When Modernizing Legacy Applications, The Highest Value Is Solving Constituent Challenges

Modernizing legacy applications build a government agency's ability to be resilient and agile in the face of disruption. For over a decade, federal agencies have recognized the need to modernize, but the last two years have added urgency. 

“While the need for legacy modernization is not new to government CIOs, the challenges related to the pandemic have only served to heighten the awareness of the resulting risks and the need for it,” according to a Gartner report.

In fact, Gartner has predicted that by 2025 — in just three years, over 50 percent of government agencies will have begun the government digital transformation process and replaced critical legacy applications with new, modernized versions.

Modernizing the Right Way

Federal agencies still reliant on off-the-shelf legacy systems are encountering operational inefficiencies that have only worsened with time. 

CIOs need situation-specific solutions that don't just perform a function but do so with the specific needs of their constituents in mind.

When DMI partners with a federal government agency on a modernization project, we are driven by three fundamental values:

1. We believe the priorities of the modernization effort should be driven by customer value.

“We begin by saying, ‘Let's focus on where your pain points are right now. Let's truly understand them,” said Jon Molendorp, Managing Director, Application Development & Data, DMI. “What we hear from the customers or constituents is often very different than what the owners of the platform think are the pain point.”

By focusing on these findings and prioritizing addressing these issues, modernization moves beyond improved technology to improve users' experience by leveraging improved technology.

2. We believe in delivering a solution that addresses the constituent pain points as quickly as possible.

Molendorp said that if we are not focused on speed to value, organizations can fall into the trap of prioritizing technological modernization while delaying the enhancements that users or constituents need. Instead, DMI prefers an evolutionary approach that speeds the delivery of constituent value while incrementally moving towards the ideal modernized solution.

“In doing this, we're moving towards modernization, but we're not saying that every piece of the system has to get to the perfect end state right away,” said Molendorp.

3. We believe in determining the right architecture based on our preferred approach and the constituent priorities we've discovered.

"The highest value is not to be modern or cloud-native. The highest value is solving the customers' challenges and making their processes better," said Molendorp.

While DMI believes being modern and cloud-native is ideal, improving the experiences and capabilities delivered to constituents is the primary objective. And in the long term, embracing modern, cloud-native solutions are the best way to accelerate the delivery of those services.  

In reality, modern end-users expect a much greater level of app functionality and reliability than they have in the past. DMI brings years of experience in federal government digital transformation to the table, with hundreds of federal contracts awarded since 2012.

Using Agile and DevOps methodologies, DMI delivers human-centric applications that can be stood up and maintained with speed, flexibility, and resilience. If or when you desire to update and modernize your legacy application(s), we take stock of your portfolio and use a business lens to analyze where you could simplify, modernize, and rationalize your legacy application(s).

Connect with us to learn more.