The reality for many financial services organizations is that modernizing information systems is a project that is often desperately needed but never at the top of the priority list. If the upgrade of a legacy system or even a full migration to an alternative solution was easy, then it would have been done already.

In order to replace a legacy system, you usually need to migrate the data, turn the old system off and turn a new one on, which can be risky and disruptive to the business: what if the new system doesn’t have all of the data or doesn’t connect in the same way to other critical systems? A ‘Big Bang’ style switchover is not for the faint of heart, and usually involves the need for extensive fallback procedures should things not go as planned.

But there is another way…

First, we must ask the question: Why does information management need modernizing? One reason is that 76% of organizations cannot find the right information in a timely manner and the way in which organizations manage their digital assets, processes, and systems is in a state of flux.

For many years, the tools and methods for managing information within the business have not changed dramatically. Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems, and Document Management (DM) systems before them, have been around for decades doing their best to manage documents and transactional processes in one place. But are they doing a good job? Not according to research conducted by AIIM earlier this year. The feedback from all industries is that the scale and nature of information has changed—put simply there is more information, in more places, and more types (and bigger files) than ever before. Call this information overload, big content, digital landfill or whatever you like, the challenges are real.

Financial services companies are exploring content services platforms for new ideas and a new approach to managing critical business information. Instead of dealing with the business disruption of ripping and replacing old systems with a new one, we advocate taking two steps to get to the same goal. This modernization two-step approach exposes benefits early in the process and reduces the risk of a failed project. So, what are these two steps? And how can they help solve the challenge of modernizing legacy information systems within financial services?

The answers to these and more modernization related questions can be found in this new eBook which highlights the recent AIIM search and explores how to strategically modernize information systems for financial services.