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Pegasystems says a Savanta survey of more than 500 enterprise IT decision-makers estimated that the average global enterprise wastes more than $370 million a year because it cannot efficiently modernize legacy systems and applications. That is a vendor-commissioned survey estimate—not an audited measure of what every enterprise loses. The announcement lists three cost components totaling $248 million, and does not explain the remaining $122 million.
What the $370 million estimate represents
The figure comes from research commissioned by Pegasystems and conducted by Savanta. Pegasystems’ October 14, 2025 announcement describes a survey of more than 500 IT decision-makers at enterprises worldwide and reports an estimated annual waste of more than $370 million for the average global enterprise. The estimate is attributed to difficulty efficiently modernizing outdated systems and applications; it is not presented as an independently audited accounting total. Pegasystems’ announcement, syndicated by Nasdaq.
The distinction matters: the finding is a survey-based estimate reported by the company that commissioned the study. It should not be read as proof that every enterprise incurs that amount, or that the same calculation applies to a particular company. The published announcement does not provide the calculation method behind the dollar estimate.
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What the announcement itemizes—and what it does not
Pegasystems disclosed three annual cost estimates associated with legacy transformation and support:
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| Reported component | Estimate | What it describes |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional transformation processes | Nearly $134 million | Time spent completing legacy transformation projects using traditional, resource-intensive processes. |
| Failed transformation initiatives | $58 million | Time invested in legacy transformation initiatives that failed due to outdated systems and applications. |
| Maintenance, updates, and integration | $56 million | Estimated annual cost attributed to maintaining, updating, and integrating legacy systems. |
Using the rounded values in the announcement, these three components total $248 million—not $370 million. That leaves a $122 million difference from the headline figure. The announcement does not explain the difference, so it cannot be assigned to an unlisted category or treated as a complete breakdown. Nor should maintenance costs automatically be equated with waste: the study groups different modeled costs under its broader estimate, and the published information does not establish that all maintenance spending is avoidable.
Why respondents said legacy debt is difficult to tackle
The same survey points to organizational constraints as well as technology costs. Pegasystems reported that:
- 36% said removing support for legacy systems was too time-consuming.
- 29% said they were too busy firefighting problems to address root causes.
- One-quarter said business leaders did not view technical debt as a priority.
- 78% agreed that the time, money, and effort spent maintaining legacy applications could be used more productively on projects to improve business effectiveness.
These are reported respondent views, not proof that every organization faces the same barriers. Taken together, however, they illustrate a practical bind: keeping old applications running consumes capacity, while competing work and urgent incidents can make it harder to change the systems that create the burden.
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Respondents also reported ongoing reliance on legacy software. Pegasystems said 63% depended daily on 1–10 legacy applications, while 29% depended on 11–20. Separately, DIGIT’s October 21, 2025 report on the study said only 9% of respondents felt positioned to fully retire or replace all legacy applications. DIGIT reported the respondent geography as the UK, North America, and Europe. DIGIT’s coverage.
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Those findings put the cost claims in context: legacy applications are not merely dormant systems awaiting removal; respondents described them as part of current operations, while few said they were ready to eliminate or replace the entire estate. The figures do not establish that legacy systems are inherently harmful. They also do not compare reported costs with the business value, operational risks, or lifecycle costs of alternatives.
What the published methodology cannot tell you
The announcement identifies the commissioning company, research firm, a sample of more than 500 enterprise IT decision-makers, and a worldwide description of the survey. The available announcement does not state the sampling frame, country-level counts, questionnaire, weighting, response rate, confidence intervals, or the method used to calculate the dollar estimates. DIGIT supplies a regional description, but not those additional methodological details.
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As a result, the headline is useful as a signal of the scale of the problem respondents and the sponsor associate with technical debt, but it is not enough to calculate a reliable loss figure for an individual business. A company-specific assessment would need its own inventory of systems and dependencies, spending and incident data, transformation outcomes, and the business risks of changing or retaining each application.
What the estimate does—and does not—say about modernization
Pegasystems CTO Don Schuerman characterized the findings this way: “Too few enterprises today consider the hundreds of millions of dollars they hemorrhage every year because of both the direct and indirect financial impact of inefficiencies caused by legacy technologies and technical debt.” That is the vendor executive’s interpretation of a study commissioned by his company, not an independent conclusion established by the published methodology.
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- Author: Bungay Stanier, Michael.
- Publisher: Page Two
- Pages: 244
- Publication Date: 2016-02-29
- Edition: 1
ITPro also attributed this statement to Schuerman: “It’s no longer acceptable to depend on systems that are no longer fit for purpose, take valuable resources to replace, and which could be the difference between your organization’s success or failure.” ITPro’s October 20, 2025 coverage.
The cited findings do not compare modernization strategies such as rehosting, replatforming, refactoring, replacement, or retirement. They also do not show that a particular vendor’s product will recover the estimated costs. For a technology leader, the defensible takeaway is narrower: the survey reports substantial costs and barriers alongside extensive reliance on legacy applications, but organizations need their own evidence to decide which systems to change, when, and how.
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