Inside Duro’s Enterprise Evolution: Bridging Legacy Systems with Modern Solutions
Standing at the intersection of traditional enterprise software and modern cloud solutions creates a unique challenge: how do you innovate without alienating existing users? In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Michael Corr from Duro shared their playbook for navigating this delicate balance.
The Cultural Divide
“We’re really at that crossroads of the cultural shift in the industry,” Michael explains. “You still have a large, sizable amount of customers who are used to the legacy workflows and products and a growing versioning industry that have no experience with those and are looking for the more agile, cloud hosted solutions.”
This divide isn’t just about technology preferences – it reflects a fundamental shift in how hardware products are developed. The legacy approach, with its siloed teams and manual processes, is being challenged by software-inspired agile methodologies.
The Feature Dilemma
When modernizing an established category like PLM, every feature decision becomes a strategic choice. As Michael notes, “there’s many things in PLM that are very well done and really provide a lot of value. Not everything is inefficient or inappropriate, but there are many things that are.”
Their approach? “A lot of the challenges we have is going through each and every topic and saying, well, do we agree with the status quo on this particular feature or do we need to change it? And if we need to change it, do we just need to tweak it a little bit? Or is there a lot of room for innovation here for disruptive technologies or new ways of doing things?”
Finding the Right Balance
Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, Duro found success by focusing on a specific use case: new product introduction (NPI). “Where we do best is teams who are going through what’s referred to as NPI new product introduction,” Michael explains. “And that’s where teams are trying to move fast. They’re innovating, they’re trying to get out of their competitors.”
This focus allowed them to serve both traditional enterprises and innovative teams. Even large companies like Apple and Google go through NPI cycles, requiring more agile approaches to product development.
The Data-First Approach
At its core, Duro approached the problem as a data management challenge. “Fundamentally, what we really are is a hardware data management platform,” Michael shares. This perspective helped them identify which legacy features were essential and which could be reimagined.
The key was understanding that many traditional PLM features existed to compensate for data management inefficiencies. “Because of the inefficiencies of these software tools, it required a whole secondary labor force just to manage those inefficiencies,” Michael notes.
Building for Both Worlds
Duro’s solution was to create a platform that could serve as a foundation for both traditional and modern workflows. “Duro has been super focused on becoming the best PLM in the market today,” Michael explains. “But from there are so many different ways we can go… because we are more of a platform, it can all be one ecosystem in and of itself.”
This platform approach allows them to maintain compatibility with existing systems while gradually introducing more modern capabilities. Teams can adopt new features at their own pace while maintaining their existing workflows.
Lessons for Enterprise Software Founders
Duro’s experience offers valuable insights for founders modernizing enterprise categories:
- Focus on foundational problems (like data management) that affect both traditional and modern users
- Choose a specific use case that appeals to both innovative teams and established enterprises
- Evaluate each legacy feature carefully – some exist for good reasons
- Build a platform that allows gradual adoption of modern practices
- Remember that even large enterprises have pockets of innovation
The key is understanding that modernization isn’t about completely replacing the old with the new – it’s about building bridges that allow enterprises to evolve at their own pace.