Many legacy Applications still perform critical tasks for the organization but are difficult to use, tied to antiquated technology, unattractive and inefficient for the user, and difficult to integrate with newer systems.

One approach to handling the usefulness of these systems, while leaving the bulk of the processing logic in place, is to replace the current front end (often terminal emulation) with a more usable and efficient graphical user interface, either desktop based or web enabled. This is a mostly non-invasive approach to modernizing the legacy application which requires much less effort and testing while bringing immediate payback to an organization.

Very often this approach is taken in conjuction with one or more of the other legacy modernization approaches, such as SOA, but it can also be a useful effort of its own, especially if a more efficient interface leads to a better customer eperience which utimately improved the bottom line.

However, before rushing off with your new GUI design tool, be aware that re-facing may not be as simple as it sounds. Often along with a newer more user friendly interface comes a change of workflow and logic that make it not simply a user interface issue. In many legacy systems logic and business rules are often embedded in the 'client' part of the application which protects the server side logic from receiving 'bad' data and often packages functionality into very specific boundaries that the new interface may be proposing to cross. These issues need to be analyzed and addressed and sometimes compromises are necessary or the simple re-facing exercise can become more costly than a replacement.

As every experience counts, knowing where to look for that logic and those business rules and knowing how to re-face with the minimum of disturbance makes the whole exercise more viable.

Why Work with Caro?

Caro has performed significant legacy migration projects in the past including several re-facing efforts. We know how to approach the issues, how to re-package the functionality and how to re-design the UI with the maximum impact and the minimal disturbance to the legacy logic.