Although the pace of software releases from Microsoft has slowed somewhat in recent years, it is still difficult for many organizations to keep up with the various service packs and new product versions that appear on a regular basis. Even organizations that do not develop software in-house must deal with periodic upgrades for operating systems, database server platforms, and the Office suite. An organization that has taken charge of developing software in-house must also bear the burden of testing and modifying the software when underlying layers of the Microsoft stack are updated. Most organizations simply do not have the budget to allocate staff to such tasks. As a result, it is not uncommon for an organization to run on Microsoft software that is several years or even a decade old.
The Perils of Falling Behind
There are at least two major dangers associated with falling significantly behind Microsoft’s latest software stack. The first danger is the most obvious: Microsoft eventually reduces or eliminates support for software that has passed a certain age or is several versions behind the latest release. No organization can afford to take the risk of running unsupported software particularly for mission critical applications.
The second danger is less obvious but just as important: Organizations that allow their competitors to leverage the best advances in the Microsoft stack while falling behind on their own systems can eventually end up at a severe competitive disadvantage in terms of team productivity. This disadvantage does not appear overnight but eventually an organization that falls far enough behind its competitors will either be unable to provide services expected by members or customers or will only be able to do so with a much more labor intensive (and costly) process.
Keep Focus on Your Competitive Advantage
Every organization has a different mission and set of competitive advantages. Most organizations exist to provide products or services to their customers or members and have identified competitive advantages that allow them to have some kind of “edge” over others who are attempting to compete in the same market. While it is certainly important for many organizations to maintain a skilled IT Department, the competitive edge of most organizations is not related to producing in-house software.
Of course, no one today even contemplates creating an operating system, a database platform, or a programming language. However, many organizations still develop custom in-house business applications that program directly within these underlying software layers. Programmers take responsibility for interacting with lower levels of the Microsoft stack and even though modern programming languages provide a level of abstraction, the task still retains major challenges. The key question is whether there is something unique about the in-house software that provides the organization with a competitive edge. If so, the investment may be worthwhile. But if not, the investment may actually harm the overall competitive position by drawing resources away from the true competitive edge.
Leveraging Packaged Software Products
There are many software vendors that focus on building products that can be leveraged by businesses that do not wish to develop software on their own. These software companies specialize in keeping up to date with the underlying technology stack from vendors like Microsoft and leveraging that stack to provide business application functionality in a way that insulates customers from having to do so directly. For example, the Aptify RAD solution leverages the latest versions of Microsoft operating systems, database platforms, programming languages, and productivity tools such as Office in a way that insulates clients from the need to directly interface with the Microsoft layers. Clients who build business application functionality on top of the Aptify RAD platform can be confident that underlying changes in Microsoft technology will not require their staff to specialize in keeping up to date with the many changes introduced by Microsoft each year. Instead, IT departments can focus on constantly adapting their business software to more effectively meet their goals and objectives. A solution like Aptify RAD does not relieve an organization of the need to keep current on the strategic implications of Microsoft technology releases or the need to upgrade computers and servers to the latest Microsoft versions on a periodic basis. However, by knowing that all business applications built on the Aptify RAD platform can upgrade and leverage Microsoft’s improvements, an organization can spend more time focusing on improving their competitive advantages rather than becoming experts in the low level details of Microsoft releases.