MEGA International: Reducing legacy IT in the public sector: Aspiration or reality?

As UK government organisations continues to focus on managing legacy IT and ensuring that technology is the driving force of digital transformation, there can be a delta between aspiration and reality.  

Guidance on how to do this is plentiful, but getting the management of legacy IT right is more difficult than it seems. From the beginning of the contract process and throughout the life of an application, it is vital to prevent legacy IT from building up, safeguarding against risks such as cyber attacks, provision operational resilience. Ultimately, providing better value for money and efficient online experience for constituents is the goal. 

The importance of technology 

Technology is powering digital change, so the key question to ask is whether your IT team is fully equipped and empowered to innovate and foster the provision of smooth digital services. 

The key challenges are: 

• IT resource availability: Reliable visibility into your IT portfolio that provides - at a glance - an inventory of all applications and which business functions they serve 

• IT Rationalisation: How complex are your organisation’s IT systems? Have you properly eliminated or modernised specific resources to be operating optimally? 

• Security: Have you reduced obsolescence risks of the hundreds (or thousands) of technology components that support applications by monitoring their lifecycle with up-to-date information? 

Taking action to gain visibility, simplify complexity and reduce risks can rationalize your IT system so that you can devote more resources to innovation. 

How to manage legacy IT 

As per the Crown Commercial Service guidance, effective management of legacy IT is about assessing demand management of different applications, and analysing cost optimisation. By following this approach, it is possible to eliminate underused resources, and align system usage to business needs on an ongoing basis.  

This approach avoids unintended spend or “bill shocks” by enabling data-driven assessments with intelligent analytics and monitoring. The culture of cost saving, continuous assessment can then be ‘baked in’ across the culture of the organisation. 

Managing legacy IT is an ongoing process 

Establishing IT portfolio management as an ongoing practice is the best way to make your IT system more powerful, efficient and directly suited to the daily needs of your internal innovators. It can help your organisation overcome today’s demands and position it for future challenges – and opportunities. 

IT portfolio management improves business performance by helping you determine which applications serve your company best and by providing the information you need to answer vital questions. 

Once you know the business value, cost, technical efficiency, performance and risk of each IT asset, you can create a roadmap that shows you how to streamline your IT system, add and retire technologies at the right time, avoid technology obsolescence, eliminate costly redundancies, and gain a competitive edge. 

To read more from #techUKDigitalPS Week, check out our landing page here.

You can also follow the campaign on techUK's Twitter and LinkedIn - #techUKDigitalPS.

Find out more 

To find out more, this eBook guides you through 3 key steps of IT rationalisation. 

Ben Beeching is EMEA Marketing Manager for global Enterprise Architecture vendor MEGA International. Get in touch with Ben, to learn more.

To learn more about MEGA International, please visit their LinkedIn and Twitter.

On Tuesday 5 April, techUK was delighted to host the Cabinet Office and industry representatives for the launch event for the UK Government’s Digital, Data and Technology Sourcing Playbook which was published on 28 March 2022. The DDaT Sourcing Playbook sets out guidance – in one place – as to how digital projects and programmes are assessed, procured and delivered in central government departments, arms-length bodies and the wider public sector. Through the application of what is commercial best practice, the Playbook addresses 11 key policies and six cross-cutting priorities that will ensure government gets things right from the start when it comes to procurement.

You can watch the recording of the launch event in full here:

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