Technical Rescue

Our legacy system modernization services start from wherever your software is today: failing, fragile or simply unable to grow with the business. We call it Technical Rescue. Missed deadlines, an architecture that is buckling, a supplier who stopped answering, a legacy system nobody dares to touch. We step into projects in trouble and make them boring again. Boring is the goal, because boring is what you can maintain, hire for and sleep through. And we do it without the big-bang rewrite.

The problem, in your words

"Our supplier disappeared and the project is half-finished." "Every release breaks something, and nobody knows why any more." "The system runs the business, but it was built years ago and nobody wants to touch it." "We were told the only option is to rewrite everything from scratch."

When software turns from an asset into a liability, the business pays twice: once in the problems themselves, and again in every decision it can no longer make because the system will not allow it. The instinct is often to throw everything away and start again. Sometimes that is right. Much more often it is the most expensive way to arrive back where you started.

Signs you need this

• Deploys are manual, rare and frightening, or have stopped altogether.
• Only one person, or one supplier, understands how the system works.
• The business wants to grow, and the software is the reason it cannot.
• Data lives in an old system you need to migrate, and nobody is sure what is in it.
• A project is late, over budget, and every status meeting ends with "nearly there".
• You need an independent code audit before deciding what to do next.

How we work

1. Problem. We assess before we touch anything: the code, the data, the infrastructure, the deploys, the people who depend on it. You get an honest view of what can be saved and what cannot.
2. Idea. We turn that into a stabilisation plan you can show your board, with the risks ordered and the first moves chosen to protect the business, not to impress.
3. Design & Build. Stabilise first: stop the bleeding, secure the data, get deploys working again, put monitoring where there was none. Then untangle, piece by piece, with incremental fixes backed by tests, while the product keeps running the whole time.
4. Delivery. You get a system your people can maintain and change, plus the knowledge of how and why it was fixed. Where a migration is needed, the old and new run side by side until the switch is safe.

What you get

• An honest assessment of what can be saved and what cannot, in plain language.
• A stabilisation plan with priorities, risks and a sequence you can defend to your board.
• Stabilisation work: secured data, working deploys, monitoring and the most dangerous faults fixed first.
• Incremental modernisation backed by tests, including data migration between systems where it is needed.
• Documentation and handover, so the system no longer depends on one person or one supplier.

Never a big-bang rewrite unless genuinely nothing else survives. If that is the case, we will tell you plainly.

Engagement shape

1. Tell us what is broken, and how loudly. Urgent assessments jump the queue.
2. Assessment. A focused review of code, data, infrastructure and process, ending in the assessment and the stabilisation plan.
3. Stabilisation. The first priority is to protect the business and the data.
4. Modernisation. Incremental, in defined iterations, each with a clear scope and end.
5. Handover. Your people, or the supplier you choose, take it forward.

How long each phase takes depends on what we find, and the plan says so before the work starts. We do not take day-to-day maintenance contracts. The rescue has an end.

What affects cost. We do not publish prices, because no two rescues look alike. The main drivers are the size and age of the system, how much documentation and test coverage exists, the condition and volume of the data, how many other systems depend on it, whether access to the previous supplier or the source code is available, and how urgent the situation is. Everything is written down before work starts.

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Frequently asked questions

Do we have to rewrite everything? Almost never. Most legacy systems contain years of business rules that work. We keep what works, replace what does not, and do it gradually so the business keeps running.

Our previous supplier has gone. Can you still help? Yes, provided we can get access to the code, the data or the running system. If some of it is missing, the assessment says so and the plan works around it.

Can the system keep running during the work? Yes. That is the point of stabilising first and untangling after. Changes go in piece by piece, with tests, and data migrations are rehearsed before they happen for real.

Can you do a code audit on its own? Yes. The assessment can stand alone as an independent code audit: what state the software is in, where the risks are, and what we would do next. What you do with it is your decision.

Do you take over maintenance afterwards? No. We do not take day-to-day maintenance contracts. We bring the system to a state your people or your chosen supplier can maintain, and hand it over properly.

Related services

• Solution Architecture: the map for what the modernised system should become.
• Product & Technical Guidance: an honest second opinion before you commit to a rewrite, a migration or a new supplier.

Tell us what is broken

A system on fire at 2am or one that has been quietly failing for years. Tell us what is broken and how loudly. We reply within one business day, usually with questions and a first honest opinion.

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