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Legacy modernisation - Addressing the elephant in the room

Legacy modernisation - Addressing the elephant in the room

Many organisations today are constrained by legacy technology that can't evolve to meet their ever-changing business needs. ADAPT’s February 2026 CIO research shows that 33% of mission-critical applications still depend on legacy platforms.

What's It’s clear that legacy technology is holding businesses back, so why do so many still hesitate to modernise?

Roadblocks to modernisation

Many businesses are delaying the replacement of their legacy technology because of the substantial time, money and effort they invested in building and evolving their existing systems. They seek to maximise the return on their original tech investment by squeezing as much value as possible from their legacy systems before deciding to modernise.

Some businesses feel they are too busy to take on a legacy modernisation project. According to ADAPT research, IT leaders continue to cite competing business priorities as a major blockage to achieving their business goals. Without the right team focus and budget to invest in implementing a new system, many IT leaders are left with no choice but to keep the lights on.

Other IT Leaders feel that legacy modernisation is just too hard. They are overwhelmed by the prospect of not just having to rebuild the legacy with new technology but also to add innovation, improve processes, and manage change. Traditionally, it’s risky and time-consuming, requiring an enormous amount of effort.

And finally, many businesses are hesitant to make a huge investment in new technologies that may be out-of-date by the time the modernisation project is completed.

But there is a cost of doing nothing

While putting off legacy modernisation might seem harmless, it is not. There is a substantial business cost to doing nothing.

Sticking with systems that can’t keep pace with business priorities leaves IT Leaders facing the pressure of being unable to deliver solutions the business needs to compete with nimble startups or bigger companies that are agile and acing the new technologies. Failure or delay in innovating is a major drag on business competitiveness and growth.

Also, the cost of maintaining legacy and resolving technical debt hijacks budget that would be better spent on the innovation of new products and services. McKinsey & Co developed a metric - the Technical Debt Score (TDS) to help businesses determine when the cost of doing nothing exceeds the cost of taking action. This tool can be particularly useful for organisations making the business case for change.

Smart modernisation - a better way to modernise

The good news for IT leaders is the availability of a smart approach that enables them to modernise quickly, future-proof their investment, and deliver high ROI for their business. With high-performance AI-powered technology such as OutSystems, businesses can replace legacy systems much faster than with traditional methods, with projects taking months, not years.

Using this approach, businesses can break down their modernisation project into manageable blocks of work, ensuring that business value is delivered throughout the project, not just at the end. By joining forces with an experienced technology partner like PhoenixDX, which works with small, multi-skilled squads, businesses can deliver faster than with an army of developers.

With the right low-code platform, a high-skilled team, and knowledge, IT leaders can accelerate innovation and time-to-value, gain efficiency through automation, reduce administrative burden and capital expenditure, improve user experience, and focus on strategic and revenue-generating initiatives. Smart modernisation allows businesses to successfully move from being stuck in the past to being relevant in the present and always ready for change in the future.

See how other IT leaders are benefiting from this approach

In less than 6 months, GPT Group replaced a legacy web application built on SAP Personas with an e-procurement application built using OutSystems. This solution connects their core systems, automates workflows and delivers an improved experience that increases team satisfaction and makes them more efficient.

Chris Burling, Head of Strategy, Customer and Digital Technology for GPT Group, explained why he took action:

"The risk was that if the application failed or became unsupported, this would be very disruptive to the business. It would delay large purchases, which would have contractual implications and other impacts on the company. The application had several gaps in terms of its capabilities and features, which were pain points that our stakeholders raised. From a business perspective, it was very important that we transition to a more efficient application that was always available and performing well."

UBT replaced a 4-year-old application with >20K users in just 16 weeks using an OutSystems AI-powered platform. Their new mobile app achieved high performance and data security, eliminated technical debt, improved the user experience, and launched new features that increased adoption and revenue.

Mark McWilliams, Global Technology Director of UBT, explains his tipping point:

“We were investing heavily each year in an application where features were hard and costly to add. The developers were afraid to touch it because as soon as they did, the whole thing fell down, and we had thousands of people unable to use the application. The application was unstable, unresponsive and slow. So we decided to rebuild.”

How PhoenixDX can help

PhoenixDX has been partnering with Australian organisations, helping them to modernise their systems to make them fast, future-proof and cost-effective. UBT and GPT Group are just two of our customers who have taken a smart modernisation approach to their legacy technology and are experiencing the benefits.