Spring clean outs aren’t just for the hallway closet or the garage. Tech stacks can use a good decluttering too, especially if it’s not already part of a regular cycle of software review.
It can be a major undertaking — and come with major savings too.
In 2023, Citigroup retired nearly 400 legacy apps as part of a process to simplify its technology infrastructure. “The modernization of our tech infrastructure is proceeding at pace, allowing us to deliver new capabilities to our clients,” Citi CEO Jane Fraser, said during a January earnings call.
“We consolidated trading and reporting platforms and retired 6% of our legacy applications for the second year in a row,” she said.
While not every company is as big as Citi, a “hairball” of a tech stack can create a world of problems, said Karl Threadgold, managing director at Threadgold Consulting. Having “a lot of disjointed systems that aren’t integrated” can make work harder, and be a waste of employee time and financial resources.
“The key thing is not having that single source of truth,” he said.
When to do a clean out
Rather than determining a one-time software clean out, organizations can take on a continuous cycle of analyzing what software applications are used and how.
That’s not just reserved for major corporations, said Akshara Naik Lopez, senior analyst at Forrester. She’s seen that regularly happening for mid-market and smaller companies, too.
Different events can also trigger a reexamination of software applications, including:
- When applications are nearing support end dates.
- When a software vendor is offering new functions or capabilities.
- When SaaS contracts, which typically run three to five years, are up for renewal.
Clients are looking at software contracts 12-18 months ahead of renewal to decide if they should renew or purchase more functions, according to Naik Lopez. That lead time can also help allocate budget should a major change need to happen, she added.
Companies can make maintaining information and inventories of software part of employee job functions. Businesses could, for example, require employees to review software inventories once a quarter.
“If information is accurate, that will help you see where you’re trying to go,” Naik Lopez said. “If it’s not maintained, none of this effort is going to help you. The decision points are just going to be wrong.”
Creating a stay or go criteria
A clean out may be a necessary part of growth. Fortified is currently working with a financial services company that was acquiring a large number of organizations through mergers and acquisitions.
They were faced with a bundle of systems, and had to figure out “what we have and what we invest in and not invest in,” said Ben Debow, founder and CEO of Fortified.
Some of the platforms were legacy systems over 20 years old. “They are reaching the end of their life, and having so many challenges adding new features and capabilities,” he said.
Fortified and its client started figuring out what functions are dependent on those legacy platforms, and what they would need to change if they were replaced. They also had conversations across business units to better understand their critical goals and objectives, which helped them create an evaluation criteria around what stays, what’s updated, and what goes out the door.
This organization ended up deciding to rewrite its mission critical application, which it is in the process of doing right now.
Working with end users
Successful spring cleanings require partnerships with end users — usually employees. Dumping a new way of doing work onto their desktops could spur resentment and set the project up to fail.
Instead of presenting end users with a new solution, Threadgold said to involve them early on, “particularly with software that touches so many different departments.”
Finding out where end users are encountering pain points such as where errors emerge or what’s causing work delays, can help companies decide what software will work best for their organization.
Bringing staff into the planning process can also make them excited, rather than resentful, about change. It’s “building a vision with the team of what the future could look like,” Threadgold said.
Budgeting for new or upgraded software should include resources to work with staff to help with the transition, said Naik Lopez.
“There needs to be time allocated for change management and working with the right service providers who help you handle change management,” she said.