An IT Leaders Guide to Application Modernization.pdf

An IT Leader's Guide to
Application Modernization:
Customer stories and successes
Swaran Soft
- Tech Simpliﬁed -

Organizations in every industry are prioritizing digital transformation to enhance their business agility, profitability, and competitive posture.
Yet many companies’ core systems are difficult to enhance or update, or they’re completely outdated, which drives up the costs and risks
associated with delivering mission-critical innovations.
However, there is an option that can streamline and circumvent barriers to execution: taking a managed-risk approach to modernization. This
strategy allows companies to build and deploy new and updated capabilities at a lower cost, with faster time to value and lower effort than
traditional methods. Depending on their needs and current technology, companies can use a best-in-class low-code development platform to
extend legacy applications with new UIs or user journeys, refactor current applications to composable components, or rebuild core systems
from the ground up faster than using traditional tooling or COTS applications.
Need proof? We thought you’d never ask. Read on for examples of organizations that have successfully modernized their legacy systems by
extending, refactoring, or rebuilding them using a low-code development platform.
Extend
enterprise applications
with new capabilities
Extending core systems means
adding easy-to-use front ends to
improve productivity, efficiency,
and user experience. Companies
take this approach when their
core systems continue to perform
but lack the flexibility to add new
features and interfaces, such as
mobile apps.
Refactor
to build a modern
composable architecture
Decoupling and refactoring existing
systems lets you create a modular
composable architecture that provides
the flexibility to innovate quickly and
leverage cloud-native technologies.
Refactoring makes sense when you
need to drive more value from legacy
systems but can’t replace them easily
due to the cost or risk involved.
Rebuild
outdated systems
with low-code
When a legacy system has reached
the end of its useful life, you can rebuild
your core systems with low-code to
meet your unique needs in months
instead of years. Eliminate the technical
debt that keeps you from competing
effectively without the risk, cost, and
complexity of traditional development
or the limitations of COTS.
An IT Leader's Guide to Application Modernization
2

Van Ameyde: Improving productivity
with modern applications
Global insurer Van Ameyde provides complete claims management services to over 1,000
businesses and insurance companies in more than 16 countries. But its off-the-shelf
installation of SAP lacked the flexibility necessary to provide customers with the best service
and transparency levels in the market. Van Ameyde needed the ability to customize the
claims management process for each client, from the call center to the claims workflow, while
retaining full control over each backend claim resolution and payment through SAP. What’s
more, the system had to be flexible enough to adapt to each customer’s requirements in a
matter of weeks.
That was a tall order. The new application would have to provide employees with standard
processes, but with the ability to customize each client’s processes and workflows, while
reflecting each country’s specific legal, currency, and language requirements. Van Ameyde
also needed a system that would allow for easy changes in the future, supporting the
company’s planned growth.
Van Ameyde selected the OutSystems low-code application platform to build and deploy its
European Claims Handling Optimization (ECHO) system, which now provides customized
claims handling based on each customer’s service level agreement and their home country’s
requirements. The choice was an easy one. Not only did OutSystems offer extensive integration
with SAP, but it also provided robust business process management capabilities, an agile
methodology, and multilingual and multi-country support. Best of all, the solution required
zero customization of the SAP systems.
ECHO has exceeded Van Ameyde’s expectations, generating a 30% improvement in the time to
resolve a claim. The system is also highly flexible, needing only four weeks to push out new
releases and just 20 days to add a new feature.
Learn more about Van Ameyde and OutSystems.
1 Extend
3
Organization: Van Ameyde
Industry: Insurance
Location: The Netherlands
Use case:
Customized claims portal
Approach:
Extend SAP and build customizations to
speed claims management
Results:
30% reduction in time to claim
resolution

Global chemicals company: Making SAP easier
A global chemicals company relied heavily on SAP as its core business system. But a lack of
mobile access, as well as the complexity of the SAP UI, meant that employee adoption was low.
At factories, for example, typically just one or two people were adequately trained to use the
system. With the majority of staff unable to self-serve, data often fell out of date. The data that
was available was difficult and frustrating to access. They needed a way to modernize their SAP
system to make the UI easier and increase adoption.
The solution that made the most sense was to create mobile apps tailored to specific roles and
use cases that would streamline the UI and make data input and retrieval more intuitive. After
exploring other options, the company turned to low-code development on the OutSystems
platform. Members of the development team were amazed at what they could accomplish. The
apps they developed provided a modern UX that gave users access not only to the SAP ERP and
to Business Warehouse (BW), but also to dozens of other systems, including Tableau, Azure
Services, Office 365, Salesforce.com, and the company’s IoT connectivity platform. Within just
three years, the company’s small team of developers delivered more than 35 mobile applications
touching nearly every aspect of the business, including sales, R&D, order to cash, HR, asset
management, PLM, procure to pay, pricing, sourcing, product safety, IoT, and more.
Learn more about this global chemicals company and OutSystems.
4
“We were amazed by what we were able to do with OutSystems. In terms of speed,
flexibility, and integration, it proved the most capable platform for our needs.”
— Mobility Manager, global chemicals company
1 Extend
Organization:
Global chemicals company
Industry: Chemicals
Use case:
Customized mobile access to
supply chain applications
Approach:
Extend SAP to facilitate data entry and
retrieval for employees and partners
Results:
35+ applications used by 4,000+ staff
and tens of thousands of partner users,
created by just two in-house developers

Green Cargo: From legacy freeze to innovation
When Ingo Paas arrived at Swedish rail company Green Cargo to take on the CIO role, the
company was preparing to rip and replace its mainframe logistics system and SAP ERP, which
were severely hampering digital innovation. The company was outsourcing much of its IT
development, and it lacked both a strategy and the ability to innovate. Ingo suggested an
alternative: leveraging the OutSystems low-code platform to bring development in-house and
shift digital innovation to the cloud while still accessing data in the legacy systems.
Using OutSystems, Ingo and his team of developers refactored the company’s systems,
migrating each new component to Microsoft Azure. In less than a year, his sustainable
innovation strategy put several significant applications into production. One was a mobile app
for rail yard workers that streamlined processes such as schedule change notification, wagon
pick-up, safety checks, ready reports, tag assignment, and carriage damage reporting. The app
integrates with the mainframe logistics and SAP systems to provide real-time information and
runs on standard smartphones. This enabled Green Cargo to retire dedicated mobile devices
with outdated and unreliable software.
Other applications include a predictive maintenance app that receives real-time telemetry from
sensors, as well as a customer portal to dramatically improve customer service. Meanwhile,
each innovation that Green Cargo releases via its cloud platform moves the company closer
to turning off its mainframe and SAP system. With a track record of successful and fast app
delivery, Ingo’s budget is up and his team’s headcount is expected to grow.
Learn more about Green Cargo and OutSystems.
2 Refactor
5
"To digitize this company, we had to bring innovation and development in-
house and get the business and IT collaborating effectively. OutSystems gives
us the agility to make that possible. By comparison, if we were doing traditional
development, five to ten years from now, we’d have built a new legacy."
— Ingo Paas, CIO, Green Cargo
Organization: Green Cargo
Industry: Rail logistics
Location: Sweden
Use case:
Mobile applications for logistics
management, predictive maintenance app,
and customer portal
Approach:
Refactor SAP and mainframe logistics
application into a composable architecture
Results:
80% time savings for mobile app
development

Banco Santander: Digital transformation
with minimal resources
Struggling to adapt to a fast-changing market and seeking to diversify its offerings, the
Portuguese consumer division of the global Santander Group put together a company-wide
taskforce in 2016 to digitally transform every aspect of the business, including products,
processes, channels, compliance, and IT. The digital transformation required a new, agile IT
architecture to replace many of the bank’s 20-year-old systems. Fundamental to this was the
creation of an enterprise service bus, a new business process management layer, and new
channels for all product stakeholders. With guidance from transformation partner KPMG,
Santander chose the OutSystems low-code platform and built 14 new solutions in three years
with a team of 20 people from IT, operations, and various business departments.
In late 2018, the first solutions went live for consumer credit and personal loans, followed by
applications for ecommerce payment processing, digital cash loans, complaint management,
and B2B solutions for used car and durable goods dealers.
By the beginning of 2020, Santander had replaced 70% of the processes that were in its legacy
core systems. As Domingos Ferreira, IT & Operations Director, puts it, “In just three years,
we have replaced and improved a technology architecture that took us 20 years to develop.”
Even better, the bank now has the agility to quickly launch new propositions to market with
streamlined, digitally optimized processes and significantly improved customer experience
while, at the same time, providing an overall lower cost of maintenance compared to the
previous systems.
Learn more about Banco Santander and OutSystems.
2 Refactor
6
"Working with OutSystems and KPMG, we have built a new IT architecture,
replaced 70% of our core systems, and streamlined our operations. We are now
executing the business vision and delivering new digital channels and solutions to
lead in the consumer finance market.”
— Domingos Ferreira, IT & Operations Director, Banco Santander Consumer Portugal
Organization: Banco Santander
Industry: Financial services
Location: Portugal
Use case:
Customer-facing credit and loan
applications, payment processing
Approach:
Refactor aging systems to increase agility
in a highly competitive market
Results:
70% of core systems replaced; >90% of
partners adopt digital onboarding;
14 new applications

US Acute Care Solution (USACS): Embracing
rapid development to reduce technical debt and
dependence on external vendors
When Ohio-based Emergency Medicine Physicians became US Acute Care Solution (USACS),
it relied on an OpenText patient portal called MyPulse. But as the organization grew through
acquisitions and demands for new features accelerated, it proved impossible to update this
legacy portal at the pace the business required.
USACS engaged OutSystems professional services to deliver its new portal while at the same
time training its small in-house app development team. Using the OutSystems low-code
platform, the organization modernized its portal in five months and launched an accompanying
mobile app in three months. The results include increased adoption, personalization, improved
user experience, and mobile access. Now, USACS’s two in-house developers deliver continuous
improvements to the portal every two to three weeks.
Since the portal’s launch, USACS has also been able to eliminate its outdated Lotus Notes
applications, either by rebuilding the apps' functionality on OutSystems or moving commodity
functions to its ERP and HR systems. The organization has built a wide range of web and mobile
applications, including a work tracker, a risk tracker, and a dedicated mobile app that provides
more than 90 percent of the original portal’s functionality. The new systems ensure that USACS
can quickly onboard each acquired acute healthcare practice onto a uniform suite of built-for-
purpose applications, quickly weaning them off legacy systems and eliminating
SaaS sprawl.
Learn more about US Acute Care Solution (USACS) and OutSystems.
3 Rebuild
7
“We’re now much more in control of our product roadmap. By eliminating SaaS
sprawl and legacy debt, we’re no longer dependent on external vendors for new
features. We’re now much more responsive to business requirements."
— Jesse Eterovich, Vice President of Technology, USACS
Organization: USACS
Industry: Healthcare
Location: United States
Use case:
Patient portal
Approach:
Rebuild legacy patient portal to support
rapid growth
Results:
$2 million annual savings

PLANgroep: Rebuilding a legacy SharePoint
system for the future
Dutch financial care provider PLANgroep relied on SharePoint as a core business system to help
more than 20,000 people manage their finances every day. After a decade of individual client-
specific customizations and numerous complex integrations, however, the company’s custom-
built deployment had become too difficult to enhance. In order to offer clients new self-service
options and improve the user experience for debt counselors, PLANgroep needed to break free
of its legacy gridlock with a flexible technology stack that would support continual innovation
and meet rapidly changing customer and legislative requirements.
Delivery partner IG&H built the new system in fewer than 18 months using the OutSystems low-
code development platform, providing all the necessary functionality as well as the flexibility
PLANgroep needed to build for the future. The new system improved user experience and
provided easier access to all client information, which boosted counselor productivity and
helped them serve more than 20,000 people every day. Now that the company has an agile
development platform, the best is yet to come, with opportunities to build new innovations and
connect with other systems.
Learn more about PLANgroep and OutSystems.
3 Rebuild
8
“We’re already looking to the future. We see lots of opportunities to build in
new innovations and connectivity with other systems, which is easy with the
OutSystems platform. So, the best is yet to come."
— Jeroen Ekkel, CEO of PLANGroep parent company, Cohedron
Organization: PLANgroep
Industry: Financial services
Location: The Netherlands
Use case:
Self-service portal that services
over 20,000 clients per day
Approach:
Rebuild aging SharePoint applications
to increase agility
Results:
Higher productivity resulting from
improved user experience and easier
access to client information

Sarawak Energy: Modernizing
core apps for better CX
Sarawak Energy is an energy development company and a vertically integrated power utility
serving a population of nearly three million in Sarawak, Malaysia. The company chose the
OutSystems low-code application platform to update its contractor-facing portal to make it
easier to customize and integrate with back-end systems.
The portal modernization was such a success that a year later, the company embarked on a
broad Lotus Notes and Domino migration program, which will ultimately see around 280 Notes
databases replaced by mobile-friendly, integrated, and more powerful OutSystems-built web
applications. First was a crucial field service mobile app for meter reading that allowed Sarawak
to retire outdated handheld devices used for this purpose. The team also delivered 15 other
apps in just 16 weeks. The new applications have streamlined processes, eliminated rekeying
between disconnected systems, modernized the user experience for customers and employees,
and improved mobility for field staff.
With OutSystems, Sarawak Energy's IT team is escaping from a legacy of siloed Notes
applications by building more powerful apps that integrate directly with enterprise applications,
including Maximo, SAP, Ariba, and SuccessFactors. What’s more, the company now has a
multipurpose application development platform and single skill set that can address numerous
use cases, including CX, UX, mobility, and core system replacement and extension.
Learn more about Sarawak Energy and OutSystems.
3 Rebuild
9
“OutSystems gives us the agility to modernize our customer interfaces quickly with
limited in-house resources. We look forward to OutSystems further accelerating
our digital transformation journey towards a modernized enterprise."
— Sim Ko Sin, Senior Vice President, Information and Communications Technology,
Sarawak Energy
Organization: Sarawak Energy
Industry: Power utility
Location: Malaysia
Use case:
Mobile field service apps for meter reading;
contractor-facing portal
Approach:
Rebuild legacy Lotus Notes applications
to improve CX and agility
Results:
16 apps in 16 weeks; replaced outdated
technology in favor of modern mobile
apps and multipurpose app development

Modernize your applications
with OutSystems
Extending, refactoring, rebuilding. Whatever modernization approach — or combination of
approaches — you take, the OutSystems low-code development platform can get you there
faster and with a lower investment than traditional methods. But as these companies have
learned, that is just the beginning of the digital transformation journey. Even with limited
development resources, they now have a solid foundation for future agility and innovation.
OutSystems has changed the way these companies develop software, so they can rapidly
create and deploy critical applications that evolve with their businesses. What about yours?
To learn more about how you can modernize your applications
with the OutSystems low-code application development platform,
visit OutSystems.com.

About OutSystems
Thousands of customers worldwide trust OutSystems—the only
solution that enables the visual development of entire application
portfolios that easily integrate with existing systems.
Learn more at www.outsystems.com
Want to know more? Contact Swaran Soft Support Solutions Pvt. Ltd.:
Email Swaran Soft Support Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
info@swaransoft.com
Visit our site to learn more
www.swaransoft.com
www.lowcodedigitalfactory.com
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Pvt. Ltd.]
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Corporates, Government, Institutions & Innovation Hungry Startups for
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