Legacy enterprise systems are complete, end to end systems that allow for endless possibilities, with an endless price. They are typically decades-old, proven systems that have stood the test of time, but haven’t kept up with the pace of technology.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Legacy Enterprise Systems
The primary strength of legacy enterprise order management systems isn’t obvious. These systems have been incumbents in the space for decades, for good reason.
Able to keep their market share and add new functions and features to their platform helped them stay dominant without investing in new technological architecture.
Functionality has improved, but not reworked for the modern era.
Because of all the additions over the years, there are a plethora of functions.
One of those is custom reporting. With all the data available in the system, and customizations and implementations to each organization’s installation specifically, it’s possible to create virtually any kind of report.
Of course, with a vendor selling this type of software, all of that will be custom, and will likely incur an additional cost.
Omnichannel has many advantages, and many legacy enterprise systems in use today have had improvements made to them to adapt to the changing landscape in the past decade or so.
They connect to almost every other system needed to execute on an omnichannel strategy - including marketplaces, wholesalers, in-store, ecommerce, and phone.
Part of that omnichannel strategy is a wide breadth of in-store fulfillment options. Organizations using one of these systems can expect to offer the same fulfillment capabilities as national retailers such as Best Buy and Amazon.
In addition, they offer deep integrations into many other platforms in use. Additional systems for omnichannel, POS, retail functions, accounting, or supply chain can connect with these legacy enterprise systems.
If an existing connection doesn’t exist, these organizations have the resources to divert to creating that integration for you for an additional cost.
Every addition, integration, or customization requires immense resources, partly because everything will be built by the vendor. This is why implementation can be a lengthy process.
Cost of Legacy Enterprise Systems
The main drawback of these systems is their cost.
Costs, of course, will depend on specific needs, but expect them to be high (hundreds of thousands). There are estimates of up to $1 million, but the only way to truly understand the cost is to discover it for yourself
Once the system is initially set up, it may require dedicated developers for basic upkeep and maintenance.
That’s because these systems are legacy - built on the successes of 10, 20, or 30 years ago, without a framework or infrastructure modified at the same pace that technology has changed. And it’s changed very quickly.
Allocating resources to maintenance addresses a classic IT problem - not being able to focus on innovation. Instead of sprinting forward, this can leave organizations treading water.
However, for organizations willing to spend up to $1 million a year on implementation, this may not affect the balance sheet as much.
What may affect the balance sheet is the scalability of the platform.
Since these platforms use technology were built before the enormous ecommerce boom, they are simply not equipped to handle large order or shipping volumes for events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or even flash sales.
How SkuNexus is Different
Scalable Technology
SkuNexus is fast and nimble, and architected to handle today’s rapidly changing shopping behaviors. Stress tested to over 1000/orders a minute, you’ll never have a problem with high order or shipping volumes.
What you want to avoid is something like Amazon’s Prime Day recently. Even systems as large and tested as Amazon’s AWS can fail if volume is too high.
Rapid Development and Deployment
SkuNexus was built for speedy development and deployment.
When you have a new requirement and need it implemented quickly you have the ability with our Enterprise solution to have items deployed in a matter of days not months. This is primarily because of the amount of control you have over the system.
Control
With our Enterprise solution, you’ve got full access to the source code, which allows endless customizability. You can change your order and fulfillment processes to exactly how your operations team works. We believe that software should adapt to the business, not the other way around.
You also have control over how improvements are made to the system.. We don’t limit you on who can use or edit the system’s functionality - it can be your team, a third party development agency, or our team.
So if you want a platform that gives you customization and control, but let’s you choose how you allocate your resources, SkuNexus might be the one for you. Click here to schedule a demo with a member of our team.
