1993 just called. It wants its IT systems back…

Ok, maybe your legacy systems aren’t as antiquated as the IRS’ existing systems (some date back 60 years!). However, modernizing your legacy technology has been on your mind A LOT lately.

Because it presents a security risk.

Because outdated platforms are racking up maintenance costs while generating even less functionality every day.

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

We understand. You are ready for a legacy system modernization.

But how do you get the buy-in you need from key stakeholders—whether that is your business partner or the whole boardroom?

Keep reading for your legacy system evaluation, this will help you determine when it is ideal to upgrade your legacy systems.

What is a Legacy System?

Legacy systems are IT systems. Oftentimes, legacy systems are obsolete systems since they are based on antiquated technology; however, despite their age, limited functionality, and security risk, legacy systems, are generally critical to everyday business processes, points out Gartner.

How essential 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 drive the infrastructure we take for granted in the public sector: wastewater treatment plants, power grids, telecommunications services, and air traffic control towers. Legacy systems are CRUCIAL.

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

It’s no surprise, then, that optimizing or replacing legacy systems with new technology, whether SaaS technology solutions, cloud computing, or local deployment is one of the greatest challenges CIOs in small and large businesses confront in their careers.

What Are the Perks of Upgrading 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 remove?

To put it briefly, A LOT.

5 Essential Benefits of Modernizing Your Legacy Systems

If you go for legacy system enhancements or a complete digital transformation, your legacy system modernization can assist you in future-proofing your business:

1. Optimize Your Business Operations

A legacy system upgrade, like the implementation of SaaS platforms, new business intelligence tools, or cloud computing, can refine your workflow and other business processes.

It is not unusual for businesses to expend more than half of their IT budget on backing legacy systems, such as maintaining data hubs rather than carrying out a data migration to the cloud for support ticket management.

CIOs that have adopted technological advancements or even a comprehensive digital transformation have cut operational costs in their businesses by up to 500%.

2. Reduce IT System Maintenance Costs

CIOs well know legacy system, application, and infrastructure maintenance can account for a significant percentage of the company’s budget.

In fact, businesses in both 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

Glitches and malfunctions in legacy technology might cause unexpected downtime for your business workflows.

For airlines, IT systems outages can cause thousands of flights to be delayed or cancelled. It was a major concern for carriers. Obsolete systems are bad for business.

Your employees certainly resent the downtime and poor user experience of the outdated technology too. And when the technology in their hands has seen more advancements in the last decade than your IT systems—it’s time to upgrade. For your credibility.

4. Lower Your Security Risk While Maintaining Compliance

When your current systems are so old their provider no longer maintains them, they can constitute a serious security risk to your organization.

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

Substantial failures occur with legacy systems all the time. Remember Equifax?

5. Make Your Business Operations More Agile for Higher Scalability

A single integration to your legacy software here, a hotfix for your legacy system there. In no time, your company is clunking along on a Frankenstein-style legacy system.

Your out-of-date systems can hardly handle multiple data types—not to mention the enormous amounts of data your IoT devices produce.

Innovative CIOs know legacy software modernization is mandatory to enhance IT system compatibility with innovative technology solutions.

That’s exactly what the CIOs at LinkedIn did as the firm was scaling into the world’s premier professional network, moving its system design from a REST API or an event-driven architecture.

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

When Should I Consider Upgrading My Legacy System? 6 Questions to Contemplate

Technology, architecture, and functionality are 3 major considerations for CIOs when deciding if it’s time for a legacy technology upgrade.

Here are six questions to ask before any legacy system modernization:

1. How much of your IT budget are you spending on maintenance costs for legacy software or forced downtime as a result of a total or partial breakdown of your old system?

If your cost of keeping obsolete technology is eating up considerable resources, it may be time for a more cost-effective system.

2. Do your legacy systems support modern tech and recent IT innovations?

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

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

Or are you having trouble finding mainframe programmers who can fix or extend your COBOL code? If this is the case, your legacy system poses a serious threat to your firm and should be upgraded.

4. Is your legacy system capable of providing visibility into real-time data transactions and workflow patterns?

Because if you can’t take advantage of enormous data, you won’t have the kind of business intelligence you need to stay competitive. Adieu, legacy systems.

5. Do glitches, failures, and forced downtimes with your old system correspond with a spike in customer complaints and support tickets?

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 technology SLOW?

It might be time to take the plunge and adapt. The future is FAST. And it’s here.

How Can I Modernize My Legacy System?

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

1. Replace Your Legacy Systems

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

2. Rebuild Your Legacy Systems

Rewrite the legacy system, so you can implement new technology solutions, business intelligence, and big data capacity.

3. Rearchitect Your Legacy Systems

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

4. Reconfigure Your Legacy Systems

Restructure your code to eliminate technical debt.

5. Rehost Your Legacy Systems

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

7. Digest Your Legacy Systems Data and Functions

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

8. Replatform Your Legacy Systems Application

Move your legacy systems application to a new run-time solution without extensively altering the code or losing functionality.

How Wave Can Help with Your Legacy System Upgrade in Newark?

Do you believe it’s time to modernize your legacy system? Start with Wave’s thorough system audit, so you can learn about its performance and estimated lifespan.

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

Whatever the case proves to be for your legacy systems, Wave can carry out the necessary upgrades or replacements: from adding functionality that improves the customer experience or simplifying workflows with automation and Business Intelligence platforms.

We will also give you the continuous IT support you need to get the most out of your modernization investment.

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