the reasons may not be
the ones you think

In one of its many articles on IBMi, ITJungle / the Four Hundred magazine explains the growing interest in application modernization that seems to be sweeping through the IBM i installed base. EvolveWare, which develops modernization tools for Mainframe and IBM i applications, published its modernization report in March. This report, The State of Application Modernization 2023, which surveyed over 200 multi-industry CIOs on IBM i and Mainframe, reveals two important things: the glaring discrepancy between the confidence companies seem to have before embarking on a modernization project and during it. And the reasons for embarking on such projects.

The three main reasons for modernization

To put it simply:

• reason n°1: increase employee productivity (40% of respondents)
• reason n°2: abandon mainframe infrastructure (37%)
• reason no. 3: reduce dependence on legacy code (36%)

Internal and external reasons

According to the EvolveWare report, the reasons for modernization are either external or internal.

The external reasons for modernization are business-related: increasing sales and margins, cutting costs, improving customer satisfaction and striving for greater competitiveness. These external factors are generally driven by the business rather than the IT team.

Internal reasons for modernizing applications usually come from the IT department, which is more concerned with operational efficiency: doing away with the mainframe or mid-range hardware, reducing dependence on legacy code, moving to the cloud, eliminating (or at least reducing) security vulnerabilities and dealing with staff shortages.

Miten Marfatia, CEO of EvolveWare, explains to IT Jungle that there are clearly two schools of thought: the IT department that wants to modernize because it’s having trouble managing the system on a day-to-day basis, and management that only wants to modernize if it can generate additional revenue or increase efficiency. And, unfortunately, one does not imply the other. Or at least not right away.

Myth busted: nobody knows how apps work

This discrepancy between CIOs and management should be a huge wake-up call, one that management isn’t hearing. But they should listen more closely to CIOs who warn that, soon, they won’t have anyone to manage them.

This is the reason for the loss of trust in the middle of the project we mentioned in the introduction: management assumes that their developers know how the applications work. As this is not the case, the realization along the way is terrible. All the more so as programs are rarely documented.

Because even if IBM i applications are in perfect condition, the lack of qualified IT staff makes it risky for companies to continue using them. In this context, modernizing because the system has become too old to keep up with business needs is an obsolete reason. The real reason is that nobody really knows how to use them anymore.

Read the original article in full:

https://www.itjungle.com/2023/04/03/why-modernize-applications-the-reasons-might-surprise-you/