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Articles
Organizational DNA: How to Make the Game-Winning Passes
Mr. Joe Gentry
Joe Gentry is CTO and Senior VP of Software AG, Enterprise Transaction Systems Division
Passing organizational DNA to the next generation is a challenge – what lessons can the game of football teach about the right passing techniques?
As most students learn in school, DNA is a basic building block of life that contains in its structure all of the history of an organism going back generation upon generation. That unique history is stored in the arrangement of amino acids. The DNA also tells the cells how to behave; it tells the organism how to grow and how to function and is the singular map to that organism’s identity.
Organizations have DNA as well. This is the essence of the organization, making it successful and differentiating the organization from its peers (or competitors). This DNA is almost always embodied in the core systems of an organization – custom-built IT systems (often running on a mainframe computer) that comprised business rules and data representing the organization’s evolution. This unique combination of business rules and data, transacting at a high volume and great velocity, literally makes daily operation possible. Examples of core systems include a large financial institution’s massive stock-trading system, an airline’s system to coordinate all of its flight crew schedules in real time, or a system that manages cargo at a busy international port.
Just as an organism must successfully pass along its DNA to the next generation in order to survive, so an organization must pass along its DNA so that the essence of its success and identity is preserved. The current employees, after all, must know what to do and have the tools do to it. The problem for most organizations is that the needs of the enterprise have clearly outgrown some of the capabilities of the core systems. How, then, is the DNA preserved and passed along while still enabling the organization to meet the demands of the future? This is the critical question.
Lessons from Football – Penalties and Passing
An organism or organization that cannot pass along its DNA to the next generation is in jeopardy. In the same way a football club that cannot pass the ball will never score because the striker will never get an opportunity. Therefore a football club, like a large enterprise, needs a multi-faceted passing strategy. Many different kinds of passing techniques are required for different situations. This is important, because every club, in every game, will accumulate penalties that threaten its efforts.
An organization’s mainframe-based core systems - if they have been around a decade or more - will also have accumulated “penalties” that argue against moving those core systems into the future. These penalties must be satisfactorily addressed to silence the urgent calls for “rip and replace.” Three of the most significant penalties faced by enterprise core systems are 1) green screen interfaces, 2) data silos and 3) system inflexibility.
Penalty: Green Screens
Core systems are by definition reliable, high-performing and secure or they would not have stayed in place. However, these traits are often lost on most business users. What users of core systems do interact with is the screen interface. Because the technology behind an application’s interface has often been in place as long as the system itself, the user interface is typically many generations behind the interfaces available on PC and distributed system-based applications that business users interact with daily.
The “green screen” is ugly, monochrome, non-intuitive, and does not use a pointing device (aka, mouse). While the core system itself might still be outperforming its distributed peers by many magnitudes of order, the user interface to that system begs for replacement. The green screen terminal, cherished by many mainframe developers, is the core system’s worst PR nightmare.
Penalty: Data Silos
While core systems might embody the DNA of an enterprise, the challenge is that the DNA is not all in one place. It is often disjointed and stored in a variety of “data silos” throughout the organization. Perhaps each business unit has its own data processing system and manages its own little piece of the organization’s DNA. The problem with data silos is that they don’t support the supercharged information access requirements of modern organizations.
Organizations need to make timely business decisions by gaining a holistic view of information pertaining to a certain topic within the enterprise. This might be a customer account, a product, a partner, or some other entity. With data residing in silos there is no way to get a single view – or 360-degree view – of all the information around one subject. Data warehousing and business intelligence initiatives are also hampered by the lack of ready access to data residing in multiple core systems. This is a situation no successful company can afford to tolerate.
Penalty: Inflexibility
Back when many enterprise core systems were first developed, IT was centralized and the data center was king. If a businessperson needed access to information in the system, they had to request a standard report from IT. This could take a while. If the report had not yet been created, the process took even longer. Today, in the decentralized digital IT environment, business users want to access their own information and create their own reports, and they want this capability instantly. Furthermore, the process should be quick, intuitive and easy to learn. Soon, business users will routinely compose their own applications out of individual pieces maintained by IT. Core systems must be enhanced to meet these new requirements without sacrificing the data processing performance, 24/7 reliability and iron-clad security on which the business still very much depends.
Application Modernization – the Right Passing Strategy
To overcome penalties and win the game, a football club must have a well-coordinated passing strategy. For an organization whose DNA is embodied in its core systems, the right passing strategy is called Application Modernization. This is not a single piece of technology, but rather a coordinated approach to moving core systems into the future, while simultaneously meeting the changing requirements of the enterprise.
If Application Modernization is the right “passing” strategy for the organization, what will the successful outcome look like? First, end-users will be able to interact with core systems in a modern way. Second, core systems will be able to interact with each other, and with other systems, in a holistic manner. Third, core systems will fully support and feed into the ongoing enterprise architecture strategy of the organization.
Here is the game plan:
Forward Pass: From Green Screens to Modern Browsers
Every club needs to master the forward pass – the most basic step in getting the game moving. While the core system itself might still be a star performer, the old-fashioned green screen creates a losing image in the business users’ mind. The most basic step in Application Modernization, therefore, is to provide business users with an attractive, browser-based interface to core systems that looks and performs like their favorite PC or Internet-based application. With this relatively simple transformation, the power, reliability and security of the mainframe-based core system will be matched appropriately with a powerful and more welcoming user interface.
Lofted Pass: From Data Silos to a 360-Degree View
The lofted pass puts the ball high in the air, where it can sail over the heads of defenders. Suddenly the field becomes a single unified territory, rather than successive “silos” of resistance. In an organization, the requirements of agile decision-making, data warehousing and business intelligence gathering demand that pieces of information residing in multiple systems can be easily and quickly viewed as a cohesive whole. Data silos must be bridged. Therefore, in order to “see” all of the necessary information from a single vantage point, a single application must be able to “talk” to many kinds of database systems and ask to see the information residing there - without actually moving or replicating the data.
Leading Pass: From Inflexibility to Agility
Using the vital technique of the leading pass, players place the ball not where their teammate is, but where their teammate will be. This calls for the ability to quickly “aim for the future” – which is the whole point of agility. Within the organization, business users will soon compose their own applications out of individual pieces maintained by IT. As more business processes are modeled and automated, they will begin to incorporate these new user-composed applications as part of the overall process. Such responsiveness and flexibility will enable the enterprise to meet the growing demands of stakeholders.
Yet, core systems will still be required to deliver non-stop data processing performance, 24/7 reliability and iron-clad security – while also supporting these new agile business requirements. How can this happen? The only way this transformation can take place is for core system data and logic to become available as services to feed the new SOA/BPM enterprise architecture. In this way, core systems will move from inflexibility to agility by becoming service-enabled on top of their existing duties.
Conclusion
Core systems must preserve and pass along organizational DNA, as well as support new enterprise demands for a modern look-and-feel, a 360-degree view and unprecedented agility. Application Modernization, linking core systems with the new SOA/BPM enterprise architecture, is the way to make it all happen. Just as a football club with the right passing strategy is on its way to a winning season, an organization that employs Application Modernization is on its way to a successful future.
As most students learn in school, DNA is a basic building block of life that contains in its structure all of the history of an organism going back generation upon generation. That unique history is stored in the arrangement of amino acids. The DNA also tells the cells how to behave; it tells the organism how to grow and how to function and is the singular map to that organism’s identity.
Organizations have DNA as well. This is the essence of the organization, making it successful and differentiating the organization from its peers (or competitors). This DNA is almost always embodied in the core systems of an organization – custom-built IT systems (often running on a mainframe computer) that comprised business rules and data representing the organization’s evolution. This unique combination of business rules and data, transacting at a high volume and great velocity, literally makes daily operation possible. Examples of core systems include a large financial institution’s massive stock-trading system, an airline’s system to coordinate all of its flight crew schedules in real time, or a system that manages cargo at a busy international port.
Just as an organism must successfully pass along its DNA to the next generation in order to survive, so an organization must pass along its DNA so that the essence of its success and identity is preserved. The current employees, after all, must know what to do and have the tools do to it. The problem for most organizations is that the needs of the enterprise have clearly outgrown some of the capabilities of the core systems. How, then, is the DNA preserved and passed along while still enabling the organization to meet the demands of the future? This is the critical question.
Lessons from Football – Penalties and Passing
An organism or organization that cannot pass along its DNA to the next generation is in jeopardy. In the same way a football club that cannot pass the ball will never score because the striker will never get an opportunity. Therefore a football club, like a large enterprise, needs a multi-faceted passing strategy. Many different kinds of passing techniques are required for different situations. This is important, because every club, in every game, will accumulate penalties that threaten its efforts.
An organization’s mainframe-based core systems - if they have been around a decade or more - will also have accumulated “penalties” that argue against moving those core systems into the future. These penalties must be satisfactorily addressed to silence the urgent calls for “rip and replace.” Three of the most significant penalties faced by enterprise core systems are 1) green screen interfaces, 2) data silos and 3) system inflexibility.
Penalty: Green Screens
Core systems are by definition reliable, high-performing and secure or they would not have stayed in place. However, these traits are often lost on most business users. What users of core systems do interact with is the screen interface. Because the technology behind an application’s interface has often been in place as long as the system itself, the user interface is typically many generations behind the interfaces available on PC and distributed system-based applications that business users interact with daily.
The “green screen” is ugly, monochrome, non-intuitive, and does not use a pointing device (aka, mouse). While the core system itself might still be outperforming its distributed peers by many magnitudes of order, the user interface to that system begs for replacement. The green screen terminal, cherished by many mainframe developers, is the core system’s worst PR nightmare.
Penalty: Data Silos
While core systems might embody the DNA of an enterprise, the challenge is that the DNA is not all in one place. It is often disjointed and stored in a variety of “data silos” throughout the organization. Perhaps each business unit has its own data processing system and manages its own little piece of the organization’s DNA. The problem with data silos is that they don’t support the supercharged information access requirements of modern organizations.
Organizations need to make timely business decisions by gaining a holistic view of information pertaining to a certain topic within the enterprise. This might be a customer account, a product, a partner, or some other entity. With data residing in silos there is no way to get a single view – or 360-degree view – of all the information around one subject. Data warehousing and business intelligence initiatives are also hampered by the lack of ready access to data residing in multiple core systems. This is a situation no successful company can afford to tolerate.
Penalty: Inflexibility
Back when many enterprise core systems were first developed, IT was centralized and the data center was king. If a businessperson needed access to information in the system, they had to request a standard report from IT. This could take a while. If the report had not yet been created, the process took even longer. Today, in the decentralized digital IT environment, business users want to access their own information and create their own reports, and they want this capability instantly. Furthermore, the process should be quick, intuitive and easy to learn. Soon, business users will routinely compose their own applications out of individual pieces maintained by IT. Core systems must be enhanced to meet these new requirements without sacrificing the data processing performance, 24/7 reliability and iron-clad security on which the business still very much depends.
Application Modernization – the Right Passing Strategy
To overcome penalties and win the game, a football club must have a well-coordinated passing strategy. For an organization whose DNA is embodied in its core systems, the right passing strategy is called Application Modernization. This is not a single piece of technology, but rather a coordinated approach to moving core systems into the future, while simultaneously meeting the changing requirements of the enterprise.
If Application Modernization is the right “passing” strategy for the organization, what will the successful outcome look like? First, end-users will be able to interact with core systems in a modern way. Second, core systems will be able to interact with each other, and with other systems, in a holistic manner. Third, core systems will fully support and feed into the ongoing enterprise architecture strategy of the organization.
Here is the game plan:
Forward Pass: From Green Screens to Modern Browsers
Every club needs to master the forward pass – the most basic step in getting the game moving. While the core system itself might still be a star performer, the old-fashioned green screen creates a losing image in the business users’ mind. The most basic step in Application Modernization, therefore, is to provide business users with an attractive, browser-based interface to core systems that looks and performs like their favorite PC or Internet-based application. With this relatively simple transformation, the power, reliability and security of the mainframe-based core system will be matched appropriately with a powerful and more welcoming user interface.
Lofted Pass: From Data Silos to a 360-Degree View
The lofted pass puts the ball high in the air, where it can sail over the heads of defenders. Suddenly the field becomes a single unified territory, rather than successive “silos” of resistance. In an organization, the requirements of agile decision-making, data warehousing and business intelligence gathering demand that pieces of information residing in multiple systems can be easily and quickly viewed as a cohesive whole. Data silos must be bridged. Therefore, in order to “see” all of the necessary information from a single vantage point, a single application must be able to “talk” to many kinds of database systems and ask to see the information residing there - without actually moving or replicating the data.
Leading Pass: From Inflexibility to Agility
Using the vital technique of the leading pass, players place the ball not where their teammate is, but where their teammate will be. This calls for the ability to quickly “aim for the future” – which is the whole point of agility. Within the organization, business users will soon compose their own applications out of individual pieces maintained by IT. As more business processes are modeled and automated, they will begin to incorporate these new user-composed applications as part of the overall process. Such responsiveness and flexibility will enable the enterprise to meet the growing demands of stakeholders.
Yet, core systems will still be required to deliver non-stop data processing performance, 24/7 reliability and iron-clad security – while also supporting these new agile business requirements. How can this happen? The only way this transformation can take place is for core system data and logic to become available as services to feed the new SOA/BPM enterprise architecture. In this way, core systems will move from inflexibility to agility by becoming service-enabled on top of their existing duties.
Conclusion
Core systems must preserve and pass along organizational DNA, as well as support new enterprise demands for a modern look-and-feel, a 360-degree view and unprecedented agility. Application Modernization, linking core systems with the new SOA/BPM enterprise architecture, is the way to make it all happen. Just as a football club with the right passing strategy is on its way to a winning season, an organization that employs Application Modernization is on its way to a successful future.
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