Why are applications the definition of insanity I hear you say?
Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
I believe that the statement denotes the true impact applications have on organisations and how they can affect all change processes.
Given my experiences of working within the Technology sector for several years, I am still amazed that the key obstacle to successful projects and programmes is an inability to begin the journey by first looking at applications. Applications are at the centre of all operating systems, so why do we put off any review or understanding of them until the end of our change process and why do we expect different results when we have not included them in the original concept?
Applications are the jewel in the crown from an IT perspective. It does not matter if it is on-premise, hybrid, cloud, mainframe or locally delivered for end-user experience and customer satisfaction applications are king. I do not understand why organisations leave until it is too late for application lifecycle management. If a business had 300 buildings in different states of repair but did not know where half of them were, that would be a major issue; if a fleet manager did not know who was driving a vehicle or its location for 12 months that would be a real issue. Yet when it comes to applications, they are just an afterthought and considered too late in the day when undertaking Digital Acceleration Programmes and Projects.
At Camwood we talk about ‘Digital Acceleration through the lens of Applications’ – by which we mean bringing to the forefront the value of addressing applications to our partners and customers base and utilising our experience built over 20 years.
If we take the ‘Windows 10 End of Life’ which comes into effect in October 2025, we have a 3-year window to understand our application estate, combability position, hardware compliance, application ownership within the business, application rationalisation possibilities, evergreen orchestration and management and the list goes on.
However, this list can be made less daunting by looking at the applications at the start of your journey. I stated earlier, this is driven by getting an understanding of the application landscape; what have I got, who uses it, who owns it within the business, do I need it, is it compatible with my target operating model etc.
By placing applications front and centre alongside the modern workplace agenda, you truly can unlock the value of Digital Acceleration through the Lens of Applications.
