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Insights and Expertise

Overcoming legacy systems debt

in the payments back office

Additionally, legacy systems are increasingly difficult to
modify as they don’t easily integrate with modern APIs
and protocols. Even when developers do find work-
arounds, it adds complexity to the overall environment.
Meanwhile, skilled personnel who maintain and have
knowledge of these systems are focusing more on modern
solutions or aging out of the workforce.

The costs and consequences of technical debt
Many companies view technical debt as a temporary
trade-off and postpone upgrades. However, doing so only
raises costs due to technical challenges and maintenance.

The inflexibility of legacy systems also makes it more diffi-
cult to adapt to modern business needs and requirements,
such as the ability to scale and support larger transaction
By Cheryl Fitzgarrald volumes.
BHMI

ver the past couple of decades, many banks, Additionally, antiquated systems often have more bugs
merchant acquirers and payment processors and lag times, creating delays and impacting employee
have tried to keep pace with the rapid changes productivity as well as customer satisfaction. This can neg-
O in the payments industry by adding point atively impact employee morale and make it more difficult
solutions and patches to their legacy back-office systems. to retain customers in a highly competitive marketplace.

While this has kept many in the game, it has also delayed In many cases, legacy systems are so old that there is lim-
inevitable system upgrades. Mounting technical debt in the ited documentation, and the original software developers
form of inefficiencies, rising maintenance needs and op- can no longer offer support. The lack of documentation
erational shortcomings have worsened over the years, put- and support means many systems cannot keep pace with
ting these organizations at an operational disadvantage. new compliance standards

At some point, the only solution is to cut the cord and fully Finally, these systems lack advanced security features like
leap to a modern payments back-office environment. This encryption and firewalls, which make them more vulner-
eliminates technical debt and paves the way for innova- able and susceptible to attack.
tion, agility and better business competitiveness.

Understanding the technical debt of legacy systems Call me today!
Let me help you
Many merchants and financial services companies have
incrementally added new functionality to their back-office with your
environment over the years, leaving them with a complex advertising
mix of legacy and new systems. While this has partially success.
enabled them to adopt new technologies, it has also left
complex, fragmented systems that are becoming harder to 707-284-1693
manage and maintain.

Quick-fix solutions and workarounds may offer short-term
gains, but they often come with long-term consequences,
one of which is technical debt. The longer these legacy sys-
tems stay in place, the more technical debt accrues, often R R
in the form of operational inefficiencies, high maintenance ick Aston
costs and security risks. Senior Media Partnership Specialist
Rick@greensheet.com
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