Editor’s note: The following is a guest post from Mike Baker, chief information and technology officer at PGIM.
Technical debt is the silent killer of opportunity. For many business leaders, outdated technology can be easy to ignore while products are launched, deals are made and business continues as usual.
After all, the IT department works wonders, right?
Unfortunately, when that big opportunity arises — such as integrating a game-changing technology like generative AI — the true cost of tech debt becomes clear. Thousands of hours must first be spent reorganizing data, onboarding vendors or updating scores of archaic software and hardware.
Inevitably, expensive consultants are hired, delays occur and, by the time things get straightened out, competitors have leapt ahead. In fact, McKinsey & Co. estimates technical debt can cost between 15% and 60% of every dollar spent on IT.
An IT organization cannot be successful unless they have a strategy to reduce technical debt. Fortunately, companies have people who can help — and they don’t all sit in the IT department. A talent strategy with an innovation mindset can be key to identifying and resolving tech debt before it grows out of control.
Empower employees to innovate
Dedicated technologists often feel like order takers — discouraged from advocating for necessary upgrades or raising potential long-term issues with antiquated systems, usually due to cost. Often the message they receive is, “it’s not broke, so don’t fix it.”
This type of culture demoralizes technology staff, who end up spending most of their time fixing system bugs, responding to performance issues and servicing outdated platforms. The dynamic leaves little room for emerging technologies that can drive the business forward.
Fixing this requires a cultural shift that breaks down the wall between those in the business and those on the technology side, empowering everyone to be a citizen of technology.
At PGIM, the global asset management business of Prudential Financial, our global services team recently invited colleagues from across the business to participate in a hackathon, using no-code tools and AI to build solutions to business problems.
Winning teams included employees who had no experience building apps or working in tech – and who didn’t work on the same team or business unit.
Events like these not only break down cross-functional silos but also build relationships and promote more collaborative, open conversations about technology. Here are three talent strategies to beat back technical debt.
1. Upskill endlessly
Upskilling employees to work with the latest technologies and understand the latest trends is essential to remain competitive in the market, from a customer and employee retention perspective.
Even a great cloud engineer or generative AI expert can leave a wake of tech debt behind if they are too complacent in their skillset. As technologists, we’re in charge of using technology to differentiate business capabilities, ultimately, giving us a competitive edge.
To differentiate, we can’t merely patch over technology issues. An organization that makes upskilling a priority gives their employees the tools to create lasting change, not temporary fixes.
2. Know when to outsource
Bespoke solutions to business problems may sound nice in theory — who doesn’t want an app designed specifically for their needs? In reality, systems built from the ground up for a narrow purpose are often the biggest contributors to tech debt.
Third-party solutions may not fit every need perfectly, but they have the benefit of coming from companies with a financial incentive to keep their customers happy and their systems up-to-date.
By contrast, in-house solutions may require specialized staff to maintain the system. Once they retire or otherwise leave the company, it may be hard to find or train people to fill those roles. A company running a patchwork of bespoke, in-house software behind the scenes will inevitably have a hard time keeping pace with technological change.
Don’t assume a third-party can solve tech debt issues — it’s often cost-prohibitive to transition the maintenance or management of technical debt to a third-party managed service provider.
3. Hire for the future, not the past
When it comes to hiring tech talent, too many companies look for people who can maintain current systems — no matter how outdated those systems might be. While filling the “run” bucket is important, too little attention is paid to the “change” bucket.
Businesses must hire talent trained in technology categories of the future. As the years pass, finding people proficient in old software will only get more difficult, and the best tech talent entering the workforce won’t want to learn outdated systems.
Instead, businesses should view their talent recruitment and hiring practices as an opportunity to adjust the balance toward innovative skill sets. New roles should not require experience with older technology; the focus should be on finding the skills needed to bring the organization’s technology into the future.
Fresh perspectives and energy from new joiners should be harnessed to make the business case for change, not be chained to past decisions that no longer enable the business to operate most efficiently.
Ultimately, no matter how good a company’s products or services may be, the technology behind the scenes will always be a major difference between falling short or exceeding expectations.
To stop the silent killer of tech debt, businesses need people who speak up, embrace change and grow their skills at the same, furious pace of technological advancement.
Otherwise, a company’s tech won’t be the only thing that becomes obsolete.
