Although users of enterprise applications are poised to move into "one of the biggest upgrade cycles in a decade," most are not focused on designing a long-term strategy for evolving their packaged applications, according to a recent study from Forrester Research Inc.
In a survey of software decision-makers in North America, 59% said upgrading packaged applications would be a priority or a critical priority over the next 12 months, but only 40% said designing a five- to 10-year packaged applications strategy would be a priority or critical priority over the same period.
Developing a long-term applications strategy will be important because software decision-makers have important migration issues to navigate over the next few years, Forrester analyst Ray Wang said in the report. Applications deployed in the Y2K time frame are beginning to bump up against the seven- to 10-year life span of most packaged applications and will soon need to be upgraded or replaced, he said. The advent of applications built around service-oriented architectures (SOA) also is creating pressure to upgrade or migrate applications, as is interest among line-of-business managers in software-as-a-service offerings, Wang wrote.
Long-term applications strategies should address the following issues, according to the report:
- Foundation: This phase involves building the right team and creating the best project governance processes for carrying out the applications strategy.
- Process definition and optimization: The focus is on documenting existing processes and functional capabilities, defining the desired future state, and creating a blueprint of how processes and software functionality with work together.
- Technology strategy: This phase lays out how the organization will do upgrade planning, instance consolidation, master data management, and deployment analysis. The organization should also consider middleware and SOA strategy and security.
- Vendor ecosystem maturity: Organizations should consider how well enterprise software vendors are able to extend their product portfolios and fill white spaces through the use of partners.