Define & Refine Your Exit Strategy
Finding the nearest and most suitable exit isn’t just for flying on planes and going to the cinema. Knowing how to exit systems is equally as important.
Exit strategies for migrating and deprecating systems are not as commonly thought of as an exit strategy for a business, but occur more frequently.
Whether it’s a vendor ending support for a product or an attractive option coming to market, migrations and procuring net new systems are inevitable.
To be prepared, do these steps (and walk, don’t run, while doing so):
Define a list of all the systems you’re currently using across your organization
Identify how you can extract your data (including metadata or configuration)
Curate a list of suitable replacements if you need to make a switch
It’s also worth listing which business processes rely on each system and how it integrates with other systems across your organization.
Once you have this list, regularly revisit it on an at least an annual basis, and it could be as frequently as quarterly for rapidly growing and changing organizations.
TLDR: Don’t wait until you’re forced to exit to figure out how to do it with your systems.
