When IT stalls, the business feels it: 5 ways to speed up

With IT’s daily tasks of managing legacy systems, tech debt, and emerging risks skyrocketing, it’s no wonder innovation has taken a backseat. And as the gap between business needs and IT’s capacity to deliver continues to expand, business users are losing trust. Even worse? IT teams are losing confidence in themselves.

But a growing backlog and burnout don’t need to be your reality! It’s never too late to hit the reset button and fuel the innovation your organization needs. In this blog, I’ll explore the top five signs of IT stagnation, how to recognize these signs, and ways to break down these barriers so your IT team can fulfill its full creative potential.

Sign #1: Long development cycles

Let’s face it: standard development methods are killing dev cycle speed—taking years in some instances. That means that your app may become outdated before it ever reaches the market, resulting in the need for major changes or a complete rework. Either way, it will be costly and time-consuming.

Overall, standard development methods, which often rely on rigid plans, siloed processes, and hard-to-find skillsets, can lead to long cycles by limiting adaptability, collaboration, and resources.

The low-code advantage

If you’re experiencing challenges related to long development cycles, it’s time to adopt a more modern approach. Many IT teams are turning to the power and flexibility of low-code to speed up development cycles, increase agility, and automate tedious software development lifecycle (SDLC) tasks.

At OutSystems, we’ve heard just how impactful low-code has been for increasing speed and time to market. Check out what Mike Wolfel, President and CTO at Savana, has to say: “Using OutSystems has dramatically accelerated our time to market. For example, to support the Payroll Protection Program, we launched a completely new loan servicing experience in less than five weeks. That kind of speed is unheard of in our market.”

Discover more benefits of low-code platforms.

Sign #2: Your IT team is struggling to prioritize amid a growing legacy footprint

As app modernization becomes more complex due to fragmented tech stacks and skill shortages, many IT teams are stuck managing legacy systems—and it’s taking up the majority of their time and budgets. In fact, IT teams are spending up to 80% of their budgets and 40% or more of their time on maintenance.

In addition to the time it takes, there are many risks to using and maintaining legacy systems, including:

• Security and compliance issues
• Rising maintenance support and costs
• Scalability and integration issues

If your team is bogged down by legacy systems, it's time to embrace the cloud and modernize.

Take a cloud-native, app modernization approach

Modernization and cloud-native strategies can help you overcome legacy system challenges by enabling greater flexibility and scalability. In the cloud, you can benefit from automated updates, enhanced security, and reduced maintenance costs. And with the right technology, you can safely extend, refactor, or replace existing systems without putting current business processes at risk. All of this helps free up more IT time to focus on innovative, strategic projects.

Sign #3: Business teams are frustrated with IT’s responsiveness

As organizations feel greater pressure to meet market demands, the divide between IT and business teams only seems to continue to grow. When IT can't keep up with business needs or adapt to changes, innovation slows, putting the company at risk of falling behind competitors. Frustrated business teams may resort to building their own apps or using unauthorized SaaS solutions—increasing shadow IT and security risks. In fact, nearly 20% of organizations have faced cyber events due to unsanctioned IT resources.

To reduce these risks and focus on delivering apps that meet business goals, IT teams must align with business partners and significantly increase flexibility.

Implement agile development

Agile development benefits both IT and business teams by enabling faster, flexible cycles. It helps in many ways, including:

• Breaking projects into smaller, more manageable tasks
• Encouraging continuous collaboration between IT and the business
• Supporting innovation through iterative development

Agile development is truly enabling IT teams to increase trust and collaboration with the business. Kara Bane, Supervisor of Data Science and Digital Solutions at Loudoun County Public Schools, explains how greater agility has positively impacted her team: “Once our developers experienced the speed and flexibility that OutSystems low-code provides, there's been no looking back. We've fully embraced agile development. The speed of development with OutSystems means we can demonstrate progress every two weeks and pivot when we need to—a real boost for team morale."

Sign #4: Your IT talent is overwhelmed or burnt out

IT burnout is at an all-time high, with 58% of professionals stating they feel overwhelmed by daily tasks and responsibilities, according to a study by UpWork. A major factor is the time spent on technical debt, which consumes up to 30% of IT budgets and 20% of IT resources. If you’re seeing the signs of burnout and dedicating too much time to tech debt, it’s time to embrace the power of AI.

AI-powered automation for the win

AI-powered automation can help alleviate this burnout by handling repetitive tasks like code testing, debugging, and deployments, giving your IT team more time for creative, value-driven work. And many are eager to reap the benefits: according to UpWork, 92% of IT pros said they see AI as beneficial and 94% plan to delegate simple tasks to AI. In addition, 75% of executives report up to a 50% reduction in development time thanks to AI and automation integration.

Sign #5: Innovation has taken a backseat

When innovation stalls, it signals deeper issues in IT teams—and as you might have guessed—it all comes back to the signs we’ve already discussed: lengthy dev cycles, hard-to-maintain legacy systems, burnt-out teams, and misalignment with business partners.

In an era where business transformation and growth depend on innovation, you can’t keep ignoring this red flag.

Embrace emerging technologies

To break free from stagnation and lead your market or industry, your team should embrace AI, cloud computing, and IT automation. These technologies offer endless possibilities for streamlining processes, boosting IT speed and agility, and responding more effectively to business needs. This won’t only enable more opportunities for innovation, but it also helps ensure you are strategically aligned with the business.

Drive innovation forward with low-code

It’s time to reset, reevaluate, and refocus your team’s efforts. From reducing dev cycle times and tech debt to improving IT-business collaboration, embracing technology like AI-powered low-code can help you get back in the driver’s seat to accelerate digital innovation.

For more tips on how to increase IT speed and agility and reignite innovation, download 5 signs your IT team is stuck—and how to move forward.