It’s been just over a year since I voluntarily left Amex. I recently received this text message from one of my cross functional leader in the last program that I was leading. I was so happy to see this message especially when out of sight is out of mind for most people. The fact that a leader (who was not my direct HR manager) remembers my contribution even a year after I left the company and reaches out to me to express gratitude speaks volumes about them as a person and how they lead their teams. Kudos to that! A little backstory, this program was part of a multi year large scale transformation effort at Amex. It’s the critical but not-so-sexy part, I was put in charge of driving the successful exit and decommissioning of a very large, complex legacy system built in early 2000s. Organizations continuously transform dated processes, systems and technologies, creating tremendous value to customers and stakeholders and exciting opportunities for their workforce. What is often not talked about as part of these initiatives is the exhausting and highly complex work of methodically migrating users/customers/processes/functions from legacy to new. This is the clean up work, the large decommission efforts, which I think is somewhat of an art! Most teams and leaders are excited about building the shiny new rock, very few sign up for or get ‘voluntold’ to clean up and shut down the legacy. Often teams working on decommissioning legacy know fully well that at the end of it all - they may not have their jobs anymore. Leaving legacy systems as-is in lights on mode for too long leads to higher costs, operational and compliance risks, lack of SME support, redundancy etc. I hope this post serves as a reminder to recognize and thank all those teams who are tirelessly working to clean out the old thus enabling the new to fully deliver its promised value.
That’s emblematic of the type of people approach that American Express instills in its people. Had nearly 10 amazing years there and still find the people amazing to this day when networking and looking for help. Blue Boxers are always willing to help!
Rajiv Joshi
11mo
This is great and Amazing. Amex was always a special place even though I was just a contractor there but for 10 years. It allowed free thinking. If someone remembers the good work you have done, then that is truly inspiring.
Praveen Takur
11mo
Totally agree Ma’am, good work is always recognized, appreciated and remembered. Inspiring and thanks for sharing!
Product Manager at American Express
11moSo true ..... while often seen as dull or mundane, managing/decommissioning/transitioning legacy systems is such an integral part of a healthy IT ecosystem! 👍🏻