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Why your IT system is a ticking time bomb: the hidden costs of increasing complexity
Technology is driving innovation and efficiency, offering unprecedented opportunities. But what is often overlooked is the dark side of this progress: increasing complexity. Growing complexity is a creeping danger that affects not only IT teams, but businesses as a whole. The consequences? Delays, cost overruns, security breaches and ever-increasing technical debt that threatens our ability to innovate. How can we overcome these challenges?
A technical debt
Imagine: you are an IT manager at a bank and you are implementing a payment processing application. In the suppliers environment, this software runs like a charm, but after implementation in your environment, the software is suddenly very slow. People have to wait 7, 8 seconds for screens that take a fraction of a second in the suppliers environment. Your IT environment is so complex that nobody can really put their finger on why it is so slow specifically in your environment. Is it because of the authentication or is it the link to fraud prevention? Or does this software just not scale to that many users?
The complexity of IT systems causes these problems, but also makes it incredibly difficult to find and fix the cause or causes. The software you use is getting more and more complex, and as you integrate more applications and systems, new dependencies and vulnerabilities arise. This leads to an ever-increasing technical debt - the cost and effort involved in maintaining and improving an IT system over the long term. This debt builds up and most companies are not aware of it right away and it can end up costing them a lot of money, or even bringing the business to a halt.
Why complexity causes problems
Increasing complexity in IT manifests itself in a variety of ways. Below I will discuss some key areas where complexity tends to cause problems.
1. Efficiency
Complexity has a direct impact on the efficiency of IT systems. As systems become more complex, it takes them more time and effort to perform their work. Not only is there more code to execute, there are more dependencies, and if one part of the software takes a long time to run then everything else that depends on it does as well. Similarly, complexity in the database that provides information to an application will slow that application down considerably. This leads to delays and a decrease in productivity. For businesses, this means higher staffing costs, higher IT costs and less flexibility.
When applications run across multiple servers or cloud environments, and they have to communicate with each other in different ways, processes become slower and less reliable. Data integration between systems becomes a complex puzzle, with delays inevitable. The more systems that are in use, the more risk there is of inefficiency as data has to travel a longer path between source and destination.
Sciante's experience:
Our experience shows that companies that optimize their efficiency can save up to 10% on their payroll costs with our approach.
2. Cost
One of the most immediate consequences of complexity is an increase in cost. Time is money, and that's true for IT as well. The inefficiencies I talked about in the previous paragraph come with a hefty bill. And those costs are often hidden. They involve lost production from people. Those people's complaints don't get to the right place. The IT department can't do much with them because the base level IT they are responsible for runs just fine. And if the problems are not solved, they stop complaining at some point, because they go home at 5 o'clock and are no longer bothered by the delays.
IT costs due to complexity also often remain hidden. Especially if you're in the cloud, you get an invoice that no longer shows what you're actually paying for. That invoice only adds to more complexity.
Sciante's experience:
Our experience shows that companies that optimize their cloud presence can save up to 50% on their annual cloud costs with our approach.
3. Manageability
Complexity reduces the manageability of IT systems. IT managers increasingly struggle to maintain an overview of the various components and dependencies. This leads to a loss of control and can result in problems not being noticed until they have already done considerable damage. Managing a complex IT landscape requires a deep understanding of all systems, as well as the right tools to detect and resolve problems. Unfortunately, such tools are often expensive and complicated to implement, which only compounds the problem.
Another aspect of manageability is that documentation and knowledge is often fragmented. This means that when staff changes or when new people are working on a project, time is lost in getting into and understanding the systems. With legacy systems, sometimes the documentation and knowledge is completely lost.
Sciante's experience:
Our experience shows that companies that reduce their complexity with our approach can reduce their downtime by 20%-40%.
4. Maintainability
A complex IT system requires regular maintenance to keep it functioning properly. When systems become too complex, however, it is difficult to maintain them efficiently. Problems can be more difficult to identify and resolve, and even minor adjustments can have unforeseen effects on other parts of the system. This leads to higher maintenance costs and longer downtimes, ultimately affecting business continuity.
Technical debt plays a major role here. Quick fixes are often implemented to solve acute problems, but this creates additional problems in the long run. Often such a solution adds complexity to the system. Also, “temporary” fixes are not always well documented. Each time an IT team makes such a decision, the technical debt is increased, making the system even more difficult to maintain.
Sciante's experience:
Our experience shows that companies that reduce their complexity with our approach can reduce their development time by 25%-50%.
5. Scalability and innovation
Finally, complexity causes companies to struggle witch scaling and innovation. When IT systems are too complex, it becomes challenging to quickly introduce new functionality or scale up existing systems. This limits companies' growth and hinders their ability to enter new markets or offer innovative solutions to customers.
A complex IT landscape causes expansions to take much longer and be more costly than originally planned. Companies that cannot easily scale up their systems lose the benefit of economies of scale and risk being overtaken by competitors who are able to quickly integrate new technologies.
Sciante's experience:
Our experience shows that companies that reduce their complexity with our approach can scale and innovate up to 2 times faster.
So Hugo, how do I reduce my technical debt?
When it comes to efficiency improvement and cost reduction, Sciante is uniquely capable of mapping out how your systems are put together and where your opportunities for improvement lie. Even if the documentation is lost and the developers no longer work for you.
Whether you already have serious problems, or a nagging feeling in the back of your mind that complexity problems might be lurking: make a 15 minute appointment with me and together we will discuss how we can tackle complexity in your situation.