OutSystems for legacy modernization
A legacy system is software that is based on outdated technology, including hardware, but is critical to daily operations. It can be software that lacks vendor support, runs on-premises, or doesn't meet an organization's evolving requirements. It can also be a series of apps that power critical internal workflows but are disconnected from a company’s cloud-based ecosystem.
Legacy systems are prime candidates for modernization. Although they can be efficient, reliable, and durable, they are often incompatible with modern applications and systems, have limited flexibility and functionality, and are costly to maintain. This blog post covers four examples of legacy systems that can benefit from modernization with the right platform.
Why do companies still rely on legacy systems?
Most organizations keep their legacy systems because of at least one of the following reasons.
High migration costs
The IT system is running aging or end-of-life technology that lacks current documentation and is a labyrinth of add-ons and fixes. The resources needed to manage it come at a high cost, but the complex process required to migrate it can carry what appears to be an even bigger price tag.
Skills gap
The technology is supported by “mature” developers with hard-to-find skills, who spend most of their time fixing, patching, and trying to update the system. As a result, they are not able to contribute to new projects or innovations. Also, when they leave, it can be difficult to replace them.
Fear
Legacy systems are mission-critical. Therefore, an organization can be fearful or concerned about the impact that changing it or replacing it can have on the business, such as downtime or lost customers.
4 common legacy systems to modernize
Let’s look at some common legacy systems and explore how businesses have used low-code development to successfully modernize those systems. The following four legacy systems are generally identified as ones most likely to have been in place for years:
- SAP
- .NET and Oracle
- Lotus Notes and HCL Domino
- Sharepoint
SAP: Unlock new value with low-code
Organizations running SAP know that the customizations they’ve made to the core applications to meet the unique needs of the business can deliver value. But, the customizations can be expensive to build, and they often make it harder to upgrade and migrate to future versions of SAP.
A low-code application development platform can help companies modernize SAP in several different ways. For one, it can support cloud-based innovation that exists alongside the legacy systems of record, sharing data while providing new capabilities. You modernize SAP software and customized applications at your own pace. As each new component comes online, you can decommission the legacy applications until the transformation is complete.
Low-code can also help you extend your legacy SAP applications by delivering modern web and mobile front-ends–no scarce and costly SAP-specific development required. For example, Estafeta used OutSystems to deliver a web and mobile-friendly application–in just 11 weeks–that integrates with SAP and allows customers and employees to schedule pickups, track shipments, and access other information.
.NET and Oracle: A new and simplified experience
Initially, homegrown core enterprise systems built in-house with technologies like .NET and Oracle have an advantage over commercial-off-the-shelf solutions because they provide exactly the features the organization needs. But quickly, these systems run into similar issues as commercial systems: adding new features and capabilities to the core system is painfully slow and cumbersome.
Rebuilding the user experience, business logic, and data flows from the ground up as a homegrown cloud-native application can consume too much time, budget, and resources. However, a brand new experience developed with a low-code platform can provide the flexibility needed to accelerate the development of features and capabilities and update them quickly. And that’s just what Vopak, the world's largest independent tank terminal operator, decided to do when Oracle announced it would stop supporting its ERP system in 2024. Vopak chose OutSystems as its application development platform for building its own terminal management solution.
Lotus Notes and HCL Domino: Replacing the outdated
Lotus Notes is built on a decades-old architecture with a proprietary development framework, database, programming model, scripting language, and deployment methodology. Today, it lacks the security, flexibility, and agility that are now table stakes in modern applications. Organizations are better off replacing their Lotus Notes and HCL Domino applications using visual, model-driven, and AI-based low-code development to re-imagine the capabilities.
Japanese infrastructure giant Maeda found this to be true. With thousands of Notes databases to migrate or shut down, Maeda adopted OutSystems to modernize around 1,000 of these legacy apps. The company delivered over 200 modern and more powerful web applications in just two years—unlocking crucial corporate data with improved functionality and superior user experience.
SharePoint: Re-envision collaboration
Like Lotus Notes, the legacy on-premises version of Microsoft SharePoint was once an innovative collaboration tool. By today’s standards, however, it is costly and complex to customize, difficult to scale, and lacks critical reporting and governance capabilities. Using the OutSystems low-code development platform, organizations can migrate from aging SharePoint applications and re-envision internal and external portal applications as optimized web and mobile apps.
Consider the case of Dutch financial care provider PLANgroep. After a decade of individual client-specific customizations and numerous complex integrations, the provider’s custom-built SharePoint system had become too difficult to enhance. PLANgroep worked with OutSystems and delivery partner IG&H to build a new, cloud-based core business system in under 18 months.
Low-code for the legacy modernization win
Many organizations depend on legacy systems to support their core business processes. Low-code development offers an opportunity to bring them up to date quickly, without the risk and cost of traditional development. With OutSystems, your IT team can modernize legacy applications to reduce technical debt, improve data accessibility, and accelerate business value creation. Another OutSystems blog shares three legacy modernization approaches you can take with low-code.
Pre-built connectors, web services, and APIs unify all your data. Developers can break down silos and integrate data from various applications so that it is usable across your portfolio. You can reduce technical debt without risk because OutSystems enables a phased approach to legacy modernization that enables you to adopt extend, refactor, and rebuild strategies in parallel. OutSystems also enables you to build a secure cloud-native architecture for your legacy modernization initiatives, using visual development tools and automating the entire DevSecOps lifecycle.
To learn more about how organizations around the world have modernized their legacy systems with OutSystems, download our ebook, An IT Leader's Guide to Application Modernization.
