Check out three corporations who invested in steady, holistic modernization with outstanding success.
In my final two blogs, I explored what modernization actually means, what it takes, and why it issues for improvements like AI. Then, we walked by an efficient modernization method knowledgeable by the Forrester Software Modernization Guidelines.
So, what does profitable modernization seem like in the actual world? Let’s check out three corporations who invested in steady, holistic modernization with outstanding success. You’ll see how these organizations not solely carried out steering from the Forrester Software Modernization Guidelines within the brief time period, but in addition how they plan to maintain making use of these ideas for steady modernization.
Sapiens reduces downtime whereas growing agility
Sapiens, an insurtech firm serving over 600 insurers throughout 30 international locations, confronted a well-known problem. Their legacy apps had change into a barrier to scale, since all their administration teams, safety, and monitoring had been put into place earlier than they moved to the cloud. To unravel this, Sapiens knew they needed to embark on a holistic modernization mission that tied collectively technique, processes, and expertise to help their current wants and future ambitions.
Forrester Guidelines #1: Technique. Although their goal was simple, it wasn’t easy. “Our principal objective on the outset was to be updated with our expertise stack,” stated Michael Mirel, Head of Cloud and DevOps Middle of Excellence. “At first, it was IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). We rapidly realized that microservices are the place we should be when it comes to merchandise.”
After defining their objective, Sapiens set a plan to infuse AI into their workflows. Log Analytics in Azure Monitor enabled them to evaluate the provision of their providers (for instance, by measuring variety of service calls). From there, Azure Monitor Software Insights helped them higher perceive how their apps had been behaving and alert them to any anomalies, an method that wouldn’t have been doable with their on-premises programs alone.
Forrester Guidelines #2: Course of. Sapiens established a Cloud Middle of Excellence and a delegated staff to assist their whole group embrace modernization. The command heart helped information their modernization journey and infused a transformative mindset all through their every day operations.
Forrester Guidelines #3: Know-how. Sapiens began out with conventional IaaS digital machine consumption. Modernization moved them to being a heavy shopper of Azure Kubernetes Service with direct entry to Microsoft’s product staff. And adopting Azure Arc introduced collectively their patching and monitoring dashboards and safety administration instruments in a single pane of glass.
As a result of insurance coverage is a tightly regulated sector, Sapiens additionally sought a strategic companion that put fashionable safety on the forefront of their choices. They determined Microsoft Safety was the perfect match to assist guarantee cloud safety and compliance with international rules. Microsoft product groups additionally provided focused help to constantly enhance Sapiens’ merchandise proper alongside alongside their very own builders.
Steady modernization. Sapiens achieved their preliminary targets—however they’re nonetheless not finished. After migrating prospects from information facilities to the cloud, they then launched a long-term modernization mission guided by their Cloud Middle of Excellence. Mirel explains why. “We need to break down the partitions and supply extra self-service to our customers and higher service to our prospects because of this,” he says. “If I’m an end-user, developer, tester, or product supervisor, I ought to be capable to spin up one other take a look at atmosphere and launch in the course of the evening as an alternative of being depending on DevOps or IT and having to attend a number of days.”
Altogether, Sapiens’ considerate modernization method has helped them scale back downtime, improve agility, future-proof the group, and supply higher service to each their engineers and prospects. “We’re coping with the largest insurance coverage corporations on the earth which are taking our software program as a service, however we additionally have to interoperate with the prevailing ecosystems of those corporations,” displays Mirel. “Because of Azure Personal Hyperlink, we will join cloud to cloud in a single click on, which diminished deployment efforts by 50 %.”
Coles will get AI-ready and improves the shopper expertise
Main Australian retailer Coles grappled with assembly the altering calls for of their prospects. They seen buyers anticipated to seamlessly swap between channels (bodily shops, their cellular app, and web site), and Coles needed to enhance this physical-digital expertise by modernization.
Forrester Guidelines #1: Technique. To create a seamless purchasing expertise, Coles wanted to first create a seamless growth expertise. Their groups had to have the ability to make steady, nimble app updates to maintain tempo with shifting buyer preferences. To that finish, Coles outlined a method that stored engineers knowledgeable on what they had been setting to perform and why, so they might make selections that had been aligned to their frequent objective. After launching their journey, Coles usually checked their progress with insights from buyer information to make sure their work was efficient.
Forrester Guidelines #2: Course of. Coles additionally took a tough have a look at their processes. Azure DevOps helped streamline workflows by enabling speedy change integration for brand new options in channel apps. Then, they started monitoring (and proceed to trace) their progress by measuring construct time and different KPIs. Anton Vishnyakov, Senior Engineer and Supervisor for Platform Engineering, has seen a distinction. “As a substitute of doing six-week releases, we now do weekly releases. And the construct occasions now take roughly 10 to fifteen minutes, in comparison with what was a few hours.”
Forrester Guidelines #3: Know-how. To modernize their tech, Coles first recognized Microsoft as a strategic innovation companion. They knew Microsoft’s extremely collaborative engineering course of was well-suited to steady innovation, and Microsoft Azure may assist replace their stacks to restrict expertise sprawl. Azure enabled quicker deployments whereas nonetheless delivering a safer and secure web-based expertise for purchasers.
Extra particularly, options together with Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Kubernetes Service helped Coles get buyer insights throughout channels to additional refine their operations. After they had been prepared to show these insights into significant product updates, they might then use Azure App Service to check them earlier than launch. All of the whereas, Azure API Administration ran within the background to assist Coles hold safety on the forefront of each stage of the method.
Steady modernization: Since embarking on their journey, Coles has solely deepened their relationship with Microsoft. Microsoft groups and choices are serving to them constantly refine their operations, resulting in larger Azure providers ROI and a seamless, well-orchestrated buyer expertise throughout channels.
Because of their considerate modernization method, Coles is now AI-ready, and so they’re already utilizing analytics and AI to foretell stock distribution, optimize employee scheduling, and extra. Coles’ engineers are additionally in a position to rapidly combine new product updates to handle points and add new options, a profit that’s not misplaced on Patrik Mihailescu, Senior Engineering Supervisor, Net. “We’re going to be shifting to every day deployments within the subsequent six to 9 months and undoubtedly with the Azure tooling, that’s going to be tremendous key in enabling us to go even faster.” They’ll additionally safely create these modifications by testing them independently with Azure App Service earlier than they’re deployed, serving to preserve safety and compliance.
Credit score Europe Financial institution NV improves safety and streamlines the event course of
Credit score Europe Financial institution NV confronted a broader modernization problem, their quickly growing old on-premises infrastructure. Although the financial institution serves practically a million prospects globally, their IT groups typically discovered themselves ready on {hardware} deliveries and consistently managing on-premises complexity. It was time for a brand new method.
Forrester Guidelines #1: Technique. Recognizing the necessity for holistic modernization, Credit score Europe Financial institution NV outlined a plan to completely reshape their infrastructure, beginning with changing their on-premises programs with the cloud. The cloud would streamline duties for his or her IT staff and allow scalability, since groups would now not want to attend on {hardware} or spend time configuring complicated, dated programs. Then, they turned to their workforce. Modernizing introduced a serious studying curve for the financial institution’s IT groups, in order that they developed a plan to upskill staff on cloud ideas.
Forrester Guidelines #2: Course of. Credit score Europe Financial institution NV additionally wanted to revamp their processes and measure success. They paid shut consideration to their buyer onboarding time all through their modernization, and finally discovered that they’d diminished it from three days to 9 minutes. “We now supply a contemporary, partaking digital banking platform,” says Ulaş Ergin, IT, Digital Banking, and Software program Structure Division Supervisor. “Every little thing has been revamped for smoothness and pace, making the entire banking expertise extra pleasing.”
Forrester Guidelines #3: Know-how. When launching their tech transformation, Credit score Europe Financial institution NV wove in safety from the beginning by selecting the Microsoft Azure cloud. As a frontrunner in safety and compliance with built-in instruments for monetary providers, Azure may assist them handle their delicate information in accordance with industry-specific rules. They then tackled their aged infrastructure with Azure Kubernetes Service, a managed container orchestration platform. AKS helped simplify their operations and pace up growth, leading to smoother useful resource administration and a extra environment friendly atmosphere arrange course of.
Steady modernization. Credit score Europe Financial institution NV continues to find new alternatives within the cloud. They’re utilizing Azure Cognitive Companies to enhance the safe dealing with of buyer ID images and are constantly releasing new options and merchandise. Subsequent, they’re turning their consideration to GitHub Copilot to remodel their in-house banking system.
Now, Credit score Europe Financial institution NV’s safety is stronger than ever, since migrating to the cloud enabled them to undertake digital, mobile-based delicate tokens and biometric authentication. They’ve additionally improved their buyer expertise and even launched new providers like real-time foreign currency trading, which might have been not possible on their previous system. “Buyer suggestions has been overwhelmingly constructive,” displays Berkay Çavuşoğlu, Program Supervisor. “Our company prospects famous that the system’s efficiency is quicker.”
The financial institution has additionally accelerated their growth cycle by easing the system arrange course of and administration with Azure. Azure handles many on-premises duties behind the scenes, resembling upgrades and safety patches, so builders can concentrate on extra strategic duties. “We now not have to handle the underlying infrastructure, which drastically diminished the operational pressure,” displays Teoman Sevinç, DevOps Specialist. “Prior to now, if we needed to make updates to the environment, it will disrupt our non-production setup. However with Azure, managing and establishing environments is streamlined, which positively impacts our growth life cycle.”
Are you prepared to begin your modernization journey?
With that, we’ve wrapped our weblog sequence on utility modernization—however similar to modernization isn’t finished, there’s at all times extra to be taught. When you missed them, revisit my earlier blogs within the sequence on the fundamentals of modernization and the small print of an efficient modernization method.
Don’t neglect to additionally learn the foundational texts that guided our work: the Forrester Consulting Software Modernization Guidelines that Microsoft commissioned, and the Forrester Consulting examine Unlock Aggressive Benefit with Software Modernization. You can too take a look at the next assets:
