There’s no need for business leaders to battle with legacy systems just because these systems house valuable data – there is another way, says global consultancy firm Proceed Group.
Proceed Group is a recognised leader in archiving, content management, and data privacy for enterprise SAP systems, and legacy data management for all enterprise applications.
ITWeb spoke with executives from the company ahead of its participation as Platinum sponsor of the ITWeb BI Summit 2025, scheduled for 12 and 13 March at The Forum, in Bryanston.
According to Proceed, data is the lifeblood of any organisation, and in the digital economy, ensuring all business data is accessible and useable is key.
Data archiving or the reduction of the data footprint in a SAP system is one of Proceed’s key focus areas, the others being SAP content management and legacy system decommissioning, which the company describes as a hot topic globally.
Mookho Kabi, Regional director Proceed Group; co-founder Proceed Group Africa, explains that businesses accumulate legacy systems because of growth, acquisitions or by upgrading systems.
Some customers may have up to 100 legacy systems within their IT landscape.
The reason they keep them is because they house data that is important for regulatory, tax or business purposes, and they need to maintain access to this data.
But keeping legacy systems could expose organisations to significant cost and unnecessary risk.
Heightened risk
Maintaining legacy systems means incurring costs, including for staff and software, says Robert Reuben, MD of Proceed Group.
Reuben says software can be outdated and could land the organisation on the wrong side of regulatory compliance.
“Cost is usually the first reason businesses consider decommissioning, but the hidden risks can be even bigger. We’ve seen companies keeping legacy systems on outdated hardware, only to find that when they finally need access, the system won’t turn on. Some even go hunting for replacement parts on eBay just to get a critical application running again. That’s a massive risk," says Reuben.
A complete system failure could result in permanent data loss, regulatory fines and valuable insights disappearing forever.
A credible alternative
There is a better way, according to Proceed Group. The company explains that its solution, Proceed Cella, can not only extract and store data, but also provide the reports needed so users can still access the data in a way they need, and then shut down the legacy system, to no longer incur costs.
“The whole thing is about how to maintain access to your historical data; say goodbye to legacy, but don’t lose the data that you need. There are a lot of companies that aren’t aware of the better option; some don’t know how to go about it – don’t know how to extract data and still have it accessible in a way that is suitable for their business,” adds Kabi.
Regulation
Mantashe points out that one of Proceed’s strengths is its in-house expertise and experience.
This is invaluable because different regions and industries have varying rules that govern data use, storage, retention and exchange.
“Proceed understands global and industry rules and regulations. This means that no matter what your data footprint looks like, we can make sure you are keeping the data that you actually need, in the format you need it, and for the amount of time you need it.”
Kabi and the team at Proceed emphasise the significance of South African legislation, such as the PFMA (Public Finance Management Act), and the need for compliance in municipalities, for example.
“This is part of our value proposition. Yes, there is a large technical component, but it is also about running projects efficiently at scale. It’s about building the business case, getting the business on board with the project as well… that’s how we deliver value; alongside the experience, we know what can go wrong, we know who to speak to in the business,” Kabi adds.
Proceed Group knows how to address these challenges without risk to data, the company says.
The company sees itself as a partner to organisations that are on their digital transformation journey – a partner that knows how to manage data.
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