A Pegasystems-commissioned Savanta survey estimates that the average global enterprise wastes more than $370 million a year because it cannot efficiently modernize outdated systems and applications. That is a vendor-reported survey estimate—not an audited measure of what every company loses. The announcement also lists three cost components totaling $248 million, without explaining the remaining $122 million.
What the $370 million estimate measures
Pegasystems said Savanta surveyed more than 500 IT decision-makers at enterprises worldwide. The company described the headline figure as estimated annual waste for an average global enterprise arising from inefficiencies in modernizing legacy technology. It is not presented in the announcement as an audited accounting figure, nor does it establish that each enterprise loses that amount.
The announcement attributes costs to transformation work, failed initiatives, and ongoing support. It does not say that routine maintenance spending is automatically waste: these are figures Pegasystems grouped within a broader estimate of costs associated with technical debt.
What the disclosed cost figures add up to
Pegasystems reported three annual amounts. Using the rounded figures in its announcement, they total $248 million—not the more-than-$370-million headline.
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| Reported cost component | Amount per average global enterprise | What the announcement attributes it to |
|---|---|---|
| Legacy transformation projects | Nearly $134 million | Time spent using traditional, resource-intensive processes. |
| Failed transformation initiatives | $58 million | Time invested in initiatives that failed due to outdated systems and applications. |
| Legacy maintenance and integration | $56 million | Maintaining, updating, and integrating legacy systems. |
| Sum of these three rounded figures | $248 million | Arithmetic total; not a separate survey estimate. |
The available announcement does not explain the $122 million difference between that sum and the $370 million headline. It does not identify additional categories or provide a full calculation that reconciles the total, so the missing amount cannot be assigned to a particular cost.
Why companies say legacy systems are difficult to address
The survey points to a cycle in which upkeep absorbs resources while competing work makes root-cause fixes harder to prioritize. Pegasystems reported that 78% of respondents agreed that time, money, and effort spent maintaining legacy applications could be used more productively on projects to improve business effectiveness.
- 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.
These are reported respondent views, not proof that every organization faces the same barriers. They suggest why an organization may keep funding support even when leaders believe that money could be put to better use: removing old systems takes time, operational problems demand attention, and technical debt may lose out to other priorities.
How much businesses still rely on legacy applications
Pegasystems reported that 63% of respondents relied on 1–10 legacy applications daily, while 29% relied on 11–20. Secondary coverage by DIGIT, which reported that the study covered respondents in the UK, North America, and Europe, said 9% felt positioned to fully retire or replace all legacy applications.
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These findings describe reported dependence and readiness, not a case for replacing every legacy application. Older systems may remain in use for reasons the published findings do not assess, and the study does not compare their benefits or risks with those of alternatives.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the study can—and cannot—tell a finance team
The results can help frame questions about the cost of maintaining and transforming legacy technology, but they are not a company-specific budget forecast. A finance team should not multiply the headline estimate across its own systems or treat it as a recoverable savings target: the announcement does not provide the underlying calculation or a way to translate its estimate into an individual company’s expected savings.
The published announcement identifies the sample as more than 500 enterprise IT decision-makers worldwide. DIGIT gives the UK, North America, and Europe as the reported geography, but that is secondary reporting. The available materials do not disclose country-level counts, the sampling frame, questionnaire, weighting, response rate, confidence intervals, or how the dollar estimates were calculated. Those omissions make it difficult to assess how representative the figures are or how precisely they apply beyond the surveyed respondents.
Pegasystems CTO Don Schuerman characterized the issue as “the hundreds of millions of dollars they hemorrhage every year” from legacy inefficiencies and technical debt. That is the view of an executive at the company that commissioned the study, not an independent finding. ITPro also attributed to Schuerman the view that it is no longer acceptable to depend on systems that are no longer fit for purpose and take valuable resources to replace. Neither statement demonstrates that a particular modernization strategy—or a vendor’s product—will recoup the reported costs.
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Sources
- Pegasystems, “Average Global Enterprise Wastes More Than $370 Million Every Year Through Technical Debt, Says Research,” October 14, 2025 (company announcement).
- ITPro, “IT leaders are throwing money away with legacy systems: Enterprises report $370 million in losses each year due to outdated tech,” October 20, 2025 (secondary coverage).
- Tom Quinn, DIGIT, “Enterprise Firms Losing $370M Each Year to IT Debt,” October 21, 2025 (secondary coverage of geography and readiness).
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