The risks of relying on legacy software integrations in construction finance

For many construction finance teams, integrations are the glue that holds their tech stack together. Integrations between legacy ERP systems and newer, more specialized software products can compensate for limitations and missing features in the legacy systems.

But unlike modern cloud-native software products like Sage Intacct and Procore, legacy software products like Sage 300 CRE weren’t designed to be used with integrations. While they can serve as a short-term solution to extend older platforms beyond what they were originally designed to handle, relying on legacy integrations for the long-term is risky.

In this article, we’ll examine four often overlooked categories of risk that commonly emerge in legacy integration models—business continuity, security, regulatory alignment and long-term cost—look at how modern, API-based platforms approach integration differently.

1. Business continuity depends on third parties

In legacy integration models, third parties often carry responsibility for keeping critical workflows running. Most integrations connecting older ERP systems like Sage 300 CRE to newer operational tools are not built or maintained by the publisher of either system. Instead, consulting firms or independent software vendors develop and support these connections to fill functional gaps.

At first, these integrations can work well enough. Data flows between systems, manual entry decreases, and finance teams regain some efficiency. Over time, however, the integration becomes a critical dependency. Payroll processing, job cost updates, billing, and reporting workflows begin to rely on that connection functioning reliably every day.

Problems emerge when the third party maintaining the integration can no longer support it. If the provider goes out of business, shifts focus or falls behind product updates from either system, the integration can fail with little warning. Even routine version upgrades to the ERP or the connected application can break the integration and stop data flow.

When that happens, the workflows that depend on shared data slow or stop entirely.

Modern, cloud-native ecosystems reduce this risk by aligning ownership of the integration with ownership of the software itself. In platforms like Sage Intacct, many integrations are built and maintained by the publishers of the connected systems—not by third-party intermediaries. For companies like Procore, keeping their integration with Sage Intacct current is mission critical. Their customers expect reliable data flow into the financial system of record, and any break in that connection directly affects their product’s value. As a result, integrations are updated alongside product releases, tested as part of standard development cycles, and supported through established vendor channels. This model replaces fragile, externally maintained connections with integrations that vendors actively invest in and depend on for their own success.