A company that’s been around since the 1840s, Pearson has witnessed significant shifts in the education world and customer expectations. Modernization, therefore, is part of its DNA, and according to CIO Marykay Wells, making technical changes to an organization’s IT infrastructure is an ever-changing discipline that needs to be meticulously managed.
“If we don’t do this with a clear plan and in a logical way, considering all the technology assets and risks, negative things can happen,” she says. “First, you end up allocating too much budget to business-as-usual infrastructure rather than investing in innovations that can drive real business growth. Another potential downside of modernizing without a well thought out gameplan is that you’re reactive, not proactive, when it comes to addressing different issues.”
All of this contributes to your overall technical debt, which not only eats away at your budget but also puts incredible strain on your IT resources. Keen to address this, Wells and the Pearson technology working group, which includes tech leadership from across the brand’s different organizations, came up with 12 key attributes, including security and maintainability, to rate their technology assets in a consistent way. These tech debt audits provided a clearer picture of where their biggest risks were, which, in turn, allowed them to prioritize what needs to be addressed first.
