Product Modernization – Ongoing challenging game for ISV’s engineering services
There’s an anecdote from India that I believe is an excellent warning against losing our vision and glorifying a waning legacy.
A car named Ambassador was the nation’s favourite from the 1950s to the 80s, patronised especially by the highest-ranking officials. It was comfortable, affordable, and indeed one of the best cars. With time, however, its consumers required more security and safety. Ambassador did not improve its cars, and by the ’90s, the brand started fading and is now obsolete.
Why do I narrate this story?
Over time, the value a customer derives from a product changes/reduces. If the product is not improved, soon the consumers move to other products, and business from the current product declines.
As the sales curve starts to flatten because of changing customer requirements, the strategy should be changed to keep the product competitive.
Steven ten Napel – CEO
As the sales curve starts to flatten because of changing customer requirements, the strategy should be changed to keep the product competitive. As in the case of this car, the brand should have noticed the decline in demand when the revenue was not increasing.
However, the notion of “Business is still good, and we will improvise later” often results in products getting outdated.
Similarly, many products still run-on monolithic architectures in the fast-changing tech world. The extended maintenance schedules and update times of these legacy systems result in customers moving away from those products. As the world moves towards Microservices and Cloud infrastructure, there is a need to move products away from legacy technologies. Modernisation, therefore, helps in reviving development and increasing revenue.
There can be several approaches to modernisation: The vertical approach, where a few modules or features are taken up for improvements and are released periodically, or a layered approach, in which the modernisation happens from the top UI layer to the DB layer or in a reverse direction.
Another method could be to innovate a successor product. This often requires predicting where the consumer requirements would shift over time and has considerable risk. However, market surveys, gathering product performance data, and using appropriate technologies help you reduce the risk to an assuring minimum.
Modernisation can never be a project; it must be an ongoing journey. The R&D team should spend time researching the future, keeping the grounded reality of the current product in mind. Also, businesses must proactively understand the Time-to-Market of the developed products to counter the competition.
A word of caution, however. The best technology in the industry might not be the one you need. It is essential to identify the difference between wants and needs. Not all products require Microservices, Cloud infrastructure, or automation. Hence, a good analysis of business objectives is essential to find the appropriate technologies that achieve long-term goals. Otherwise, you may spend a lot and get low investment returns.
While it is not easy to persistently change our strategies and modernise our products, it is possible. The glory of the Ambassador sadly ended too soon. On the other hand, the BMW Group that has been manufacturing automobiles since 1928 has successfully modernised its cars and digitalized its manufacturing processes and business operations. They’ve embedded a software factory within their car manufacturing units. No surprise they are still world leaders.
Could transformations, especially digital ones, at the right time have saved the Ambassador?
YES.
I am sure that behind every business that survived for decades is a successful modernisation strategy, and the process has digital transformation at its core.
EVENT STREAMING
Business Decisions must be data-driven
As we talk about product modernisation, which means moving away from legacy products to newer, more efficient architectures, there is a new tech on the block: Event Streaming.
Streaming technologies help process the events and generate insights for immediate actions. Let us take a basic view of the different terminologies for this new technology.
Events
Any change in the state of an object due to a consumer’s actions. Any such change results in data generation. An example of a data point could be a user purchasing an item from an eCommerce website. Here the change is from cart to purchase.
Event Streams
Event streams are sequences of events that have significant data with reference to a particular time.
Let us take an example of 4 services A, B, C, and D. In traditional architecture, A would ask the state of other services and get a response from them for its processing. This process has an inherent risk, i.e., assuming that the other services are always available.
This risk is removed when the other services continuously publish their data (Events). This continuous publishing is called an Event Stream. ‘A’ can now subscribe to this stream and process the data for its use. This publishes/subscribe (pub/sub) nature of using events is called Event Streaming.
It provides real-time data about the state changes. This information can come from IoT devices, mobile apps, cloud services, or other databases. Organizations can use this “Data in motion” to generate valuable insights and take appropriate actions in line with the senses.
Event Stream Processing
This requires two different components: the first is data storage using appropriate technology, and the second is the technology for data processing. The first ensures that the events are stored in chronological order. Apache Kafka is the most used stream engine. It holds the events temporarily and processes them.
Many organizations understand the importance of data for them. They have also started gathering data to find valuable insights. Traditionally, organizations collected data in batches, but it was processed only when sufficient or minimum data was available. This is where Event Stream Processing is advantageous. It processes each single data point in real-time. It also helps in scaling in real-time when data increases. Additionally, it provides insights continuously.
A few use cases for the ESP:
Event Stream Platforms provide the technology to take large amounts of data and process them or make them available to other applications for real-time insights. They also offer scalable and resilient storage.
There are a few open-source platforms that are commonly used:
A few significant vendors also provide ESP as a managed service:
Event Stream Processing is the next big thing that has disrupted the market. It is a potent tool that helps producers come closer to their consumers by taking event analytics to the next level.
Here I am summarizing the top benefits of ESP:
Overall, as legacy systems make way for newer technologies, ESP will form an essential tool for every product to provide valuable insights to an organization to improve its operations.
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Rang De: Employees displayed the significance of Holi through Art and colours with a dress code
YourDOST – Desk Yoga: Employees were invited to attend a live webinar on Yoga at their desks.
Ugadi Pachadi with traditional attire: We asked the employees to get their own ingredients and describe the significance of the dish along with a traditional attire.
Townhall Meeting: Employees attended a town hall meeting by Anand Sahay the Global CEO of Xebia to experience the updates and progress of CMIT for the year 2022.
Plant together (World Nature Conservation Day): Employees had to plant a sapling along with their families and share a picture.
Power off (World Nature Conservation Day): We asked the employees to turn off their PCs and electronic devices when not in use.
Kids drawing contest (World Nature Conservation Day): kids of our employees participated and sent pictures of their drawing on the Nature theme.
Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav: Competitions held- 1. Jai Ho (Singing) 2. Trivia on India (Quiz) 3. Go Swadeshi (Dress up).
RangDe Vinayak: Just like a kid who eagerly waits for their birthday, all of us await to celebrate Lord Ganesha’s birthday every year at our office. Dressed up in colorful traditional clothes, we get together to paint Ganesha idols, dance, and celebrate with good food.
We are GREAT PLACE TO WORK certified: Great Place to Work® Certification is recognized around the world by employees and employers alike and is considered the ‘Gold Standard in identifying and recognizing Great Workplace Cultures.
CoMoGa- coMakeIT Monsoon Games (CMIT level): A week of tournament was held. The sports played were chess, carroms, TT, snooker, and foosball.
