App Modernization: The key to successful retail experiences

The pandemic has changed shopping routines. Consumers' expectations and needs from retailers have shifted acutely in favor of omnichannel customer experiences. To keep up with consumers and provide efficient and engaging paths to purchase, the applications that serve as foundations for such capabilities must be up-to-date. For example, employee hand-held checkout, dynamic digital signage, curbside check-in, real-time inventory visibility for shoppers, compelling loyalty programs, and personalized discovery feeds require modernized applications.

Unfortunately, many retailers rely on monolithic*, legacy*, tightly coupled (read: overly complicated) application ecosystems and services that prevent shopping functions catering to evolving consumer needs from being built quickly, especially at scale. “Application modernization” is how technology teams revamp or rewrite core systems and platforms according to more state-of-the-art development practices and technologies. Application modernization creates the right conditions to innovate with significantly less risk.

Knowing when an application modernization strategy is needed is fundamental for a future-forward retail organization. Here are a few indications that our app modernization expertise is required to create a best in class customer experience:

1. It took six to twelve months or more to go from idea to launch, regardless of the size of the digital initiative (e.g., employee hand-held checkout, dynamic digital signage, curbside check-in, etc.)

The longer it takes for a retailer to bring an idea to execution, the greater the potential for competitors to become first-movers. Further, every day without moving from development to operational means lost revenue. Speed to market is crucial in this rapidly changing retail landscape. Dealing with outdated software development practices or monolithic architectures* will inevitably take years to deploy a solution. If you’ve approved a change or a new business capability that requires IT, and it’s taking longer than six months for consumers to experience that change, let CI&T know.

2. You’re worried about the ripple effects of testing or making any changes to your systems.

A key element of innovation is testing the capabilities or applications that enable digital transformation. Suppose there’s the potential to disrupt other capabilities, systems, or applications every time your organization tries to test change. In that case, it’s time to implement a decoupled architecture*. Decoupled architecture, combined with a DevOps* approach and test automation*, ensures a minimal risk of impacting any other applications when adding in or working on one application. Worrying about a domino-like scenario every time you want to deploy or test a change to your shopping flow or internal-facing software signals that app modernization is needed.

3. Changes to the overall ecosystem are risky and time-consuming. It's inefficient to test one change at a time, so you're batching changes.

Suppose you're making changes within an application and your team recommends making as many other changes within other applications simultaneously. In that case, it's probably because many, if not all, of your applications are interconnected. There's another reason why there's significant value in decoupled architecture. Waiting to release new functionality or a digital experience because other projects are still in the works prohibits controlled testing of each feature and can significantly delay the rollout. The most relevant retailers stay at the top of consumers' consideration sets because they elevate the shopping experience in real-time, thanks to modernized ecosystems that enable super-fast turnarounds and continuous granular changes. If your organization is repeatedly waiting to release customer-centric changes because of the timelines on other projects, app modernization is likely needed.

4. Your business's nuance(s) aren't reflected in your CX because of a rigid system.

Retailers who know their customers well realize that significant, ever-changing details within the shopping experience must be added to the shopping flow as industry and consumer trends shift. An organization that thoroughly understands the customer journey leverages that knowledge to continuously optimize the path to purchase. For example, as consumers have increasingly utilized omnichannel services, a retailer whose app offers the option to change a BOPIS order to a curbside pickup order in real-time boasts a modern CX feature. Traditional organizations are often relying on legacy applications with outdated versions, which make for rigid systems. Rigid systems mean the inability or a significant effort to action these smaller-scale yet important updates. If your technology team is too intimidated by the idea of making these slight yet key user experience updates, it's likely because you haven't undergone an application modernization overhaul.

5. There’s a cultural fear surrounding technology-based business decisions because they’re so costly and challenging to roll back. 

For all the reasons above, even the most minor digital transformation efforts can feel like large undertakings. Fear and hesitation surrounding the IT work required to build new capabilities are significant indications that the existing approach is too burdensome. If crucial technology projects are consistently shrouded in concerns reminiscent of toppling a delicate house of cards, we can change that.

Today’s retail climate requires an ability to make moves that anticipate and sync with the pace of the changing customer shopping journey. CI&T believes in customizing technology to create the most salient path to purchase experiences. Your organization shouldn’t have to fear the implications of adapting the path to purchase to current and upcoming customer needs. Innovation demands speed, flexible technology, and frictionless implementation. Therefore, innovation often demands application modernization.

Glossary

• Legacy: Technology previously in use that is no longer optimal.

• Monolithic Architectures: Complex applications that create issues due to inflexibility.

• Decoupled Architectures: A software architecture practice where services, components and layers perform and execute tasks independently from each other, allowing specialization, flexibility and fewer risks to the ecosystem. 

• Application Modernization (“app modernization”): The strategy of updating older software according to more modern application development practices and cloud-native architectures, to allow for digital customer experience solutions to be built quickly, and at scale.

• DevOps: Practices to shorten the application development lifecycle, providing continuous delivery of high-quality software.

• Test Automation: Testing the software code and functionalities with a high level of automation, with minimal human involvement.

Learn more about how our App Modernization expertise can benefit your company.

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