When Keeping Your Current Systems is the Best Move

New technology can be tempting, but upgrading isn't always the best move. Sometimes, sticking with what you have or "keeping the lights on" (KLO) is the optimal decision.

Let's consider the options by considering how a private capital markets client looked at their systems stack. They had implemented CRM several years prior as a smaller organization, and as they grew, there were limitations in what they had versus what they needed.

After an intensive assessment, there were three paths available:

1. Overhaul their existing CRM by removing technical debt, resolving friction between how business processes were supported by the system, and integrate it with productivity enhancing tools
2. Select and migrate to a new CRM with a different vendor that offered tighter integration into the data providers they use and functionality that was more familiar to their users
3. Do nothing to their systems and address the friction with manual work done by junior staff (which could also have easily been provided to nearshore / offshore resources)

The first two options are significantly higher levels of effort compared to the third, and would incur not only one-time costs to implement, but also potentially higher ongoing costs (hence why it matters to precisely estimate your total cost of ownership).

Despite the suboptimal nature of their systems, the client opted for the third path, which was to do nothing, which meant keeping the lights on with their existing CRM.

Here's a look into why we landed on this decision:

1. Their team knew the nuances of their existing system and preferred this to learning a new system (and its own nuances)
2. Mid level resources were already constrained with sourcing and execution work, so operational enhancements would limit their ability to continue growing
3. Their parent company starting its own digital transformation journey that could produce outcomes that are beneficial to their group

TLDR: Even though there are always new and shiny things in the market (especially with the rise of AI), the status quo deserves to continue in some cases.