Sooner or later every trading and risk platform reaches a crossroads. The version you run approaches end of support, the infrastructure underneath it ages, the people who built the customisations move on, and the business starts asking whether it is time for something new. Handled well, this moment is an opportunity to simplify and modernise. Handled badly, it becomes an expensive like-for-like replacement that carries every old problem into a new system.
Signs your platform is approaching end of life
- The vendor has announced end of support for your version, or upgrades are repeatedly deferred because they are too risky
- Heavy customisation means even small changes need specialist developers
- Critical processes now run in spreadsheets around the system
- New commodities, markets or regulations cannot be supported without major work
- Infrastructure, security or hosting costs keep rising
The three real options
1. Upgrade in place
Upgrading to a current version of your existing platform, whether Endur, Allegro or another system, preserves user familiarity and much of your configuration. It is often the lowest-risk route when the platform still fits the business and customisation is manageable. The key question is how much of your custom code can be retired in favour of standard functionality introduced since your last major upgrade.
2. Move to the vendor's cloud or SaaS offering
Many vendors now offer hosted or SaaS versions of their platforms. This can remove infrastructure burden and make future upgrades routine. It usually requires reducing customisation significantly, which is a benefit in disguise, but you need clarity on what can be configured, how integrations work and what the operating model looks like.
3. Replace with a different platform
Replacement makes sense when the current platform no longer fits your commodities, scale or operating model, or when the cost of untangling customisation exceeds the cost of starting again. The market is wider than it was a decade ago, including cloud-native and AI-enabled CTRM products, but replacement is also the option with the most implementation risk.
How to decide
- Start with the business, not the software. Document how you trade today and where you are going: new commodities, regions, asset types or regulatory obligations.
- Quantify customisation debt. Inventory customisations and classify them: still needed, now available as standard, or obsolete. This single exercise often decides the outcome.
- Compare total cost of ownership over five to ten years, including licences or subscriptions, infrastructure, support, upgrades, internal staff and the cost of manual workarounds.
- Test fit with your own scenarios. Ask the incumbent vendor and alternatives to demonstrate the same scripted business scenarios.
- Assess data and integration effort. Data migration and interfaces frequently drive cost and timeline more than the core platform.
- Consider the people. Training, change management and retention of key knowledge matter as much as features.
Avoid the like-for-like trap
The most common mistake is to replicate the old system's behaviour, workarounds included, in a new one. Use the decision point to simplify processes, retire customisation and adopt standard functionality wherever it is good enough. That is where much of the return on investment comes from.
Orivyn helps firms make this decision independently. Our as-is assessment establishes the facts, and our vendor selection service compares upgrade, cloud and replacement options objectively. Explore our experience with Endur, Allegro and other platforms.
