how to migrate to saas applications · moving business systems to cloud-based saas applications...
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How to migrate to SaaS applications
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Best practices before, during and after a migration
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Moving to a new house is considered one of the most stressful experiences in life. When planning a move, an important task is to discard old items — things that are overused or things we never use — and overcome our emotional attachment to those items. Imagine the benefits of following some basic rules to avoid bringing unneeded items to the new house. And imagine the benefits of using modern technologies to help us scan and discard these unneeded items.
Moving from legacy applications to cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS)
applications is no different. The process is demanding — but can be done skillfully
and deliver positive business outcomes. Such a move gives us an opportunity
to discard old items and old ways of doing things while managing emotional
involvement, resistance to change and challenges to the status quo. Developing a
sound approach with rules, and deploying proven tools, will help make the move
easier and deliver numerous business benefits. (See “Benefits of technology-driven
cloud migration.”)
Enterprises can migrate successfully if they have the right tools,
technologies and expertise at their disposal. This paper lays out
actions to take before, during and after migration to the cloud.
A fresh start To enable digital transformation, enterprises should
have business systems that are operationally agile
and efficient. Migrating to cloud-based SaaS
applications provides flexibility to support new
business models and improvements in key areas
such as data portability, analytics and security. A
successful move involves using technology in new
ways and leaving behind bad habits and items
you never use.
Traditionally, most enterprise resource planning
(ERP) projects start with business process
reengineering, whiteboard sessions, offsite process
walk-throughs, process mapping and so on. Most,
if not all, of these activities should be performed
with the help of new technologies, which can provide
data-driven, fact-based views of current processes
and non-biased options. This removes the guesswork and
opinion-based best-practices discussions that have become
all too familiar.
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A technology-driven migration has several benefits, including:
• Speed. A data-driven migration delivers value faster.
• Cost reduction. Visualizing process flows and augmenting human efforts provide benefits at lower costs.
• Better quality. The technology corrects mistakes before they happen.
• Smooth migration path. Predefined tools and techniques accelerate and streamline consolidation, validation and migration to SaaS.
• Continuous improvement. Next-gen technologies drive continuous improvement and return on cloud Investments.
Benefits of technology-driven cloud migration
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A successful migration to SaaS applications requires a technology-driven approach
that guides the enterprise before, during and after the migration, with a focus on
delivering business value and maximizing return on investment. Using advanced
technologies such as data mining, machine learning and predictive intelligence,
enterprises can identify and proactively address opportunities to reduce costs,
improve quality and spur innovation. The approach includes analyzing the data and
various components involved in the migration, validating them and taking actions
that will ultimately produce positive business outcomes. (See Figure 1.)
Before the move: Discover and design
Before implementing SaaS, enterprises should deploy data-discovery tools to identify
the current state of their business processes. The goal is to build a comprehensive
digital blueprint of all process activities.
Enterprises should make the necessary up-front investment in time and resources to
build foundational structures that will support system migrations. They should:
• Use tools such as Hadoop, Spark and Google TensorFlow to construct machine-
generated process mapping, automated metrics calculations and intelligent “hot
spot” analysis
• Generate metrics for every process step and every record or case that has been
processed
• Uncover unknown facts of all possible paths or broken processes and the reasons
behind each of those instances
• Identify pain points based on facts such as numbers of occurrences, process
variations, repetitions, average durations and long durations
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Figure 1. Technology-driven cloud migration starts with data analysis
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• Pinpoint opportunities to consolidate, simplify and modernize business processes to
eliminate redundancy
• Provide metrics to improve cycle time and cost
• Deploy process improvement approaches to simulate and compare current-state
processes versus SaaS processes to identify process-improvement opportunities,
change-management approaches and training strategies
A key output of these actions is a machine-generated digital baseline. An important
step in producing a digital baseline is to create a diagram of the processes that
you think exist in the enterprise, what change-inducing factors have occurred over
time, and therefore what processes likely exist now. (See Figure 2.) With a machine-
generated digital baseline, enterprises will know what to fix (hot spots) and precisely
where the fix must be applied, using the best processes offered by SaaS products
supported by automation, simple procedural and policy adjustments, and process-
performance dashboards.
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Figure 2. Creating a digital baseline of processes
Process Discovery Rapid Deployments Managed Services Robotic Automation
Data-drivenprocess discovery
Modern bestpractices
Online questionnaire-based interviews
Pre-build data andconfiguration templates
Automated data andconfiguration injection
Role-basedsecurity
Test scripts and automation
End usertraining
Tablets and mobilereporting
Rapid deployments
Managed servicescontinuous delivery
Robotic automationand optimization
Transform - Process, Dataand Reporting
Outperform - Simplify andAutomate Processes
Object Starts
What we think exists... What likely exists...
Over time...
Exceptions
Variances
Interventions
Bottlenecks
Manual Processing
Shadow Spreadsheets
Approval Queues
M&A
process update
process
record
criteria
process
Object Ends
Migrate - ConfigurationEntities
Once the diagram is mapped out, enterprise process champions can analyze it,
looking at the source system, customizations and SaaS cloud solution and performing
an impact analysis. Then, instead of forcing a preconfigured solution onto the
enterprise, solutions can be tailored based on modern best practices.
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During the move: Migrate and transform
With the digital blueprint in place, next comes the migration. Having a machine-
generated digital baseline is crucial because it provides a complete digital blueprint
to build from. Now, it’s time to deploy migration tools.
It is important to deploy a wide array of migration and testing tools to perform
extracts, inject setups and master data, and engage in end-to-end automated
functional testing of applications and other critical tasks. The migration path relies
on process discovery, rapid deployments and automation to transform the enterprise.
(See Figure 3.)
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Figure 3. Comprehensive automation for migrating to a cloud-based SaaS application
Follow these steps to complete a successful SaaS migration:
• Conduct online, questionnaire-based interviews to compile configurations for the
SaaS functional setup manager.
• Deploy automated and secure software to prepare all data, and install it directly
into the target instance.
• Auto-inject all configurations to stand up SaaS instances with future-state business
processes.
• Provide reports and dashboards to review configuration injections and ensure that
all configurations are loaded, verifying that they are correct and supported.
Process Discovery Rapid Deployments Managed Services Robotic Automation
Data-drivenprocess discovery
Modern bestpractices
Online questionnaire-based interviews
Pre-build data andconfiguration templates
Automated data andconfiguration injection
Role-basedsecurity
Test scripts and automation
End usertraining
Tablets and mobilereporting
Rapid deployments
Managed servicescontinuous delivery
Robotic automationand optimization
Transform - Process, Dataand Reporting
Outperform - Simplify andAutomate Processes
Object Starts
What we think exists... What likely exists...
Over time...
Exceptions
Variances
Interventions
Bottlenecks
Manual Processing
Shadow Spreadsheets
Approval Queues
M&A
process update
process
record
criteria
process
Object Ends
Migrate - ConfigurationEntities
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• Deploy tools that allow configuration simulations and comparisons to test different
scenarios and migrate configurations between environments.
• Establish a test repository with assets such as scenario descriptions, test scripts
and user-configurable workbooks.
• Provision a testing-as-a-service (TaaS) automated testing tool to significantly
reduce testing time and costs for quarterly updates and to enable the delivery of
high-quality solutions.
After the move: Automate and optimize
Once the migration is complete and the newly transformed SaaS solution is in place,
the focus turns to automation and optimization. The goal is to drive continuous
improvement via lean methods to optimize workflows and team performance. This
results in better quality and performance, as well as positive business outcomes.
Enterprises should undertake several postmigration actions, including:
• Provide managed services, including continuous delivery, for perpetual support and
governance of cloud applications, including functions such as quarterly updates
and automated testing.
• Refresh the digital blueprint to validate the solution’s effectiveness and pinpoint hot
spots statistically worthy of automation.
• Create proof of performance with pre- and post-improvement performance metrics
snapshots.
• Leverage automation insights to identify automation candidates, based on
comprehensive historical data, to ensure that the digital workforce (bots) is
executing each automation step successfully as planned, even as processes and
technologies change.
• Engage in continuous innovation and optimization to expand and maximize the
value of cloud and automation investments.
Enterprises can use a variety of tools and techniques to eliminate waste from existing
business processes, adopting modern best practices to simplify and standardize
process flows. Enterprises can deploy cognitive/artificial intelligence robots to serve
as a virtual workforce that rapidly improves speed and quality and reduces costs.
Even simple automations are immediately effective, if you know where to deploy
them.
Take a measured, data-driven approach
Moving business systems to cloud-based SaaS applications delivers many business
benefits, unlocking innovation and improving user experience. Enterprises have
moved beyond asking preliminary questions about modern technologies such as data
mining, machine learning and predictive intelligence. The more important questions
are when and how to adopt these technologies to simplify and automate business
processes, upgrade business capabilities and enhance user experience.
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About DXC Technology
As the world’s leading independent, end-to-end IT services company, DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) leads digital transformations for clients by modernizing and integrating their mainstream IT, and by deploying digital solutions at scale to produce better business outcomes. The company’s technology independence, global talent, and extensive partner network enable 6,000 private and public-sector clients in 70 countries to thrive on change. DXC is a recognized leader in corporate responsibility. For more information, visit www.dxc.technology and explore thrive.dxc.technology, DXC’s digital destination for changemakers and innovators.
© 2019 DXC Technology Company. All rights reserved. February 2019
The primary goals are to successfully implement and optimize quality cloud solutions,
reduce risk and improve business outcomes. A measured, data-driven approach that
includes developing a machine-generated digital baseline and migration blueprint,
and uses automated tools, can go a long way toward making the move to the cloud
smooth and successful.
About the author
Manish Patel is digital transformation advisor at DXC
Technology. He is responsible for building and driving adoption
of Oracle digital cloud solutions — including robotic process
automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet
of things and analytics — to help customers transform their
business models to the next generation of digital.
How DXC can help
DXC Technology provides a broad portfolio of offerings to help enterprises migrate to the Oracle Cloud. DXC Migration Services for Oracle Cloud offers best-in-class cloud migration solutions with flexible assessment, engagement, delivery and pricing models that support enterprises’ entire cloud life-cycle needs. These services help our clients transform with next-generation capabilities such as robotic process automation (RPA), leverage new Oracle licensing incentives to save money, and migrate according to clients’ schedules and the cloud location of their choice, be it to Oracle Public Cloud, the client’s data center or a DXC data center.
How DXC can help
Learn more at www.dxc.technology/enterprise_and_cloud_apps