Take a look at three companies that have achieved remarkable success by investing in ongoing, holistic modernization.
In the last two blogs, I looked at what modernization really means, what it requires, and why it’s important for innovations like AI. We then explored effective modernization approaches through the Forrester Application Modernization Checklist.
So what does successful modernization look like in the real world? Let’s take a look at three companies that have achieved remarkable success by investing in ongoing, holistic modernization. You’ll see how these organizations have implemented the guidance in the Forrester Application Modernization Checklist in the short term, as well as how they plan to apply these principles on an ongoing basis. Continuous modernization.
Sapiens increases agility while reducing downtime.
Sapiens, an insurance technology company that serves more than 600 insurers in 30 countries, faced a familiar problem. Because all management groups, security, and monitoring were implemented before moving to the cloud, legacy apps became a barrier to expansion. To solve this problem, Sapiens knew it had to embark on a holistic modernization project that brought together strategy, processes and technology to support its current needs and future ambitions.
Forrester Checklist #1: Strategy. Their goal was simple, but not straightforward. “From the beginning, our primary goal has been to keep our technology stack current,” said Michael Mirel, director of the Cloud and DevOps Center of Excellence. “At first it was IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). We quickly realized that microservices were where we needed to be product-wise.”
After defining its goals, Sapiens planned to infuse AI into its workflow. Log Analytics in Azure Monitor allowed us to assess service availability (e.g. by measuring the number of service calls). This is where Azure Monitor Application Insights helped us better understand how our app was performing and alert us to anomalies. This is an approach that wasn’t possible with on-premises systems alone.
Forrester Checklist #2: Process. Sapiens has established a Cloud Center of Excellence and a dedicated team to help the entire organization embrace modernization. The command center guided the modernization journey and helped instill innovative thinking throughout day-to-day operations.
Forrester Checklist #3: Technology. Sapiens started with traditional IaaS virtual machine consumption. Through modernization, they have become primary consumers of Azure Kubernetes Service with direct access to Microsoft product teams. And we adopted Azure Arc to integrate patching and monitoring dashboards and security management tools into a single pane of glass.
Because insurance is a highly regulated sector, Sapiens also sought strategic partners that put modern security at the forefront of their offering. They decided that Microsoft Security was best suited to ensure cloud security and compliance with global regulations. Microsoft product teams also worked with our own developers to provide targeted support to continually improve Sapiens products.
Continuous modernization. Sapiens has achieved its initial goals, but it is not finished yet. After migrating our customers from our data center to the cloud, we began a long-term modernization project under the guidance of our Cloud Center of Excellence. Mirel explains why. “We want to break down the walls and give users more self-service and, in turn, serve our customers better,” he says. “If I’m an end user, developer, tester, or product manager, I need to be able to spin up and release different test environments overnight rather than relying on DevOps or IT and having to wait days.”
Overall, Sapiens’ thoughtful modernization approach has helped reduce downtime, increase agility, future-proof the organization, and better serve both engineers and customers. “We work with some of the largest insurance companies in the world that leverage software as a service, but we also need to interoperate with those companies’ existing ecosystems,” says Mirel. “Azure Private Link allows us to connect cloud to cloud with one click, reducing our deployment effort by 50%.”
kohls Power AI and improve customer experience.
Coles, Australia’s leading retailer, has struggled to meet changing customer demands. Coles recognized that shoppers expected to transition seamlessly between channels (physical stores, mobile apps, and websites) and wanted to modernize to improve this physical-digital experience.
Forrester Checklist #1: Strategy. To create a seamless shopping experience, Coles first had to create a seamless development environment. These teams needed to be able to perform continuous, agile app updates to keep pace with changing customer preferences. To achieve this, Coles outlined a strategy to keep engineers informed about what they are trying to achieve and why, so they can make decisions that align with a common goal. After starting the journey, Coles regularly checked its progress with insights from customer data to ensure its work was effective.
Forrester Checklist #2: Process. Coles also took a closer look at their processes. Azure DevOps helped us streamline our workflow by enabling rapid change integration for new features in our channel apps. We then started tracking progress by measuring build times and other KPIs. Anton Vishnyakov, Chief Engineer and Manager of Platform Engineering, saw the difference. “Instead of releasing every six weeks, we now release weekly. And build times that previously took hours now take roughly 10 to 15 minutes.”
Forrester Checklist #3: Technology. To modernize its technology, Coles first identified Microsoft as a strategic innovation partner. They knew that Microsoft’s highly collaborative engineering process was well-suited to continuous innovation, and that Microsoft Azure could limit technology sprawl by updating the stack. Azure enabled faster deployment while providing customers with a more secure and secure web-based experience.
More specifically, solutions including Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Kubernetes Service have helped Coles gain customer insights and further improve operations across channels. When we were ready to turn these insights into meaningful product updates, we could use Azure App Service to test them before release. All the while, Azure API Management ran in the background to ensure Coles kept security a top priority at every step of the process.
Ongoing modernization: Since starting its journey, Coles has deepened its relationship with Microsoft. Microsoft teams and products are continuously improving operations to help drive Azure service ROI and deliver a seamless, well-coordinated customer experience across channels.
Thanks to a thoughtful modernization approach, Coles is now AI-enabled and is already using analytics and AI to predict inventory distribution, optimize worker schedules, and more. Coles engineers can quickly integrate new product updates to resolve issues and add new features, which is an advantage for Patrik Mihailescu, Senior Engineering Manager, Web. “We plan to move to daily deployments in the next six to nine months, and certainly using Azure tools will be invaluable in helping us do that much faster.” Additionally, you can safely make these changes by testing them independently with Azure App Service before deployment, helping you maintain security and compliance.
Credit Europe Bank NV improves security and streamlines development processes.
Credit Europe Bank NV faced extensive modernization challenges as its on-premises infrastructure was rapidly aging. The bank serves approximately one million customers globally, but IT teams often have to wait for hardware to ship and continually manage on-premises complexities. It was time for a new approach.
Forrester Checklist #1: Strategy. Recognizing the need for a holistic modernization, Credit Europe Bank NV outlined plans to completely reorganize its infrastructure, starting with replacing on-premises systems with the cloud. The cloud simplifies the work of IT teams and enables scalability. Because teams no longer have to wait for hardware or spend time configuring complex, outdated systems. Then they switched to manpower. Modernization presented a major learning curve for the bank’s IT team, so a plan was developed to upskill staff on cloud concepts.
Forrester Checklist #2: Process. Credit Europe Bank NV also needed to improve its processes and measure success. They paid close attention to customer onboarding time throughout the modernization, ultimately finding that it had been reduced from three days to nine minutes. “Now we offer a modern and attractive digital banking platform,” says Ulaş Ergin, Department Manager IT, Digital Banking and Software Architecture. “Everything has been improved for smoothness and speed, making the entire banking experience more enjoyable.”
Forrester Checklist #3: Technology. When Credit Europe Bank NV began its technology transformation, it focused on security from the start, choosing the Microsoft Azure cloud. As a leader in security and compliance with built-in tools for financial services, Azure can help you manage sensitive data according to industry-specific regulations. They then addressed the outdated infrastructure using Azure Kubernetes Service, a managed container orchestration platform. AKS has helped us simplify operations and speed up development, resulting in better resource management and more efficient configuration processes.
Continuous modernization. Credit Europe Bank NV continues to discover new opportunities in the cloud. They use Azure Cognitive Services to improve the secure handling of customer ID photos and continue to release new features and products. Next, they are turning their attention to GitHub Copilot to transform their in-house banking system.
Now, Credit Europe Bank NV’s security is stronger than ever as it migrates to the cloud, enabling it to adopt digital, mobile-based soft tokens and biometric authentication. We also improved the customer experience and introduced new services, such as real-time foreign exchange trading, that were not possible with the existing system. “Customer feedback has been very positive,” says Berkay Çavuşoğlu, Program Manager. “Our enterprise customers say their systems perform faster.”
Azure also enabled the bank to accelerate its development cycle by streamlining the system setup process and management. Azure handles many on-premises tasks, such as upgrades and security patches, in the background, allowing developers to focus on more strategic tasks. “The operational burden is greatly reduced as we no longer need to manage the underlying infrastructure,” says Teoman Sevinç, DevOps expert. “In the past, non-production setups would break if we tried to update the environment. However, Azure simplifies environment management and setup, which has a positive impact on our development life cycle.”
Are you ready to start your modernization journey?
This concludes our blog series on application modernization. But just as modernization is never complete, there is always more to learn. If you missed it, revisit the previous blogs in the series. Basics of modernization and Details of an effective modernization approach.
Don’t forget to read the foundational texts that guided our work, the Forrester Consulting Application Modernization Checklist commissioned by Microsoft, and the Forrester Consulting study, Gaining Competitive Advantage through Application Modernization. You can also check out the following resources:
