Cost Prohibitive
Yeah. Right. And all those 20-year-old oil wells still pumping out the $$$ should be stopped, ripped out, and redrilled with state-of-the-art expensive technology. I'm sure there would be a fantastic ROI for that (even if they did produce marginally more oil faster). Or how about all those old roads that could be vastly better and (maybe) less expensive to maintain if they had been built with thicker concrete or newer state-of-the-art materials? Surely it wouldn't cause any transportation or monetary disruption to just close them down to do so (or build neat new ones in parallel without maintaining the old ones!).

Denigrating the value of something because of its "maintenance expense" without evaluating its ongoing contribution to the bottom line AND the real costs of replacing it with something new (for which I'm sure there will be no similar or more expensive maintenance costs) misses "the other side of the coin."
John D. Putman
Chief Engineer, FedEx

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Embrace Legacy
Whatever the legacy challenge, don't throw the baby out with the bath water!

It's true that legacy systems aren't user-friendly. More modern technologies like the Web, graphical user interfaces, and portals may provide a better user experience, but legacy systems truly shine in terms of sheer processing power and established reliability. To some degree, they become more valuable over time, i.e., the customer information and transaction histories they hold grow daily. If you want to truly understand and better serve your customers, look to your legacy data and processes.

In an ideal world, many companies would replace the Legacy Monster with something new. But we don't live in an ideal world. For most companies, it's not worth debating the replacement strategy because they simply don't have the time or money.

Instead of dreaming about replacement, companies should look for ways to integrate complete legacy functionality in new initiatives. Legacy systems can and should be tied to everything from CRM front-end applications to Web services.
We've been in the legacy integration business for 22 years and have been hearing about the demise of the mainframe for the last 20 years. If one thing is certain, legacy systems aren't going anywhere for a long time. The difference between getting by and getting ahead lies in how an organization integrates this invaluable resource. Companies must develop a strategy to turn legacy obstacles into opportunities.
Shaun L. Wolfe
President and Chief Operating Officer, WRQ

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