available information. This information explosion is due to various innovations and the integration of technologies into our daily lives.

One of the main sources of information is the internet, which has grown into an almost inexhaustible source of data. Websites, blogs, social media, and online databases allow us to find information on virtually any topic within seconds. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, for example, act as real-time news sources, where news and updates are shared faster than traditional media can keep up.

Filtering Data

Despite the availability of all this information, it also brings challenges, such as assessing reliability and maintaining an overview. The speed at which information is spread also means that incorrect information can spread quickly before it is corrected. Fake news and misinformation have become prominent examples of the challenges associated with the reliability of information. During political elections, for example, incorrect information was deliberately spread to influence public opinion and, consequently, the election results.

The scale of information makes it difficult to maintain insight and overview. Big data and data analysis are terms often used to describe how companies and organizations try to make sense of the enormous amounts of data they collect. Tools like Google Analytics and CRM systems like Salesforce help companies understand customer behavior and adjust their services accordingly. However, even with advanced analysis tools, it can be challenging to filter the relevant information from the vast stream of data that is continuously available.

Looking to the future, organizations will have to look differently at how they structure information. We call this Information by Design. The idea is that various aspects are identified as soon as the information comes in, such as what privacy-sensitive information the data contains, where the information comes from, who the information is relevant to, what it is related to, and who may access it. AI and new technologies to store, route, and analyze information help organizations with this.

The big dilemma that remains is what to do with the mountain of information you already have. Convert, archive, or discard?

Legacy Technology

All IT organizations know outdated technological components: legacy. Even modern, trendy organizations like Bol.com or ING have this problem. What makes these organizations successful is that they know how to isolate the legacy components by fencing them off. This way, they shield the changing outside world from the hard-to-change outdated components. ING successfully decoupled its mainframe services from its online banking services. Users feel like they are banking in real-time, while effectively the transactions are processed in a mainframe batch at night. It is an illusion to think that such outdated components can be quickly replaced. The fact that they still exist is due to the efficiency of the platform they run on and the extensive knowledge that has been invested in them over decades.

To decouple such outdated technology, you need good architecture. An architecture that sustainably decouples the digital chains in organizations and creates interfaces between the individual links. Many organizations do not have such a foundation. If it exists, it is almost always outdated or lacks the right information. Like archiving and cleaning up, documentation is a task that receives little attention.

Technology also brings new opportunities here. For example, today, with the help of artificial intelligence, a complete functional description and workflow can be created from the code of a highly outdated system. However, many organizations are still hesitant about this. Some systems are so complex and large that it requires a lot of computing power to make such an analysis.

Agile Organizations Limit Tools

Agile IT organizations generally have a limited set of tools that are applied very strictly. Elements include:

Strategic Portfolio Management:

For real strategic portfolio management, there are still few practical tools available. For now, Excel models are usually used for this. QA Consulting developed a model for the Ministry of Defense.

Strategic Workforce Management:

Tools for strategic workforce management fall into planning and talent development. Commonly used solutions are Monday, Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Anaplan, Cornerstone, and Talentsoft.

Portfolio Management:

Various solutions are used for portfolio management. Clarity, Monday, Anaplan, Planview, ServiceNow IT Business Management, and JIRA Align are the most common.

EPIC and Feature Management:

JIRA is by far the market leader here. Additionally, Azure Boards is widely used. Some of the portfolio management tools (Monday, Planview) also offer EPIC and feature management capabilities.

Capacity Management:

For the personnel side, see strategic workforce management. For capacity management, a dashboard is usually set up with various agents. IBM, CA, BMC, and HP offer commonly used agents. Splunk and Nagios are often used to integrate input from CMDBs and these tools. Presentation is often done in the form of a dashboard.

Service Management:

Commonly used tools are ServiceNow, BMC Remedy, Topdesk, and Ivanti.

IT Cost Management:

Most organizations still work with Excel models for IT costs that are linked to financial administration. Some tools used are Apptio, ServiceNow IT Business Management, Cost Perform, and Flexera.

Looking Ahead

It remains difficult to make a good prediction of what exactly lies ahead. Technology tends to surprise us and provide us with new concepts. No one foresaw twenty years ago that the smartphone would drastically change our lives. However, based on what we know now, some trends for the coming decade can be anticipated.

Quantum Computing

Although quantum computing is still in the experimental phase, its potential is enormous. Quantum computers can solve problems and perform calculations at speeds unimaginable with traditional computers. This can bring revolutionary changes in cryptography, material science, weather forecasting, and complex simulations. The expectation is that quantum computing will come out of the laboratories this decade and become more usable for commercial applications. This offers opportunities to accelerate the development of AI, but also creates new risks in terms of security, privacy, and dependence on digitization, which humans can no longer compete with.

More Focus on Sustainable Technology and Energy

As climate change becomes an increasingly urgent problem, technologies focusing on sustainability and renewable energy will become more important. Innovations in solar energy, wind energy, hydrogen fuel cells, and other renewable energy sources will likely be more integrated into our technology. The development of smart grids for energy management can also contribute to more efficient and sustainable energy use. These are changes that have a significant impact on everything we do.