In the past, when radical innovations were rare and slow moving, businesses could afford to modernize their applications and software as a reaction to change, rather than a proactive strategy. As technology has evolved and transformed the way people work, many companies have only been inclined to modernize their applications when absolutely necessary.
However, being in an age of almost constant innovation, modernizing legacy software and applications can no longer be a reaction to one-off needs. Instead, businesses must now embrace this ever-changing culture and proactively implement strategies that allow them to keep up and thrive in the digital age. In fact, according to an F5 report, there has been a 133% growth in application modernization, further evidence that businesses now update their legacy applications because they want to, not because they have to. And there are many reasons why this will serve companies well. Keep reading to learn more about the benefits of proactively modernizing your legacy applications.
1.Improve User Experience
Your customers play a huge role in your business. When they’re not happy, it could affect your whole business’ health, so it’s important to put technology innovation at the forefront to keep up with customer expectations.
Fortunately, new technologies are easier to obtain now that custom software development companies are on the rise. And with more access to application creation, the barrier for entry in IT is much lower. But since technological innovation is more common now, users have greater demands and expectations. According to PWC, many customers say that they will leave a brand if they’ve had one bad experience. And unfortunately, your business may never know the source of their dissatisfaction since 91 percent of unhappy customers don’t share their complaints.
If you want your organization to keep up with customer expectations, it’s critical to modernize your applications and software.
2.Eliminate Technical Debt
Technical debt can be expensive since it simultaneously impacts your business in crucial areas, such as a high churn rate due to bugs and performance issues, potential MRR loss due to the delayed release of features, and loss of resources and engineering time.
Today, engineers spend about 33 percent of their time handling technical debt, but when you modernize legacy applications, businesses can reduce technical debt and address pain points to reduce issues like that in the future (and allow engineers to spend more time on important projects).
A great way application modernization reduces technical debt is by utilizing micro front-ends. This divides the application front-end into autonomous groups to simplify development and encourages developers to innovate without compromising deployment time.
3.Provide an Omnichannel Experience
An omnichannel customer experience means not only is your business on different channels and platforms but it also offers a smoother customer experience across platforms, and even offline.
For example, the Starbucks Rewards app gives users free drinks whenever they make a purchase and customers can access their rewards via mobile phone, website, app, or in-store, allowing users to receive updates in real-time. This is a great use of an omnichannel application that transcends tech boundaries, giving users a seamless experience.
4.Integrate Cross-Platform Capabilities
When developing an application, businesses typically create it to be able to work on multiple platforms, such as desktop, iOS, and Android systems. But the only way to implement this is by having separate codebases and development processes. Because of this, app development can become more expensive and much harder to maintain.
Building cross-platform capabilities is a popular reason to modernize applications and it allows for reduced future development costs, especially the cost and complexity of maintaining the app. If you’re curious, a few great platforms include Ionic, React Native, Flutter, and Cordova. In fact, according to Statista, Flutter is a fast-growing SDK for cross-platform development. Not only does it have cross-platform mobile development functions, but it also allows teams to build for different operating systems and the web, all based on a single codebase. When you work with AscentCore, we can help you understand and implement the best platform for your business.
5.Faster CI/CD Development
CI/CD or Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery is a set of practices that automate critical stages of software development. While CI automates testing and combines changes to the application code, CD focuses on automating bug testing and deploying the app, completely changing the production environment.
With the rise of app developments, businesses are modernizing their infrastructure and application by automating testing and adopting CI/CD practices. This is because CI/CD practices are truly advantageous in this field as it reduces up to 20 percent of development time, saving both time and money.
6.Retain Great Talent
Hiring exceptional engineers is extremely difficult, especially if they’re asked to work on obsolete frameworks. It’s equally hard to retain skilled engineers if they aren’t encouraged to explore new technologies. Exploring new technologies can offer great developers job satisfaction, and help them stay longer at a company. According to Hired’s State of Software Engineers report, most software engineers’ primary motivation for learning a new programming language or framework is simply because they enjoy it. Additionally, according to a Stack Overflow survey of 65,000 software developers from 186 countries, 51% said they want the opportunity to experiment with new technologies. Application modernization allows you to attract technical talent that further accelerates the entire modernization process.
Here at AscentCore, we pride ourselves in investing in world-class talent to build better products for our clients and we’re always finding new ways to keep our teams engaged and interested.
Conclusion
The time has come where modernizing applications and software is no longer a nice-to-do, but instead is a must-do. From improving the user experience to eliminating technical debt to retaining great talent, there are many reasons to make modernization a proactive business strategy.
At AscentCore, we can help you update your applications and software and accelerate your digital journey. We help our global clientele imagine and build world-class digital products, delivered fast, for better value. Find out how we can do the same for you and your business.
