Enterprise Modernization
Holistic long-term strategy and mindset for optimizing your organization for the future
Modernization Happens Over Time - Until It Happens Suddenly
The first car was produced in 1886, but the electric starter wasn’t introduced until 1912—a small innovation that fundamentally changed the user experience. Most modernization happens incrementally, but every so often, a major disruption—like AI today—reshapes the entire landscape. Businesses that fail to modernize risk falling behind as technology moves forward.
The Challenge of Legacy Custom Applications
Implementing D365 Finance & Supply Chain is a key milestone in digital transformation, but modernization goes beyond simply upgrading to D365. Many organizations rely on custom-built applications that have evolved over time to support critical business processes. These applications, while once valuable, are often:
- Complex and outdated, making them difficult to maintain.
- Not user-friendly, lacking modern interfaces and AI-driven enhancements
- Built on aging infrastructure, leading to performance and security risks
The Challenge of Legacy Custom Applications
Implementing D365 Finance & Supply Chain is a key milestone in digital transformation, but modernization goes beyond simply upgrading to D365. Many organizations rely on custom-built applications that have evolved over time to support critical business processes. These applications, while once valuable, are often:
- Complex and outdated, making them difficult to maintain.
- Not user-friendly, lacking modern interfaces and AI-driven enhancements
- Built on aging infrastructure, leading to performance and security risks
The Impact of Legacy Applications
Over time, these systems accumulate technical debt—a mix of outdated technologies, workarounds, and inefficiencies. Without modernization, they become a burden, leading to:
- High maintenance costs
- Poor scalability and security risks
- Inefficiencies that slow business operations
- User frustration due to outdated UI and functionality
Ascent Innovations helps clients modernize custom applications quickly using Microsoft Power Platform, enabling automation and workflow improvements at a fraction of traditional development costs.
A Tailored Approach - Modernization Is Not One-Size-Fits-All
Most organizations operate a mix of legacy systems, including:
On-premises applications
On-premises applications that are critical to daily operations
Aging cloud deployments
Aging cloud deployments that weren’t fully modernized when migrated
Hybrid environments
Hybrid environments with fragmented integrations
Department-level solutions
Department-level solutions that create security and data challenges
This complexity requires a thoughtful, phased modernization strategy—balancing cost, effort, and business impact.
How Ascent Innovations Right-Sizes & Prioritizes Modernization
We take a strategic approach to help clients assess, prioritize, and execute modernization with minimal cost and maximum impact.
We evaluate your existing application portfolio to:
- Assess business-critical applications and their role in daily operations
- Identify inefficiencies, risks, and technical debt
- Determine the best modernization strategy for each application
Each application is categorized based on the complexity and effort required for modernization:
Rehosting (Lift & Shift)
- Moves applications to the cloud without major modifications
- Improves scalability and reduces on-prem infrastructure costs
Refactoring (Cloud Optimization)
- Restructures applications to optimize them for cloud-native environments
- Converts monolithic applications into microservices or containerized architectures
- Improves scalability, performance, and cost efficiency
Rewriting (Full Rebuild)
- Completely redesigns and rebuilds the application from the ground up
- Enables modern architectures, AI capabilities, and future-proof technology
We present our findings and recommendations to clients, ensuring alignment on:
- Application roles in the ecosystem
- Business value and impact
- Modernization options with cost-benefit analysis
- Total cost of ownership & expected timeline
This collaborative process ensures the right balance between cost, effort, and strategic business priorities.
For clients who already have a modernization plan, Ascent Innovations offers dedicated development teams to accelerate execution. Our experts bring:
- Decades of hands-on experience in modernizing complex, outdated systems
- Proficiency in Java, .NET, Python, and the latest front-end frameworks
- Deep expertise in cloud computing, microservices, and DevOps best practices
- Advisory on optimizing applications for security, performance, and scalability
Whether you need expert guidance, additional development support, or full-scale modernization, we help ensure your applications evolve with your business needs.
Why Choose Ascent Innovations?
With 16 years of experience in Microsoft ERP and analytics, Ascent Innovations has a deep understanding of how financial systems drive business performance. We specialize in helping organizations optimize D365 Finance to enhance financial visibility, streamline operations, and improve decision-making. Our expertise extends beyond implementation—we work alongside finance teams to ensure their ERP investment delivers measurable business impact.
Our approach includes:
- Optimizing D365 Finance for immediate business impact – Aligning system capabilities with your financial strategy to improve forecasting, cost control, and profitability.
- Power BI analytics for real-time financial insights – Delivering interactive dashboards that empower FP&A teams with actionable data to drive growth.
- Process automation to eliminate inefficiencies – Reducing manual workloads and minimizing errors through AI-powered automation and workflow optimization.
- Strategic migration planning – Guiding organizations through a seamless transition from legacy ERP systems to D365 Finance while minimizing disruption and maximizing ROI.
With a proven track record in ERP modernization and financial analytics, Ascent Innovations is the trusted partner for companies looking to leverage D365 Finance for long-term success.
Why Businesses Trust Ascent Innovations
Ascent Innovations is a trusted Microsoft Solution Partner, delivering scalable, business-driven D365 solutions that optimize operations and drive game-changing growth.
Why Businesses Trust Ascent Innovations
Ascent Innovations is a trusted Microsoft Solution Partner, delivering scalable, business-driven D365 solutions that optimize operations and drive game-changing growth.
Empower Your Business with Modern Applications
Let’s transform your legacy systems into modern, AI-ready applications that drive efficiency, reduce costs, and support future growth.
Our Insights
See what refreshingly easy, AI-powered solutions can do for your business.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can Ascent Innovations LLC help organizations modernize legacy applications?
Ascent Innovations LLC provides strategic app modernization services that assess legacy custom applications, prioritize modernization based on business value and technical risk, and implement solutions such as rehosting, refactoring, or full rewrites. We ensure your applications are secure, scalable, and aligned with modern ERP systems like Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain.
What approach does Ascent Innovations LLC take for app modernization projects?
We follow a phased, strategic approach that combines assessment, planning, and execution. Ascent Innovations LLC works with clients to review application portfolios, evaluate technical debt, create modernization roadmaps, and provide specialized development teams to execute upgrades while balancing cost, timeline, and business impact.
What is application modernization?
Application modernization is the process of updating legacy software systems to improve scalability, performance, security, and maintainability. It helps organizations reduce technical debt, integrate with modern platforms, and leverage new technologies such as AI and cloud computing.
Why is modernizing legacy custom applications important?
Even with modern ERP systems, outdated applications can slow operations, carry security risks, and lack modern features. Modernization improves performance, reduces maintenance costs, enhances user experience, and ensures systems can support business growth.
What are the common strategies for app modernization?
Modernization strategies include:
- Rehosting (Lift & Shift) – Moving apps to the cloud without major changes for cost and scalability benefits.
- Refactoring (Cloud Optimization) – Reworking apps to be cloud-native using microservices or containers for improved efficiency.
- Rewriting (Full Rebuild) – Completely redesigning applications with modern architecture and AI-ready capabilities.
How does modernization reduce risk and technical debt?
Modernization addresses outdated technologies and complex architectures, reducing system failures, security vulnerabilities, and ongoing maintenance challenges. By aligning apps with modern standards, organizations can mitigate operational risks and avoid accumulating technical debt over time.
What benefits can organizations expect from app modernization?
Benefits include improved application performance, enhanced security, better scalability, automated workflows, AI-enabled features, and alignment with current technology expectations, supporting faster innovation and future business growth.
Ready to start transforming your business?
Talk to us about how Ascent Innovations can help you realize business value faster with end-to-end solutions and cloud services.
