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Hire TalentPeople aren’t always in a hurry to modernize legacy software and tend to stick with the same software over an extended period of time. Usually, the hurdle to get over here is the fear of change as change always comes with risk. But change is important!
The primary reasons to update your legacy software are time and money. But there are also other variables that come into play. Keep reading and find out why you should be in a hurry to replace your legacy software now.
1. Poor User Experience
If your legacy system is outdated, you have to ask yourself if it runs slowly and if it’s hard to use. If your software is slow and has poor user experience, it’s going to have a significantly negative impact on productivity.
By developing a feasible updating strategy, your staff will be able to accomplish more in a day. Further, positive user experience can go a long way to boost employee morale and confidence. So if your employees are struggling to work with an outdated system, it’s time for a change.
Modern software has become quite intuitive and is embedded with increased functionality.
2. High Maintenance and Operational Costs
If you take an in-depth look, you’re likely to find that it’s much cheaper to update your legacy system than maintain and keep it. Having in-house staff to support and maintain a legacy system will be costly and this expense might keep rising over time. Outsourcing your legacy software maintenance to a 3rd party vendor is not the best idea due to security issues, a steep learning curve on how to use the system and inability to use mainstream technologies / skills that are easier to find within modern IT talent pools (i.e. extended time to hire).
Although legacy software replacement might seem to be more cost intensive at the outset, you’ll see the overall cost-effective benefits as you move forward.
When your system is highly efficient, maintenance will be much less intensive and this will enable you to increase revenue.
3. Enhanced Migration and Integration
If you drag your feet on modernizing legacy software, you’ll find it harder to find a solution that will work with your current system. But identifying the right time to replace your legacy software can be difficult.
One way to go about this is to figure out how many users are using the system every day and how essential it is for daily businesses processes. You will also have to look at the costs associated with an upgrade and the system buy-in from end users.
Either way, your old legacy software will become more and more futile making it necessary to replace anyway.
One thing to note at this juncture is that legacy software was designed to keep all functions in-house. Modern applications are built to utilize the internet to foster seamless interactions between devices. In a big data world, it can be a massive advantage to share data across a variety of devices.
As new applications get introduced to your system, integration will become vital. So the moment this doesn’t happen might be the moment to embrace a modernization solution. But it’s always better to upgrade before you don’t have any other choice.
Check out how an Israeli-based financial institution uses Offshore R&D in Ukraine to replace their legacy software system with a completely new one built from scratch and how they're embedding data analytics functionality in their new solution.
4. Changing Business Processes
If you bought your legacy system many years ago, it’s highly likely that your business has evolved significantly since its implementation. These changes may be related to workflow or everyday business processes.
If you don’t have a system that matches your current processes and needs, you might be working against yourself by holding on to an outdated system. Usually, dated systems can be highly time-consuming when it comes to completing simple tasks.
5. Modern Systems Enhance Mobility
A key characteristic of successful modern businesses is mobility. To remain competitive, mobile access will be crucial. Unfortunately, legacy systems won’t allow for it and, as a result, your business ecosystem can become highly inefficient and expensive.
With enhanced mobility, employees can access your corporate system from anywhere on any device. This will significantly enhance productivity as they can adapt to whatever situation that arises.
If you’re not already taking advantage of the cloud, you’re not taking advantage of cost-effective streamlined processes.
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At the end of the day, legacy software isn’t scalable so you’ll keep running into hurdles as your business grows.
6. Security Threats
The longer your legacy software has been in existence, the higher the probability that hackers have found some holes in the security. Legacy software was more focused on functionality than security, so security patches were regularly implemented after the fact.
Applications today are built with security in mind from the beginning, so they’re embedded with the latest features to protect the data while allowing access to authorized users.
If you feel like your company is in dire need to upgrade, you can take a step-by-step approach to it. With the ability to re-host on a cloud, modernizing your legacy software or system isn’t something extremely difficult. In fact, you don’t have any real reason to fear change.
