The project's expected ROIROI stems in part from the projected decreasein maintenance costs of the new system compared with the legacysystem, she says. Also, by linking to the Web, Fitzpatrick can put hercompany in closer contact with its constituents - doctors, hospitalsand employers - and decrease administrative costs. Alles zu ROI auf CIO.de

"The most important justification for beginning this kind of projectis the business need," says Bruce Fadem, vice president and CIO ofAmerican Home Products, a $13.3 billion global pharmaceutical companybased in Madison, N.J.

Because legacy applications are so tightly tied to the way a companyfunctions, the health and flexibility of those applications directlyaffect the business' ability to grow.

"The time is right for modernization because the attempt to marry theworlds of legacy and e-business has reached the point of pain," saysTyler McDaniel, an analyst with the Hurwitz Group, an IT consultancyin Framingham, Mass. "If you wait to modernize, you'll continue tosuffer consequences such as errors, delays in processing andfulfillment lags. These are things that will drive your company out ofbusiness."