Tackling the Nine Big Challenges

Nine Challenges Every Technology Leader Faces… and How to Tackle Them

Legacy Systems: The Old Anchor

2. Talent Gaps: Unlocking Skills at Speed

3. Innovation vs. Stability: The Balance Point

4. Budget Squeeze: Freeing Capacity for Growth

5. Security: Turning Risk into Resilience

6. Culture: The Real Catalyst for Change

7. Cloud: From Complexity to Competitive Edge

8. ROI: Shaping Proof into Progress

9. Technology Leadership: Two Perspectives, One Path Forward

Takeaway

Don’t try to do it all at once. Focus on the systems that are slowing you down the most. Untangle dependencies one step at a time. And when you move to the cloud, treat it as more than a migration, it’s your chance to reset for speed, innovation, and scale.

Legacy Systems: The Old Anchor

Every technology leader knows the feeling, that one system everyone depends on, but nobody dares touch. It eats up budget, slows decisions, and somehow gets riskier every year. You plan to replace it in next year’s budget cycle, but due to competing pressures and perceived risks, next year never comes, and before long, it’s not just an old system, it’s an anchor holding back every new idea and initiative you and your teams want to put in motion.

The real danger isn’t just the cost of keeping it running. It’s what legacy takes away: the agility to move fast, the freedom to innovate, the chance to seize new opportunities before your competition does. Gartner predicts that by 2028, three-quarters of enterprises will have retired more than half their legacy applications just to stay in the game. Modernisation isn’t about tidying up IT, it’s about staying alive and staying relevant.

Certainly with the underwriting policy, management system innovation was key. Not necessarily because it was new technology that we were using, but because the things we were trying to do were so bespoke.

Mark Hamblin, The Shipowners' Club

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Talent Gaps: Unlocking Skills at Speed

It’s frustrating chasing talent you can’t quite get your hands on; Cloud architects, BA experts, AI engineers, Cybersecurity specialists. Exactly the skills you need are the ones in shortest supply. Even when you do manage to hire, upskilling takes time and retention is a battle you’ll keep fighting.

The ‘talent’ challenge can slow down even the best-laid digital strategies, but it’s also where the opportunity lies. Close the gap quickly, and suddenly transformation accelerates. Teams move faster, confidence grows, and instead of being the bottleneck, your people become the multiplier.

Takeaway

Bring in flexible resourcing when you need it, consider alternative recruitment models that aim to embed expertise into teams right away.

We are always looking for people to help us with the recruitment of engineers, and also the management of the engineers. We haven't got the technical expertise or the resource to be able to manage that ourselves. TXP have exceeded our expectations on a number of occasions.

David Hall, Beko Europe

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Innovation vs. Stability: The Balance Point

The pressure to walk the tightrope between innovation and stability is intense. On one side, the excitement of exploring what’s next: unlocking AI, blockchain, quantum, the big ideas that get your board leaning forward in their chair. On the other, the unshakable responsibility of keeping payroll running, services stable, and downtime at zero. Go too fast, and you risk chaos, go too slow, and you risk irrelevance.

The sweet spot is balance. When modernisation is done right, it strengthens your core systems and gives you room to innovate with confidence. You don’t have to choose between stability and progress you can have both.

Takeaway

Build strong foundations first, carve out safe spaces for experimentation, and use modern cloud platforms as a controlled environment where you can test bold ideas without disrupting what matters most.

We need access to the skills and the expertise, that can help us maintain and run [those] services whilst also modernising them for the future as well.

Simon Hopkinson, Capgemini

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Budget Squeeze: Freeing Capacity for Growth

The budget battle never seems to end. On one side, keeping old systems alive eats your resources, on the other the pressure mounts to invest in the future. It can feel like a constant tug-of-war where a win on one side can seem like a loss on the other.

But hidden in that squeeze is opportunity. Every pound you free from legacy debt can be redeployed into innovation. Every efficiency wrestled out of the old creates breathing room for the new. Budget discipline isn’t just survival; it’s the path to growth.

Takeaway

Retire what no longer gives value, recycle the savings into digital opportunity, and measure progress against clear ROI metrics from the start.

Budget discipline isn’t just survival; it’s the path to growth.

Security: Turning Risk into Resilience

Every technology leader feels the tension: the endless stream of alerts, new threats surfacing daily, tighter regulations landing every quarter, and those weak spots hidden in legacy systems that keep you awake at night. Security often feels less like strategy and more like a never-ending battle.

But the real story isn’t just about defending against attacks. Security, done right, is what gives you confidence to move faster. Build it into your transformation from the very start, and it stops being a drag on progress and instead it becomes the enabler of speed, agility, and trust. Gartner predicts that cyber risk is on track to carry as much weight in boardroom discussions as financial risk, this is already the reality for many, so the message is clear: resilience isn’t optional, it’s survival.

Takeaway

Treat security as a design principle, not an afterthought. When trust is embedded, transformation accelerates, and it does so safely, credibly, and with lasting impact.

Security, done right, is what gives you confidence to move faster

Culture: The Real Catalyst for Change

The technology is in place, the plan is watertight, yet the project still struggles to move forward. Not because the tools fail, but because people do what people do, cling to old habits, protect their silos, or fall back on the phrase: “We’ve always done it this way.” Culture has the power to stall even the smartest transformation before it gets going.

But culture can also be the spark that changes everything. When people start working differently, sharing ideas, breaking down barriers, adapting together, momentum builds. What once slowed progress becomes the very energy that drives it forward.

Takeaway

Transformation isn’t about dropping in new tools. It’s about winning people over, creating small wins they believe in, and letting culture shift naturally until it becomes the fuel for lasting change.

That combination of technology and skills with the kind of people at the heart of it, ultimately is a real challenge

Simon Hopkinson, Capgemini

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Cloud: From Complexity to Competitive Edge

Cloud migration looks simple on paper; faster, cheaper, more scalable. But the reality is rarely that neat. Decades of tangled data and applications don’t glide smoothly into new environments. Integrations turn messy, governance slips, and before long, costs creep higher than expected.

But cloud, managed well, is far more than infrastructure. It becomes the launchpad for agility, the foundation for visibility, flexibility, and growth. When the journey is led with clarity and control, the promise of the cloud isn’t just realised, it accelerates what comes next.

Takeaway

Treat modernisation as a phased journey. Put governance and visibility first, and see the cloud not as a destination, but as a strategy to unlock competitive edge.

When the journey is led with clarity and control, the promise of the cloud isn’t just realised, it accelerates what comes next.

ROI: Shaping Proof into Progress

In every transformation journey, the question of value eventually comes to the table: “What are we getting from this investment?” It’s not just about numbers, it’s about demonstrating how modernisation contributes to growth, resilience, and competitive edge.

The real opportunity lies in shaping the ROI story. When outcomes are measured and communicated clearly, it’s not only proof of delivery, it’s evidence that modernisation is driving impact where it matters most. That visibility builds confidence, secures continued sponsorship, and strengthens alignment across the business.

Takeaway

Define success markers before the journey begins. Use live data to measure progress. And frame ROI in terms of business outcomes leaders can see and believe in.

Without that policy management system able to produce tens of thousands of documents very accurately, very quickly, we would never have been able to start our transformation program

Mark Hamblin, The Shipowner's Club

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Technology Leadership: Two Perspectives, One Path Forward

Every organisation relies on strong technology leadership to balance the needs of today with the ambitions of tomorrow. On one side, ensuring systems are secure, stable, and reliable. On the other, exploring how innovation can unlock new opportunities. Both perspectives are vital, and when they come together, modernisation accelerates.

Stability and innovation stop being competing priorities and instead become complementary forces; twin engines driving transformation and growth.

Takeaway

Treat modernisation as shared ground. When technology leaders align around the same mission, organisations move forward with both confidence and speed.

Equally though, we've solved complex technical problems together, and that has challenged our client to think a little differently about how they might do things.

Simon Hopkinson, Capgemini

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Conclusion:

Modernise Without Complexity

Modernisation can be a catalyst for progress. With the right balance of systems, skills, and strategy, organisations can reduce legacy debt, close skills gaps, innovate securely, and deliver measurable ROI, whilst strengthening resilience for the future.

At TXP, we bring together core capabilities in; legacy, bespoke apps, applications, cloud, data & AI, security, project engineering and resourcing, underpinned by the human insight that turns transformation into lasting impact.

As one customer put it:

“We work with TXP across all three areas, and we look to them to really help us find great people sometimes to augment our resources, sometimes to provide outcomes, sometimes to make sure the lights stay on in a support perspective…We use TXP to make sure we have a business to run.” The Shipowners' Club

For technology leaders, the message is clear: transformation thrives when technology and people move forward together.

Speak to a TXP modernisation expert