Some time ago, the urgency due to problems of compatibility with year 2000 forced companies’ IT departments to allot millions of dollars and begin a race against the clock to ensure systems continue to work without problems upon the New Year’s arrival. During all the analysis and preparation, the nature of the critical mission of the legacy applications code became evident. What was learnt during those months before year 2000 was that Host systems continue to be the battle horses of the information for companies that have maintained their commercial leadership in the last decades. Organizations have invested years to create critical mission systems, thousands of code lines that mark an important competitive difference to their business.

Most LEGACY systems did not provide many access facilities. Limit the access to only some individuals was part of a strategy to protect corporate information. To get a better access and efficiency replacing, or accessing to, LEGACY systems through applications of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implies a whole new challenge and it is usual that their functionality becomes too short. Rewriting LEGACY applications is so expensive in economic and business terms that some are afraid that if changes are made, critical mission systems may be in danger.

Considering the investments made, the complexity, the nature of the critical mission, and the competitive advantage of many LEGACY systems, in most cases, the best choice is not to replace them. Companies must combine these LEGACY assets with new business initiatives by using new integration technologies.

Companies using EAI projects at corporate level often benefit from the establishment of strategic collaborations with the integrator they choose. This relation can contribute to maximize the investment return and improve the competitive advantage by allowing customers to react in a faster manner to market and technology trends that have an influence on the internal and external value of the business assets.

The Strategic Planning and Analysis services we offer facilitate the integration of eBusiness and Total Business Integration (TBI) business initiatives of our customers with development and deployment plans, and ensure that these plans are in line with the strategic platform and the technological guidelines proposed by the main EAI software manufacturers.