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Enterprise Modernization

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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.
Modernization: Slow Until It’s Sudden
Technology evolves gradually—until a breakthrough like AI redefines the standard. Don’t get left behind.
Legacy Custom Applications: A Hidden Risk
Outdated apps are complex, not user-friendly, and built on aging infrastructure—slowing innovation.
The Real Cost of Legacy Systems
Technical debt leads to high maintenance costs, poor scalability, and growing security vulnerabilities.
Poor UX Impacts Productivity
Old interfaces frustrate users, reduce efficiency, and hinder adoption of modern tools.
The Power Platform Advantage
Modernize faster and smarter—Power Platform enables automation, low-code rebuilds, and seamless integration with D365.

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  • Complex and outdated, making them difficult to maintain.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Over time, these systems accumulate technical debt—a mix of outdated technologies, workarounds, and inefficiencies.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  • User frustration due to outdated UI and functionality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.

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain: Strategic Benefits

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.

Food Processing

Client Profile

Mediterranean cuisine – Kitchen with a 2-tier production and
delivery model.

Centralized kitchen for R&D, Recipe Mgmt., Purchasing.

Retail Outlets for final step production & customizing orders.

Solutions

  • Batch Tracking
  • BOM and Formulae updated for wastage
  • Configured First Expired First Out (FEFO)
  • Quality Control & Reporting

Challenges

  • Wastage or Damaged Goods were not tracked
  • Unreliable Master Resource Planning, Production Orders,
    and Product Costing.
  • Recipe Mgmt. was very cumbersome.
  • Quality Control was paper & labor intensive.

Outcome

  • Accurate Real-time Inventory & Ingredient tracing
  • Accurate Product Costing
  • Reduced Damaged Goods by over 30%
  • Improved Recipe Mgmt. reduced labor usage by over 40%
  • Doubled the number of Outlets within 18 months.

Electronic Component Manufacturer

Client Profile

Oklahoma-based metal buildings manufacturer for commercial airports, schools, malls, warehouses, gyms, etc.

Private Equity ownership

Solutions

  • Standardized on one COA, uniform Financial Dimensions, Intercompany Trade and Consolidation.

  • Configured ROU assets and automated calculations.

  • Configured Heat number tracking for traceability.

  • Configured Inventory Mgmt. and Advanced Warehousing.

Challenges

  • Multiple systems not talking to each other.

  • Excel sheets for tracking Assets, Sch. Of Value, etc.

  • Inventory reports time consuming for capital access.

  • Change Orders falling through the cracks.

  • Financial consolidation takes 3 weeks in Excel.

Outcome

  • Accurate Real-time Inventory and Production Costing.
  • Full material traceability.
  • Amortization and Depreciation in D365 Finance automated.
  • Customer collections from Change Orders improved by 38 percent.
  • Reports in 3 days after the month-end.

Specialty Coatings & Sealants Manufacturer

Client Profile

Ohio-based leader in specialty coating and sealants.

Member of Fortune 500 with $7.3B in global sales.

50+ brands, 17,000 employees, 119 manufacturing facilities

Solutions

  • Data Warehousing, Analytics, and Power BI.
  • Implementing Manufacturing dashboards across all the 16 European entities with brand segmentation and product lines.
  • Implementing Sales dashboards by region.

Challenges

  • Expansion into the European market with multiple acquisitions.
  • Sales and Manufacturing Analytics were missing.
  • Standardization of financial reporting in both IFRS and GAAP.

Outcome

  • Visibility into changing trends for effective decisions and actions.
  • Reduced SSRS reports within D365 – saving on project costs by 18%.
  • Interactive Gross Margin analytics helping employee productivity.

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.
Talk to Us Now

Our Insights

Discover key strategies for success in our blogs—insights you can’t afford to miss.

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.
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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
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.