Can Pulling the Plug on a Legacy Application Be Pouring Money down the Drain?
It’s expensive to develop new business solutions. If an existing application continues to accommodate your business requirements, and the complete software application platform (licensing, service, and support model) presents a continued value proposition, then why change? What language the code is written in or how old the software package is matters less than whether you can sustain it, support it and maintain it.
For an example: Why is AspenTech’s supply chain management solution, Aspen SCM™, more commonly known as MIMI™, still used in production planning and scheduling at companies around the world? In this era of high tech rapid application development, you would think an interactive modeling interface that started its beginnings more than 25 years ago would die peacefully. But in this case, it’s not dead, it is still flourishing.
Since Profit Point supports a variety of MIMI™ users in the chemical, biotech, tire, and petrochemical industries we recognize its history of value, and it’s potential to change with the changing business climate. MIMI has allowed companies to take control of their production scheduling problems, and help them maximize throughput while optimizing resource investment.
Profit Point has evaluated and supported various supply-chain management solutions, and we continue to provide support for older MIMI versions used for production planning and scheduling. It’s the built in scheduling and task sequencing capabilities, and MIMI’s user-friendly interface and the ease which it can be configured to address a company’s specific business process requirements that makes it the ideal legacy supply-chain management solution. Furthermore, leveraging MIMI’s scheduling models to integrate with ERP systems, such as SAP, Oracle or others, streamlines the scheduling process with minimal human interaction. Even after 20 plus years of use, MIMI’s flexibility, configurability, ability to integrate with other databases and custom applications, allows it to survive. Add in MIMI’s ability to model a company’s business processes at a fraction of the cost to implement a new system, and you have a survivor. Aspen SCM™ or MIMI™ (Which by the way, stands for Manager for Interactive Modeling Interfaces) continues to outlast other scheduling tools
In our opinion, legacy systems can continue to provide exceptional value if nurtured with the right service and support resources. Pulling the plug on some legacy applications can be pouring money down the drain. These are resources that can be used in other areas.
To learn more about our Aspen SCM (MIMI) Support services, contact us here.