Decommissioning Legacy Applications at a Chemical Enterprise
Auritas assisted a Chemical Enterprise in decommissioning over 200 legacy applications that had accumulated as newer systems replaced older ones. The project involved a comprehensive approach, including requirements gathering, options evaluation, and the development of a strategy to address the complexities of their diverse legacy systems. Auritas also provided a detailed roadmap and actionable recommendations to guide the customer’s team in executing a successful data decommissioning process.
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Application Decommissioning
Successfully decommissioned hundreds of legacy SAP and Non-SAP applications.
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Millions in Savings
Achieved significant savings by retiring decommissioned licensing and infrastructure.
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Secure Accessibility
Guaranteed easy access to data held within legacy environments.
The Challenge
Like many organizations, this Chemical Enterprise relied on a large number of applications to support its operations. Over time, as technology evolved, new applications replaced older ones, leaving them with a portfolio of over 200 legacy systems that needed decommissioning. However, due to data retention and compliance requirements, the data within these legacy applications had to remain accessible for retrieval. To address this challenge, the objective was to partner with trusted enterprise data and document management firm, Auritas, to design and implement a repeatable data decommissioning capability, not only for the current legacy applications but also for any future systems.
The Solution
Auritas began the project by reviewing the customer's existing legacy system portfolio and the data they had already gathered. They identified gaps and developed a targeted questionnaire to gather the missing information. After distributing the questionnaires, compiling the results, and conducting workshops, Auritas delivered a comprehensive set of recommendations.
Auritas ran scoring scenarios to evaluate system and data requirements, producing weighted results for potential solutions. Active support from the Customer Steering Committee was a key success factor throughout the project.
The final deliverable outlined a set of 2-4 target tools/systems for decommissioning, covering the approach to extract data, transform it (if necessary), tag and store it for future use (ECM, CRM, etc.), and efficiently retrieve and report the data while managing retention and destruction (disposition) in compliance with regulations.
Auritas developed tailored strategies based on several key criteria to ensure an efficient and effective data decommissioning process. The system-based approach focused on decommissioning similar systems first, such as SAP R/3 and Oracle. The retention compliance-based strategy prioritized the oldest data for decommissioning to meet regulatory requirements. The business unit-based approach organized the decommissioning efforts by different departments, including Finance, EHS/Production, HR, Customer Service, and Procurement. Additionally, ease of execution was prioritized by starting with less complex systems to build team confidence and knowledge, enabling parallel work on similar systems as the process progressed.
Results & Benefits
Auritas' data decommissioning solution streamlined the chemical enterprise's operations by decommissioning legacy SAP and Non-SAP applications, optimizing data access, and driving significant cost savings, all while laying the foundation for future initiatives with a clean, compliant data strategy and best practices.