The start of a new year can be summed up in one word: Evaluation. Whether it is to spend more time at the gym or take on a new hobby, you essentially evaluate where you finished the last year, and look to where you want to be in the year to follow. And there's no better place for evaluation than within business application development.
Appian's own Chief Technology Officer Michael Beckley recently shared his thoughts with Wired.com on how CIOs will need to align modern application development strategies for the new year. Michael doesn't sugar coat it; if you're going to create successful applications, you must incorporate cloud and mobile solutions or you'll find yourself with legacy software. Rethinking existing business process systems to adopt a cloud and mobile strategy is the only sure way to build truly modern applications and avoid the legacy trap.
In his commentary, Michael discusses how CIOs who have developed a cloud and mobile first strategy over the past year have experienced tremendous success for both their traditionaldesktop and new mobile users. One of the chief arguments organizations claim against mobile and cloud is that business is done at the desk, and CIOs can't image migrating to a mobile device and havingbusiness data backed by the cloud. For Beckley, this is an outdated way of thinking, as work can be done just as efficiently with mobile as it is on the desktop, and it's only a matter of time before this is the norm.
"When you design for cloud and mobile first, a number of very good things begin to happen," says Beckley. "User interfaces become simple, intuitive, easier to learn, and far more likely to be used by a broader range of employees at all levels in the company."
How we work has quickly transformed over the past year, and the rate of change will only increase in years to come. As important as it is to incorporate a cloud and mobile strategy for business management, it is equally important to make sure these enhancements are not kept separate from an overall business platform. According to Beckley, cloud and mobile capabilities are "integral to an application design that unifies desktop, cloud, and mobile users, with parity of functionality delivered to each."
So if you are like me and wait until after the new year to start jotting down resolutions, why not set your sights on doing away with legacy systems and support your most critical business goals with modern and efficient application development. Maybe it's what you'll be able to hang your hat on when looking back at 2014 this time next year.
-Mike Ingrisano, Media Relations Manager
