Who is paying the price of your legacy tech investments?

In my last post, I cautioned against finding cost savings in the very technology your employees depend on. Productivity tools and services are often seen as an easy target, but I’ve learned you can deliver cost savings and drive innovation by taking aim at the right expenditure: Legacy and redundant applications and services.

In an ever-changing world, businesses have been quick to add powerful technology and cloud-based services to their portfolios. They have been much less likely to fully cut the legacy systems these new tools were meant to replace, creating a cumbersome tech web that can frustrate your business and slow down innovation.

In their annual industry survey, Software AG reported that 78% of organizations had accrued more technical debt in the past year than in previous years, with the pandemic being a key accelerator of digital transformation efforts. With this increase, 69% believe that technical debt is impacting their ability to continue their digital transformation at the same pace as in 2020.

For many CIOs technical debt can be a worrisome thing. Last year, my team embarked on a multi-year effort to optimize our technology estate. Like many organizations today, we had acquired and developed hundreds of solutions to meet the evolving needs of our business. However, what began to propel us forward, now acted like sandbags weighing our balloon down. For some, impending financial pressure can be the perfect catalyst to “cut the cord,” reducing unnecessary cost, complexity, and risks. More importantly, allowing your team to return their attention to charting the future.

A simplified tech landscape has many benefits beyond maintenance and licensing cost savings. Thoughtful, curated tools and services allow employees, customers, and partners to transact with ease, yielding higher productivity and satisfaction scores. Additionally, Engineers who manage liability and risk are no longer saddled with patching and monitoring a grab-bag of underutilized systems and applications. Why go to great lengths to attract and hire top talent, only to tether them to old technology that is no longer fit for purpose?

Throughout my career, I’ve seen examples of small, corner case contracts costing the company the same as a company-wide license that offered the same service. Although challenging to eliminate, removing these “super polluters” can result in significant long-term financial gain and pay dividends in employee experience and accelerated innovation – not to mention greatly reducing risk.

If it’s so valuable, why aren’t more doing it?

It’s no surprise that removing technology from your landscape can be challenging work. Aside from the technical feat, tech optimization efforts can be politically challenging to navigate, drawing critics from across the organization. A guiding principle from my career has been to cut through indecision by “making the best decisions for the company as a whole.” This north star transcends personal preference and individual convenience – two reasons why rationalization efforts are often delayed or derailed.

Another reason it’s hard to cut back can be found in behavioral science. I recently came across a study from the University of Virginia that found that our brains overlook subtractive changes when it comes to problem solving, resulting in addition rather than subtraction. Study participants were asked to modify an existing Lego creation to allow it take on more weight. While taking away a brick was a much faster and efficient way of stabilizing the structure, less than half took this approach. The study went on to find that even when the only right answer is to subtract or despite financial incentive, we still don’t think to take away.

Regardless of how you got here, we know that tech debt is a challenge faced by many. Take this opportunity to rationalize your technology estate and focus on what truly enables your organizations to thrive.

Is your company grappling with technical debt? How is your company approaching this problem? How will your company benefit from a simpler technology landscape?