Ent Legacy Spl: How 'Gold is Old'?

PUNE, INDIA: LEGACY systems. Or what we better define as some large, complex systems which have matured to a state where they significantly resist further modification and evolution. 

There are those kinds that have run successfully and rather appreciated instead of depreciating in value, output and contemporary factor. But then there are those that are slowly but steadily moving in the junk genre. 

Reasons vary. 

From simply being not in vogue to being handicapped due to concomitant skill-shortage to being elbowed out by new and snazzy generation.

A legacy system gets in the ‘replace-it’ bucket mostly owing to obsolescence. If it is running on obsolete hardware with high maintenance costs but poor productivity, it is a sign to switch.

Also, when tracing failures is costly and time consuming or there is lack of documentation or complexity of integration efforts, with absence of clean interfaces, there’s a call for attention.

Another push is when legacy systems can hardly evolve to provide new functionality required by the organization.

Vishwajeet Singh, National Manager, IT, FCm Travel Solutions (I) Pvt. Ltd cites a legacy application under consideration at his enterprise.

It is there for its retail operation. The company has a legacy application to work on and it has been there since last 14 to 15 years. It is running at more than 2500 FC stores worldwide. It is based on one of the very rarely heard RDBMS called “Omnis” and it works in decentralized mode.

“Today as it has grown to such a large scale that the global office itself is not very sure as to how to change this,” Says Singh. “We have already tried twice to pitch in some other applications to replace this but so far not succeeded, let’s hope we get the approvals in our third attempt.”

G Muthukrishnan, chief manager – IT, at Madras Cements gives an example of the post-legacy scenario. He is more or less happy with the upshots of the web-enabled E-suite roll out undertaken about two years back.

“Previously, the systems were not fully connected to book orders but now we are able to seamlessly connect to customers. There have been improvements in business productivity and changes in business processes.”

Apparently, Madras Cements have witnessed substantial improvements in capacity utilization like spotting the under-utilization of some costly mining equipment and a major portion of heavy equipment besides synchronizing production and processes and consequently reducing the number of production shifts as well. 

The ERP model was put in place for real time integration and plant maintenance. With this it became easier to analyze usage and correspondingly support management decision-making.

Another example is that of the company, Premier Bars Pvt Ltd from Jaipur that manufactures steel bars, Ingot and steel pipes, TMT steel bars. It that produces over 450 tonnes of steel per day.

Premier has just undergone a transition from a legacy environment of a mix of Tally and MS-Excel to implementation of SAP BI.

It was facing challenges like inaccurate data with large degree of errors.  In addition, there was no reporting and analysis tool available to help in crucial decision making. There was no platform in existence where all the processes could be integrated and real time information could be accessed.

Also, the company is expanding at very high pace in different lines of business other than steel too.

Maintaining and upgrading legacy systems is not an easy task for any CIO today.

It’s not just about scale and obsolescence though. Skill-gap is the next important factor in the pecking order.

Yes, another big issue is around the dearth of skills that normally are wedded to a legacy outfit. Enterprises face the challenge of how to recruit and retain the talented staff required to bridge the gap between the legacy world and the newer worlds of Web services, Java and .Net.

As a news report pointed it right, contemporary platforms are putting increasing pressure on the mainframe, and the mainframe world itself is embracing Linux, Java and Web services, constantly eroding the divide between the old and the new.

Be it mainframes or COBOL, a CIO knows it best what it means to get developers and admin of the ‘then’ breed.

What more, IT professionals are no more found with linear career paths aligned around a single piece of technology.

Apart from constant technological change that mostly dwindles the business value of legacy systems, there are hassles possible if one goes for modernizing these systems while keeping their functionality intact.

But then there are many who believe that obsolete or not obsolete, these systems have behind them a chronicle of huge investments and tailors IT functionalities that have grown with an enterprise. Some do support unique business processes and cannot be written off in a jiffy if one sees the deep and invaluable knowledge and historical data residing beneath.

Interestingly, even after the availability of more cost-effective technology, about 80 per cent of IT systems are running on legacy platforms.

Sometime back, International Data Corp estimated that 200 billion lines of legacy code are still in use today on more than 10,000 large mainframe sites.

Yet Legacy systems run the risk of being called outmoded, not-in-sync-with-today’s needs, monolithic, incompatible with today’s software breed wired around Internet and CRM and Cloud etc, too rigid for contemporary applications, and low on real functionality.

As to the added pressures of a slowdown wrecked business environment, there are opinions divided as always. Talking about the current scenario as a ‘right’  or ‘wrong’ time to look beyond legacy systems, and Manjit Singh Bimra, deputy general manager IT, Information Technology Center, Tractor Engineers Ltd (L&T Group) says, “In my opinion migration or Upgrade from ‘Legacy System’ to the ‘New Technology’ which aligns with business functions, should be adopted RIGHT NOW, otherwise you might miss the bus to remain competitive for the near future.”

His argument is that there is a principal concern that you are arrested in monopolistic boundaries, without any advantage or control on both technical and commercials. “The chief benefit is ease of business operations in a legacy climate and may be Cost-Effective in a short-term perspective.”

It’s not as easy a decision to push the ‘refresh’ button on legacy.

Do you think that all legacy systems should not be painted with the same ‘has-got-old’ brush? The debate is now open to you.