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One of my favorite moments from the original Star Trek series is when Captain Kirk frantically urges Scotty to get the USS Enterprise back in action—usually while under attack and grappling with technical malfunctions. Scotty always manages to pull it off, but his quick fixes and improvised solutions often come at a price. Though the starship’s photon torpedoes might still fire, the continual patching takes a toll on both the vessel’s performance and the crew’s stamina.
IT organizations are a textbook example of what I call the “Scotty Principle.” In the original Star Trek, Captain Kirk could always count on Scotty to keep the USS Enterprise running—often with little more than determination and quick fixes. Today’s business leaders expect the same from their IT teams. The business is constantly under assault from cyber threats, shifting regulations, and evolving market demands. Each time a threat emerges, or a requirement changes, IT responds by reworking previous fixes and keeping the systems afloat. But the challenge doesn’t stop there. Software vendors, racing to counter new cyber risks and deliver enhancements, issue frequent updates. While these updates are essential, they force IT teams to continually reintegrate and adapt, layering new solutions onto an already complex environment. Like Scotty, IT always gets the job done, but at a growing cost: the gradual buildup of complexity, fragility, and technical debt.
Legacy systems also become intractable because of the chronic underfunding and understaffing of their caretaking IT departments. Oftentimes the reason for this is that the CIO has not properly articulated their function’s full impact. They present management with a “grocery list” of applications and devices, rather than showing them the “meals” those ingredients will make (i.e., the services that technology will provide to the business). IT leadership often struggles to connect the dots for the CEO and CFO, linking the technology investments being made to the business outcomes they enable. Technology investment lags, and everyone in the organization accepts that this is just the way things work. In my experience, unmanageable legacy IT systems are not always the result of incompetence or mismanagement (although sometimes they are). More often, they’re a natural consequence of stepwise technological change and the persistent disconnect between technical managers and the everyday users they support.
Updating these legacy systems becomes a critical opportunity. Doing nothing increases business risks. Staying with older technology introduces security vulnerabilities, compliance liabilities, and operational downtime. The old systems may appear cost-effective, but hidden maintenance and licensing expenses reduce their financial viability. Staffing costs rise, because outdated systems often require specific, legacy, expertise. If your IT team is nearing retirement, your systems may be too! The CFO is likely wondering why the biggest cost keeps rising, even as the systems aren’t changing. Even for companies that do not perceive IT capabilities as a competitive differentiator, there is no avoiding the criticality of these systems. No business can endure an extended IT outage without consequence.
For other businesses, legacy IT systems hinder competitiveness even before things go wrong. Modernizing legacy systems enhances your speed to market, improves customer experience, and increases flexibility. Newer systems often deliver advanced reporting capabilities that not only strengthen ERP functionality but also enhance financial performance—giving companies a sharper competitive edge. Just as importantly, they’re designed to integrate with emerging AI applications, enabling entirely new forms of business insight and decision-making that older platforms can’t match.
My colleagues and I saw this all come together in our work with a fast-growing holding company in an emerging market. Their understaffed IT department was in “firefighting mode,” their ERP was poorly designed and configured (which prohibited proper reporting, much less AI integration), and they struggled with cyber protection and resilience. In nine months, we completed an overhaul of their legacy system—replacing what had been a barrier to growth, with an accelerator.
Patching legacy systems to keep them running—the Scotty Principle—might suffice for survival today, but it won't propel your business to the next frontier. In an era where AI-driven insights and seamless integrations define market leaders, clinging to outdated infrastructure is a strategic misstep. Modernization isn't about discarding the old for the new; it's about evolving your IT landscape to unlock agility, innovation, and competitive advantage.
Just as the USS Enterprise required more than quick fixes to explore new worlds, your organization needs robust, forward-thinking systems to navigate the complexities of today's digital universe. Embrace modernization—not as a cost, but as an investment in your company's future trajectory.
