9 min read
Replacing legacy software with low-code
Organizations are under increasing pressure to modernize business processes with the help of new digital applications. That pressure often comes from customers or end users who want services and processes to be digitized. In addition, the new way of working, with employees regularly working from home, has led to different requirements for business applications in terms of availability, security, and connectivity. In practice, we see that developing new applications gets more attention than renewing existing applications, but that's not always easy. The presence of legacy software can hold back the development of new applications, because it's difficult to connect new applications to existing and often outdated systems. The result is that, as an organization, you're not well equipped to innovate and anticipate changing user needs. Replacing or modernizing legacy software with a low-code development platform can offer a solution. In this blog, you'll read in which situations low-code is suitable for replacing legacy software and how you can approach this.
What is legacy software?
By legacy software, we mean business applications that were developed or purchased years ago. These types of applications use outdated technology and standards and therefore no longer meet modern standards. Legacy applications usually support critical business processes within the organization, which means replacing them carries significant risks. Maintaining legacy software costs a lot of time and money due to a lack of knowledge and missing documentation. Modifying the software is difficult and sometimes even impossible, because the technology is no longer supported. All in all, reason enough to say goodbye to legacy applications.
Replace or modernize?
With the rise of low-code platforms such as Mendix and Power Apps, it has become easier to replace or modernize legacy software. The new way of developing and the speed at which new software can be built with low-code makes replacing legacy applications much less challenging than before. There are several ways you can approach this.
Option 1: Rebuild
First, an existing application can be completely rebuilt. The lead time for such a project is limited if it concerns a small application. However, when it comes to replacing a large monolithic application, such as an ERP system, the lead time can increase significantly. This type of migration project carries significant risks and offers little to no short-term benefit for the organization.
Option 2: Keep and extend with extensions
Second, you can choose to keep the existing application intact and modernize it by creating extensions on top of the application. By extensions, we mean relatively small custom applications that are separate from the existing application and add specific functionality to it. This type of extension can digitally support new innovations and distinctive processes. For example, you could think of a custom front-end with a web interface for external users to support a new workflow, where the front-end integrates with the existing application on the back end.
Option 3: Modernize with an API layer
An alternative for modernizing legacy is creating an API layer on top of the existing application. This allows you to make data and functionality from the legacy system available to other applications via modern REST APIs. Adding such an API layer offers all kinds of new possibilities for integrations with external systems (from, for example, customers or suppliers), integrations with cloud services, or developing new modern user interfaces that better fit the current way of working.
Advantages of low-code
Low-code development platforms are suitable in many situations for replacing or modernizing legacy software. There are several reasons for this:
#1 Adaptable for every unique business process
When replacing legacy software, a choice must be made between purchasing standard software or (having) it rebuilt with custom development. With legacy, we're usually talking about custom solutions that were specifically developed for an organization. Standard software generally doesn't exist for this type of solution, or it lacks essential functionality that makes it unsuitable as a replacement. A low-code platform is a good alternative in this case, because it allows any desired functionality to be quickly (re)built so that it fits seamlessly with the processes within the organization.
#2 Design processes more efficiently
Legacy applications often support critical processes within an organization. When you replace legacy, you naturally want those processes to be further optimized and for users to be able to work more efficiently. Low-code offers several advantages in this area.
- With low-code, you can automate parts of a process by creating so-called flows. Within a flow, various activities can be executed one after another without user intervention. These activities can be aimed at automating manual actions, or at controlling external applications (application integration).
- An important characteristic of low-code platforms is connectivity, meaning the ability to connect external systems. These can be connections for exchanging data with databases, web services, or message brokers. The connectors to make these kinds of connections are available by default in the platform. In addition, with low-code it's relatively easy to integrate an application with external systems through the use of modern APIs. This way, you can connect different applications to each other and automate processes (or steps in a process).
- Applications can be made "smarter" by using AI (Artificial Intelligence). Both Mendix and Power Apps offer standard connectors to integrate cloud AI services into an application, for example for sentiment analysis, image recognition, or translating audio to text. We also see that more and more ready-made building blocks with AI technology (smart app services) are being added to the platforms' toolsets. In addition, both platforms also offer the option to integrate custom AI models into applications.
- Low-code platforms offer the ability to build an application with different user interfaces for different types of users, for example a responsive website for office staff and a mobile web app for representatives. This way, you can develop the user interface fully tailored to the end users, allowing them to ultimately work more efficiently.
#3 Phased development
The low-code way of developing fits very well with an agile development process, allowing the rebuild to be carried out in phases. The flexibility of low-code tools ensures that changes can be made easily and quickly. You can start by developing the most essential functions of the software, and then, after rolling out a first version, focus on improving and optimizing the functionality. This also offers the opportunity to incorporate feedback from the first rollout into subsequent iterations.
#4 Involving end users in development
By involving end users in the development of a new application, you get a better result than when this is done by IT staff alone. End users know the frustrations with the old application and know exactly what its shortcomings are. Low-code platforms work with a visual development environment in which users with minimal programming experience (citizen developers) can build applications. In this environment, end users can model data models, screens, and business logic themselves using ready-made building blocks. By making them part of the development team, more attention goes to the usability of the new application, which will have a positive effect on adoption.
#5 Lower usage costs
Until a few years ago, the general view was that (re)building legacy software with custom development is time-consuming and costly. With the rise of low-code platforms, that's no longer always the case. Of course, with these types of platforms you're dealing with license costs, and these are usually tied to the number of users. However, due to the way applications are developed, rebuilding custom software with low-code doesn't have to take months. Much of the complexity involved in software development is taken off your hands by the platform, allowing applications to be delivered up to 5 times faster than with traditional development methods.
On top of that, cost savings can be achieved because the costs for hosting and managing applications with a low-code platform are much lower than with legacy applications. Low-code applications usually run in the cloud (public or private). Mendix has its own SaaS environment where applications are hosted, and Power Apps always run in Azure. Setting up infrastructure (servers, databases, network, etc.) is therefore no longer necessary, and application management takes much less time.
#6 Data migration
In addition to (re)building legacy applications, these types of projects in many cases also involve a migration question. How do you migrate the data from the old system to the new application? In the past, this meant that scripts had to be programmed, or that special software was needed for data migration. Low-code can offer a solution here too. Thanks to the versatility of low-code platforms, you can make the functionality needed for data migration part of the new application. Using flows, you can model repeatable tasks to move the data from the old system to the new one. In these kinds of flows, you can build in all sorts of logic to transform the data, which in practice is often necessary because the data structures in the new application differ from those in the old application.
Getting started with low-code
The advantages of low-code mentioned above make replacing legacy software much less daunting than before. The ability to develop new applications in phases, with shorter development times, while also improving processes, makes it attractive to get started now with replacing legacy and thereby increasing an organization's innovative power.
There are many different low-code platforms, each with their own pros and cons. At E-mergo, we build applications with Mendix and Power Apps. Curious whether low-code can help your organization replace legacy software? Do you have a concrete case you'd like to solve with low-code, but are you looking for advice on choosing the most suitable platform? E-mergo can help with this, for example with an App in a Day session. For more information about the possibilities of low-code, get in touch with one of our account managers or schedule an appointment right away using the button below.