The systems we modernise, by what they do
Most owners know what their system does long before they know what it is built in. Solve With Software describes here the kinds of business system it takes over and modernises, sector by sector, so you can find the one that looks like yours and see what modernising it brings. Each page covers both generations of the system, the Old Guard built in the 2000s and the New Legacy built since 2016, and what AI could take off the desk once it is safe to change.
Free · 1 hour · no obligation
Every system, by sector
Each system page describes the Old Guard version, the New Legacy version, what modernising it brings and where AI helps.
Transport and logistics
The systems that run haulage and logistics firms, old and new, dispatch board to warehouse stock, and where AI helps on each.
Manufacturing and engineering
The systems that run small manufacturers, old and new, MRP to shop-floor booking, and where AI helps on each.
Construction and property
The systems behind contractors, plant yards and managing agents, old and new, and where AI helps on each.
Wholesale and distribution
The systems that run wholesalers and distributors, old and new, trade counter to B2B portal, and where AI helps on each.
Field services
The systems that run field service firms, old and new, job sheets to the engineers' app, and where AI helps on each.
Professional services
Systems behind law firms, accountants, insurance brokers, recruiters and architects, old and new, and where AI helps on each.
The Old Guard and the New Legacy
Every system described here comes in two generations, and a business usually has one of them.
The Old Guard was built somewhere between 2000 and 2013, by a contractor, an employee who has since left or a small local firm, on the desktop tools of the day: Visual Basic 6, Microsoft Access, Delphi, Classic ASP, with the data in SQL Server and Crystal Reports for the paperwork. It runs on a PC in the office or a server under the stairs. The person who built it has retired or moved on, nobody has changed the code since, and that is why it still works and why nobody dares touch it.
The New Legacy is the same system built from about 2016, by a small agency, a freelancer or someone in the office on a low-code builder: a web system in React, Angular or Node or PHP, something put together in Bubble or Power Apps, usually with a phone app beside it. It opened in a browser and felt like the future. Then the agency moved on, the hosting ended up on somebody's card, the versions fell years behind and the app stopped installing on new phones. Since 2023 there is a newer strand again: the system an office built most of the way in an AI builder, which stalled before the last part came.
The New Legacy is newer than the Old Guard and every bit as stranded. The work on both starts in the same place: make it safe to change, then modernise it one process at a time with the old system as the fallback.
Plenty of businesses in these sectors run a bought package instead, and some have customised one so far that it can no longer be upgraded, or bolted a homegrown system beside it for the part the package never did. Those are the same problem in a different shape, and the system pages cover them where they are common.
Where AI comes in
In the paperwork and in the records the system already holds, once it is safe to change.
On systems like these, most of the time AI can give back is spent retyping things that already arrived in writing: the booking in an email, the supplier's PDF, the photo of a signed sheet, the handwritten timesheet. AI reads them and drafts the entry for someone to check rather than type.
Past the paperwork, it works on the records. It answers the question no report was ever written for, in plain words, with the records behind the answer shown so a person can check them. It reads years of notes on a site, a vehicle or a matter and puts the few lines that matter at the top. And it holds back the order, the booking or the sign-up that does not look like the others, before it costs anything.
How much time that gives back depends on the volumes, so each system page works it out for a typical business of its kind, names where AI pays back first, and names one place where it is not worth doing.
It comes after the first stage, because nothing can be added safely to a system that cannot be changed safely. The assessment maps where AI would pay back on the system as it stands.
Questions
What people ask before they book.
How do we know whether ours is Old Guard or New Legacy?
Mostly by when it was built and how it is opened. A Windows program or an Access database installed on the office PCs, built before about 2014, is Old Guard. A system that opens in a browser or runs as an app, built by an agency, a freelancer or on a builder since about 2016, is New Legacy. Plenty of businesses have one of each, joined together, and the free consultation works out which is which.
Our system is only a few years old. Can it really be legacy already?
Yes. A system becomes legacy when nobody can safely change it, not at a particular age. A 2020 web system whose agency has gone, whose hosting nobody controls and whose versions are years out of date is as stuck as a 2005 Access database, and often harder to hand over because nobody has the passwords.
What could AI save a business like ours?
Time on the paperwork, first. On the systems these pages describe, AI reads the emails, PDFs and photographs that someone currently retypes, and drafts the entry for a person to check. After that it answers questions from the system's own records and flags the entries that do not fit. How much time it gives back depends on the volumes, and each system page works that out for a typical business of its kind. The assessment says where it would pay back on your system before anything is built.
Our system is not on any of these pages. Is it still the kind of work you do?
Usually. These pages describe the systems that come up most often, and most business systems are a mix of them. The free one-hour consultation works out what yours does and what it is built in, and the assessment is sized to it.
What does modernising a system cost?
It depends on the system, but it does not take long to get a price and a plan to you. The assessment is from £395 + VAT, with an exact price before you commit, and produces a report with costed options and a fixed price for each. The report is yours. Take it to us, another developer, or nobody.
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. .