Transforming Your Green Screens to A Modernized Legacy System

Written By: Thierry Jaffry, Chief Growth Officer @ mdf commerce

Legacy modernization is a trend that has gained attention in recent years as organizations seek to improve efficiency, security, compliance, and agility. Many organizations use and pay for legacy systems that are no longer fully supported or do not meet current needs. These systems are a significant burden in terms of maintenance, support, and upgrades. As a result, these organizations are looking at ways to modernize legacy systems to take advantage of new technologies and approaches. How does a buying organization know it is time to modernize? Let’s discuss why it’s time to move on from your green screen to a modernized legacy system.

What is Legacy Modernization?

Legacy modernization refers to renovating or replacing legacy platforms and applications supporting your procurement operations. This not only includes updating technology but also, and maybe most importantly, streamlining your business processes.

There are several factors that are driving the legacy modernization trend:

• The increasing complexity of modern systems can make it difficult to maintain and upgrade interconnected legacy systems—a change in one can impact the overall architecture.
• The growing importance of security and compliance requires organizations to keep systems up-to-date and in line with relevant standards and regulations.
• The rapid pace of technological change can create challenges for organizations attempting to keep up with the latest developments (think AI, blockchain, Web 3.0, etc.) while staying on course with the organization’s roadmap.

How Does Legacy Modernization Affect Public Procurement in North America?

Legacy modernization in public procurement can be a complex and challenging undertaking, but it undoubtedly brings significant benefits in the age we live in now, which requires agility, fast information, and access to data.

• Improved efficiency and effectiveness: Outdated systems and processes slow down procurement operations, leading to decreased productivity and higher costs. By modernizing procurement-related systems, public organizations can streamline operations and reduce the time and resources spent on manual tasks.
• Enhanced security and compliance: Updating legacy systems ensures that procurement processes are more secure and compliant with relevant regulations and standards.
• Ability to integrate with new technologies: As organizations adopt new technologies, e.g., AI, to allow for more informed decisions, identification of trends, accurate data, or automated processes, modernizing legacy systems will be a requirement in order to fully leverage these technologies. Integration capabilities have also been greatly improved over the past few years.
• Greater transparency and accountability: Modernization improves transparency and accountability by providing more accurate and up-to-date information about procurement activities and enabling more effective monitoring and oversight.
• Increased agility and flexibility: Modernization also increases an organization's agility and flexibility by allowing it to adapt more easily to changing needs and regulations, and to take advantage of new technologies and opportunities as they arise.
• User experience: Outdated user interfaces can be confusing and frustrating leading to decreased satisfaction and productivity. By modernizing these interfaces, they become more intuitive which improves the overall experience for buyers, suppliers, and internal users.

Process Improvement & Target Operating Model

While technology is not the answer to every operational pain point, improving existing processes is a mandatory starting point and a key component of legacy modernization projects. Technology is a way to digitize and improve inefficient processes; replicating existing processes in modern technologies will only create frustration for the users of the system.

It is key to focus on defining the target operating model first, which can be designed with the help of the technology provider’s best practices. This outcome will be the input of the future system.

The ultimate efficiency will only be reached by employing a combination of streamlined processes and modern technologies. Overall, legacy modernization in public procurement is a valuable investment that helps organizations deliver better outcomes for citizens and stakeholders.

Legacy modernization can be a complex and time-consuming process, but the benefits are significant and proven. Postponing the renovation of your procurement systems will only create more complexity over time. Now is the time to get rid of green screens.

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