There is still a plethora of legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) software in the market, using dated technology.
So says Stephen Corrigan, MD of local business solutions provider, Palladium Software, who notes an ERP system that is not sufficiently flexible to meet changing business demands, and will hold the business back rather than drive it forward.
"An example of a legacy ERP system is accounting programs developed using Visual Basic V6, which Microsoft discontinued from March 2005. Microsoft's current position on the application is 'it just works'. This is hardly something you would like when your mission-critical accounting software is dependent on it," says Corrigan.
ERP consultancy firm, 180 Systems, says legacy systems often contain functionality not found in modern ERP systems, and would be expensive to replace. The systems lack the improvements made to software over the years, such as a graphical user interface, ad hoc reporting tools and easy customisations like the option to add user defined fields.
The company adds legacy systems are often maintained by ageing baby boomers, who may not be readily available now and will certainly be less available in the future.
Corrigan points out that with the POPI Act, the onus is on businesses to protect their customers' information. However, with legacy software and related flat-file databases, this is almost impossible as most of these systems are not up to date with the latest security threats, he points out.
"In a recent incident involving Sage Pastel's Pastel Partner product range, someone downloaded databases and realised they could easily access all the data contained therein and there was absolutely no database security on the database or files."
Eric Kimberling, managing partner of Panorama Consulting Solutions, says with high rates of consolidation, dramatic failures and ever-emerging technology, the ERP market continues to rapidly change and expand.
ERP implementations are challenging propositions for companies looking to adopt new enterprise systems. This fact is true for companies of all sizes, industries and levels of complexity, Kimberling says.
"As much as bandwidth costs are decreasing annually, so are the costs associated with really good ERP software. Development tools are just better, and it's pretty easy to find good developers these days," Corrigan concludes.