Legacy Systems 2002: Are Your Older Systems Slowing You Down?

• 45% of systems are legacy systems
• 33% of IT spending goes to operating and maintaining legacy systems
• 59% of finance departments are still supported by legacy systems
• 37% keep old systems because they're still more cost-effective than alternatives

Despite the advent of the Web, now almost a decade old, and the highly networked, interoperable, Web-based applications that followed soon after, corporate America continues to depend heavily on legacy systems for everything from finance to databases to CRM. Judging from the results of this month's CIO Insight research, however, dissatisfaction with legacy systems isn't as high as we'd anticipated. Yes, there is pressure to migrate, and while the current economic climate is slowing the pace of migration, 40 percent of respondents expect to shut down or migrate legacy systems in the next 12 months. But a majority of respondents continue to find their older systems useful, and frustration sets in primarily when legacy systems can no longer support current business processes, or stand in the way of achieving new strategic goals. Even respondents who describe their companies as agile, while they have fewer legacy systems, continue to get value out of those they've kept. Agile or not, companies that continue to reap benefits from their legacy systems are better at using all their information technology—new or old.