Let's face it: No one is passionate about their work email.

The average person spends hours a day processing their inboxes, studies show, often letting non-essential messages get in the way of productivity. For some people, clearing that inbox is a productivity obsession.

And then there's the spam.

But email isn't going away, despite what occasional "Email Is Dead" articles and blog posts might predict. Instead, this workhorse of electronic productivity is constantly adapting. And, like email, many older software systems have likewise learned to adapt as well

So, is your aging core system, or that outdated piece of software on the chopping block? Just as with email, the printing press and snail mail, think twice before pronouncing it dead.


Like email, your old financial software system may not be "sexy." It's been around for a long time, and lacks the glitz of the new stuff that some see as a necessary replacement.

Just like email, however, your existing software may remain relevant for several important reasons. If a system at your credit union shares these qualities with email, you may want to rethink replacing it:

Workers trust email and are generally satisfied with it, according to a piece by Barry Gill in the latest issue of the Harvard Business Review. Trust and comfort are hard to come by with technology — especially in a time when cyber-attacks are on the rise.

Email works. As Gill puts it, email is "the mule of the information age — stubborn and strong." When it comes to your systems, there is still wisdom in the old cliché, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Email coexists with new technology — adding new communication tools is not an either-or proposition. In other words, just because there's a new technology available, that doesn't mean the old one (be it email or a financial service system) has to be pushed aside. It could be upgraded.

"The tendency is to think that the ascent of social media has signalled the end for email in the same way that 'snail mail' was written off in favour of email 15 years ago, or that television meant the end of radio 60 years ago," said Dave Coplin of Microsoft UK. "In reality it never happens that way."

- As the headline of Gill's piece says, email is evolving — "becoming a searchable archive, a manager's accountability source, a document courier," he writes.

Credit union software systems can evolve, too — even when vendors tell you they must be replaced. As I have written in the past, leveraging an existing system often is a good choice. A good technology partner can add modern features to your current system or write new software to run smoothly on top of an older core. There are many ways to adapt, and they often are less costly, less disruptive and less risky to operations than a complete overhaul. 

All software may not be as hardy as email, of course. But many older systems are replaced prematurely – often at the urging of vendors eager to supply the latest, most "sexy" alternatives. Just remember, while imperfect, your existing system may be worth a second look before you think of it as obsolete – and replace it with the next big thing.

Originally published on CUInsight.com.