Delivering Transformative Apps: A Pace-Layered Strategy

Where do you turn when faced with transformative business application development needs? To digitally transform, we recommend a pace-layered strategy.

Keeping up with the myriad trends affecting your business can be challenging, to say the least. Mobile, cloud, analytics, business rules, SaaS—where do you focus and invest? Technologies continually change, and keeping systems current can be financially straining and resource-intensive.

At Progress, we often recommend the “Pace-layered Application Strategy” from leading analyst, Gartner, to partners and customers contemplating an effective strategic approach to app development. It’s a sound strategy for leveraging the necessary transactions-oriented systems that are fundamental to a company’s specific business needs and operations, while leaning on ad hoc applications to capitalize on changing trends. This strategy helps create transformative apps that are flexible enough to adapt to changing market expectations.   

But how do you get there? First, consider how your applications are used and how fast they need to change. From the following categories, you can build a portfolio strategy that delivers ROI, enables rapid business response, and facilitates successful integration and governance.

• Consumption: This category includes traditional transaction-based business applications strategically focused on customer interaction of “desktop” users.
• Transformation: Decide which applications you have in place that are ripe for re-architecting to meet the needs of the next generation of users. Identify which applications you can deploy on multiple devices and infrastructure to provide economies of scale.
• Next-Generation Business Functions: You must provide fast time to market for new services that address the changing requirements of the next-generation customer. This category of applications includes innovative on-premises, cloud and web-based business services that address new user experience expectations and touch points.
• Customer Experience: Creating relevant experiences for each target audience is essential for success and for optimizing the lifetime value of each customer. These apps enable personalization and content delivery based on user behavior and preferences; can be accessed anytime, anywhere on any device; and meet user expectations for omni-channel interactions.
• Digital Business Implementation: Digital transformation leads to transformative business results. This category of applications enable services to be delivered in new ways while leveraging existing systems of record.

Following this method for categorizing the applications you build or acquire can help your organization create a clear path for transformation. But remember, choosing a development platform that enables the diversity needed to compete is critical.

Progress OpenEdge enables the development of a wide variety of application types to support a winning digital business strategy. Read more about how OpenEdge can enable your digital transformation in this informative eBook, “OpenEdge Business Development Platform Delivering Transformative Apps.”