Overcoming Vendor Lock-In: Three Success Factors for Migrating Business-Critical IT Systems

Significant price increases in the software market are posing substantial challenges for businesses. Legacy software systems, often developed over time, increasingly lead to critical vendor lock-in—particularly for systems essential to core operations. A real-world example demonstrates how to break this dependency:

Case Study: 

Multi-Million Savings Achieved Within Tight Deadlines

A long-standing client faced the expiration of its software licence agreement. Following the acquisition of the vendor, costs threatened to rise by over 100%. The objective: replacing a central automation platform for core banking operations within 18 months.

Together, we delivered:

• Timely implementation of an alternative solution before contract expiry
• Annual savings in the millions through reduced licensing costs
• Future-proof IT architecture with minimal operational disruption

For this achievement, Intero Consulting was honoured with the Best of Consulting Award (Manufacturing & Operations category).

How can you successfully replace business-critical systems despite Vendor Lock-In?

Three strategic levers made the difference:

Software migrations demand deep technical expertise and enterprise-wide coordination—particularly from experienced project management. With numerous dependencies and interfaces, professional coordination is essential.

How did we approach this?

• Hybrid teams of internal and external experts
  While internal experts know the systems and application scenarios down to the last detail, external partners bring the necessary know-how for implementing the new solution. A clear allocation of roles and well thought-out coordination by the project management team are crucial. It must penetrate technical details to a certain depth and communicate them clearly to all expert teams.
• Technical depth meets strategic foresight
  The project team must not only understand and manage technical issues but keep corporate objectives in focus. This ensures dependencies on other systems (e.g., ERP, CRM) are managed and downtime minimised.
• Lessons learned from practice:
  In our project, rigorous technical change management ensured smooth operations—from night-time migrations of individual modules to rollback plans for critical scenarios.

For migrating production environments, two approaches exist: “all at once” or step-by-step.

Both a full Big Bang migration and a phased approach over time are viable. The goal is to minimise operational disruption, ideally outside business hours. Guided by this principle, available options must be weighed carefully.

Each approach has pros and cons:

Our solution: A hybrid model.

We migrated modules by ascending complexity—each as a “mini-Big-Bang” outside business hours. This enabled us to:

• Identify error sources early,
• Build team knowledge iteratively,
• Limit total downtime to under 12 hours.

If migration must proceed under tight deadlines (e.g., expiring software licences), fully replicating all legacy features in the new system may not be feasible.

In such cases, prioritise features ruthlessly:

• Phase 1: Prioritise the business-critical features that secure the operations.
• Phase 2: Refactor less critical functions post go-live.

Real-world example:
The client deferred non-essential features initially. Post-core migration, these needed features were rebuilt more efficiently in the new environment—free from time pressure. Features which were not used anymore could be deleted.

With targeted planning and coordination, even ambitious timelines for replacing central IT systems can be met.

Replacing legacy systems requires courage—but with the right strategy, it becomes a growth catalyst.

Your success checklist:

• Resource planning: Hybrid project management with technical expertise.
• Migration approach: Iterative with clear rollback protocols.
• Feature prioritisation: Business-critical first.