Skip to content

Product engineering

Legacy system modernisation

Legacy modernisation is the incremental replacement of ageing software with maintainable systems, without a big-bang cut-over and without losing data. Hexploits does it by documenting what exists, wrapping it in tests, and replacing it piece by piece while the business keeps running.

A named engineer replies within one working day. A written scope and an indicative price within two.

  • Businesses whose core system runs on a platform, language or supplier that is no longer supported.
  • IT directors who cannot get a change made without a month of risk.
  • Finance directors paying licence and hosting costs for systems nobody will touch.

Deliverables, not slogans. Each one appears in the statement of work.

  • An assessment: architecture, data, dependencies, risks and a modernisation route with options and costs.
  • A test harness around the existing system so that behaviour is captured before anything changes.
  • Incremental replacement with the old and new running side by side and reconciled.
  • Data migration rehearsed and verified.
  • Decommissioning of the old system with evidence.

Our engineers work across the major languages, frameworks and cloud platforms. We build on the stack you already run, with technology choices explained in writing before work begins.

The same four stages as every Hexploits engagement, applied to this capability.

  1. Stage 1

    Assess

    Two to four weeks to understand what the system does, who depends on it, and where the risk is. Output: a written route with options.

  2. Stage 2

    Stabilise

    Backups verified, documentation written, tests added, so change becomes safe.

  3. Stage 3

    Replace incrementally

    One capability at a time moves to the new system; both run in parallel until the numbers match.

  4. Stage 4

    Decommission and operate

    The old system is switched off with a rollback plan, and the new one goes under managed support.

Every engagement agrees its measures and the measurement period in writing before work starts.

  • Time and risk to ship a change, before and after.
  • Licence, hosting and support cost of the retired system.
  • Incidents and downtime during the migration (target: none visible to users).

Case studies with numbers, and reviews linked to Google where they were left there.

  • Director, Gradvisor

    Fantastic company and our development partner for Gradvisor, a social mobility careers platform with national ambitions. Extremely responsive and mission-oriented. Cameron owns any shortfalls humbly - rare for IT providers. Thinks like a client too.

    Tushar PrabhuDirector, GradvisorRead the review
  • Director, Lothbury

    Top quality delivery, and reasonable price. Will be using again.

    Peter DentonDirector, LothburyRead the review
Do we have to stop using the system while you rebuild it?
No. The point of incremental replacement is that the business keeps running on the old system until each part of the new one is proven.
What if there is no documentation and the original developers have gone?
That is the usual situation. The assessment recovers the knowledge from the code, the data and the people who use it, and the test harness captures behaviour before we change anything.
Can you take over a system someone else built and just run it?
Yes. Rescue and stabilisation is a service in its own right, and modernisation can follow when you are ready.

Sectors where this is most often needed

Request a proposal.

Tell us about the system and the sector. A named engineer replies within one working day. A written scope and an indicative price within two working days of a short scoping call.