3 Key Drivers For Modernizing Content Infrastructure

Organizations today appreciate and understand the vital role that electronic information plays.  Systems that manage information need to be agile and should be responsive to changing business requirements. While working with our clients, we see several key drivers for enterprise digital modernization and transformation:

1. Replacing your legacy systems
2. Adopting the cloud
3. IT consolidation

Transformation of Legacy Systems:

Although your content management (CM) systems may have been considered state-of-the-art when they were installed, decades-old legacy systems are pretty much creaking at the seams.  The continued use of outdated systems is making it difficult for organizations to adapt to meet the new demands of customers and regulators. It’s always difficult to transition from legacy technologies, but, in certain situations it’s better to start over instead of desperately trying to extend the life of technology that’s obsolete. In some cases, the decision is made for you as your CM is no longer supported by the vendor.

Why should you migrate from a legacy system to a modern platform?

• IMPROVED CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE – Introducing modern, user-friendly experiences improve customer service and employee performance. Digital transformation is forcing organizations to change their business model and adapt to the new market reality that change is being driven by the customer. Put simply, customers are driving the change in the way a business interacts with them – demanding a consistent experience anytime, anywhere, and on the device of their choosing.

• GAIN AGILITY – Decades-old technology stifles the opportunity to outperform competitors who have modern solutions. By replacing your legacy system with a modern solution, you ensure your organization is poised to evolve and expand. How fast can you respond to the market challenges? In most cases, businesses tied to legacy systems lack organizational agility to adapt to the changing markets.  For example, mobile banking solutions are at the epicenter of the bank customer experience, resulting in higher revenue for those banks first to the table with mobile offerings.  Those not able to innovate and adopt new technologies such as mobile banking leave the door wide open to their competitors to outperform and take over their market share, resulting in lost revenue.

• EASY ACCESS TO YOUR DATA – Outdated storage prevents you from accessing and making use of your wealth of data. The process of moving data from existing systems into more modern ones means other systems can access it. This in turn offers significantly faster performance and more cost effective scaling.

• QUICKLY ADAPT BUSINESS PROCESSES – Legacy pitfalls cause delays, while new systems are far more flexible to change and easier to customize.
  • According to AIIM International, the most important reason cited for undertaking a content migration initiative is to improve organizational flexibility and agility. Business processes are influenced by the changing demands and expectations of customers.  Organizations with flexibility and agility can quickly – key word here is quickly – adapt their business’ processes to improve services and increase the value to customers such as:
    • Response time – Clients submitting an application have greater visibility through the process and can see when the decision on the application will be returned (hours, days, weeks.)
    • Quality customer experience – Customers can expect immediate answers to inquiries and 24/7 access on any connected device anywhere in the world, eliminating pain points.

• LOWER INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS – A leaner content management landscape improves efficiency, communication and collaboration.
  • Employees can spend 1.8 hours a day searching for documents, and that time can now be reduced to less than 30 minutes.
  • Data being stored across multiple CM systems means the security of the data is probably compromised. It’s very likely your legacy systems no longer meet compliance standards. According to the IBM 2018 Annual Cost of Data Breach Study¹, the average cost for each lost or stolen record containing confidential information is up from last year to $148.00 per record. A migration to a newer landscape minimizes the risk of data breaches, reducing astronomical costs resulting from a breach.
  • Storage is expensive for raw data. A migration does not make your content disappear, but all migrations usually lead to a cull in information that is redundant or obsolete – usually 10 percent for an ECM project and 50 percent for a file share migration.

• INCREASED SECURITY
  • According to the 2018 State of Cyber Resilience Report², legacy systems are one of the top threats to cyber security. It is logical that legacy systems are less resistant to cyber attacks and malicious programs.  The software solutions that have been around for years are prone to attacks, as the attackers know the systems’ vulnerabilities.  As noted earlier, with the outdated software of a legacy system, vendors are not providing new security advancements, leaving your data open for a breach. This means no patches are provided, and no one is keeping the system compliant with the latest security requirements.  Even if your system is custom built and you have the resources to maintain it, adding more patches means additional investments in security.

Adopting the Cloud

To support a digital transformation, organizations are migrating from legacy CM software to take advantage of the modern cloud content services platforms to increase agility and innovation.

• Cloud applications, in general, have gained immense popularity among organizations. One of the most dynamic technological innovations in recent years is the adoption of cloud architectures. The fact that the cloud has been fully adopted is certainly something that results in more legacy migrations.

IT Consolidation

According to a recent AIIM International survey³, 45 percent of organizations run three or four content platforms, while more than a third (36%) have five or more platforms.  A surprising 14 percent operate with more than eight. Reducing the number of content systems and consolidating these – possibly into one central data repository – will result in significant reduction of maintenance and license costs. In general, paying the maintenance fees for several systems will cost more than paying the fees for one system.

While there can be internal resistance to take on the content migration project from a legacy system, the positive results an organization can gain from making the change, planning the move and implementing the project far outweigh the short term disruption. Taking advantage of an expert consultant is a smart option for any organization.  At Konica Minolta, we handle every aspect of Content Migration modernization, from analyzing your current solutions and developing a solid business strategy, to solid recommendations and implementation of a new generation of modern content solutions.  Taking the time to plan your migration correctly means a greater chance of success, adoption and employee willingness to learn and understand what a new system will mean for them and all their business processes.  Through a collaborative plan, your organization can clearly see the process and can communicate phases and milestones to its employees, creating a unified model for adoption.

Citations:

¹2018 Cost of Data Breach Study: Impact of Business Continuity Management, Research sponsored by IBM, Independently conducted by Ponemon Institute LLC.

²Accenture Security – Gaining Ground on the Cyber Attacker – 2018 State of Cyber Resilience

³AIIM International – How should you address the content migration question?