Change in business dynamics and customer behavior demands a continuous change in the company’s software capabilities. In the booming digital world, it’s understandable that your company’s software instability could bring things to the verge of structural instability. You might lose a winning deal just because of the software’s incapability with the advanced technological trends. This where legacy software modernization and enterprise software upgradation comes as a vital and unavoidable tech aid to your business. For instance, digitalization has its unique impacts on the various elements of a business chain. Nowadays, product processing is done in a multichannel environment, from initiation to the involvement of banking channels as online payment systems, businesses have to reconfigure their enterprise software to cater numerous other dynamic platforms.
Why legacy enterprise Software modernization is important for a product?
So what exactly do we refer to when we say “Legacy Software Systems?” The legacy system might differ according to the organization's domain of work. Many companies own a mix of old and advanced software systems which work simultaneously for their regular business operations. Others tend to upgrade their applications bit by bit. The software upgradation part comes crucial when you don’t want it to impact your core business processes.
In simple terms, Legacy Software are typically ones that are as old as the early 2000s and require upgradation to advanced technologies of the present world. However, age isn’t the only parameter to define a legacy software, their functionality also plays an important role. Any software entailing an incumbent technology or the one that slows the entire system and hinders your ability to work better, or one that isn’t adaptive to the changing demands of the market can be termed a legacy system.
Now instead of telling you why legacy enterprise software modernization is important, we would like to bring your attention to “what would happen if you do not upgrade your legacy system?” when you decide not to modify or upgrade your enterprise software, a certain amount of problems might appear to the following:
- Customer Support
- Product Maintenance
- Idea Innovation
- Technology Integration
- User Experience/Interface (UX/UI)
Gartner provides a wonderful explanation to legacy software upgradation-
“Legacy systems are ‘information systems’ (IS) that may be developed with outdated technologies, yet perform critical everyday business functions. Upgrading legacy systems with the new and advanced technologies is one of the most significant challenges to IS professionals. As firms replace or upgrade legacy systems, they must highlight the importance of ‘old & new’ system compatibility.” - Gartner’s Glossary
Therefore, to make your business processes seamless and business goals achievable, updating all of your IT stack with legacy software modernization becomes really important. Every growing business seeks innovative measures but whatever good may be the idea, one won’t be able to implement the same to the organization without the new technologies embedded in the present system.
Ensure a competitive advantage
Legacy software modernization or enterprise software upgradation brings you the competitive edge in the market. When competitors of your niche are still utilizing the old technologies, you can bring the advanced user experience to your customers.
For a better performance and reliable processes
Majority of old ‘IT stacks’ fail miserably as they could not match the modern technological needs. Legacy software modernization brings you an opportunity to work on these flaws and allows you to upgrade without pausing your regular business.
Customers and employees satisfaction
When your business’ core software performs upto your expectations, it works for both your employees and your customers. As replacing the entire software could simultaneously get risky and expensive for your business, plus it may cause great discomfort to your employees and customers, opting for modernization brings you ease.
Much secure IT infrastructure from external threats
The threats to software or Information Systems (IS) are not uncommon. Each year we the technology world experiences threats in numerous new forms and shapes. No platform could stay hack-proof forever, and there’s this endless race between hackers and the ethical hackers. When you incorporate advanced technologies to your legacy system, you avoid any chance of security breaches.
New growth opportunities and best ROI
Effective modernization of legacy systems includes disintegration of an inordinate project into smaller, easy to manage subsystems. Such technique provides greater growth opportunities for big software projects, it also reduces the chance of errors by 85% as you’re not directly working on the whole project but on its smaller bits. When the chance of error is reduced, the possibility of a failure will also drop by a great margin, thus, allowing you to have the best Returns on Investment (RoI).
Which legacy system modernization approach fits best for you?
As you might notice, there are numerous legacy modernization approaches that can be incorporated into a business. Picking the right legacy modernization approach which best fits your needs could take time. Furthermore, the modernization process demands a lot of decision-making, and sometimes gets complicated.
In general, there are three types of modernization approaches.
Encapsulation: The process of reworking on main components of a software system and eliminating the obsolete codes and connecting it with the advanced layers through APIs. This type of modernization allows you to bring a new interface to the old components of the legacy system.
Rehosting: This type of approach makes sure that the whole system is easily migrated to the new hardware, or virtual environment (cloud).
Replatforming: This approach brings the option to migrate the components of an application or program to a different platform with no or minimal changes in the code. This approach comes handy to those who do not want to incorporate any major changes to the software code. This also helps businesses who don’t wish to bring a whole new system for their end-users.
In order to come to a resolution as to which particular approach is right, you must understand that going with the most popular approaches is never a good option. It’s just that every legacy software, and every business firm is unique on their own, and one’s best fit could become a misfit for another.
Therefore, it’s always advisable to consult with the experts before making a final decision on the approach for the legacy software modernization.
Legacy Software Modernization Plan- Points to Consider
We bring you the following most vital points to consider while initiating the legacy software modernization plan.
What is working fine with your legacy software?
This relates to the formative evaluation we discussed briefly earlier. Although technology does not age effectively, not everything demands to be modified. Or perhaps it does. You won't know for sure unless you examine what is and isn't working in your legacy applications. Any modernization attempt should start with an accurate assessment of your legacy software.
Goals and deliverables of your enterprise software modernization process
We've mentioned this quite a few times, and we'll mention it again: modernising outdated systems isn't just an IT exercise. It's a business venture. Any changes you apply to your legacy software should be based on your company's mission and objectives. Admittedly, your IT infrastructure is there to establish your organization, not the vica-versa.
How can goals be accomplished through software modernization?
Undoubtedly, your IT infrastructure should help the company to achieve goals. To do so, you must connect your modernization efforts — at every stage — and questions must be brought to the discussion table, every now and then. Create a blueprint for a legacy software infrastructure that will provide you with the adaptability and effectiveness you need to reach your goals. Before getting into the real action, this will set out the broader perspective.
Steps after software modernization
You started with business functions, then moved on to business goals, and then to the broad brush strokes of what modernisation will entail on both sides. This is when you get down to the fine details of your legacy system modernization process, specifying explicit upcoming steps. If you're only rebuilding sections of the enterprise software, make a plan for dismantling the IT infrastructure, one component at a time. If you're rebuilding or replacing a legacy system, create a schedule for production, debugging, distribution, and quality management. This will most likely be done in collaboration with your IT technology partner.
Best options for an offshore legacy enterprise software upgradation service provider (Conclusion)
Our group is capable of:
- Providing advice on offshore legacy software modernization, and consulting you at each crucial step of upgradation.
- Helping your team in learning how to use modernized technologies and platforms.
- Developing unique applications based on your requirements, capabilities, and objectives.
- Linking your existing systems with new tools to boost growth through integration solutions.
- Taking a DevOps strategy to legacy modernization, and you'll be able to meet your objectives in a dynamic plus product-driven manner.
We at Yukti Solutions own the capabilities and the expertise to get you what you want, and to cater exactly what you need to upgrade in your legacy or enterprise software. You could be representing private equity firms, financial services, retailing, healthcare, or even the philanthropic sector. Yukti Solutions' skilled developers are here to help you with the legacy software modernization and rest everything that falls under the umbrella of software product development.
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