Blog: Top 4 Roadblocks to Replacing Legacy Systems

The clock never stops ticking, and the day-to-day IT requests flow in, so it's no surprise that your deployment projects start piling up. IT leaders in infrastructure and operations know the story well, especially in verticals like retail and banking where hundreds – if not thousands – of locations compound the problem. There simply aren’t enough resources to get the job done.

It doesn’t help that technology deployment will never be the most glamorous item on the IT agenda. Items like digital transformation, IoT, data analytics, and strategic alignment will get most of the headlines, the mind share of the CIO, and much of the budget. But when it comes to quantifying true value in an IT organization, the ability to deliver in a reliable and consistent fashion is a compelling differentiator. And, a fact lost on some is that IT deployments are needed to enable most of those high-profile strategies. Legacy systems often hold organizations back from implementing new technologies.

Legacy System Replacement Roadblocks

When we talk to clients about their struggles with legacy systems, the four most common roadblocks we hear are:

• Insufficient budget – most businesses allocate the minimal possible spend to daily IT operations, which makes budget a persistent problem.
• Insufficient skills – the demands of technical competencies are constantly evolving, making it difficult for IT engineers and their organizations to keep pace.
• Right people in the wrong places – IT shops fortunate enough to have internal expertise find it’s often in the wrong place, without a cost-effective means to get those experts in front of the problems.
• Too many places – scale is the enemy of quality deployment work for most organizations.

For most, it comes down to resources.

Communicate the Need

So, what do you do about it? Your communication strategy should be two-pronged.

Make it simple– Often, it's that simple. Digital transformation, IoT, data analytics, and strategic alignment have to sit on a firm foundation – whether that's the right network, cloud, operating system, endpoint devices, or other infrastructure. You have to be able to explain in layman's terms why strategic goals have to start with the basic building blocks.

Sell the benefit – Nobody likes the person who always says no, so don't be an Eeyore in meetings. Laud the potential business benefits of new technology, and sell the needed infrastructure improvements as part of the package. It will make you seem more proactive and positive – the person ready to get things done.

Get the Help You Require

Once you've got the team on board, often the fastest and most cost-effective way to get deployments done with the least amount of disruption is to find a partner with the skill to do it quickly and well.

You’ll know it’s time to look for a partner when:

• Technology support begins to take away from serving the customer
• Location rollouts are routinely late or over budget
• Devices at or past end-of-life are showing signs of failure, with direct impact to daily business operations
• Vendor deadlines for end of support – such as Windows 7 – create a scramble for top talent and the corresponding fight for priorities

Our Deployment Solutions accelerate projects like network infrastructure deployment, onsite rollouts and remodels, and PC and technology refreshes.

See the Big Picture

For businesses, technology carries the double-edged sword of value and distraction. Consumers of technology benefits – whether customers or internal end users – are constantly raising the bar, but organizations don't have the luxury of deployment projects that are ineffective or that sap focus on important business goals.

Let CompuCom help you align your IT projects with your business goals. We know what it takes to get the job done when internal IT resources are simply too scarce to meet demands.

Your business won’t wait. Why should you?