Dive Brief:

• Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices is getting rid of legacy systems and standardizing on the Salesforce platform company-wide, according to a report from Diginomica.
• The company previously had more than 20 individual Salesforce implementations worldwide, said Sanjay Singh, IT director at Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices, in an interview with Diginomica. Standardizing will give the company a "better view of its data and align cross-region business strategy."
• The company's Latin America business recently moved all of its regions onto a single Force.com instance, Singh said. The positive response they saw pushed Singh to look into standardizing globally. 

Dive Insight:

The plan is to "ultimately replace all of Johnson & Johnson’s commercial legacy systems with the force.com platform and Salesforce applications," Singh said. 

Companies that rely on legacy IT systems simply can’t obtain the agility they need in today’s business environment. And newer technology is also important to potential clients. A recent Microsoft study concluded that more than 90% of consumers would consider taking their business elsewhere rather than work with a company that used outdated technology.

But transitioning off older systems is easier said than done. Many business units separately implement technology, creating difficulties when companies move to adopt a unified platform. As companies take on digital transformation efforts, creating a common technological thread across lines of business can benefit all departments and help boost productivity.