Majority of the compair use information systems that were developed several decades ago systems. These systems were tailor made for the company's needs (at that time) and were enhanced and modified many times during their lifecycle. Most of these systems will be functioning far below the expected efficiency levels and would be using obsolete technologies. Maintaining these systems is a difficult job as most of the employees who have done the design and programming will not be available (they might have left the company or retired). Also, since these systems were designed and developed during the time when software engineering and structured programming practices were still in their infancy, the software development procedures and practices that make the programs more maintainable were not followed. In many cases there will not be any documentation and in some cases there will not even be the source code. Thus, it is difficult to understand what exactly a program or subsystem is doing. The year 2000 problem has created a situation in which the companies have no choice. They have to fix the programs, before the entire information system crashes and brings down the organization with it.
Most of the companies q(e dissatisfied with the legacy systems that they have. This is due to many rea~ons. First, as I have mentioned before, most of these systems were developed during a time when information technology (IT) had only a supportive role. Now IT has evolved from its supportive role and has become an integral part of the business. In fact, IT is supposed to be the most critical and important resource of an organization and the success and failure of any organization will depend on how well it manages its IT resources.
Thus, most organizations are implementing or planning to implement the packaged software solutions or ERP packages. With more and more ERP vendors and many products, the organizations have a better chance of identifying a package that will perfectly fit their business processes and functions.
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