What Sets Programmers’ Fast-Track Application Modernization Service Apart?

So, your organization has decided to leverage application modernization to streamline its internal operations and offer customers better digital experiences. Which service provider will you turn to for help? 

Many providers embrace common pitfalls, such as adopting cutting-edge technology for its own sake, poorly defining short and long-term goals, and prescribing solutions that don’t make sense for the client’s unique needs. 

Those are some of the reasons why 74% of companies fail to achieve value from modernization. With a looming recession, your company likely does not want to make a large investment that won’t show clear business results. 

Programmers’ Fast-Track Application Modernization service delivers value and enhances your digital infrastructure every 90 days. By working closely with your stakeholders, we can address your most pressing needs short-term while also building towards long-term goals.

Below, learn more about what makes Fast-Track among the best application modernization services.

Targeting Your Unique Value Drivers 

The Business Discovery Phase

Many modernization efforts fail because the service provider does not understand what brings real business value to the client. As budget meeting after budget meeting passes, stakeholders begin to wonder why they are investing in modernization and eventually withdraw support.

That’s why we begin our Fast-Track Application Modernization service with the business discovery phase. This is our opportunity to sit down with your leaders and understand their goals. It’s also a good chance to gauge where your company has encountered setbacks in the past.

Let’s look at an example: One of our clients is a company that helps universities recruit high school seniors. Beyond discussing their digital systems, we asked this client why modernization was important to them. 

They told us that they wanted to allow universities to unlock insights about prospective students faster. Knowing that, we were then prepared to look at the underlying technology and see how we could help them reach that goal.   

Identifying the Most Pressing Tech Barriers 

Technology Evaluation 

Some application modernization providers make two high-level mistakes regarding technology. One is that they focus solely on the latest, cutting-edge technology. Something that is new and trendy won’t always be a perfect fit for your business needs. 

Speaking of the right fit, the second mistake these consultants make is prescribing the same fix regardless of the client’s circumstances. For example, we’ve seen several providers who believe cloud migration is the end-all-be-all modernization solution for every company. 

At Programmers, we don’t embrace technology for technology’s sake. We leverage the tools that will most help you achieve your business goals early and often. Our Fast-Track Application Modernization service works with your legacy systems to expand the value proposition you offer customers and make your internal operations more efficient.

The technology evaluation phase of our Fast-Track service is where we take a deep look at your legacy systems. With your business goals in mind, we target the technological barriers preventing you from reaching these short and long-term benchmarks. 

Then, we look for the right solution for your needs. This can include:

1. Cleaning up code
2. Automation 
3. UI/UX design
4. Cloud migration 
5. System integration

Modernization Strategy

Next, we build your modernization strategy, focusing on your most mission-critical needs and addressing them in 90-day modernization sprints. As we build your roadmap, we add items to the backlog and prioritize them based on how closely they impact your organization’s short and long-term goals.

Let’s look back at our example from the education field. Our client wanted to help universities find faster insights regarding potential students. 

As we looked at our client’s main customer-facing platform, we realized the system had trouble dealing with spikes in demand. That meant universities looking to upload and view student data during peak recruitment season had to wait as long as one full day. 

After carefully reviewing the technology, we knew that cloud migration would allow this platform to handle high-traffic use. It would also reduce operating costs during low-traffic periods. 

With our modernization strategy set, we began iteratively migrating the most vital functions of this system to the cloud every 90 days. Like all of our clients, this organization saw value at the end of each three-month sprint. 

Our client’s customers also saw a rapidly improved experience. Eventually, the data that once took them one day to upload was live within one hour. Learn how we got it done in our Fast-Track case study.

Achieving Value Every 90 Days

Modernization Cycles

No other major application modernization service offers a guaranteed timeline to value, let alone one as rapid as 90 days. We’re able to make this promise thanks to our uniquely streamlined agile methodologies and our exceptionally clear view of what matters most to your organization’s stakeholders.

During each sprint, we develop, test, and fully deploy your legacy system’s most important enhancement or new feature. This 90-day period also includes a sprint review, which is crucial for stakeholders to give feedback and see the value gained during each three-month period.

Ensuring Continuous Modernization

A recent report indicates that only 53% of CIOs have commitment from other key leaders for modernization. That means nearly half of CIOs walk into each budget meeting unsure if their modernization effort will survive. 

By rapidly showing value and offering full transparency, our Fast-Track process makes it easier to earn and maintain strong buy-in for application modernization. This allows you to continuously modernize your systems without worrying about losing funding at every turn.

Some consultants consider modernization a one-time investment. However, we know that most organizations will need to continue unlocking new capabilities that meet customers’ rapidly-changing needs. There will also be new challenges in your industry or within your company that will require enhanced systems.

Here’s an example: One of our clients helps make sure oncology practices collect all the money due to them from Medicare and insurance companies. They can check for undercharged procedures using automated systems that Programmers helped implement with Fast-Track. 

Still, private insurance companies constantly change how they structure their plans. Likewise, Medicare’s regulations are always being tweaked. That’s why it’s crucial that our client continuously modernizes its systems to accurately detect undercharged procedures. 

Because our Fast-Track process is efficient and clearly demonstrates value, stakeholders throughout this company are willing to sign off on continuous modernization. They see customer retention, market share, efficiency, and other crucial KPIs increase, which indicates modernization is not a sunk cost but an essential long-term investment.

Building a Digital Foundation that Scales 

Finally, one of the most important benefits of our Fast-Track service is ensuring your legacy applications can scale up as your business grows. Outdated applications often require exhaustive maintenance and adding new features is usually cumbersome. 

By iteratively modernizing your applications, your organization will enjoy more solid digital infrastructure long-term. Your internal teams will also have to spend less time checking for bugs and keeping outdated systems afloat, allowing them to focus on innovation.

Let’s look back at our example from the previous section, the organization that helps oncology practices correctly charge insurance companies. That organization began as an oncology practice itself and eventually expanded into offering software for other practices. 

The solutions they built were impressive. However, because they only had a small tech staff, it was not yet a fully-realized digital ecosystem. 

By automating processes, integrating applications, and more, our Fast-Track service took this patchwork of systems and gave the client a more sustainable digital foundation that scales. Learn more in our Fast-Track case study on modernizing a healthcare RCM system.

Final Thoughts 

Fast-Track Application Modernization focuses on your unique business goals, targets the technological improvements that will make them possible, and makes meaningful progress towards those benchmarks every 90 days. This not only ensures you see value from modernization rapidly but also encourages strong buy-in throughout your organization and streamlines your path towards efficient, scalable systems.  

For these reasons, we believe Fast-Track is one of the best application modernization services on the market. Start building your unique modernization roadmap and leveraging our experts’ insights by filling out the contact form on our Fast-Track page.

Let us know how we can help you.