Archaeology
Recording what the system actually does — including what is documented nowhere.
Solution
Legacy Modernization
Leaving the legacy without stopping the operation.
We modernize systems that still hold up the operation and therefore cannot be switched off. The work is progressive: old and new coexist while the value migrates, in stages that can be reversed.
01 The problem
The system nobody wants to touch and nobody can switch off
What usually happens
- Whoever wrote the system has left the company, and there is no documentation.
- Any small change takes weeks and frightens everyone.
- The technology is out of support, and it has already come up in an audit or a client conversation.
- The system will not run on new infrastructure, so the infrastructure ages with it.
- There is a plan to replace everything at once that never starts, because stopping is impossible.
Signs this is your case
- There is a server nobody restarts, out of fear.
- The company gave up selling something because the system could not support it.
- The cost of keeping it running grows every year without anything improving.
- Integrating the legacy with anything new is always the most expensive part of a project.
- There is a version of the system that only runs on one person's machine.
02 What we do
The practices in this solution.
Risk map
What breaks the operation if it fails, what is peripheral and what is no longer used at all.
Staged plan
A sequence of deliveries with value of their own, each with a way back.
Coexistence
A layer that lets old and new operate together through the transition.
Data migration
Transfer with validation, total checks and a period comparing both sides.
Selective rewrite
We rewrite what pays back; what works and bothers nobody can stay.
Regression tests
A safety net proving the old behaviour was preserved where it should be.
Decommissioning
The legacy is switched off only after the new system holds the operation, with a plan for retaining history.
03 Scope
What you get — and what you do not.
The second column is the one almost nobody publishes. It exists because a scope with a declared limit is the only honest way to agree on price and deadline.
Included
- Assessment of the current system, with a map of features and risk.
- Staged modernization plan, with the sequence and completion criteria for each stage.
- Coexistence layer between the old system and the new one.
- Data migration with a validation report.
- Modernized modules in production.
- Automated tests of the critical rules.
- Documentation of what was rebuilt.
- Decommissioning plan for the legacy, including history retention.
Not included
- Licences and infrastructure for the target platform.
- Recovery of data corrupted or lost before the project.
- Ongoing enhancement of the legacy system during the transition, unless contracted.
- A complete rewrite in a single delivery — that is not how a system in operation gets replaced.
- Any guarantee that no old behaviour will be lost: part of the legacy is documented neither on paper nor in anyone's head.
- Broad organizational training beyond the teams operating the delivered modules.
04 When not to hire it
When not to modernize
If the system works, blocks no business decision and costs little to maintain, modernizing is spending on aesthetics. If the company will change its business model next year, modernizing now means rebuilding something that will be thrown away. And if nobody on the client side has the authority to decide business rules, the project stalls — modernization is 40% archaeology and 60% decision.
05 Timeline
How long it takes — and what makes it vary.
The first stages usually deliver value in weeks; full replacement is measured in months and sometimes years. Be wary of anyone who promises a fixed schedule before the assessment: until the survey ends, nobody knows what is in there.
Size and age of the legacy system.
Whether documentation and people who know the rules still exist.
How tightly the modules are coupled.
Quality and volume of the historical data.
How much downtime the operation tolerates.
How many integrations depend on the legacy.
06 Services involved
Where this solution comes from.
A solution is not a separate box: it is the same services applied to one specific problem.
- Enterprise Systems
- ERP, CRM, integrations and system modernization for your operation. See the service →
- Maintenance & Support
- Support, monitoring and continuous evolution for your systems. See the service →
07 How a solution starts
Before the proposal, the assessment.
A solution is not bought from a catalogue. It starts with an assessment of the real process, and only then becomes scope, schedule and proposal.
- Assessment
- A free initial conversation with the people who run the process.
- Mapping
- The process as it happens today, with the points of loss marked.
- Recommendation
- What to automate, what to integrate and what to leave alone.
- Proposal
- Scope, stages and schedule — after the assessment, never before.
08 Frequently asked questions
The questions people
actually ask.
01Can everything be rewritten at once?+
It can, and it is the most common way to fail. A total rewrite has a long schedule with no interim delivery, while the operation keeps running on the old system — which needs maintenance meanwhile. We work in stages that carry value of their own.
02Will we have to stop the operation?+
The plan is designed not to. Where a window is unavoidable, it is agreed, short, and has a rollback procedure tested beforehand.
03What about the old data?+
It migrates with validation: total checks, sampling and a period in which both sides are compared. What does not migrate stays available for consultation for as long as the company must keep it.
04Do you take on a system built by another supplier?+
Yes, and it is the most common case. The assessment exists precisely for that: understanding what is there before committing to any schedule.
05What if something worse than expected turns up midway?+
It happens, and that is why the plan has stages with completion criteria. When the assessment changes, the plan changes and the conversation is open — rather than the schedule slipping in silence.
09 Other solutions
What else we solve.
Legacy Modernization
Shall we talk about
your case?
The first conversation and the preliminary assessment cost nothing. Only then come the scope and the proposal.