Why Now Is The Time To Modernise Legacy Systems

As technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, businesses must try and keep pace with new advancements that could help elevate business processes. However, to truly realise the value of new technologies, businesses must not let older business systems hold them back. According to a survey by IT Pro and Slack, 31% of an organisation’s technology is made up of outdated IT systems or software. The same survey estimated that businesses spend between 60-80% of their budgets on keeping older IT systems running.

Many organisations are relying on legacy systems and software to run critical business operations. These legacy systems may have supported business processes successfully for many years and while they may not be causing any major problems at the moment, they have the potential to. These issues can range from an increased security risk and revenue loss to missed opportunities for your business. Below we explore some of the top reasons why your organisations should not delay modernising legacy business systems.

Higher Maintenance Costs  

When legacy software begins to age, it can become expensive to maintain. Your IT team will be spending a lot of time and money to fix issues that arise. is known as technical debt, the cost of maintaining outdated and inefficient systems that rely on workarounds and patches to stay functional. The only way to eliminate this is to modernise your legacy systems to something more sustainable. Further, if your legacy system is built on complex coding, it may become more difficult to find candidates with this specific skill set. This is because many newer candidates are training in modern technology systems. Therefore if the skillset your company requires is difficult to find, it becomes harder and more expensive to maintain the system.

Increased Security & Compliance Issues

A strong driver for businesses to modernise legacy systems is to help protect against security breaches. With cyber threats and attacks becoming more common and more sophisticated, businesses must ensure they are doing everything they can to protect their data. Legacy systems were developed before more advanced security threats emerged, this means they can lack the contemporary security features of newer systems leaving your business more vulnerable. It is these vulnerabilities in older systems that can make businesses a prime target for cyber attacks. Legacy systems can also lead to issues when it comes to compliance. As regulations around security, privacy and reporting continue to change, the legacy system may not have the functionality to support this. Your business may unknowingly violate one of the newer regulations due to this.

Incompatibility with Modern Systems

Some legacy systems struggle to integrate with modern technology leading to operational inefficiencies. When is there no data flow or connection between the legacy system and the rest of a company’s technology solutions, it can create data silos, a higher risk of errors and shadow IT. Further, if your business wants to expand and take advantage of new technologies like cloud computing, AI and RPA, your legacy system may prevent it. Your legacy system was most likely implemented long before these technologies were being used in businesses. Older systems may be incompatible with these newer technologies, leading to your business missing opportunities that newer technology could deliver.

Business Continuity & Scalability Concerns

Not only are legacy systems difficult to integrate with newer systems, they are also difficult to scale. If a business is growing, it should not be held back by legacy systems that cannot meet the increasing demands. In this scenario, legacy systems can become a bottleneck becoming slower and producing more operational errors due to the business trying to get the legacy system to meet the growing business requirements. Modernising legacy systems can provide businesses with scalable technology and a way to sustain business operations to ensure business continuity. In the face of unforeseen challenges, your business should be able to sustain business operations by enabling remote work and providing access to critical systems securely.

Poor Employee Experience

In today’s working world, providing a good employee experience is essential. Part of this is providing a good user experience when it comes to the systems that employees use for daily working tasks. Legacy systems often fall short when it comes to user experience, they tend to be slower and more difficult to use leading to user frustration and reduced productivity. Employees cannot be fully productive when a legacy system is disrupting working tasks and causing frustration. This can also feed down into customer experiences. When customers want a quick response from employees, they cannot deliver if the system is not performing. This can lead to a reduced level of customer satisfaction. Modernising legacy systems can help deliver a more positive employee experience for your workplace, leading to better productivity and efficiency overall.

If you would like to learn more about how to approach legacy system modernisation, get in touch today to speak to one of our experts.

Ali Mohd, Technical Delivery Team Lead Jul 05, 2024