IT Transformation - Simplifly

I was reading 'Simplifly' Capt. Gopinath's biography/autobiography. The issues that he faced with Deccan Airway's IT infrastructure caught the eye.

The speed with which the decision was taken to transform the platform and the execution associated with it is something that I have not seen in Banking that is as mission critical as Airlines that Capt. Gopinath is in.

IT investment is for a long haul. Migration to a platform has to address many issues. The migration in question itself could be due to the obsolescence of the platform or technology, loss of value for the changing Business requirements, expensive maintenance, issues with scalability, churning of vendors among many others. A migration should ensure the same issues should not recur post the activity over a projected period over which the return on investment is to be recovered.

A migration of an IT system is sometimes like child birth - the result is a new life and changes to all involved. The organization will have to re-invent itself, it's processes, organization structure, accounting and control structure, relation ship with end customers and many others. These are not small issues and requires thorough brainstorming and laying out. The plan has to be meticulous and despite the fact that too many people are involved all the people have to be consulted. A sponsor with a personal stake should take the ownership of the transformation and lay out the rules and take and assign responsibilities.

It is possible for a smooth migration to take place in the IT infrastructure. It requires building a check list, ensuring that nothing is consciously ignored. deliberate communication to stakeholders, explicit solicitation and confirmation of commitment, leadership, planned investment and execution, availability of experts and primarily assignment of responsibilities and tracking.