Is Legacy Tech Holding Your Manufacturing Business Back?

1. Start with strategy, not software

Despite the name, digital transformation doesn’t start with technology. It starts with strategy. The first step is to define what success looks like in the next phase of your business’ evolution. This clarity makes it easier to prioritise challenges, allocate resources and map the right solutions to each objective. 

Doing things the other way around risks framing decisions through the lens of the technology, when the real focus should be on the customer. Transformation isn’t about adopting new tools; it’s about creating value. 

When Renishaw (a global engineering technology leader, specialising in precision measurement), partnered with Apply Digital, we began the discovery process by identifying the client’s business challenges and goals.  This enabled us to set a Digital North Star against which all initiatives in the roadmap could be measured and prioritised according to business value.

2. Update business processes

In theory, new systems, tools and platforms should deliver quality of life improvement for your teams, removing friction and allowing them to be more productive. However, the entrenched operating model is often the biggest impediment to meaningful change.

To achieve the best results from your digital transformation, you need to take an honest look at how your business is structured. Without the right rewards and recognition system and process design, the likelihood of major slowdowns emerging further down the line increases, such as contracts being rewritten, workflows being redesigned and role boundaries being adjusted.

3. Evaluate the customer experience

Different personas have different needs, which has rendered the one-size-fits-all approach redundant. Case in point, an engineer will be searching for highly technical content, whereas a purchasing manager or CEO may prioritise public filings, industry news or environmental, social and governance (ESG) data. Similarly, the content surfaced to an existing customer should be informed by their previous interactions to provide a more personalised experience. 

This is where technology is the ultimate enabler. Whereas flexible, hyper-relevant engagement was previously out of reach, the past two years have revolutionised what’s possible in terms of personalisation. AI and chatbots can be the catalyst for consistently delivering responsive, contextual experiences. 

For instance, we launched SureTrack for global food infrastructure brand AGI. This platform enables farmers to better engage with their data, helping them visualise and improve crop performance.

4. Build a flexible technology roadmap

Once you’ve defined your business vision and considered how it will impact your customers, staff and processes, you can turn your attention to technology.

Ask yourself:

• Which systems are out of date or expensive to maintain?

• Where will modernisation deliver the greatest return?

• How can we migrate in a way that minimises risk and maximises time-to-value?

Your technological roadmap needs to identify the key transitions required to achieve your target architecture. Replacing outdated systems with best-of-need solutions in an incremental strategy allows us to improve business performance, achieve faster time-to-market and lower risk, all at the same time. For example, we helped a leading nuclear measurement business navigate a phased rollout from proof of concept (POC) through to a rolling programme of expanding capabilities on their new platform.

5. Optimise continuously

Introducing new solutions isn’t the digital equivalent of waving a checkered flag; this is just the starting point.

After initial rollout, you’ll have a minimum viable (or loveable) product: the core journeys will be mapped out and the key features underpinning your customer experience revolution will be in place. From there, the goal should be to create an ongoing cycle of sustainable optimisation, such as enhancing platform operations, streamlining dev-ops for automation and scaling content-ops to increase efficiency and accuracy.

This is where our Data and Optimisation services, as well as Managed Service offering, come into play. These ensure clients are able to amplify the returns on their initial investment.

Is your legacy tech holding you back?

Modernising your legacy tech stack is the key to unlocking true agility. Modern systems enable you to capture higher quality data and insights and accelerate innovation and iteration, enabling you to meet the rapidly evolving expectations of your customers.

The barrier to entry has never been lower. Technology is advancing rapidly, and those who act now will set the pace for the industry. Those who don’t risk being left behind. By evolving your architecture today, you’ll be ready to seamlessly integrate emerging AI capabilities and future-proof your business for what’s next.

Get in touch to hear how Apply Digital’s strategy-first, data-driven approach to technology modernisation can help your manufacturing business get ahead of the curve?