The slow creep of legacy pain
That said, once all support for your system ended years ago, you might also be starting to get the feeling that any time soon an update to your computer will be like a stake through the heart of your once beloved software.
It ain’t broke, but it might be after the next Windows Update.
You find that you start to get a little panicky whenever it’s slow to open or save something. And by degrees, you develop a facial tic and a nervous digit that drums on the desk; one that seemingly you alone are oblivious to.
Churlish jokes in the office about the app are already commonplace and when someone new starts, you feel more than a little embarrassed when showing them around the application; its teeny tiny windows on your modern monitor looking suddenly quite comical.
The cost of standing still
But not changing has saved my business a lot of money over the years
To be fair, not upgrading may have saved your business money over the years. However, this "saving" often comes at a steep, hidden cost. Research from Gartner shows that maintaining legacy systems can consume up to 80% of an IT budget, leaving little room for innovation.¹ The rapidity of OS updates suddenly makes things feel a little precarious. The application is sluggish, hangs with a disconcerting frequency, and your back-office server begins to fill up with paranoid copies of the app’s folder…
Then you visit a competitor. They use a shiny new SaaS app, and having a play on it is like the warm summer New Zealand sun on your face after a long miserable UK winter. It’s fast and sleek. You realise that although your legacy system isn’t broken (yet), it’s holding your business back, and everyone in your office seems to die a little inside every time they have to use it.
Most worrying of all, however, is the notion that when your system does break – and it will – it may well spell disaster for your business.
It’s not broke, but is it time to fix it..?
So, how do I get my data out?
So, you’ve resolved to migrate to a shiny new SaaS app. You’ll never have to worry about backups, updates or server hardware again. Things will be great, but there’s just one minor problem: First and foremost you have somehow to liberate 15 years of priceless business data from the antiquated storage engine in your current system. A database that is not only unsupported by the vendor, but whose active community of users have long since scattered to the four winds.
You search on the internet and over and over again, finding yourself at ancient, desolate forums whose terminal post typically reads something along the lines of:
“Someone please please help! How do I get my data from xxx into SQL server…”
Digital tumbleweed blows across the best viewed in Internet Explorer 800×600 desert(ed) site.
Oh dear. The facial tic is back. Through your mind’s eye, the fancy physical packaging that your software originally shipped in catches fire – with your data inside – and explodes.
From "What's Not" to "What's Next"
Ok – ok, enough hyperbole, but the problem is a very real and concerning one, especially for mature businesses with large amounts of priceless historical data who are keen to modernise.
Here at Dynamo6, we are constantly pushing the boundaries of what SaaS apps can do for our clients, be it syncing data from Mailchimp to Salesforce or triggering invoices in Xero from entries in time tracking apps.
The good news is, not only can we help connect disparate SaaS apps, we can also help get your data imported into them in the first place.
There’s a lot of talk about what’s hot, but how do you migrate from what’s not?
We have a lot of experience with what’s hot in Internetland, but we also have plenty of experience helping clients with what’s no longer hot. This means we can help when it comes to prising your data out of crusty old legacy systems to use in modern SaaS apps.
Case Study: Migrating to Cliniko
Recently, we were approached by a medical practice looking to extract 15 years of patient data from their legacy system: a Visual FoxPro based practice management system, and import it into cloud-based Cliniko. Microsoft officially terminated FoxPro support back in 2007, but the client continued with the application for a further 10 years—a compelling example of digital inertia.
The client’s data was stored in a large database comprising in excess of 20,000 patient records. We were tasked with finding a way to extract the data, map as much as possible to the Cliniko schema, and import it. After assessing the limited export options, we found we could connect directly to the database via ODBC.
The size and complexity of the database precluded a direct one-to-one mapping to Cliniko. So, we developed a hybrid solution: core contact data was flattened to a CSV file for a straightforward import, while related records and attachments were consolidated into searchable PDF reports that could be attached to each patient record in the new system.
The client was more than satisfied. They successfully moved to a modern, supported platform and retained access to all their historic data. The facial tic is merely a fading memory.
Building a Foundation for the Future
A one-off data migration is often a critical first step, but the real goal of modernization is to "unlock business agility and create a foundation for future innovation," as a recent Deloitte report puts it.² This means moving beyond a simple data lift-and-shift to building a modern, flexible architecture where your systems can talk to each other seamlessly.
A perfect example is our work with the Feisst Group. We didn't just migrate their data; we built a powerful "integration engine" that connects their core on-premise ERP with their modern, customer-facing e-commerce platform. This strategic asset automates processes, eliminates manual data entry, and ensures a single source of truth across their entire business.
Whether you need to escape a crusty old system or build a long-term strategy for system integration, the principles are the same: understand the data, architect a robust solution, and unlock the value trapped in your systems.
If you're ready to stop being held back by legacy technology, let's talk about our Application Modernisation and Custom Systems & Integration services.
