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Introduction
The digital world has brought us many things, possibly the most notable of which is the immediacy of information. Whatever you need to know—the weather, your bank balance, the whereabouts of family members, the price of that new pair of shoes, your appointments for the next few days, the best price to renew your car insurance—you can get it with sub-second response, any time of the day or night. In fact, so much of that information is available, the challenge isn’t so much what we need to know, it's actually what we need to ignore to focus on what matters.
To help us focus on what matters, I grabbed time with guest contributor and modernization expert, Derek Britton, and AveriSource VP of Marketing, Ed Airey, to explore the issue—and discuss the new AveriSource Rapid Assessment™️ Offering.
Q&A
Jenny Allen, Managing Editor: We all know that in today’s IT environment, there’s not much that isn’t possible—and that raises user expectations. So, customer needs are immediate, but nothing has changed in terms of budgets, which remain tight. Are those who manage IT under greater pressure than before?
Derek Britton, Modernization Expert: "Pressure, possibly, but they are also armed with greater potential than ever. But the challenges remain about whereto focus, and why. As you say, Jenny, the same budget drives everything, so projects that are aimed at IT modernization vie with more ground-breaking innovation investments. Where should resources go? That ‘stick-or-twist’ dilemma is not straightforward—so there’s a growing need to find ways to ensure that there’s a good way of prioritizing in the first place, but that any priority activities have a way of justifying themselves, so IT knows it's heading in the right direction."
Ed Airey, VP of Marketing, AveriSource: "Absolutely, Derek. That’s where AveriSource sees the value of its Rapid Assessment offering. It’s all about helping IT leaders to place the right bets. Effective prioritization comes from an immediate determination of what’s needed. And in the case of older IT systems, you need to know what needs to be modernized quickly and accurately. The AveriSource Rapid Assessment program does just that: ring fencing an IT system and then offering a forensic and fast-tracked automated assessment to determine the recommended next steps in a modernization program.
The AveriSource Rapid Assessment is focused on accelerating your modernization journey, starting with the planning and project scoping process. It's about getting you the needed and fast answers to tricky questions that would otherwise take months and months to solve."
As part of this, though, when you're looking to get more done quickly, is it not a case of don’t just work faster, but deliver results faster?
Derek: "That’s a fair point. You can reach a quick conclusion based on simple tools that tell you nothing useful, or worse still imply things that are not valid. You need to be thorough, and accurate. So, any quick assessment needs a means to produce valid and sensible and auditable metrics—and using a controlled environment."
Ed: "Correct. The AveriSource Rapid Assessment offering and program helps you to determine a finite scope work, including the resources and skills you need in terms of the application modernization effort, but also all of the technology needed to achieve these goals. The AveriSource Rapid Assessment provides our partners with access to Scan, Inventory, and Discover products for use within their application assessment activities. These technologies—all part of the AveriSource Platform™️—accelerate the application analysis, understanding, and planning process needed for any successful modernization effort.
For some organizations, based on assessment strategies, AveriSource Analyze can be leveraged for business rules extraction, as well as business requirements documentation efforts. There’s a wide range of use cases for the AveriSource Rapid Assessment as it’s designed to meet the needs of our partners and customers at any stage along their modernization journey."
So that’s all good to get you through the first of your assessments, but there’s a whole organization’s worth of applications out there that might be under consideration? How do you scale for success?
Derek: "Jenny’s right. In fact, to look at one application in isolation—if that’s already a priority is fine, but it might be just part of a far broader program of work—perhaps a major IT transformation program. That context may be crucial."
Ed: "Completely true. In fact, the AveriSource Rapid Assessment is offered to enable the client, or their partner, to undertake a number of assessments in support of their clients, as needs dictate, to provide that broader context for decision making. And—as the scale of work increases—the broader AveriSource Platform becomes available for larger-scale, longer-term modernization programs.
Closing Remarks
Interested in learning more about the AveriSource Rapid Assessment? Download the AveriSource Rapid Assessment Datasheet to learn how to leverage this new program to accelerate modernization planning and preparation. For those who wish to accelerate their application modernization journey while reducing risk, the AveriSource Rapid Assessment, alongside the AveriSource Platform, provides a powerful combination ready to enable your digital transformation strategy.
Ready to get started on your application modernization journey today? Download AveriSource Scan, our free codebase assessment tool available on our website or the AWS Marketplace.
