The Legacy Software Crisis in Indian SMEs
A manufacturing company in Vijayawada runs their entire operation on a Visual Basic 6 ERP built in 2008. The original developer retired. The only person who understands it is a 58-year-old IT manager who has been there since day one. When he takes sick leave, operations slow significantly. The system cannot integrate with any modern service, cannot run on Windows 11, and has not been audited for security in 15 years. This scenario is not unusual — it is common across Indian manufacturing, logistics, and trading businesses.
Calculating the True Cost of Legacy Software
Most businesses see only the direct maintenance cost (what they pay the IT person who keeps it running). The hidden costs: manual data entry between systems that cannot integrate (multiply hours by hourly cost), errors from the manual process (even 1% error rate on ₹10 crore GMV is ₹10 lakh in losses), opportunity cost of features you cannot build because the legacy system does not support them, and the key-person risk of the one employee who understands the system. Add these up honestly and legacy software is almost always more expensive than replacement.
Modernisation Without Disruption
The "big bang" rewrite — replace everything at once — is high risk. The recommended approach for most Indian SMEs: strangler fig pattern. Build the new system module by module alongside the legacy one. New operations go through the new system; historical data stays in the old one until migration is complete and validated. This reduces risk significantly because the business never depends entirely on unproven software.
What Modernisation Costs and Returns
A custom ERP replacement for a 30-50 person company: ₹3,00,000 – ₹8,00,000 and six to twelve months. The return: eliminated IT maintenance cost, 10–20 hours/week of recovered employee time, ability to integrate with modern tools (GST portal, Razorpay, WhatsApp), and the removal of key-person risk. Contact hello@devxaitechnologies.com for a legacy modernisation assessment.