Applications and Systems
Over the last two decades many companies have brought customers closer to their own “transactional” information stored in historic legacy systems.
A recent Butler Group Report confirms that enterprise applications like ERP and CRM systems provide the DNA for successful organisations.
Such assets have latent benefits which are often not realised. At a time when budgets are carefully managed or shrinking it pays to have a range of strategies and programmes that can be put in place to maximise the business value of existing investments.
Fishbone believes these investments should cover optimisation of existing “platform” implementations which are reviewed against customer needs and competitor moves/capabilities.
Many companies are driving through the following programmes to save money:
- Cost cutting of the core applications.
- Breaking down organisational silos e.g. between IT and business units.
- Applications change – restructuring platforms to delivering process standardisation.
- Key trend in applications is providing tools for analysis and collaboration.
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model disrupts integration and application development.
- Strategic maintenance partnerships can improve operational costs.
- Plus, release resources for value-generating initiatives e.g. iphone apps.
Alignment between applications and business objectives and processes remains critical. Managing change becomes a core requirement.
