Monthly Archives: June 2021

Modernizing Legacy Systems – Everything You Wanted to Know Under One Roof

 
While technologies keep forging ahead, enterprises need to keep up with the trends at all times. This surely keeps the industry leaders on their toes because their software and systems play a pivotal role in adapting, thriving, and making their business competitive in the market.

User behavior and business norms have gone under transformation and so have business applications. Business leaders who drive innovation in their companies need new technologies to empower them in this transformation. They need fast applications, systems that support connectivity and platforms that bring everything together.

Now the question of the hour is, does your current architecture, software or applications hinder your business performance by not meeting the needs and goals? If yes, then it is time to move to modernizing legacy systems.

What is Legacy System?

If a piece of software cannot be deployed with modern processes or systems, it is referred to as legacy software.

A legacy system is an information management system that is based on outdated technologies but is critical for everyday operations. Legacy systems are housed in monolithic and tightly coupled environs. These systems are functional, but they are a burden to the company financially. They require niche IT skills to operate and there is little room for innovation. It hampers your overall user experience.

Having said that, the legacy system is not always referred to as “old” based on its duration of operation. Sometimes the infrastructure itself might not be able to meet the goals of the businesses.

What is Modernizing Legacy Systems?

Legacy modernization is the process of upgrading the infrastructure and systems to achieve operational efficiencies, overcome technology constraints, deliver customer experience expectations. It is an approach that supports adoption and integration with other systems based on modern technology platforms and executes growth in performance, flexibility, and advancement.

Businesses should know that it is more than just a software update. The following factors are crucial and should be evaluated before modernizing the legacy systems.

• Legacy Software: The applications that are important for the business and that are part of everyday operations from past few years or decades.
• Legacy Software Modernization: Updating and replacing dated and inefficient applications, processes or systems – partially or entirely.
• Re-platforming: Updating the applications from scratch either by self-hosting or cloud based hosting.

Legacy System Modernization Strategies

Businesses usually go with either of these approaches while strategizing modernization:

Revolutionary modernization – It is a process where a complete, inside-out infrastructure transformation is done.

For instance, mergers and acquisitions require this approach where businesses must adapt to the infrastructure of the new entity quickly. When legacy systems start posing as a risk factor to the enterprise, a revolutionary approach is pursued.

The catch with this approach is that without any support from vendors, businesses might face security and compliance issues. There is little scope for new updates.

This approach can cause disruption and hindrance; it is expensive too

Evolutionary modernization – It is a multi-phased, long-term approach where the complete transformation of the framework is done.

In this approach, businesses modernize one workload at a time and slowly, but steadily, complete the process. Doing this not only minimizes the disruptions but also saves costs for the business.

Businesses that have a contract with vendors enjoy the benefits of updating their systems till the end of their contract. Hybrid models permit businesses to connect cloud resources to on-premises environs and support evolutionary legacy transformation.
 

Factors to Note While Choosing a Legacy System Modernization Method

Before going ahead with evolutionary or revolutionary approach, a detailed evaluation of the following factors should be done.

• Architecture – Evaluation of architecture elements, performance, and ROI should be done to see where modern technologies can deliver better results.
• Operations – Decide which new skill sets, training and processes should be considered for streamlining schedule and costs.
• Workload – Analyze applications, workloads and software and estimate their business value, gravity of the situation and ascertain opportunities to improve.
• Security – Prepare a strategy to secure the systems before, during and, after modernization to avert loss of data, outages or exposure. Accordingly, businesses must adhere to government and industry compliance regulations in the new environment.
• Risk – Consider any viable disruption to the business and its associated impact to other processes in the organization against the desired results of the legacy system modernization project. Assess the risk of having the legacy system as it is, including the management of out-of-support systems or those with limited support teams.
• Financial – Outline how much to spend and how to improve resources to assist current operations and the new ones that will be added to the infrastructure.

Benefits of Modernizing Legacy Systems

• Operational Productivity: Updated IT systems can deliver better, enhance the performance of infrastructure, gives ample time to market products and, provides better experiences for customers.
• Reduced costs: Deactivating monolithic apps, data space and physical servers minimizes software, hardware, and licensing costs to a great deal.
• IT agility: With modernized legacy systems, it becomes easier to adapt the environment to react quickly to any seasonal changes, control data, and integrate systems.
• Security: Without modernization, businesses can face the risk of security breaches and updates can be tough.
• Compliance: Legacy systems will not be able to carry on with the processes as regulatory auditing and controls become stricter. Penalties or loss of certification can be evaded with the modernization of systems.
• Competition: Modernization helps to meet customer needs and offer better customer experience by enhancing innovation and services. It also shortens development and release cycles.

Legacy System Modernization Methods

There are seven methods of modernizing legacy systems. Each one comes with its set of pros and cons. These methods are commonly known as Seven Rs. Let us read them one by one in detail.

1. Replace – As the name suggests, in this method, the business will completely take out the existing system and replace it with the new system along with new requirements and optimized business processes.

   IT teams must plan diligently on how the existing data will be migrated and supported in the new system without hampering the ongoing business processes.

2. Rebuild – Rebuilding the entire system is the longest and the costliest method of modernization but this is the best approach to gain optimum results. This is ideal for very big businesses who are in a hurry to revamp quickly.

   With this method, the system is rebuilt entirely, legacy systems are fully upgraded to cloud-native environment.

   Methodologies like DevOps and technologies like microservices, containerization, service meshes, and declarative APIs are used to gain scalability, enhance performance, and cut operating costs.

3. Replatform – In this method, application components are ported to a new runtime platform with minimum changes in the code.

   For instance, moving a COBOL-based system from mainframes to a LINUX or Windows environment. Compilers are available to port applications from one platform to another. Hence, there will be no changes made in the code structure or the system’s features and functions.

   Businesses can benefit from the reduced infrastructure costs with minimum efforts and maximum efficiency.

4. Rehost – In this method, businesses can manage their investment in legacy systems like ERP or databases and benefit from the cloud infrastructure. They can see improved performance and security of the systems.

   Rehosting is commonly known as “lift and shift” method where businesses can host on the cloud faster without the need of refactoring or re-engineering the existing systems. An example of this is moving a SAP system from an on-premises data center to AWS, where the system and applications are moved as is to the cloud.

   This approach doesn’t utilize the benefits of cloud native tools; hence, it is supported by emulators that aid in running the legacy systems in modern environs seamlessly. You might know about COBOL mainframe emulator for Windows.

5. Refactor & Rearchitect – In this method, changing parts of the legacy components are utilized to optimize the code to increase performance. This is generally seen in hybrid environments. The changes are done only in the backend; hence it does not disrupt other functionalities in the system.

   Businesses can move the database of monolithic applications to the cloud while still running most of the applications onsite. The architecture of the applications is optimized only with code changes.

   This method gives businesses an ample amount of time to think through each application component and decide the best-fit platform to gain efficiency.

6. Retain – In this method, you might require support of “connectors” or “bridges” to operate simultaneously with other modern elements in the business.

   Liquidation of the company, an upcoming merger or any other consideration are not the strongest reasons to go for modernization of the legacy systems. There must be a long-term plan to ensure that the important functions are competent.

   Think of retention as a temporary measure, it cannot be a long-term plan. Retain the systems that are critical but when they are becoming ineffective with resource-heavy structure, then think of modernization.

7. Retire – Evaluate the workload and timelines to decide when to retire the applications and move any remaining resources to other systems that are currently working.

   At times this might require redesigning of the processes to bridge the gap in operations from the retired system. One thing guaranteed is that businesses will be optimized for sure without aged systems.

Preparing for Modernizing Legacy Systems

Irrespective of the size of the project, you need to plan the entire process way ahead of bringing in the vendors. If not, it might affect the functioning of the entire businesses and in worst cases, it can halt the functioning of systems for some time. Consider the below-mentioned points while chalking out a plan.

• Estimate your maturity:

  The fundamental thing to do in application modernization is to assess your level of maturity. In case this is the first time your business is undergoing modernization, then it is at an early stage of maturity. In such scenario, you should focus on easy tasks like:

  • Duplicate applications or multiple cases of the same application. Here, the identical ones are removed, or instances are consolidated by the IT teams and business units.
  • Overlapping applications or programs that are different but handle same operational functions should be assessed.
  • Applications that are not essential. This is a tricky part because at times business units may fail to identify which are not essential applications to the business. So, to overcome this, the respective teams must come together and identify if the application is crucial or not after a thorough assessment.
• Design the outline:

Collect information about timelines, budgets, and business goals to decide where modernization can provide the highest ROI. Make sure that along with the IT team, data and security teams should also be included at this stage of the preparation process.

• Plan the stages of ongoing modernization process:

The modernization process should be done in such a way that it touches every part of the IT system and applications. Upgrading should make the system and performance efficient; at the same time, it should be easy to use for the customers as well. Decide on the pace and phases of modernization of legacy systems so that it does not hamper the overall business processes.

Conclusion

You may or may not need to modernize legacy systems today. But you can always assess your processes and performances and check when will be the right time to undergo transformation. Staying competitive and continuing to deliver better results everyday needs a sturdy system. Check with your team about the possibilities.

Partner with experts from the industry to get optimum results. At Embitel, we have completed numerous projects on modernizing legacy systems across industries and geographies successfully.

With the help of the right tools, adequate techniques and area of expertise, we will help your business to modernize legacy applications, transform IT operations and streamline your business processes.

Information Architecture 101 – A Complete Beginner’s Guide

 
The internet is ballooning with information, to such an extent that you can find details about anything and everything under the sun. It becomes taxing to find out what is relevant to us in dire or desperate times. This issue is pertinent when navigating websites as well.

Ideally, a website should be created with a well-defined structure where so that it can be easily navigated, and the information should be customized based on the user’s requirements.

Most likely, you are familiar with user experience (UX) or usability and its significance to your site or applications. The other equally important factor for a website is Information Architecture (IA).

Information Architecture is generally passed off as an area related to website design. Sometimes we rely too much on CMS to dictate how the content on our site should be organized, and do not really get a good understanding of IA. During the times of system breakdown, if we do not have a clear idea on how information architecture works then we will be left confused on how to go ahead with the workflow and which applications and practices to prioritize first.

There is no point in investing in user experience without heeding to information architecture. You must understand the basics of information architecture to master your UX.

IA and UX – Same-Same but Different?

For people still wondering if IA and UX design is the same, well, it is NOT.

Let us recall again, user experience is the way user thinks and feels while using a product, system or service. User behavior depends on UX integrated usability, utility and joy from using the application, and not just the content structure.

Having said that, it is almost impossible to create a great user experience without a credible information architecture base. The more content a product has, the more important the role of IA in the UX design. Therefore, every good UX designer should also be a proficient information architect.

What is Information Architecture?

Information architecture is essentially the process of setting up the information on a website, mobile or web application and making it simple and intuitive for the users.

Information Architecture is a little complex but interesting if you explore further.  While content strategy, is managed by a content strategist, and interaction design is achieved by designers, information architecture isn’t done by one team but often accomplished by designers, developers and content strategists together. Nevertheless, whoever is involved, IA is a field of its own, with influences, tools and resources that are worth researching.

Information architecture is applied in the website design or application or any other project to understand how users perceive your brand and how well you know your customers.

Information architecture is necessarily used to create site maps, hierarchies, categorizations, navigation, and metadata. For instance, when content strategists initiate separation of content and divide it into categories, they are practicing information architecture. When designers sketch an excellent menu to help users navigate on a site, they are also practicing IA.

The Role of Information Architect

Here are some important questions enterprises and information architects must answer before going ahead with information architecture.

• What is the user flow rate on our site?
• How does the application help users to classify their information?
• How is that information presented back to the user?
• Was the information helpful to the users to make decisions?

To deduce answers to the above-mentioned questions, the information architect should focus on the target audience, the technologies related to the website, and the data that will be presented through the website.

Information architects comprehend these user needs and content to transform them into something understandable.

Information architects are a boon to the design team where they are involved in research, navigation, data modeling and labeling. They use tools such as card sorting, usability tests, and user interviews.
 

Methodologies Followed in Information Architecture

Information architecture is largely based on library science, cognitive psychology and architecture. Let us understand them in detail below.

Library Science

Two pivotal areas of library science for information architects are cataloguing, and archival science. Cataloguing is the process of creating metadata and allocating it to content so that we can easily find it again in the future.

Archival science is the process of building and curating content-based archives that needs some editing or could be removed in the future if it doesn’t serve the purpose. Both elements are needed in information architecture to transform user experience with the help of appropriate and usable metadata.

Cognitive Psychology

The study of how the mind works, and what mental processes take place is cognitive psychology. It naturally becomes evident that cognitive psychology influences how the interactions are designed on a website and the way the website provides information.

Let us look at few key concepts of cognitive psychology that information architects consider:

• Cognitive load means the amount of information that a person can handle at any given time. Remembering the user’s cognitive load prevents information architects from overloading a user with too much information at once.
• Mental models are the assumptions people make in their minds before interacting with a website or application. It is easier for users to extract information when it is in a place that matches their mental model of where it should be.
• Decision making might not sound like psychology, but it indeed is! It’s a cognitive process that prompts us to make a choice or select an option. Information architects can help users make decisions by providing a good balance of graphical and text information with the right feel.

Architectural/Framework Components of IA

The way we present information is more important than the information itself. Read that again. It is important that information architecture is based on an accurate and intentional structure with solid foundation of ideas as mentioned below:

• Daily Tasks

The information architect is substantially part of a lot of activities in the UX project team. Their common/daily tasks range from research, labeling, wireframing, navigation creation, data modeling and more.

• User Research

First things first, for a good product design, your user research should be great. Based on the research, information architects can understand their target audience and accordingly organize the information to meet their needs.

Information architects are an active part of the following segments.

• User interviews – Information Architect along with other teammates ask and understand the questions related to the design of the product.
• Card sorting and tree testing sessions – Checking on how potential users categorize information into groups helps the information architect to understand the users’ mental models.
• Usability testing – Information Architects must analyze the results of usability tests to decide whether the structure they have created worked for their users.
• Contextual inquiries – UX/IA architects at times visit users in real-world environments to understand how they interact with their product.
• Content inventory – This is a list or spreadsheet created by UX designers that helps architects know where what type of content is available and where.
• Content grouping – Identification of relationships between the existing information and groups of information is referred to as content grouping.
• Content audits – Content audits are performed to get an insight and rate useful, accurate, and effective content for the site.
• Hierarchy and Navigation

Hierarchy describes the structure of content and navigation describes how users will move through this content. Needless to say, both play a vital role in information architecture.

Creation of hierarchy is based on two things:

• The user expectation on what they see, and feel is needed. This can be achieved based on user research.
• How businesses show their content and information based on project requirements.

At this point, architects think about representative scenarios of user-to-product interaction and use this information to create information architecture diagrams. Generally, these diagrams are in a sitemap format which demonstrates the hierarchy of the content across a website.

For instance, if a business wants their users to find their FAQ with their Help page, then they might put them under the Support section. On the other hand, they might have discovered during research that users expect an FAQ to be under Product section. Now this is a decision that the information architect should be making. Both scenarios have distinct advantages. The information architect will have to deduce alternatives that will accomplish both goals, like keeping both FAQ and the Help page under the Product section.

These sort of decisions sets the tone for the entire design and functioning of the business process.

• Wireframing

Wireframing is a process of defining the relationship between different pages and is an important factor in search usability. Wireframes are visual guides a.k.a blueprints of architecture that shows the design of website and pages.

Wireframes typically includes the following pages:

• Home page
• Site map
• FAQs pages /Customer Service/Help
• Content pages
• News pages
• Multiple Category pages
• Multiple Subcategory pages
• Forms (login, register, contact)
• Shopping cart pages

All the wireframes are subjected to usability tests and verified for search engine friendliness. Wireframing helps programmers to design templates for content entry.

• Prototyping

A prototype is a plain framework of an application or web page. Prototyping is the next step after wireframing. A prototype is a plain framework of an application or web page. Information architects create clickable wireframes with limited graphic details. Visual designers use these clickable wireframes as reference when they create the actual layouts.

Prototypes have the color, animations and content that are on the actual product.

Generally, protypes are medium to high fidelity. Testing of a digital product’s interface and interactions are done by users at the prototyping stage. The feedback here will help the architects in usability testing phase as well.

• Labeling

UX labeling plays a pivotal role in information architecture because you must name the pages or sections appropriately based on your user research. Specific labels help users locate the information quickly. For instance, labeling the page that contains information about your company as “About Us” rather than “General Information” will be useful and understandable for users.

• Taxonomies and Metadata

A taxonomy refers to a set of similar things that are grouped together. Generally, information architects pick one or more taxonomies that are suitable for a website or app based on the mental model of their target audience. They then “tag” content with metadata with the purpose that users can search for content based on the assumed taxonomies.

Taxonomy is done post user research and content inventory processes. It includes classification of items using categories, sections or metadata tags. It is made in this exercise that content can be easily accessed, and the design is scalable.

• Data Modeling

Also known as content modeling; this task is usually shared with a content strategist. Data modeling is a process where the information architect along with developers determine a structure for content which defines user needs, business logic, requirements and internal editorial practices.

In the event of website redesigns, new data models should be mapped to structures that are already present to ensure smooth content migration. Data modeling is generally carried out in spreadsheets, mapping out field types and relationship requirements, but at times it is also implemented directly on a CMS.

The other outcomes of data modeling are documented content types and, content templates, to aid content strategists or copywriters as and when they create content.

Technical Audit

It is imperative that businesses should perform timely technical audits of their information architecture to see how things are going for the company. The website should receive consistent, qualified search engine traffic. If the site has any technical issues, it should be addressed and resolved ASAP.

Below mentioned factors are crucial and should be analyzed and reviewed during the audits.

• Technical parameters that accidently give unwanted content to search engines (duplicates, spam, silos, etc.)
• Elements that delay or block the access to desired content (duplicates, URL structure, robot’s exclusion, elements that crash search-engine spiders, etc.)
• Improper site navigation (placement & formatting)
• Labeling issues
• Page orphaning and low-value pages
• Metadata, broken links, page errors
• Canonicalization & normalization
• Download time and server performance
• http headers, redirects
• Possible migration or redesign issues
• Any other coding, scripting or programming issues

Conclusion

When you get unfavorable/negative feedback and reviews on the website, it is probably due to several other factors apart from the visual design. Irrespective of your business type and size, the foremost thing that matters is information architecture, i.e., how well the website has its content and pages organized.

At times businesses shift, expand and grow without revisiting the IA. This leads to disarray in content. And pages end up being separated. Webpages were initially created for specific reasons but now they do not have much relevant content or connection to the overall site. It might even seem hard to locate pages due to irrelevant labeling and large numbers. In such a scenario, you can just imagine the plight of the users!

Hence delving deeper into the IA and UX is a necessity for businesses to retain users. Information architecture bridges all content gaps, and these principles should be used in marketing initiatives like blogs as well. IA process surely aids in-house marketers, content owners and stakeholders to understand the website functionality thoroughly.

There are innumerous benefits of opting for an Information Architecture service. Go with the Information Architecture service providers who has greater focus on the quality of your product.