A legacy system is usually integrated into a system landscape as a software application in the form of individual development. In use for many years or decades, it contains the company’s accumulated specialist knowledge and represents a valuable investment as the backbone for day-to-day work.
In banks and insurance companies in particular, but also in retail and other industries, such legacy systems are programmed in languages such as Cobol, RPG, Assembler and many others. They are deployed on mainframes or midrange computers (e.g. AS / 400). However, these days numerous systems based on Java or C / C++ can also be considered as such legacy systems.
ANALYSIS
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Get a comprehensive overview - user-centered and tool-based.
CONCEPT
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Benefit from our extensive architecture and technology know-how.
IMPLEMENTATION
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Assign us individual development tasks or complete projects.
Legacy systems typical problems
Requirements change over the time and a software system is adapted accordingly. Simple changes have not a big impact on the system. However, typically, the complexity of the system increases with each software release, so that maintenance and further development of a legacy system becomes more and more expensive.
Challenges of modernization projects
There are many reasons for modernizing existing IT systems. Nevertheless, such projects are often put on the back burner. Hurdles are often high investment costs and various organizational challenges.
In many cases, fundamental processes have to be redesigned and an organizational change has to be achieved at the same time. The workforce must accompany this change and receive further training in methods, processes and technologies. In addition, the old system not only has to continue to operate during the modernization project, but also often has to be further developed. Some basic success factors for modernization projects provide orientation for mastering individual challenges.