Know your technology archetype and its impact on value creation

Within these companies, the crucial next steps involve creating a more efficient, secure and scalable technology environment that supports the company's growth objectives:

• Engage stakeholders to educate and build consensus on the quantifiable benefits of modernizing technology and mitigating risks associated with legacy systems.
• Upgrade legacy systems and update or replace outdated technologies and applications with modern, cloud-native platforms that offer better support, reducing the risk of breaches and compliance issues.
• Phase upgrades to promote compliance and risk mitigation at each step.
• Implement integration layers or middleware capabilities to enable systems to communicate effectively, improving interoperability and efficiency and reducing data silos.
• Investigate and implement AI-enabled solutions to drive efficiencies within the business and IT operating model.
• Establish a data governance framework to establish data quality, consistency and proper management across the organization while addressing risk concerns.

A pragmatic approach to modernization—one that respects risk controls while enabling innovation—can help usher in healthy and strategic investments in technology. By methodically upgrading systems and aligning stakeholders around a shared vision for scalable, secure growth, organizations can use technology to drive value creation.

To support strategic and agile decision making that will further the growth agenda, these companies need to move toward establishing a robust IT and data management environment that supports high-quality, reliable data:

• Implement strong IT investment and application portfolio management practices, including committee oversight and scheduled application rationalization, to proactively manage the intake of new systems into the environment.
• Implement strong data governance capabilities, recognizing that data governance is as much a cultural change initiative as it is a technical and data ownership issue.
• Educate employees on the importance of data quality and train them on proper data management practices to foster a culture of ongoing data stewardship.
• Reduce tech stack redundancies by identifying and eliminating duplicated capabilities, streamlining operations and reducing costs.
• Develop an integration architecture to enable systems to communicate effectively, reducing data fragmentation.
• Establish a unified data platform by pulling data from different systems into a staging environment, laying the foundation for optimized AI adoption.
• Establish clear policies and procedures for data entry, management and quality control to provide consistency and accuracy.
• Regularly clean and validate data to remove inaccuracies, outdated information and duplicates.

Prioritizing foundational IT and data governance and streamlining technology ecosystems helps companies avoid fragmented technology environments and transform scattered data assets into actionable insights—enabling smarter decisions, operational efficiency and sustained competitive advantage.

Under-resourced organizations often do best with a multidimensional approach to building capacity:

• Develop a clear investment and prioritization framework to identify the most critical technology initiatives that drive value creation and allocate resources accordingly.
• Strategically operationalize and capitalize on existing software platforms to drive efficiencies, enhance workflows, reduce reliance on institutional knowledge and promote scaling.
• Regularly review system updates to take full advantage of the most powerful features and optimize investments in existing systems.
• Streamline operations through process improvement roadmaps and leverage AI-enabled automation to reduce operational load on existing staff, freeing up capacity for strategic technology initiatives.
• Invest in human capital planning to identify and prioritize the resources needed to deliver on specific initiatives, which may involve pausing other initiatives to ensure that ultimately all are executed successfully and realize value.
• Conduct targeted hiring to bring in specific specialized technology skills such as AI and cybersecurity expertise.
• Build capability through investment in training and development programs designed to enhance the skills and knowledge of existing staff.
• Leverage temporary staffing solutions, contract workers and/or experienced consultants to address immediate resource gaps, accelerate project completion and drive meaningful outcomes—without losing sight of the need to build and retain strategic internal IT capabilities where required.

By strategically freeing up capacity in multiple ways, companies better position themselves to activate their technology investments without incurring additional operational strain and can refocus on initiatives that directly support growth and long-term value creation.