1993 just called. It wants its IT systems back…

Perhaps your legacy systems are not as antiquated as the IRS’ present systems (some date back 60 years!). However, upgrading your legacy technology has been on your mind A LOT lately.

Because it presents a cybersecurity risk.

Because antiquated platforms are costing more to maintain while delivering less and less functionality every day.

Because you’re 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 partner or the whole boardroom?

Continue reading for your legacy system assessment, this will help you determine when it is time to upgrade your legacy systems.

What is a Legacy System?

Legacy systems are IT systems. Legacy systems are outdated systems seeing as they are based on outdated technology; however, legacy systems, despite their age, limited functionality, and security risk, are typically critical to day-to-day business operations, points out Gartner.

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

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

It’s no surprise, however, that optimizing or rebuilding legacy systems with newer technology, whether cloud computing, SaaS technology solutions, or local implementation is one of the greatest challenges CIOs in small and large firms face 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 legacy system modernization remove?

Short answer, A LOT.

5 Essential Advantages of Modernizing Your Legacy Systems

If you opt for legacy system enhancements or a complete digital transformation, upgrading your legacy systems can help you future-proof your organization:

1. Expedite Your Business Processes

A legacy system modernization, like the deployment of SaaS solutions, modern business intelligence tools, or cloud computing, can improve efficiencies in your workflow and other business operations.

It is not out of the ordinary for organizations to spend over half of their IT budget on backing legacy systems, such as maintaining data hubs rather than executing a data migration to the cloud for support ticket management.

CIOs who’ve adopted technological advancements or perhaps a full-scale digital transformation have cut production expenditures in their companies 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 demand a substantial percentage of the organizational budget.

In fact, businesses in both public and private sectors spent $26.25 trillion in legacy IT systems operations and maintenance costs over the 11 years spanning 2010 to 2021.

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

Glitches and malfunctions in legacy systems can lead to unexpected downtime for your business workflows.

For airlines, IT systems faults can cause delays and even the cancellation of thousands of flights. It was a serious concern for carriers. Outdated systems are bad for business.

Your staff unquestionably dislike the downtime and unsatisfactory user experience of the obsolete technology too. And when the technology in their pockets has advanced faster in the last decade than your IT systems—it’s time to upgrade. For your reputation.

4. Reduce Your Security Risk While Maintaining Compliance

If your present systems are so antiquated that their original vendor no longer maintains them, they can constitute a serious security risk to your organization.

Often neglected and outdated systems, your legacy software, doesn’t receive the security updates and patches it requires to block cybersecurity breaches.

Substantial breakdowns happen with legacy systems regularly. Remember Equifax?

5. Increase the Agility of Your Business Operations for Higher Scalability

A single integration to your legacy system here, a hotfix for your legacy system there. Before you know it, your firm is stumbling on a Frankenstein-style legacy system.

Your outdated technology are incapable of handling numerous data formats—not to mention the massive amounts of data produced by your IoT devices.

Innovative CIOs know legacy software modernization is mandatory to enhance the compatibility of their IT systems with new technological platforms.

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

CIOs for Unilever, SAP, Netflix, Amazon, and the Federal Aviation Administration have all taken the same approach.

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

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

Here are some questions to keep in mind before upgrading any legacy system:

1. How much of your IT budget is spent on legacy software maintenance or forced downtime due to a full or partial failure of your old system?

If the cost of operating obsolete systems are depleting considerable resources, it may be time for a new, cost-effective solution.

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

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

3. Is your legacy system's original developer no longer in business?

Or are you having trouble finding mainframe programmers to fix or extend your COBOL code? If so, your legacy system is a serious threat to your organization and should be replaced.

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

Because when you are unable to 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 correspond with a spike in customer support tickets and complaints?

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

6. Is your legacy technology SLOW?

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

How Can I Upgrade My Legacy System?

If you’ve decided your legacy systems are no longer meeting your business needs, what are your modernization options?

1. Replace Your Legacy Systems

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

2. Rebuild Your Legacy Software

Rewrite the software components, so you can implement new tech solutions, business intelligence, and big data capacity.

3. Redesign 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

Restructure your code to get rid of technical debt.

5. Rehost Your Legacy Systems

Adopt cloud computing by migrating data and redeploying applications to cloud infrastructure.

7. Digest Your Outdated Systems Functions and Data

Encompass your functions and data in the solution, so you can access them as services through an API.

8. Replatform Your Legacy Systems Application

Migrate your legacy systems application to a new run-time solution without drastically modifying the code or losing functionality.

How Wave Can Help with Your Legacy System Modernization in Sacramento?

Do you believe it’s time for your legacy system modernization? Begin with Wave’s thorough system audit, so you can get insights into its performance and expected lifespan.

In this fashion, you’ll know whether your company can get by with a few legacy system enhancements or if you require a comprehensive digital transformation now.

Whatever the circumstance may be for your legacy systems, Wave can handle the needed upgrades or replacements: from adding features that improve the customer experience or streamlining workflows with automation and Business Intelligence solutions.

We'll also provide you with the sustained IT assistance you need to get the most out of your modernization investment.

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