Increase IT migrations in the Netherlands

Economic uncertainty and "boomer" exodus force companies to modernize IT

Companies in the Netherlands are under increasing pressure to modernize their IT systems and frequently turn to migration specialists for a solution. This is the observation of Belgian migration specialist Anubex, which has received four migration orders from the Netherlands for a value of $2.5 million in the last 9 months.

The growth is being pushed by two factors. First are the cost-cutting initiatives of companies as they face a softening global economy, and second is the boomer demographic that is leaving the workplace, taking with it knowledge of mission-critical IT systems. In the Netherlands, this trend can be seen in different sectors, ranging from law firms with a few hundred employees to the largest Dutch banks.

"A migration is a special kind of software project where the objective is to recuperate the mission-critical business logic and data that companies already have deployed in production. When programs and data are on older technology platforms they tend to become more expensive to maintain since they require harder-to-find skills to keep running. Also contributing to the cost is the need to purchase and deploy special connectors that allow these older platforms to integrate with more modern technology," according to Louis Heymans, Managing Director of Anubex.

"The vendors of the older technology platforms that need to support their products have similar problems and the companies that use this technology see themselves absorbing a lot of these costs in the form of increased maintenance licenses. All in all, companies that use these older platforms are being squeezed in three directions at once. A migration is often the best choice," according to Heymans.

The retirement of the "baby boomer" demographic is also a contributor to the modernization trend. The fact the number of people with the combined technical and business insight to maintain companies' IT systems is shrinking is already concern. The current conditions on the market for IT talent are making the prospects worse. "Experienced IT professionals should be investing their time in the training of a next generation of professionals, not solving problems having to do with complex and ageing computer systems," says Heymans. "Companies that don't address this issue will have bigger problems in the future."

To help companies be better prepared for the coming demographic shift in computing, Anubex has been a strong advocate of adapting IT curricula in schools to familiarize the younger generation with COBOL and other "older" technologies that are still extensively used. Anubex is active at a local level in Belgium and is pleased that some schools are having the foresight to implement changes to incorporate these topics.

Anubex offers migration and modernization solutions to companies and government agencies alike. By using its own exclusive processes and tools it has worked with numerous companies to simplify the migrations of the largest, most complicated information systems.

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