You adopted RPG to get business agility. That worked - 20 years ago.
You’re not alone. Many companies built their entire operation on RPG systems 20, 30, even 40 years ago—covering everything from warehouse management and order processing to accounting, customer service, and production control. At that time, RPG offered impressive flexibility and performance. A single machine could handle critical workloads, and the system could be rapidly adapted to evolving business needs. Back in 1990, RPG was a high-level, productive language, compared to the alternatives.
Roadblocks
But what used to be your source of agility has now become a roadblock. Today, RPG systems are hard to maintain and nearly impossible to integrate with modern platforms.
Making even small changes are risky. Your team avoids touching code for fear of breaking it. Finding people who still understand the language is a growing challenge. You’re not even sure which code you’re still using, and which hasn’t been used in at least 15 years. As a result, your ability to respond to business change is crippled.
Expensive code
Old code is expensive code. Manufacturers spend billions of Euro annually maintaining decades-old systems.
Legacy systems demand constant patching, workarounds, and specialized knowledge.
As years go by, maintenance becomes more expensive than modernization. Migrating reduces costs, simplifies updates, and strengthens security.
Migrating legacy software gives manufacturing businesses enormous benefits
Easier to maintain
Post migration, your systems are much easier to maintain. The code has been cleaned, performance is better, security is enhanced, and scalability has improved. It becomes easier to connect with other modern systems. This further reduces maintenance costs and complexity
Makes future changes simpler
Updating your software makes future business changes simpler. Integration with other systems becomes achievable, introducing new features and updating old ones become possible. And you can also get the most from cloud-based infrastructure.
Improved security
Legacy IT systems are often at the heart of cyber security incidents. Outdated systems regularly lack modern security protocols and are vulnerable to breaches. Frequently, IT teams can’t patch legacy systems because they are no longer being maintained by the vendor. Modernizing makes your systems more secure.
Easier to find skills
You can hire more easily as there are far more Java and Python software engineers than RGP. The average RPG/COBOL developer is over 55 years old, and thinking about retiring if they haven’t already. Specialist skills command 35–45% premiums. By upgrading, you’re not held to ransom by the declining numbers of skilled engineers.
Strumenta modernizes
Strumenta modernizes your aging manufacturing software into modern, cloud-based (if required) applications without disruption.
Our structured, automated migration process enables us to customize to your specification, safely and with low risk.
