Digitally transform your systems without disrupting your business

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses can't sit still. We are all constantly faced with the challenge of adapting to changing customer demands and rapidly evolving to remain competitive. One of the biggest hurdles is keeping up with technological advancements, particularly with systems that were implemented a long time ago. 

Although once cutting-edge, these systems are now outdated, inefficient, and often unsupported. They bring with them a host of risks which can hinder growth and innovation. Despite this, they still play a critical role in business operations as they are integral to the company's IT infrastructure. 

What is a legacy system? 

A legacy system refers to outdated software or hardware that is still in use within an organisation. Such systems were often built using outdated technologies which have fallen behind in the changing technological landscape.  

However, legacy systems aren’t always defined by their age. You could have a legacy system that is only a couple of years old but is no longer supported by the provider or is nearing end-of-life (EOL). These systems are usually hard to maintain and support, or cannot integrate with new systems due to its architecture, design or underlying technology.

"Our outdated bespoke Azure application remains critical to all aspects of our business. However,  our previous third-party support agreement had expired and we were truly exposed, should the application encounter issue or outage. Thanks to the PDMS team we now have an up-to-date and supported app, that conforms to current industry development trends. We will continue to consult, value and trust the PDMS technical recommendations, as the application evolves and the business partnerships grows.”- Stuart Hutcheson, IT Manager at Rearo

Why modernise your legacy system? 

Many companies continue to use outdated systems and spend an estimated 40-60% of their time to managing their legacy IT. After many years of using these systems and given they are the foundation of your operations, you may feel it still does the job despite its issues. And if it isn't broken, why fix it?

Despite your initial investment and the value it provides, legacy systems need modernising for a variety of reasons. They have hidden costs and significant risks associated with them that can impact your business in a variety of ways. 

Hidden costs include: 

• Impact on productivity - they often require manual data entry or sharing across disparate platforms, so processes can become more time-consuming and prone to errors
• Little or no integration with other systems - leads to siloed information which in turn hinders collaboration and decision-making
• Increased maintenance required - limited technical support from suppliers, which makes it difficult and/or costly to get updates or fixes
• Heightened security risk - older systems were not designed with modern security threats in mind, so they are more vulnerable to attacks and data breaches which can be costly in terms of money and reputation
• Lack of compliance - these systems were implemented before modern compliance regulations and may not be able to meet current requirements, which can lead to fines and legal liabilities