IT directors are still failing to convince the board of the
business benefits of integrating legacy systems with customer
service applications, a survey by research firm Vanson Bourne has
found.
The survey of 100 IT directors in UK businesses, commissioned by
legacy IT integration specialist WRQ, found that legacy IT systems
are critical to providing customer service - 86% regarded legacy
systems as essential to customer service delivery.
In the survey, 66% saw the value of integrating legacy systems with
customer service applications. Broken down by industry sector, IT
directors from financial services have made the most progress,
where 60% of financial institutes have integrated legacy systems
with customer service applications.
Worryingly, many IT directors admitted they faced difficulties in
convincing management of the benefits of integration, and 28% of
respondents said they had not integrated their legacy systems with
customer service.
Graham Opie, director at Vanson Bourne, said the survey found that
cost was a contributing factor, but he believed the challenge IT
directors faced was a lack of management buy-in.
Of the 41% who had not integrated legacy IT with customer services,
a lack of buy-in was the main reason for putting off the
integration. "Of those people who said the barriers to legacy
integration were cost, a lot of IT directors found a lack of buy-in
from management," said Opie.
"It seems to me IT directors are failing to communicate the
benefits of legacy integration to the business."