7 Signs You Need To Replace Your Legacy System

An outdated technology could be hurting your business more than you think. It can drastically reduce your team’s productivity, cause errors and process failures, and even frustrate loyal customers to the point where they seek services elsewhere. To learn more about how your business could be affected if you don’t update your legacy technology, click here.

As a business owner, you don’t usually have someone in the organization who can verify if what is being done is right and if your existing technology will last long. Knowing exactly when to pull the plug on your old technology requires both awareness and insight.

To get started, here are 7 signs you may want to look for in your technology to know if it’s time to change it.

Let’s look at these signs in more detail

‍It feels like playing Jenga to add new features to your current system

Are you unable to grow as a business because your legacy system has too many workarounds or hacks to keep it going? For example, you make a strategic decision to expand into an international market or add a new line of product but your software doesn’t support your growth plans? Does adding a new feature puts your system at a risk of crashing?

‍‍‍Is the software you’re using still supported?

Is your organization still using outdated technology like Windows 95, 98, and XP and Windows 7?

When a technology isn’t supported, it immediately becomes an ‘at your own risk’ situation for your business. Outdated systems leave you with no updates nor any assistance if any issue arises. Your business is vulnerable to security breaches that can cost you heavy losses. You may also no longer be able to use your warranty in case of system failure or data loss.

Are you willing to put your business and the faith of your customers at risk?

‍Your current system does not meet the latest security, accessibility, privacy standards and cannot be easily updated.

Security

Is your current system unable to accommodate the latest security best practices? Are you unable to update the new security features surrounding access, including multifactor authentication, single-sign on and role-based access? Does your system lack sufficient encryption methods?

Legacy systems are highly vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches. What seemed secure ten years ago to you may no longer be reliable today. Even with multiple band-aids, obsolete technology may not be able to protect your system against some of the sophisticated ways of cyber-attacks.

Microsoft suggests 7 ways to harden your environment against compromise.

RedBit Recommends: Ways to protect your apps better.

Accessibility

Are you unable to make your current web applications AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) compliant?

According to the AODA, 2005, the government of Ontario will be implementing and enforcing these standards that organizations must follow to make Ontario more accessible and inclusive by 2025. Will your legacy system be able to handle these implementations?

Incurring high maintenance costs

Are you spending more money to ensure an outdated system does not cause any failure? Does your legacy system require a special licensing to be functional?

Maintaining legacy systems leads to several overheads and hidden costs that may come in the way of your company’s success. Although it may seem like you’re saving money by adding band-aids to your technology, it’ll cost your business much more in the long run.

Not finding developers who know your coding language?

Developers who know your system well could be on their way to retirement or the next opportunity, meanwhile the new lot of developers are not interested in learning legacy coding languages like Fox pro, COBOL, VB6, ASP (Active Server Pages) Classic and RPG. Are you sure you have enough developers around who know the coding language for your legacy system?

If you feel you’d be stranded if a developer quits and your processes would come to a halt, you might want to start moving away from your legacy system as soon as possible. ‍

‍RedBit Recommends: Make sure you have good documentation and source code! This would help in knowledge transfer, maintainability (regardless of who is going to be working on the code), solving issues and adding new features.

Disgruntled employees with the way things work?

Do processes in your organization require significant manual input? Does your staff feel frustrated using lengthy and wasteful paperwork? Are your employees unable to work efficient remotely? Is it becoming hard for you to hire and retain new talent?

Employee experience is one of the imperatives of digital transformation. Your staff needs the right tools to stay connected, have access to information and communicate with each other seamlessly. The younger generations have grown up in a digital age so anything less than user friendly and usable will not cut it anymore.‍‍

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Sorry, your browser is not compatible ☹

Do your customers often say that Google Chrome reads and displays your website/application differently than Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox?

Users have their own personal choice when it comes to web browsers. If your application is not compatible with at least the leading browsers, you could be losing out your customers to the competition. Limiting your testing process to only one or two browsers can be a huge risk for your business.

Take charge before it’s too late

Modernizing your old technology is challenging, however, you’ll have the ability to not only build exactly what your business needs today but also what it’ll require in the future. We understand that it’s not easy to replace a legacy system that represents the foundation of your operations, however, they eventually stop offering value and start making your work harder. That’s the time when you should make the switch before things go out of your hands.

There are several ways that your technology tells you it’s time to move on – these 7 are just the few common signs we’ve noticed that businesses often tend to neglect and end up being stuck with an obsolete system.

Whatever you choose to do, be in the know. Even if your system is not brand spanking new be prepared that at some point all software needs an overhaul. Our experience for what it is worth is that it will be way more painful if you ignore any of these signals. How do we know, hindsight over and over and over again.

Thanks for reading. If you would like to know more about what RedBit does and how it can help you replace or rebuild your legacy technology, leave us a message here.