tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953012319328810713.post4958609887279845370..comments2023-08-10T09:32:48.842+01:00Comments on UKHotviews: Make do and mendRichard Holwayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00182392836051848979noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4953012319328810713.post-4312655650491011242008-02-14T22:17:00.000+00:002008-02-14T22:17:00.000+00:00I received the following email from Martin Fincham...I received the following email from Martin Fincham, GM @ Lansa which I publish with his permission.<BR/><BR/>Hi Richard,<BR/><BR/>Just a quick note of thanks for a very incisive HotViews today. You are providing more value than some stuff we pay money for, but maybe I shouldn't mention that!<BR/><BR/>The topic of 'Made do and mend' sits close to our heart at LANSA because we, like MicroFocus, are servicing the legacy systems market, albeit that we are the largest independent vendor in the IBM midrange / RPG space as opposed to mainframe / COBOL. As a management team we have been chewing over the "will a mild downturn serve as a fillip to our business" question and we are also upbeat. The major threat to modernising these legacy systems is the perception that wholesale replacement is the only way forward - what tosh!<BR/>But when budgets are swelled you will always find an IT Director looking to make a name for him or herself by pulling-off some multi-million pound project. Many of these legacy systems run ERP applications so the tendency is toward replacement with a package like SAP. But those projects, even in a mid-sized company, can rarely be done for less than £1m so we anticipate seeing fewer of those migrations, in even a mild downturn, and expect more people to made do and mend. When people get their heads out of the clouds they often realise that their so-called legacy system is still a great functional fit, meeting 90% of their requirements, and what they feel they are missing (like web enablement or process automation) can be easily added with new software.<BR/><BR/>Cheers,<BR/><BR/>Martin<BR/><BR/>________________________________<BR/>General Manager, EMEA<BR/>LANSARichard Holwayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00182392836051848979noreply@blogger.com