1993 just called. It wants its IT systems back…

Perhaps your legacy systems are not as antiquated as the IRS’ present systems (some are over 60 years old!). Still, modernizing your legacy system has been on your mind A LOT lately.

Because it is a cybersecurity risk.

Because obsolete platforms are increasing maintenance expenses while delivering less and less functionality every day.

Because you are ready to take your business's digital transformation to the next level.

We get it. You are ready for a legacy system modernization.

But how can you gain the necessary buy-in from important stakeholders—whether that’s your business associate or the entire boardroom?

Keep reading for your legacy system assessment, this will help you determine when it’s the right time for upgrading your legacy systems.

What is a Legacy System?

Legacy systems are IT systems. Legacy systems are obsolete systems because they are based on outdated technology; however, despite their age, limited functionality, and security risk, legacy systems, are usually essential to everyday business workflows, points out Gartner.

How relevant are legacy systems? Without the legacy system on which they rely, commercial business processes such as payroll, inventory management and replenishment, and digital payment transactions would come to a halt.

Legacy systems power public-sector infrastructure that we take for granted: telecommunications services, wastewater treatment plants, power grids, and air traffic control towers. Legacy systems are ESSENTIAL.

However, the expenses of modernization (including botched modernization efforts) and maintenance of legacy systems are counterproductive, totaling $35 trillion for businesses and governments internationally since 2010.

It’s no wonder, then, that optimizing or replacing legacy systems with newer technology, whether it be SaaS technology solutions, cloud computing, or on-premise deployment is one of the greatest challenges CIOs in small and large businesses encounter in their careers.

What Are the Perks of Updating a Legacy System?

“For many organizations, legacy systems are seen as holding back the business initiatives and business processes that rely on them. When a tipping point is reached, application leaders must look to application modernization to help remove the obstacles.” — Stefan Van Der Zijden, VP Analyst, Gartner

What “obstacles” could the modernization of your legacy systems eliminate?

In a nutshell, A LOT.

5 Key Advantages of Upgrading Your Legacy Systems

If you choose a legacy system enhancements or a complete digital transformation, modernizing your legacy systems can assist you in future-proofing your business:

1. Streamline Your Business Operations

A legacy system modernization, such as the deployment of SaaS tools, modern business intelligence platforms, or cloud computing, can refine your workflow and other business processes.

It is not unusual for businesses to spend over half of their IT budget on sustaining legacy systems, such as maintaining data centers rather than performing a data migration to the cloud for support ticket management.

CIOs who’ve applied technological improvements or even a comprehensive digital transformation have lowered production costs in their businesses by up to 500%.

2. Reduce Your IT System’s Maintenance Costs

CIOs well know the costs of maintaining legacy systems, infrastructure, and applications can account for a large percentage of the organization’s budget.

In fact, companies in the private and public sectors spent $26.25 trillion in legacy IT systems operations and maintenance costs over the 11-year period from 2010 to 2021.

3. Improve Your Company’s Customer Experience and Employee Retention

Legacy technology glitches and failures might cause unforeseen downtime for your business operations.

For airlines, IT systems outages can result in thousands of flights to be delayed or cancelled. It was a major issue for airlines. Outdated systems are bad for business.

Your staff unquestionably loathe the downtime and unsatisfactory user experience of the obsolete technology too. And when the tech in their pockets has developed quicker in the last decade than your IT systems—it’s time for an upgrade. For your credibility.

4. Lower Your Security Risk While Staying Compliant

When your current systems are so outdated that their original vendor no longer maintains them, they can pose a serious security risk to your business.

Often neglected and outdated systems, your legacy software, does not receive the security patches and updates it requires to prevent cybersecurity breaches.

Major breakdowns happen with legacy systems all the time. Remember Equifax?

5. Increase the Agility of Your Business Processes for Greater Scalability

A one-time integration to your legacy software here, a hotfix for your legacy software there. Before you know it, your company is clunking along on a Frankenstein-style legacy system.

Your obsolete systems can hardly handle numerous data types—not to mention the massive amounts of data produced by your IoT devices.

Innovative CIOs understand that legacy software upgrading is mandatory to refine the compatibility of their IT systems with new technology platforms.

That is indeed what the LinkedIn’s CIOs did as the organization was growing into the world’s largest professional network, transforming its software architecture from a REST API or an event-driven architecture.

CIOs for SAP, Netflix, Unilever, Amazon, and the Federal Aviation Administration have also followed suit.

When Should I Upgrade My Legacy System? 6 Questions to Ask

When contemplating whether or not to modernize legacy technology, CIOs must assess three primary factors: technology, architecture, and functionality.

Below are six questions to keep in mind before any legacy system modernization:

1. How much of your IT budget are you spending on legacy software maintenance or forced downtime because of a total or partial breakdown of your out-of-date system?

If your cost of operating older technology is depleting considerable resources, it might be time for a cost-effective, new solution.

2. Do your legacy systems work with modern technology and recent IT breakthroughs?

Or is it a pain to integrate with a new SaaS service or API? Because of obsolete technology or ad-hoc customization? If you answered “yes,” it’s time for a legacy system upgrade.

3. Is the vendor who designed your legacy system no longer in business?

Or are you having a hard time locating mainframe programmers who can fix or extend your COBOL code? If so, your legacy system poses a potential risk to your company and should be upgraded.

4. Is your legacy system capable of providing insight into real-time data transfers and operational patterns?

Because when you can’t take advantage of enormous data, you will not have the kind of business intelligence you need to be competitive. Goodbye, legacy systems.

5. Does your legacy system’s failures, glitches, and forced downtimes coincide with an increase in client support tickets and complaints?

You won’t bring in any new business with such a bad customer experience. It’s time for a modern system.

6. Is your legacy system SLOW?

It may be time to take the plunge and make the change. The future is approaching at a frenetic pace. And it’s here.

How Can I Upgrade My Legacy System?

What are your modernization alternatives if you've determined that your legacy systems no longer fulfill your company needs?

1. Replace Your Legacy Systems

Out with the old, and in with the new system—along with all the speed, efficiency, and scalability your CIOs have been promising with such a digital transformation. Welcome, workflow automation!

2. Rebuild Your Legacy Systems

Rewrite the application components, so you can implement modern technology solutions, business intelligence, and big data capacity.

3. Rearchitect Your Legacy Technology

Redesign your legacy software architecture to provide more agility and scalability, as LinkedIn and a slew of other outstanding firms have done.

4. Refactor Your Legacy Systems

Retool your code to get rid of technical debt.

5. Rehost Your Legacy Systems

Implement cloud computing with a data migration and application re-deployment to cloud infrastructure.

7. Encapsulate Your Outdated Systems Functions and Data

Encapsulate your data and functions into the solution, so that they may be accessed as services through an API.

8. Replatform Your Legacy Systems Application

Transfer your legacy systems program to a new run-time tool without dramatically modifying the code or losing functionality.

How Wave Can Assist with Your Legacy System Upgrade in Memphis?

Think it’s time for your legacy system modernization? Begin with Wave’s comprehensive system audit, so you can get insights into its functionality and predicted lifespan.

In this way, you’ll know whether your organization can get by with a few legacy system tweaks or if you need a complete digital transformation now.

Whatever the case proves to be for your legacy systems, Wave can carry out the needed upgrades or replacements: from adding features that improve the user experience or optimizing workflows with automation and Business Intelligence tools.

We will also offer you the ongoing IT support you need to maximize your modernization investment.

The future is calling. And companyname is ready to help! Schedule a consultation today.