Legacy Processes for Legacy Systems
Companies with legacy systems often use “legacy processes” to reconcile debit memos created internally to credits received for items such as: rebates, shortages, damaged goods, pricing discrepancies, charge-backs/bill-backs, returns, promotions, and others. Legacy processes are often manually intense and leave considerable room for error. Legacy systems are often supported by internal information systems professionals because the company who created the system is now defunct or no longer offers support for the system.
While it’s true that newer ERP systems offer greater flexibility, customization, and data management possibilities, legacy systems still offer significant value for many companies. The value provided by the legacy system could often be more significant when a few small process changes are made and software applications are added.
For example, several of our clients were not using their legacy mainframe systems to their potential. They were using the PO/Notes field in their accounts payable data entry module for paid invoices only. A process was initiated to include the debit memo number that corresponded to the supplier credit the associate was entering in the module. A separate application was designed to reconcile the debits created with deductions taken. The application provided reporting for various processes based on the electronic reconciliation. The manual involvement in the processes was lessened and the resulting errors were significantly reduced.
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