Top Three Reasons to Re-Platform Now

During more than fifteen years of intensive experience helping online businesses evaluate digital commerce solutions, HotWax Systems has become expert on the topic of re-platforming.

While reasons to re-platform may vary significantly from business to business, during the last fifteen years we’ve observed the following three reasons to be by far the most compelling and valid. You should strongly consider re-platforming if:

Your current platform delivers a substandard user experience.

More people are shopping online now than ever before. And their expectations are high. If you fail to meet their expectations, your business will be far less successful—and may even fail.

Recent research from Gartner, Inc notes that “By 2017, due to Internet-enabled price visibility, the digital customer experience will be the key differentiator of your organization."²

Today’s online shoppers not only expect a seamless and user-friendly experience, but also expect the experience to be pleasant, interesting, and even entertaining—just as if they were shopping in a brick-and-mortar store, but better! That’s a lot to ask of a clunky legacy system that was implemented several years ago as little more than a rudimentary storefront with shopping cart capabilities.

Equally important are your back-end users. Clunky admin user experiences increase the chance of mistakes on everything from order processing to inventory management. These back end problems can have a double impact, frustrating employees and then alienating the customers they are trying to serve.

Open source digital commerce solutions can be exceptionally agile, impressively flexible, and offer extensive customization options. Selecting the right open source solution can empower you to provide the exceptional shopping experience your customers demand along with a complete set of natively integrated administrative applications so your team has the tools they need to take fantastic care of your customers.

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Your business is growing rapidly and your current platform cannot handle steadily increasing ERP demands.

The notion that rapid success could actually harm an online business may not be obvious at first, but we’ve seen it happen time and time again.

Many legacy systems lack the robust ERP functionality that allows growing businesses to track inventory in the warehouse, anticipate inventory needs, and provide exceptional order management, fulfillment, and customer service. And systems will soon become more complex, and integrate more components than ever before.

Recent research from Gartner, Inc reveals that "Entering 2015, executive focus on digital marketing, digital commerce and customer experience remains strong. All three initiatives seek to drive growth, profitability and customer loyalty." ¹

As all successful online businesses know, today’s online shoppers have little patience for popular items being out of stock, and even less patience for mistakes with their orders or waiting weeks longer than promised for delivery.

If demand for your product is outpacing your system’s ability to supply it in an efficient and timely manner, you’ll need to act quickly in order to maintain current levels of success and support continued growth.

One recent client, for example, had grown about 400% over the course of the previous year, and found themselves frantically scrambling to keep up. They partnered with us to develop and implement a more powerful system that allowed them resolve their current problems smoothly, and within a few months they were comfortably ahead of the continuing growth curve. They are now finalizing EDI integrations with some big box retailers, and they are clear to proceed with the healthy growth they worked so hard to create!

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Your current platform is a Frankenstein-like assemblage of disparate 3rd party components that don’t function smoothly together.

This may be the most frustrating re-platforming scenario of all. Because many legacy systems were unable to offer new and necessary functionalities, too many online businesses are dealing with cobbled-together system components that cause ongoing integration problems.

New research from Gartner, Inc. notes that “By 2018, more than 50% of commerce sites will integrate technologies from from more than 15 vendors to deliver a digital customer experience."²

Before partnering with us, the CIO of a large and successful client company was faced with the complex task of devising and implementing a strategy to replace just such a system with one that was well integrated and dependable. We’re happy to report that the company is now very pleased with an exceptional, tailored solution that handles tens of thousands of orders each day along with the vastly more numerous system functions associated with those orders.

If your business is being held hostage by a temperamental and disjointed system, an open-source digital commerce solution should be a top consideration. Not only do many open-source solutions offer impressive end-to-end functionality, but they can also evolve quickly to meet emerging needs over time.

Sometimes, re-platforming is not the answer. Be sure to ask the right questions before making a decision.

It is important to note that re-platforming is not always the answer. It is a major undertaking requiring extensive planning and significant resources.

Gartner, Inc recommends that consumers "Evaluate multiple license and deployment models to identify the best fit for the organization's business objectives, and take an assertive position with vendors or service providers whose license/deployment models do not meet company needs."²

To determine whether or not re-platforming is smart and sensible, the best strategy may be to consult with multiple experts and then compare and contrast the recommendations you receive. Re-platforming expert Thom O’Leary, President of Fixer Group Consulting, suggests approaching the re-platforming question by requiring your team can prove that re-platforming is necessary. Read about O’Leary’s “starting at no to get to yes” strategy here.

In the true spirit of open source, HotWax Systems experts are available for a free, in-depth consultation. If we feel that you don’t need to re-platform, we will not only share that recommendation with you openly and honestly, but will also direct you to additional resources that may be better suited to your needs. For expert advice, contact us here.

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