Before beginning any migration, an organization should think about these considerations to help narrow down what they need, what they want, and what they can achieve. Take stock of your:

• Guiding principles for design, implementation, and launch.
• Financial and nonfinancial goals.
• Definition of success—and how your institution will measure it.
• Where your organization would like to play (this could be by geography, industry, product, or all of the above).
• Competitive advantage.
• Current functional, technical, and operational challenges.

Moving into a modern architecture is a team effort that can affect the entire business, and a successful strategy should take that into account. When migrations fail, it’s usually due to a lack of alignment and support from stakeholders. Taking these steps now can mitigate that. By defining your vision, you can gain clarity around a plan for change and the business case for it.

With each choice comes a new consideration: How will this tactic stand up to your products, technologies, and operations? No matter which path an institution chooses, it should try an implementation in its own environment to see what works best for it. While each institution’s vision will be different, here’s how we’ve seen our clients choose to begin their journeys. The goal: start with innovation.

Proof of concept to proof of value: A smaller technical implication, a proof of concept, to support a new project or product is a way of testing the waters. In doing so, institutions can build a proof of concept that can then be used as a proof of value for a great migration. Or try using different technologies in an environment to test and narrow down what you want and need, and what you don’t.

Hybrid designs: Integrating new technologies with current landscapes to address a particular business need or use case, or to enable additional features and capabilities.

The implementation of an institution’s migration isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. After you’ve defined your target state, the real journey begins. A full migration might include:

• Establishing new vendor relationships and processes.
• Implementing new technologies to support target architecture.
• Building out talent with necessary skill sets.
• Establishing systems and processes for all areas of the business impacted by the new core.