20140602
Faster time to value with
the Enterprise Solution
10 ways to transform time to value
It’s time to deliver value to the
business sooner
The ‘lights on’ challenge, where organizations purely focus on the day-to-day running of the organization, continues to leave
little scope for innovation. Ever-increasing IT backlogs, together with support and resourcing issues, compete for attention with
compliance projects and new innovation. A breakthrough is needed.
Greater IT efficiency cannot be achieved by a small fix here or there – a new way of thinking is required to help deliver value and
address your operational challenges. Here are ten actions your organization can take on this journey of major change:
1. Break down old barriers with new solutions
Barriers exist that stop your organization innovating and delivering genuine value quickly to the business. There’s the concern over
the internal backlog, compliance and regulatory issues, and the complexity of your IT landscape – which all make understanding
and prioritizing change a huge challenge. But what if you could support new technology almost immediately, and gain incremental
value from the existing investments you’ve made over many years? Micro Focus deliver solutions that offer fast time to value with
low risk: we’ve invested in the future of application modernization, so you don’t have to.
2. Bridge the old and the new
Your business logic and data is your competitive advantage, so you need to unlock its value to support the future. Exploiting
advances in technology such as zEnterprise, virtualization, cloud and mobile is one way to do the unlocking. Optimizing how core
applications are built and delivered is another. The key is ensuring you don’t have the cost and risk of starting over. Work with
Micro Focus and you’ll protect your existing investments, optimize what you have, and execute your plans with the right balance of
speed, flexibility and risk.
3. Simplify application complexity
Business pressures demand more of your IT, more often. Yet the constraints of infrastructure and growing complexity mean you’re
unlikely to be able to meet these new demands any time soon. That situation can change. Restore application knowledge and
you’ll cut out needless manual effort, and accelerate the planning and delivery of modernization projects. Start with the best
possible understanding of your application scope and complexity, assess technical risks and identify candidate processes and
applications for modernization initiatives. Build on what works best, and eradicate what you don’t need in the portfolio to reduce
complexity and backlog.
4. Up-skill development to execute change faster
You know how many highly skilled staff and internal resources it takes to deliver mainframe applications. These are finite
resources, so it makes sense to further improve development efficiency. Modern integrated development environment (IDE) tools
are the way forward: they equip your people with more productive aids, and can increase productivity by 30%. Enable COBOL
developers to work side by side with JAVA and .NET developers to accelerate development, improve the quality process and
release vital mainframe resources back to the business.
© 2014 Micro Focus Limited. All rights reserved. Micro Focus, the Micro Focus logo, among others, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Micro Focus Limited or its subsidiaries or affiliated companies in the United Kingdom, United
States and other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
It’s time to deliver value to the
business sooner
5. Streamline complex change programmes
Not everything in IT can be prioritized: some change programs are mandatory. Compliance to new legislation such as SEC and FSA
controls or SEPA and Protection of Personal Information are now commonplace, major IT projects. Updating core applications more
efficiently, and understanding the impact of changes, is a twin challenge that’s best met by the use of more modern, productive
portfolio analysis and development technology.
6. Limit risk with secure, flexible testing environments
Mainframe resources are at a premium, yet demand to deliver more has never been greater. So it’s time to get smarter. You can
perform scaled enterprise testing without consuming mainframe cost or resource. By introducing server-based solutions that flex
and scale to support intensive testing periods, you’ll streamline testing to deliver up to 50% faster. Gain faster time to market and
build higher quality into today’s mainframe applications.
7. Boost end user efficiency
Look at end user productivity as a strategic IT initiative, where you focus on fast gains that will have the greatest impact. Tools
exist to quickly provide value at low business risk, like user interface modernization solutions, which rapidly improve your
mainframe interfaces across familiar Windows, mobile and web environments, without special skills or coding. In days rather than
months, you start to deliver productive new features at low cost. Just imagine what doubling your end-users’ efficiency could do
for your business.
8. Extend the reach of your mainframe applications
Accessing mainframe applications through any device may seem a challenge, but with the right technology, business advantage
can be delivered quicker wherever it’s needed. Your core applications can be made available 24/7 through a variety of mobile
interfaces, to provide greater operational flexibility and access. Whatever your fit-for-purpose application strategy, Micro Focus can
support your plans for deployment and access 50% faster than you might have imagined.
9. Optimize outsourced projects
Over time, organisations are outsourcing greater percentages of their mainframe application maintenance testing, yet almost a
quarter* fail to deliver on requirements, and a third* run into time and service-level issues. Organizations who outsource must be
able to see where value to the business is coming from, uncover areas of hidden cost and meet quality standards. That calls for
dedicated tools that improve transparency and change control, empowering provider and customer alike, just like Micro Focus
offers with its Enterprise Solution.
*Source: Vanson Bourne
© 2014 Micro Focus Limited. All rights reserved. Micro Focus, the Micro Focus logo, among others, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Micro Focus Limited or its subsidiaries or affiliated companies in the United Kingdom, United
States and other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
It’s time to deliver value to the
business sooner
10. Exploit advances in technology sooner
Your most trusted mainframe applications are overwhelmingly COBOL-based. COBOL applications written yesterday run on today’s
and tomorrow’s platforms with Micro Focus. We continuously invest in new technologies that you can leverage immediately.
Together, our class-leading platform coverage, mainframe compatibility and new technology support minimizes your future
investments and ensures core applications continue to support your business in the future, with flexibility and choice. Bridging the
old and the new is our business.
Improve time to value
The key is delivering value to the business, fast, while ensuring you don’t have the cost and risk of starting from scratch.
Protect your existing investments, optimize what you have, and execute your plans with the right balance of speed, flexibility
and risk. Accelerate the time it takes to deliver value to your business in more innovative ways with Micro Focus – explore our
Enterprise Solution here.
www.microfocus.com/timetovalue
© 2014 Micro Focus Limited. All rights reserved. Micro Focus, the Micro Focus logo, among others, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Micro Focus Limited or its subsidiaries or affiliated companies in the United Kingdom, United
States and other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.