Replacing legacy applications is typically very expensive, time consuming and resource intensive. This can be frustrating for business owners who need an IT solution that fully supports the business. Often what may seem like a simple upgrade of an enterprise application may take months or years to implement and test.
So why do companies carry out such expensive replacements? Organisations typically replace legacy systems when the existing solution becomes more painful to support and maintain than introducing a replacement.
In addition vendors will typically charge more or even remove support for older versions of a product, thus forcing the end client to upgrade to the latest release.
Need to cut costs and do more?
We help businesses to save forced upgrade costs and drastically reduce ongoing support costs by 50% for enterprise applications.
We use these cost savings to breathe new life into your solution by introducing a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that exposes existing functionality to new and old parts of the business.
We are then able to change workflow and business processes using Business Process Management (BPM) and in some cases create a Composite Application to improve workflow modernize your existing legacy graphical user interfaces.
Lifecycle of an Enterprise App
The following diagram illustrates the lifecycle of enterprise applications and how our unique approach can breathe new life into your existing solution.
The typical lifecycle of an enterprise application is as follows:
- An organization identifies that a new Enterprise Application can help them meet external pressures, such as new regulations and a need to innovate, or internal pressures such as cost reduction
- The Enterprise Application is introduced after many months of implementation, customization and testing and the business enters the ‘Green Phase’
- Business pressures trigger minor change requests to update the way the application works
- The business enters the ‘Agony Phase’ as change requests become increasingly difficult to implement
At this point the business will typically transition to a new application new enterprise application to take advantage of new efficiencies.
Our suggestion
Before embarking on an expensive upgrade or replacement of your legacy IT applications, consider our alternatives. If you are upgrading because of the fear of losing or paying too much for support, there is an easy alternative.
If you are upgrading because the application no-longer meets the business requirements is now the right time to invest in a more agile SOA architecture to break the cycle.
Our suggestion
We have helped many clients save hundreds of thousands of pounds by making the most of their existing legacy applications. We have also worked on some of the largest IT procurement projects in the world.
If you are considering a product upgrade or migration, why not get in touch to see if we can help?
