We take unsupported or brittle systems - mainframe COBOL, VB6, Oracle Forms, aging .NET, custom ERPs - and move them onto platforms people can still change. The method is assessment first, then strangler-fig slices: map the estate, price the risk, replace one bounded capability at a time with parallel runs until the numbers match.
Every legacy system was once a smart buy. That AS/400 warehouse box was an advantage in 1996. Then vendors sunset runtimes, experts retired, and each integration became another workaround. The software did not get worse; the world around it moved.
A two-year heroic rewrite with one cutover weekend is usually the riskiest plan on the table. We instrument first, isolate seams, then replace one bounded capability at a time. Old and new run together until reconciliation is boring.
Along the way we touch the decisions hiding under the code: data models that still encode 2003's org chart, batch jobs that exist because networks used to be slow, permission schemes nobody dares edit. Those slow the roadmap as much as the language does.
Sprint, then phase, then retainer
Assessment first, always. Scope and investment are bespoke to your estate - book a demo and we'll walk the plan together.
MODERNIZATION ASSESSMENT
Assessment-first (diagnostic-powered): portfolio scan, debt register, one costed roadmap.
- → System inventory & dependency map
- → Ranked debt register
- → Modernization roadmap with sequencing
- → Executive readout
MODERNIZATION PHASE
Execution on the first slices: strangler seams, parallel runs, first cutovers.
- → First capabilities extracted & live
- → Reconciliation harness
- → CI/CD in place
- → Updated register & next-phase plan
MODERNIZATION RETAINER
A standing modernization crew inside your roadmap - capacity, not chaos.
- → Dedicated squad
- → Quarterly architecture reviews
- → Debt burn-down reporting
Evidence, not assurances
45 days
of parallel running before cutover
Old and new ran side by side against live production traffic, with outputs compared automatically every day.
1,602
discrepancies found and closed
Every one was reconciled before the legacy system was switched off. Zero surfaced afterwards.
Finding 1,602 differences is the point. A parallel run that finds none was not measuring anything.
6 weeks
to the first capability in production
The full estate took 14 months, but the business saw working software in month two rather than at the end.
Incremental delivery is slower to start. It is the only shape where every step is reversible.
Technology Modernization, answered
Rewrite or refactor - how do you decide?
Per component, never per system. We score each bounded capability on change frequency, risk, and coupling. High-change, high-value pieces get re-engineered; stable correct pieces get wrapped and left alone; dead pieces get retired. Full rewrites are a last resort when the runtime is genuinely end-of-life.
Can you modernize without downtime?
That's the default. Strangler seams, parallel runs with reconciliation, and reversible cutovers keep the business running. The big-bang weekend migration is exactly what this method avoids.
Our COBOL developers are retiring. How urgent is this?
Treat key-person risk like an outage with a countdown. First move: knowledge capture and automated analysis to pull business rules into docs and tests while the people who wrote them can still confirm intent. That turns an emergency into a plan.
What does a modernization engagement cost?
It's bespoke to your estate - we don't publish price lists because honest scoping needs to know what you run. Book a demo and we'll walk assessment, phases, and retainers against your stack. The free diagnostic on this site emails you a scored starting report in about four minutes.
Start with the sprint.
Fixed fee, few weeks, and you end up with a plan you could execute without us. Most clients don't - but the leverage is yours either way.