It Is Time To Modernise The Legacy Applications

It is high time to modernise all the legacy applications. Many companies and experts are saying that they feel the modernisation of old 16-bit applications is long overdue, especially in case of the ERP or the Enterprise Resource Planning.

Modernisations should always be guided by the business drivers. Generally, there are three major drivers for a modernisation.

• Integration of application and business process.
• User experience improvement to a more efficient environment
• Changing the core applications to exploit the modern technological improvements and business opportunities.

While these are the drivers, the benefits of modernising the legacy applications is innumerable.

It can improve user productivity because modern environments and application interfaces can provide better experience for modern employees. It is more informative, productive and gives more power to the user. Some people still says that the legacy 5250 interface is the best thing when it comes to data entry operations but they fail to take into account the power and productivity of the Windows interface. Even for the data entry jobs, the Windows interface is far superior to a 5250 interface because it responds to the single keystrokes and not block mode entry fields.

Modernising a 16-bit application also reduces training cost. Anyone can use a Windows interface, thanks to the ease it brings forth. People of modern generation have grown up using the Windows interface. None knows how to use a 5250 interface until they are trained.

The application image is also improved when legacy applications are modernised. The 5250 apps which are also called Green screen applications and the IBM platforms which support those suffer from image problems, especially in large enterprises. Getting new customers and retaining the old customers must be a very difficult proposition for the Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who offer 5250 solutions to all. A modern interface combines reliability of IBM platform and performance and improves the application images and produce an excellent combination.

Future-proofing is one of the most important advantages of modernised applications. Some IBM platforms and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) have come up with modern versions of their offerings to win back the trust of the new and existing customers or the end-users to prove that their solution has some defined future. All the3 modern features including email, chat, video, voice, internet browsing and desktop features are not possible in the traditional 5250 interface. There new technologies can enhance the potential of any business.

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