Should we replace or modernise our system?
For most business systems, Solve With Software's answer is modernise in stages rather than replace, because the hard part, working out what the system needs to do, is already paid for. Your current system is a living specification. Replace it outright when the technology can't be carried forward at all. Keep it as it is when the business isn't held up by it. The assessment tells you which of the three you're looking at, with a fixed price on each.
Free · 1 hour · no obligation
The three options
Keep it and support it. The system does its job. The risks are known and manageable. The money is better spent elsewhere. Support means someone to call and a system made safe to change, and that can be the whole engagement.
Modernise it in stages. The rules and the data are sound; the technology around them isn't. New screens over the same data, an API so it can talk to the tools you've bought since, AI where it pays back, one process at a time, alongside the live system. This is the answer for most of the systems we see.
Replace it. The technology can't be carried forward, or the business has changed so much that the system's model of it is wrong. Even then, replace alongside rather than all at once, with the data moved and reconciled before anything switches.
Why the hard part is already paid for
The most expensive part of any software project is working out what the system needs to do. You did that years ago. Your current system, for all its faults, is a living specification: it shows how your business runs, where the pain is, and what's missing.
You also know what you'd change. Most businesses in this position have a list, written or not, of everything they've wished for since the system went in. That list is the specification a new project would otherwise spend weeks discovering.
And your data comes with you. Years of customer records, job history and reporting move into whatever comes next. Nothing starts from a blank page.
When replacing is the right call
When the technology can't be carried forward. No source code and no way to recover it. A platform that's dead, with no path to a supported version. A hosted product you don't own and can't extend. A data model that's wrong for how the business works now, so that every change fights it.
Even then, the safe way to replace is alongside: the new system grows next to the old one, sharing the same data, taking over one process at a time, with the old route open until you're confident. A big-bang cutover is a choice, and rarely a good one.
When keeping it is the right call
When it does its job, the risks can be managed with support, and the money would do more elsewhere. That happens, and when it does the report says so, with a price for supporting the system rather than changing it.
Small systems count
A system doesn't have to be big to be worth modernising. Smaller systems are often the quickest wins: faster to bring under test, cheaper to modernise, and just as much of a change for the people who use them every day. An Access database with six users can be the right first project.
Your data
It comes with you whichever option you choose, and it never meets a change until the change has proven itself somewhere else. We build and test against a copy in a test environment, then run the new piece in staging alongside the live system, migrating, checking and reconciling the data there first. Only when the tests have shown it's safe does anything connect to live, and the old system stays available as a fallback until you're confident.
What it costs
The decision starts with a free one-hour consultation and a legacy system assessment from £395 + VAT, with an exact price before you commit. The report puts a fixed price on each of the three options for your system, so you're choosing between real numbers. What drives those numbers and the payment terms each have a page.
How we approach it
We'd rather carry your rules forward than rediscover them. Marc Allington leads every assessment and the work that follows. He has built business systems in VB, Access, SQL Server and .NET as well as on the web, in the cloud and with AI, which covers most of the systems this decision is about. Anything we build runs on open, widely used technology, in your own accounts, with full source code and ownership transferring to you on final payment.
Systems where this usually shows up
The booking system that runs your container haulage
A container haulier's booking system: boxes, port slots, free days, what modernising it brings and where AI helps.
The stock system that runs your warehouse
A 3PL's homegrown stock system: locations, goods in and out, customer reports, what modernising brings and where AI helps.
The homegrown MRP system that runs your factory
A manufacturer's own MRP: BOMs, works orders, stock and purchasing, what modernising brings and where AI helps.
The quality system your accreditation audit runs on
Batch traceability, certificates of conformity, NCRs and calibration: what modernising brings and where AI helps.
The job costing and valuations system behind your month end
A contractor's job costing system: CIS, reverse charge, retention, where AI codes the invoices, and what modernising it brings.
The estimating system and rates library your tenders come from
A contractor's estimating system: rates library, priced bill, adjudication, where AI matches bill items, and what modernising brings.
The stock and purchasing system your warehouse picks from
A distributor's stock and purchasing system: reorder levels, goods-in, branch stock, where AI helps and what modernising brings.
The app your engineers work from
The app a service business's engineers work from, where AI helps on site, and how a stuck one gets shipping again and modernised.
The claimant system that runs your group action
The system that moves thousands of claimants through a group action, what modernising it brings, and where AI helps.
The deadline and workflow system beside your practice software
An accountancy practice's own deadline, workflow and onboarding system, what modernising it brings, and where AI helps first.
The timesheet and pay-and-bill system behind your weekly pay run
A temp agency's own timesheet and pay-and-bill system: weekly pay, client invoices, what modernising it brings and where AI helps.
The project and fee system that tells your practice what to invoice
An architecture practice's own project, timesheet and fee system, what modernising it changes, and where AI helps first.
The six questions we put to every system
The assessment answers each of these for your system, and the answers point at one of the three options. The report states which, and why.
| Question | Points to keep | Points to modernise | Points to replace |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do you have the source code, or can it be recovered? | Yes | Yes | No, and it can't be recovered |
| Is the platform still supported, and for how long? | Supported | End of support in sight | Dead, with no upgrade path |
| Is the data model right for how the business works now? | Yes | Mostly, with known gaps | No, every change fights it |
| Does the business still work the way the system assumes? | Yes | Largely | No |
| Can it be changed safely, with tests and a staging environment? | Yes, or easily made so | Once a safety net is built | Not without rebuilding it |
| What would one first stage be worth? | Little; it already works | A lot, and quickly | Only worth it as part of a replacement |
Two or more answers in the right-hand column and replacement is on the table. Everything in the left-hand column and the recommendation is to support it. Most systems land in the middle.
Questions
What people ask before they book.
Isn't a rewrite cleaner?
It's cleaner on a whiteboard. In practice a rewrite has to rediscover every rule the old system enforces, and the ones nobody wrote down get rediscovered in production. Staged modernisation carries the rules forward and replaces the technology underneath them.
Our system is an old off-the-shelf product. Can it be modernised?
Sometimes not, if you don't own the code or the data model is locked away. Then the choice is replace, and the question becomes how to move the data and the process across safely. The assessment answers that too.
Our system is small. Is it worth it?
Often more so. Smaller systems are the quickest wins: faster to bring under test, cheaper to modernise, and just as much of a change for the people who use them every day.
How do we know the decision is right?
You don't have to take it on trust. The report puts a fixed price on each option and states the trade-offs, and it's yours to take to anyone.
What if we choose wrong?
Stages protect you. A first stage is one process and one price. If it shows the system is better or worse than expected, the plan changes before the next stage, not after a year.
Start with a free consultation
An hour on your system, online or by phone. From there we size the assessment, from £395 + VAT, and give you an exact price before you commit.
Want the numbers first? See how pricing works.
Written by Marc Allington, founder. .