In this totally free report, we offer 5 examples of application modernisation for you to dig into. And if that’s not appetising enough, have a taste test below.
This report will show you:
- Both real and illustrative examples of application modernisation projects stalling, failing or under delivering
- The key mistakes teams make over and over which lead to these poor outcomes
- An inside, heart-of-the-control-room perspective which gets to the why of these poor decisions
- Our finger-wagging Should Haves Could Haves and Would Haves – which, were they heeded, would have, could have and should have saved the day
Ready to dive in?
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Why this report
We put this report together for the following reasons:
To provide real(istic) application modernisation examples
Many of the case studies and scenarios paint a sunny picture of modernising legacy systems. Reading these alone, you’d be hard-pressed to explain why modernisation efforts fail.
In this report, we get inside the heads and under the skins of decision makers, showing why sticking to best practice is harder than it seems.
To provide usable insights on modernisation strategy and process
Each example of folly is followed by our best guess at a better alternative. What the team(s) in question should have, would have and could have done.
From app modernisation mistakes to mantras.
To bridge the gap between technical and business stakeholders
More than one of our examples shows how the disconnect between technical and commercial teams can lead to a bad result.
Hopefully, we’ve been even-handed, showing how all elements of a project need to be considered holistically.
In a nutshell
Modernising legacy applications is hard. Existing business processes, team biases, current market-competitive solutions and the man on the ground all have to be taken into account.
In this report, we like to think we’ve provided a wide-ranging look into why these things aren’t always given the attention they need before the application modernisation process kicks off – so that you, dear reader, won’t make the same mistakes.
Sneak peek at case study 4: Queensland Health’s payroll overhaul
Name: Queensland Health
About: Queensland Health is the state department organisation responsible for running many federal and state health services in Queensland (they do not run all health services in the state, however)
Founded: 1859
Budget: Not really clear
Fatal mistake: Suck it and see
Background
Queensland Health is the body responsible for governing a range of healthcare services in the state of Queensland.
This stretch of Australian territory is equivalent to 7 Great Britains, 5 Japans or 2.5 Texases.
In population terms, it is on par with the Republic of Ireland or Finland. You could also say it’s half a Portugal. In short, a parochial tale of amateur mismanagement this ain’t.
The body was staffed by approximately 78,000 employees and spent approximately 1 billion AUD yearly in payroll operations.
However, by June 2008. The old payroll system was beginning to show its age.
Adventure calls
LATTICE was an on-premises application whose time had come.
- It could no longer handle modern payroll processing, leading to 100s of manual workarounds
- These workarounds had bloated the system, leading to piling technical debt
- Operationally, it was also flagging, with expected delays in payment processing
By 2008, LATTICE was at end-of-life stage, with the Queensland Health director warning that continued use would come with an ‘extremely high risk of systems failure.’
So…
A plan is…sort of gestured toward
The cracks first show in the lack of any formal risk assessment for LATTICE’s end-of-life status.
Although not exactly a project scope, a formal risk assessment would have given form and priority to what was needed in the modernisation process as well as identifying potential pitfalls.
The project is then kicked to CorpTech, a Queensland body tasked with overseeing governmental modernisation projects. This decision was made federally as part of an effort to standardise HR and Payroll software implementations.
However, CorpTech’s bread and butter is overseeing implementations for off-the-shelf SAP solutions in government agencies – not the modernisation of complex, bloated platforms chock full of technical debt.
In a second passing of the buck, CorpTech decide to opt for a prime contractor model, essentially giving away the responsibility for a project they did not understand to a single vendor.
The RFP was, as you can imagine, light on detail, omitting information on the complex variations in pay scale, data integration and other key factors. This led to vendors having to interpret the brief which resulted in significant scope creep.
IBM eventually won the 98 million AUD contract after, as it was later discovered, being improperly granted access to project documents. This all amounted to a vague plan passed around too long and to the wrong vendor.
The modernisation they wanted*
Objective:
To replace LATTICE with a modern, automated, and scalable payroll system capable of handling Queensland Health’s complex pay structures and industrial agreements. The new system would ensure accurate and timely payroll processing, reduce manual workarounds, and maintain long-term sustainability.
- System selection & planning (2006 – 2007)
- Conduct a formal risk assessment for LATTICE’s end-of-life status
- Identify key modernisation priorities and potential failure points
- Establish a structured risk mitigation plan for a seamless transition
- Select a proven, enterprise-grade payroll solution to minimise customisation risks
- Procurement & vendor engagement (mid-2007 – late 2007)
- Issue a detailed and structured RFP outlining the full scope of payroll requirements
- Select a vendor with specialised experience in government payroll transformation
- Conduct independent risk reviews before finalising the contract
- Implementation & testing (early 2008 – mid-2009)
- Develop the new system in phases, ensuring a smooth migration from LATTICE
- Conduct extensive user testing to ensure payroll calculations were accurate and compliant
- Provide staff training and ongoing technical support to prevent operational issues
- Full deployment (mid-2009 – late 2009)
- Fully replace LATTICE with a modern, efficient, and fully automated system
- Ensure payroll runs smoothly from day one, with no delays or errors
- Establish a monitoring framework to track performance and optimise processes
The modernisation they got
- Poorly defined planning & procurement (2006 – 2007)
- No formal risk assessment was conducted, leaving no structured modernisation priorities or mitigation strategies
- The project was assigned to CorpTech, a government agency focused on standardised SAP implementations
- The RFP lacked critical details, meaning vendors bid on an incomplete understanding of Queensland Health’s payroll complexities.
- IBM won the $98 million contract but was later found to have improperly accessed confidential government data during the selection process.
- System development & testing failures (early 2008 – mid-2009)
- IBM’s SAP-based solution was not designed for Queensland Health’s intricate payroll rules, requiring extensive and costly customisation that delayed implementation
- Insufficient validation was done to ensure SAP could handle complex pay structures, leading to fundamental calculation errors
- Testing was rushed and incomplete, leaving unresolved payroll discrepancies
- Payroll staff received minimal training, causing operational confusion
- Chaotic go-live & immediate payroll failures (March 2010)
- The system launched despite known defects, immediately causing payroll disasters
- Thousands of employees were overpaid, underpaid, or not paid at all
- Payroll processing became slower, requiring massive manual intervention
- Manual workarounds increased instead of decreasing, with tens of thousands of transactions per pay cycle requiring correction
What’s not in this sneak preview?
As you may have noticed, we’ve kept our finger wagging behind a form.
In the full report, which you can download just below, we’ve added an alternative strategy for each case.
With these principles to hand, we expect any of your future modernisation initiatives to go smooth as butter.
Still need convincing?
The benefits of application modernisation
First things first.
What is application modernisation?
If you’ve stumbled upon this article by sheer fluke, and for some reason have read this far, Application modernisation is the process of updating and optimising legacy systems to leverage current technologies, enhance efficiency, and ensure long-term sustainability
The benefits
Accelerated innovation and time to market
From ancient enterprise systems to recently outdated new kids on the block, modernisation gives teams and companies the power to bring new applications and features much faster and with far fewer headaches.
Enhanced scalability and reliability
Cloud-based solutions taking advantage of technologies like serverless, orchestration and microservices are inherently more scalable for a variety of reasons. Further, their modular nature often makes them more reliable in the main, with more robust disaster recovery procedures.
Future-proofing and agnosticism
The more modular, composable nature of modernised apps allows them to be pieced together from best-of-breed solutions. This chop-shop approach allows them to evolve like the Ship of Theseus, incorporating new technologies and ejecting the old.
Enhanced efficiency
Cloud migration and modernisation open up a lot of efficiencies. From reduced manual processes in deployment and testing, higher yield performance and deeper app understanding through observability. There’s a lot to group under one banner, but in general, modernised applications open doors everywhere.
How we can help
We’re not backseat drivers. When we get in the front. We know where we’re going. Read about:
- Our work refactoring and rehosting a major eCommerce site for major Asian brand Minor Lifestyle
- Our work supporting, cost optimising and increasing scalability for multi-billion dollar ride-hailing app Grab
- Our work scaling, securing and future-proofing African transport app Gozem’s AWS infrastructure
Bottom line: if you want to hear our thoughts, download the report. If you want to hear our dulcet tones, just get in touch.
