Security is driving fleets away from legacy software, says FleetCheck

Increasing demands in data security and interfacing are seeing fleets move away from legacy software, says FleetCheck.

Peter Golding, managing director, said there appeared to be a tipping point occurring in the market away from older platforms that no longer met the needs of car, van and truck operators.

He said: “There’s a tendency – and all businesses do it – to persist with an old IT system, putting in place a growing number of sticking plasters as it creaks to handle new needs, because the prospect of a replacement seems too difficult.

“However, what we have seen increasingly in the past few months is many fleets reach a moment of realisation that their aged software just can’t be made to meet today’s needs, however much patching is done.”

In June, FleetCheck reported that sales at the company were up by a third, largely, largely powered by concerns over data security and efficiency measures, and the current legacy systems situation seemed to be a continuation of that trend.

Golding added: “We have known for a while that worries over software robustness and productivity were powering the increase in sales we have been seeing, but what has become clear more recently is the extent to which the failure of older software is a factor.

“What fleets are finding is their existing platform just can’t meet the security standards that are expected in a corporate environment today, or interface successfully with modern systems to import data.

“These are critical elements in any modern IT environment and they’re bumping up against the limitations of software that was often written in the last century.

“Why is it happening now? Well, there are some popular, specific legacy systems from particular providers that were bought 20 or more years ago which have reached the end of their lives but equally, vehicle operators are also becoming increasingly aware of the potential of digitalisation to improve the performance of their fleet and want to maximise those opportunities. The only way to do that is with newer software.”