Graeme, you touched on an excellent point in the last video in that, the data that the solution is gold, so in essence, a business case can be built on the fact. That if you can rescue that orphan software and look after it, you may be able to use the data that it’s producing to add some kind of let’s call it, as an example, a web portal. This may allow customers to see where their orders are up to, something that was hidden away before, allowing you to add value and move forward utilising the database of that particular application to add value to the business which creates a willingness to invest to replace the application. That, I think, is something that a lot of people could take advantage of because as you point out, these systems are doing something very important. If you can harness the intellectual-property and the data you may find yourself able to suddenly provide some additional service to your customers that you weren’t able to provide before. You are thus creating an opportunity or cash flow that might help you replace that software in the longer term.
George, yeah look very much so not I think you’re right the data is an aspect that is easily overlooked in those circumstances where people are looking at a particular functionality or an integration to a wider system in the organisation, but that data is that gold, if you like of you know that software has been doing a useful function for many years and underpinning that, is that data that sits within it and it is often numb forgotten about when you’re looking at a shiny new system hey you don’t want to throw out all that significant business value with that data, and I think also it’s worth you know commenting another part that often gets overlooked is the risks of throwing away that legacy completely and looking to start from scratch again and scratch in terms of looking to a replacement system or incorporation in a bigger system is there is that risk that you haven’t defined those business rules adequately or the requirements all the data you need to migrate, so you have that risk that you could end up implementing something that actually isn’t right and won’t necessarily be doing the business function this orphan piece of software has been doing for many years, and if it implements it incorrectly you start to introduce potential new problems into your business as well, so there’s definitely a risk that you know regardless as we mentioned of what target you end up on extracting that IP extracting that knowledge and understanding how that system worked rules and requirements and understanding the data is an important aspect that you need to do to minimise the risk and to get the best outcome of wherever you go and as you mentioned it might be extending the lifespan of that particular software until you can find the right time to do that, because any change will be a level of disruption to the business.
Graeme, so you can see that the service we provide where we investigate that orphan software is important. A lot of people are in a sense of calm and a steady-state environment where things are working, but they’re sitting on these time bombs. I think they need to take some action to locate those things, bring Softlogic in so we can assess those particular solutions and find ways to maintain them and to look after them properly and keep them running reliably for the client.