"Significant threat comes from newer, more aggressive and digitally aligned start-ups" says Tim Sandle in an article in Digital journal. In the article Sandle explains how CEOs of large and established organizations realize the threats from new innovative startups or digitally aligned and transformed organizations, but also expresses their dilemma of how to compete in such a dynamic environment."Significant threat comes from newer, more aggressive and digitally aligned start-ups" says Tim Sandle in an article in Digital journal. In the article Sandle explains how CEOs of large and established organizations realize the threats from new innovative startups or digitally aligned and transformed organizations, but also expresses their dilemma of how to compete in such a dynamic environment. To some extent this was the dilemma of the dinosaurs back then? Given the emerging competition from digitally-ready startups or digitally transformed companies, the question is what should large established companies do to fight back, survive and protect their market and customers?New survey conducted by KMPG sheds more light on the evolving situation: "KPMG asked more than 100 insurance CEOs about their plans and concerns over the next few years, and what we heard reveals some surprising insights. This report highlights the top-level findings and how insurance CEOs will need to pick up the pace of transformation and innovation if they hope to remain competitive in this rapidly-evolving market." Start where it starts, the dinosaurs! Legacy desktop applications like Visual Basic, PowerBuilder, Delphi, Older .NET, Java and alike are your dinosaurs!You are asking yourself - how come? What have these oldies got to do with the threats on insurance giants?Recent survey report from University of Surrey explains:"Although many core systems have become efficient and stable over the many decades of their existence (dating back in many cases to the 1970s and 1980s), they are now seen as a key obstacle in the rapid evolution to a fully integrated digital business. A senior automotive executive expressed the problem clearly in his statement 'software is the new rust'."Those good old friends of the past, which in many cases still carry the IP and heavy loads in many of the large organizations, are also your IT's most bitter enemy. Legacy holds your organization back from innovating at the same pace as your new competitors that do not have to carry Legacy on their back. Legacy means "cost of living ", or rather keeping-alive is ever raising: You can't find programmers to maintain them; they will not integrate with new systems or run on new infrastructure like cloud or web; they pose a huge security threat - which most regulated organizations cannot bear; they provide a poor user experience; they will not support real time interactions - and that is only the tip of the iceberg. Bottom line: they drain your blood in a much higher pace than you may think. They carry hidden costs like loss of business opportunities which you might not even be aware to. Pay attention to the way this Harvard business review describes the legacy situation as "the death grip of legacy technologies". Google, Apple and Amazon threats are good examplesLegacy systems are one of the biggest barriers keeping banks from imitating the digital experiences provided by the likes of Apple, Google, and Amazon. These companies deliver more personalized services faster than banks can, and the competition among them means they have to constantly refine those experiences and deliver them more quickly. That competition is driving the digital world in a direction of real-time, anywhere access to services, data, and analytics for enterprises and customers.Could the legacy like desktop applications be an opportunity instead of a dinosaurs?The answer is not so simple. On one hand, the desktop applications like Visual Basic, PowerBuilder, Dot.NET and Java are the most invested software assets in the organization and probably will continue to be so for many years to come. Often the legacy desktop application is also the IP of the organization. On the other hand, what are the options to convert legacy to run as a new open standard application that runs on cloud or web, provides modern user experience and multiple device accessibility?Up to now your options were limited. We had discussed some of the options in in this blog post. But there are new innovations, some are still evolving, gaining traction and their field experience as we speak. One of the innovations is GizmoxTS, a new Automated Rewrite solutionIt is a fast, efficient, machine-based Automated Rewrite solution that might save an organization tons of time and resources in transforming desktop applications to Web, Cloud or Mobile and help them protect their market in an ever evolving space. What is the innovation?The innovation is based on 3 main pillars, each is a breakthrough in its space: The holistic approach, a breakthrough in the way desktop applications are being analyzed and assessed before being modernized:Based on unique patented algorithms for semantic code understanding, the legacy desktop application is read and holistically represented in the tool. Unlike with the traditional 'line by line' processors of yesterday, the holistic approach allows re-architecting to a new platform or framework, while preserving the semantics (business rules, data relationships and flow and UI element functionality). One important benefit of the holistically understanding of the desktop application is that it removes the need to reverse engineer the desktop application's business functionality, thus considerably reducing the cost, duration and especially the risk of the modernization effort. The semantically explicit internal representation of the desktop application serves as the basis for the machine-driven process to automatically perform a large proportion of the re-architecting much of what was manually handled till now. Through a process of virtual continuous compilation, the software guides the user - in most cases a software architect - through completing, refining and modifying the migrated application.The unique IDE, a set of software architect tools that allow complete customizability:The IDE is similar to the Visual Studio IDE, but powered by the semantic understanding and continuous compilation engines. Virtual continuous compilation allows the user in most cases a software architect, to be guided in refactoring, mapping, or wider ranging re-architecting such as breaking the application into layers and actions they still need to perform, through suggestions and comments. Even more remarkably, it shows the results of those changes directly to the user, without the need to complete the migration - including error messages and warnings that further guide the user on the path to a well-written and architected, optimized and modernized application. An important task performed in the IDE is adding standard or custom security software, identification and authorization to the modernized application, so that these extremely important parts of a modern application are not added as an afterthought to the end product.The production-ready delivery, all you have to do is accept the new modernized application and put it to work:The application re-assembly and QA are integral parts of the GizmoxTS process. We start with the source code of the desktop application and we deliver the ready-to-deploy code of a modern, secure and tested application on your chosen platform. The end-to-end process has a very low requirement for client personnel during most phases and does not include a post migration modification phase - we deliver to production.
