Are you hoping to be seen as a change-maker within your business and aim to make operations more efficient and cost-effective, but you worry that technology will fail you? Are you trying to cut costs to ensure business survival but spending too much money and time on manual work? Stop being held back by outdated, slow and hard-to-use legacy systems. Like most things in life, technology has an expiration date and hanging onto legacy technology, you risk the smooth running of your department and limit the competitiveness and agility of your business.
Here are five indicators your business is being held back by your legacy systems:
Legacy technology is hurting your productivity
The whole point of using and investing in technology is to make our lives easier. If it does not serve this purpose, technology does not have a reason to exist. Especially if you are using bespoke software that has not been updated for a long time, you will have realised by now how slow, complicated and inefficient it is.
Instead of your team working on tasks essential to their job or striving to achieve your business goals, they spend time on manual tasks, jumping from system to system, completing administrative tasks. This significantly lowers your team's productivity which impacts the growth of your business.
Maintaining your legacy systems is expensive
The older a technology system is, the more problems arise and the more difficult it is to update and maintain. Research has shown that legacy systems cost organisations 10-15% more per year, just for maintenance alone, without any additional gains in productivity. As the system ages, it becomes harder to get support and may even stop altogether. This is a business risk you need to address.
You cannot access or share data in your legacy systems
Data is a powerful currency and one of your business's most important assets. Storing it in legacy systems prevents you from accessing it, managing it and using it quickly and easily. You risk not storing it properly while also risking cyber attacks and security breaches. If you are storing your data in multiple systems that are unconnected to each other, you are entering and accessing the same data multiple times and create silos between different departments. As a result:
- You cannot turn your data into business intelligence, and you are missing significant growth opportunities.
- Your team cannot make data-driven decisions.
- Your team spends too much time collecting analytics and creating reports.
- You cannot leverage real-time analytics and business dashboards.
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New systems and tools do not integrate with your legacy technology
Most modern software and tools do not try to reinvent the wheel. Instead, developers build technology that connects with other 3rd party systems and popular digital products to perform the function needed. On the other hand, Legacy systems are most of the time incapable of integrating with modern technology. This means that you will be unable to use essential digital tools or be forced to use multiple unconnected systems.
You cannot achieve your business ambitions because of your legacy technology
One of the most serious implications of continuing the use of legacy systems is that they stop progress and jeopardise transformation. Legacy technology is notoriously inflexible and usually becomes an obstacle to organisations that want to survive and thrive in today's digital environment. Becoming a change-maker and improving the operations of your business means using technology that increases productivity, boosts performance and improves your capabilities. Technologies that help you work better and empower you to stay ahead of the competition.
Are you finding any of these true for your organisation and wondering what is the best way to modernise your legacy technology? We find that the dilemma most organisations face is; Modernise or retire? As a general rule of thumb, you should pick the option that will help you reduce your costs and make your operations more efficient. Yet, if your legacy system provides value to your business and works well, you do not have to scrap it entirely; you just need to modernise and improve it. See below how we can support you with this.
How we can help
- Legacy systems audit: We can help you assess the state of your legacy technology to uncover efficiency problems, understand how you manage your data, reveal security vulnerabilities and identify opportunities to lower costs. We will then help you choose the right modernisation approach and create a legacy system modernisation strategy built around your needs.
- Legacy systems integrations: We can help you integrate your legacy systems with your ERP, CRM and other cloud applications. We connect your data from your on-premises system to the cloud enabling you to increase performance, access buried data and eliminate financial inefficiencies.
- Custom front-end experiences for legacy systems: We find that in many cases, the back-end of the legacy technology works fine, but the interface is very outdated and becomes hard-to-use. We can create a new interface to your legacy component, making it easily accessible to other software components via an API. This does not change the code of your legacy technology, allowing you to leverage the existing application features and extend its value.
- Re-platforming legacy systems: We can take your legacy system's components to a new platform with similar characteristics and features. We make minimal code changes to adapt to the new platform without fundamentally changing the structure or the system's features and function. By re-platforming to new software, you take advantage of reduced infrastructure costs, better functionality with minimal effort, continuing to receive value from out of your legacy investment.
- Updating, maintaining and supporting legacy systems: We can help you update and improve the configuration of the legacy technology to solve technical problems. We can then maintain the updated and more efficient solution at a lower cost allowing you to avoid system failures, security breaches and maintenance cost escalations.
It is essential to find the right partners to help you modernise your legacy technology in the most efficient and cost-effective way. You can book a free consultation with our team, so we can understand the challenges you face, assess the current state of your legacy technology and support you with your modernisation strategy.
