The imminent end of software monoliths!

Over the last 10 years, I have heard a whole range of reasons why large companies cannot digitize faster. At first, it was often thought that “our customers” did not want a digital offering at all. Later, when there were more and more signs that customers were rapidly changing their behavior towards “digital”, it was questioned whether “it would catch on” and whether investments in digital channels would be worthwhile at all. Much of my work in recent years has been persuasion.

Digital transformation is the No. 1 topic

Today, the tide has turned; “digital transformation” is THE number one topic and there is no CEO who does not have digitalization efforts at the top of their list of priorities. That’s a good thing, even if it’s just a start. Talking about digitalization in the company is often not necessarily congruent with what is actually being done.

The inherent danger of large companies
The reason why large companies often struggle with comprehensive digitization efforts is often a monolith – or even several monoliths: systems of the old software generation on which a large part of the current business is based and which can only be replaced at immense cost. In recent years, these monoliths have harmed large companies where it hurts the most in today’s world: speed and flexibility.

Rethinking

The realization is gradually dawning that these monolithic systems should be avoided in future. I’m currently having a lot of discussions with CIOs who want to go in exactly this direction; in future, an interplay of specialized systems should make it possible to change individual system parts quickly without huge cost implications in order to remain agile in business.

Enterprise SaaS

The fact that applications in the enterprise sector are also shifting to the cloud in rapid succession is also supporting this development. In addition, enterprise SaaS offerings will always be able to perform much better than monolithic systems in one area. They do not have to cover the entire range of requirements, but can limit themselves to a comparatively small part. Many more resources can be tied up on this small part on the development side due to the synergies of the cloud (and the many customers). The result is enterprise SaaS solutions that are many times better than monolithic systems can ever be.

Bridge builder APIs, “Quick-Fix” RPA

As a result, the integration of different solutions is becoming increasingly important. The rapid success of many enterprise service bus and orchestration/process software providers is no coincidence.

“RPA is about connecting your digital dreams with your legacy nightmares

”
(Cathy Tornbohm, RPA Analyst Gartner)

No, it is the logical consequence of changing architectures that are increasingly based on “best-of-breed partial solutions”. What I am also seeing more and more often is that RPA is being used where integrations are too expensive or cannot be carried out quickly enough. Cathy Tornbohm’s quote couldn’t be more apt.

Goodbye, dear monolith

For software providers who offer monolithic products, this results in a two-pronged challenge. One is comparatively simple: modularize products where possible. Many manufacturers are already following this path. The second challenge, specializing in one area, is more difficult. Only global, large vendors will be able to afford to pursue different sub-areas in parallel.

Decisive benefits for customers

The rest will be confronted with ever stronger and larger competition from new, highly specialized enterprise SaaS vendors. This is a positive signal for you as a customer. You will be able to find solutions that make you more competitive more quickly and at lower cost. And that, and only that, is what it’s all about in the end.