Legacy systems need modernization from time to time.
Just think of it, there’s a reason why your current computer uses the latest software instead of the same old software that it used to have ten years ago. Obviously, the current computer has more power and capabilities than the older one.
According to a report from Flexera, the majority of products have a lifecycle of just five years.
You see, the thing with technology is that it becomes obsolete with time. And that, in some aspects, is applicable to businesses too. Your business today is not the same as it was a few years back.
When you started your business, you had the modern systems in place. But, now these systems are becoming outdated, putting a legacy burden on your business.
Legacy systems are common business bottlenecks. That’s why companies around the world are investing in legacy modernization to stay ahead. So, what is legacy modernization and how it can help boost your business? Let’s see.
What is Legacy Modernization?
Legacy modernization is a process of transforming or converting a legacy system into a modern infrastructure to reduce IT costs, improve flexibility, collaboration, and consistency.
It is similar to a software update. The legacy transformation combines the strength of old business applications with modern-day technologies and software architectures to build a robust platform.
According to research, companies that modernized legacy software successfully reduced the overall cost of business operations by more than 13%. It was also noticed that businesses with modernized legacy systems were able to increase their annual revenue by at least 14%.
There are many studies that highlight the importance of legacy modernization. But, many businesses are still clinging onto their legacy systems.
Over time, these systems start throwing errors, bugs, and critical issues that can impact your revenue. You got to get rid of the old systems, and digitally transform your business processes to stay on the competitive edge.
Challenges of Legacy Systems and Technologies
There are many challenges of legacy systems, and some of them include:
- Obsolete or outdated technology
- Lack of skill sets in the market to run older systems
- Outdated, inaccurate or incomplete documentation
- Lack of support for older software systems
About 44% of CIOs believe that complex legacy technologies pose a significant barrier to the company’s digital transformation.
Legacy systems affect business continuity and reliability. They often incur high maintenance costs. On top of that, legacy systems have a domino effect where one problem can lead to another, and so on. Therefore, upgrading your legacy software systems is highly significant.
Benefits of Legacy System Modernization
The systems you choose to invest in to become the very foundation of your business. With the right tools and systems in place, you can accomplish business objectives and reach your company’s full potential.
Legacy system modernization empowers your IT department so that they can work more efficiently and intelligently. They would no longer need to waste time on manual integrations and bug fixes.
Below are some of the significant benefits of legacy modernization:
1. Cost Reduction
Companies that modernize legacy software systems are 5X more likely to experience a significant reduction in cost.
When you move from local on-premise data centers to cloud-based solutions, you can cut down on the cost associated with data center utilities. Cloud-based data solutions offer more scalable and manageable services at affordable rates.
Organizations spend more than 60% of their IT budget on the maintenance of the legacy systems. The big chunk of this maintenance task consists of managing the old codes and raising the support tickets.
Also, diagnosing issues may take from a couple of hours to several days as very few developers in your team know the old legacy systems in-depth.
Modern systems allow you to re-architect the legacy code with open-source programming languages.
You can automate the manual writing of code, repurpose the existing code, and optimize the business processes. You don’t need to hire highly skilled developers to maintain the code.
2. Improved Business Agility
Modernized applications allow companies to serve their customers and vendors in an efficient way. Companies with modernized systems stand a better chance of getting more business.
The web-based modern technologies provide high scalability to your organization. They allow you to connect with your customers in real-time.
Usually, companies find it very hard to develop new products or features with the legacy systems. With modernized applications, it becomes easier to plan for the future, design, and launch new features and services in less time.
On the development side, modernization means better code, well-managed databases, and highly flexible applications. Web-based systems allow your employees to work in real-time from anywhere in the world.
Besides, since online services are lucrative for end customers, it can provide more value to your services and promote sales.
3. Enhanced Team Productivity & Performance
Improving the overall team productivity is one of the crucial benefits of modernizing legacy systems. You can move the workforce to cloud and leverage cloud computing to improve the efficiency of day-to-day activities.
Here’s how modernized systems can help you improve productivity in your business:
Improved developer productivity: According to the Forrester study, upgrading the legacy applications enhances the productivity of your development team by as much as 40%. Developers get access to better development tools and sophisticated cloud technology that helps them improve efficiency.
Portability: Different departments of the same organization have different needs. For example, a particular team may require more storage space, while other groups may have fast processing needs. Modernized legacy systems are highly flexible and work in variable conditions. With portable modules, you can efficiently manage resources and achieve optimum results.
4. Improved Compliance and Customer Support
Non-compliance to process regulations cost companies millions of dollars. Your organization gets an edge over your competitors when you deliver top-notch services while adhering to the standard software compliance.
Managing and updating the logs and reports is a big headache with paper-based legacy applications. With modernized systems, it’s easier to update logs and reports from anywhere, at any time.
Features like real-time data entry, increased security to advanced encryption, improved project tracking all contribute to easy compliance, better customer support, and reduced risk.
5. Better Security
Security is probably one of the most important reasons why you should consider modernizing the legacy systems.
According to reports by security firms like Symantec, outdated systems are highly vulnerable to malware attacks and data breaches. Lack of support from vendors is the main reason why legacy systems are so vulnerable to such attacks.
You can’t just rely on the systems that seemed secure five or ten years ago. Modernization of legacy system provides you with better security and protection to your critical business transactions.
Companies That Improved Their Business Through Legacy System Modernization
Following are some of the well-known companies around the world that successfully improved their business through legacy modernization:
1. Carhartt
This US-based apparel company partnered with IBM to modernize business legacy applications. IBM helped Carhartt digitize a lot of its business processes and legacy systems.
The modernization helped Carhartt improve their employee productivity, and allowed the company to free up its staff to work on strategic initiatives.
2. Claro
One of the oldest and leading telecommunication provider in Latin America, Claro partnered with Wovenware to modernize their legacy software infrastructure.
The company shifted from paper-backed legacy systems to fully automated and streamlined operations. Modernizing the old legacy system helped the company improve the customer experience, productivity, and reduce the licensing costs on third-party tools.
3. Equinix
Equinix, one of the leading data center companies, was looking for solutions that could help developers to code and bring new features faster.
While the old legacy system was working fine, the company needed something more robust to meet their scaling needs.
The modernized legacy system helped Equinix improve the agility of their development team, quality, and speed of delivery.
4. Goldman Sachs
One of the world’s largest financial services companies, Goldman Sachs, was having a big hurdle with its technology division.
For financial institutions, the speed of execution is extremely important to smoothly perform critical business activities. The complex toolchain in the legacy system was slowing down the execution process at Goldman Sachs.
Legacy system modernization helped the banking giant simplify the workflow, achieve faster execution, increase developer efficiency, and improve customer experience.
5. Quantum Aviation Solutions
This Atlanta-based company provides baggage handling systems to the airline industry. Quantum Aviation Solutions modernized its Java-based legacy system to a custom web-based app to achieve greater mobility of workers, scalability and cross-platform integrations.
With the help of modernized software, the company successfully improved the productivity and delivery time.
Let’s Talk
Owning an old and outdated IT system is not as classy as owning a vintage car. The decade-old systems are not going to add any value to your business in the coming years.
Legacy application modernization is going to help your business in multiple ways. However, being a business owner, you need to first understand your portfolio and prioritize the investment.
Before modernizing the existing IT systems, you need to define the strategy and business objectives. And the most important thing is to find a reliable technology company that can truly digitize your business.
Imaginovation is a full-service software and web development company. We have helped many companies to transform their business through legacy modernization.
Contact us today to discuss the strategy for your company’s legacy system modernization.
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