Time to Slay the Legacy Monster
Technology changes fast. Your business can’t sustain jumping on the “new and improved” bandwagon every time. But changing too much isn’t the problem most businesses face.
For most it is changing too little, fighting down the growing certainty that a technology or business process that is paid for and familiar has become a problem. If this is you, here’s the bad news:
You have a legacy monster on your hands.
A legacy monster is usually some piece of hardware or software that was, years ago, a great source of efficiency and maybe even pride. Now faster, better, and cheaper solutions abound. But somehow the legacy monster is hanging on. Legacy monsters survive on lies like:
“It doesn’t cost us anything anymore.”
“Everyone is comfortable with this system.”
“We can’t take time for change right now.”
Don’t believe it.
Legacy monsters cost more to maintain than they did to purchase, better systems lead to better work, and today’s slow market means we all have a little extra time to improve business processes.
The truth is that the legacy monster’s initial cost is irrelevant. Hampering your business for months or years won’t “get the most” out of your investment.
Do you have legacy monster systems in need of slaying? Did you recent lay one to rest?
However, NEEDS drives software, SOFTWARE drives hardware. If your need is fulfilled by a “legacy monster”, one should feel compelled to upgrade for upgrades sake. Supportablity and data integration considerations may drive one to get rid of the legacy monster, but those can be considered NEEDS items.
The Legacy Monster translates to Sunk Cost in business speak. These are costs that cannot be recovered once they’ve occurred. Once a cost is sunk, it’s really on the variable cost of the project that is relevant, which I think is really a key point for Savvy CIO readers, which you discuss here in TOC.