Evolution of Enterprise Application Development & Maintenance

Enterprise applications are the leading digital channels for delivering information, user experience, and business outcomes. While the web has traditionally been the end-user experiencing the digital channels for most enterprises, today, mobile applications have taken the importance of engaging user experience.

Over the past few months, several changes have been imposed across the organizations, and found that they can bring new change dramatically overnight if they have to. The need for agile in financial and corporate actions has become intensely focused. According to McKinsey, “companies need a new approach to financial planning and performance management which brings rapid realignment of plans and actions and ensures the resilience across the organization, especially with enterprise application development.”

Enterprise applications have to evolve in similar ways. The applications must deliver greater flexibility, accessibility, and scalability by being cloud-based. They need to support the agility and faster pace of innovation.

As the digital economy took off in the first two decades of the 21st century, traditional business models were being disrupted by disruptive new players. As a result, data and information became vital resources for businesses to compete in the 21st century.

Businesses needed to access and utilize this data as quickly as possible, which drove the creation of cloud computing and big data analytics. However, many large firms were slow to adopt these new technologies because they didn’t understand how they fit into their existing business models. They saw them as something that could help them gain an advantage over their competitors but didn’t realize that these tools could also help create new products or services that would benefit their customers.

Today, we are shifting away from traditional business models towards more agile startups that can take advantage of technological advancements much quicker than large companies because they don’t have all these legacy systems tying them down. As a result, these companies can innovate faster than ever thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), which helps automate processes and make decisions based on analysis rather than intuition alone.”

In 2022, the world was in a state of flux. The pandemic had forced a global pause, and people were forced to adapt to new ways of living. From education to healthcare, shopping to entertainment, travel to employment—every aspect of life requires a Digital Experience.

But this rapid change also had significant implications for enterprise businesses: businesses had to rethink their application infrastructure to provide customers with a “Digital Experience.” Sometimes, they needed to create new applications or enhance existing ones to support these new expectations.

In a world where customers expect seamless digital experiences across both the online and offline worlds, traditional businesses have been forced to adapt. For example, when it comes to sales, customer onboarding, and customer engagement, the expectation is that everything from the initial connection with customers through their purchase or onboarding process should be seamless and frictionless.

The modern age is all about customer expectations. From a technology perspective, this change has necessitated a change in engagement models. They are no longer technology providers but have become digital partners with a keen understanding of the customer business. The provider no longer builds applications outlined in customer requirement specifications but is a tech specialist who can wear the customer hat to propose, design, and implement the right solutions.

The shift in engagement models has brought together all technologies – anytime/anywhere availability of products and services (Omni-channel), information and control at customer’s fingertips (Mobile), continuously evolving customer expectations (Insights from Data Analytics), resulting in process automation, continuous integration and continuous deployment (Cloud). This change in customer expectation is the missing glue that is bringing together these technologies.

From an IT perspective, they need to move away from being solely IT professionals towards becoming digital partners with a keen understanding of the business requirements. The provider no longer builds applications outlined in customer requirement specifications but is a tech specialist who can wear the customer hat to propose, design, and implement the right solutions for the business.

Author Bio: Jaishankar Jayaramakrishnan (Sr. VP and Client Success Director) is a technology professional with entrepreneurial passion and energy, coupled with the discipline and experience gained from his various technical and business roles globally.