Standish Group has issued a report describing the risk of failure of major IT projects, citing the dangers of rewriting core business applications or replacing them with generic packages. In 2011, there were well-documented ERP and other software project horror stories, including the RIM and Amazon outages, highlighting the challenges and business-critical nature of having the right IT infrastructure in place.
As 2012 progresses and the ramifications of the new economic world in 2012 become clear, it is important to look back and learn from the mistakes made in 2011. Gartner predicts in its recent Forecast Alert that IT spend will decline to 3.7 percent in 2012, the challenge for CIOs remains to implement software projects that demonstrate value, return on investment and provide guarantees of future success.
Micro Focus argues that modernization is the key, assessing existing IT infrastructure and re-using as much as possible as you modernize applications and systems.
Kevin Brearley, Director, Product Management, Micro Focus said, "2012 is the year of modernization and re-use for core business systems technology. Grand plans to totally overhaul IT operations using major ERP implementations or massive system rewrites come with significant risk. Improving overall operational efficiency and supporting new business initiatives is really IT's raison d'etre. But businesses need to be careful not to introduce risk or unknown cost into the operation. There has never been a worse time to take uncalculated business risks - major organizations are guarding against unnecessary risk-taking. Modernization is paramount."
