Accenture: Legacy Systems Hindering Some Businesses

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

According to a new study released today by Accenture (NYSE: ACN), more than one in four (27 percent) UK businesses are unable to take advantage of new agile infrastructure that can scale their IT function to meet the evolving needs of their organisations, because they are constrained by existing legacy systems.

Over one-third (35 percent) of those polled said that they are being held back by current infrastructure, despite the fact that they see ‘cloud computing as a great move’ and thus likely to improve IT productivity. As well, four-fifths (80 percent) of organisations revealed that that they do not have a fully developed application retirement roadmap, an essential ingredient for successfully moving to agile IT.

Over half of executives said that they felt transforming fixed IT infrastructure and operational investments could bring improved IT flexibility (55 percent) and better align IT (52 percent) with real business needs within their organisation. The research also shows that legacy systems are causing a number of cost and flexibility issues, as businesses face challenges in managing the agility of new cloud solutions versus the rigidity of core legacy infrastructure and applications.  Almost half (45 percent) of respondents said that they need to modernize or replace legacy systems which are impediments to rapidly and flexibly meeting changing user or customer needs.