Integration of legacy systems is vital to effective customer service
- Posted:
- 16:31 20 May 2004
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.
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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."
