The company that built your system is gone.
Your business still depends on it.
Old Access databases, Visual Basic 6 programs and bespoke systems from software houses that no longer exist still run a surprising number of UK businesses. We work out what yours actually does, recover the data and the business rules, even without the source code, and replace it with a modern system before it fails.
Signs your business is running on borrowed time
- It only runs on one old PC, and everyone is nervous about touching it
- It won’t install or run properly on Windows 11
- You’re paying for extended Windows 10 or Server support just to keep it alive
- The supplier has ceased trading, and nobody has the source code
- The one person who understands it is about to retire
- Cyber Essentials, your insurer or IT support has flagged it as unsupported software
- Reports come out of Crystal Reports or Access, and nobody dares change them
- You hold years of records that you are legally or contractually obliged to keep
If it’s old, we’ve probably seen it
We can read data and logic out of most of the technologies UK businesses built on in the 1990s and 2000s, including formats that modern tools refuse to open.
From “nobody knows how it works” to a system you own
Assess
We take a copy of the system and its data and find out exactly what it does, what’s recoverable and where the risks are.
Recover
We extract every table, report and business rule, often directly from the compiled program, so nothing is lost or guessed.
Rebuild
We build a secure, modern, UK-hosted replacement around how your team actually works, with no per-seat licence fees.
Migrate
We bring across your full history and run both systems side by side until you’re confident to switch over.
A 30-year-old system with no source code and no supplier
Engineering spares depot, south coast
The depot’s stock system was written in 1995 in Visual Basic 6 on an Access 97 database. The company that built it had long since closed, there was no source code, and the database format is one modern Microsoft tools can no longer open. Yet the business is contractually obliged to track the full history of every item for decades.
- We recovered the system’s database queries directly from the compiled program
- We mapped all 32 tables and the document templates that produce signed, contractual paperwork
- We turned what we found into a full specification and a fixed-scope replacement plan
- The new cloud-based system is now in build, with every historic record coming across
The Legacy System Assessment
A fixed-price investigation, agreed before we start, that tells you exactly where you stand before you commit to anything bigger.
- What your system actually does: screens, reports, rules and data
- What can be recovered, and how confident we are
- A plain-English risk rating: how likely it is to fail, and what happens if it does
- Your options: stabilise, replace, or a phased mix, with a realistic budget for each
Your data is handled under a confidentiality agreement, stays in the UK and never leaves our environment. We are ICO registered.
Before you get in touch
We don’t have the source code. Is that a problem?
Usually not. The data is in the database, and a surprising amount of the logic can be read out of the program itself. Where it can’t, we watch the system running and document what it does.
Will we lose our history?
No. Migrating every historic record is part of the job, not an optional extra. For many of our clients, that history is the whole point.
Do we have to stop using the old system?
Not until you’re ready. We run the old and new systems in parallel and only switch over once your team is happy.
Is this only for big companies?
No. Most of the systems we see are used by somewhere between 3 and 30 people. That’s exactly why off-the-shelf software never quite fitted in the first place.
Tell us about your system
What it does, roughly how old it is and what it’s built in, if you know. We’ll come back within one working day. Prefer to talk? Call 01202 683 623.
