E-commerce growth threatened by legacy systems, study finds

A study just released by Retail Systems Research of Miami, commissioned by IBM and SAP, finds that the existence of legacy systems in companies may limit the growth of their e-commerce activities. The problem is not so much integration of online and offline processes, where companies have made progress, but rather the fact the different sales channels tend to be supported by different systems, and the lack of integration limits the ability of the company to provide a single view of a customer. Many companies have moved slowly with replacing their legacy systems because of the tremendous conversion and process change costs. However, the long term benefits may be growing. E-commerce growth threatened by legacy systems, study finds