When is legacy modernization the right choice?

A process the business depends on only works because one person knows how. The tool still works, but nobody dares change it. A spreadsheet has turned into a database, and people keep overwriting each other’s changes.

Services · Legacy Modernization

Legacy Modernization

The spreadsheet nobody can safely change, the tool whose author left, the process that only runs because one person remembers it. I replace them piece by piece, without stopping the business.

Talk about legacy modernization Pricing

The old computer keeps running while its records move across, one folder at a time.

What you get

A map of what it doesIncluding the behaviour nobody documented and everybody depends on.
A migration in piecesOne function at a time, each shipped and checked, so there’s no big weekend where everything changes at once.
The knowledge written downThe rules that lived in one person’s head, written so the next person can follow them.
A retirement plan for the old systemWith the date it goes read-only and the date it goes away.

I move one function at a time, and the router only sends its work to the new system once it’s been checked there. Everything else keeps running on the old system until the last one has moved, then the old system goes read-only and is retired.

Pricing

Fixed prices for the common jobs, and a quote after discovery for anything bigger. Prices in CAD, plus GST.

01
Assessment
The old system, mapped before anything moves.

$4,500 1 week · credited · $9,000 for 2 weeks

The discovery week for an old system: a map of what it does including the behaviour nobody documented, a risk register, the migration plan in pieces with an order and dates, the retirement plan, and the number for the build. Two weeks and $9,000 for a multi-module system.
- A map of what it does, including what nobody documented
- A risk register, and the migration plan in pieces
- The retirement plan, with its dates
- Credited in full against the migration
Start with Assessment
02 Fits most businesses
First piece
The riskiest part, moved first and proven.

from $30,000 after assessment · 3 to 4 weeks

After assessment, a fixed quote for the riskiest dependency: migrated and shipped stand-alone, run beside the old system and verified against it for 30 days.
- The riskiest piece first, not the easiest
- Shipped on its own, without stopping the business
- Run beside the old system for 30 days
- Verified against it, in writing
Talk about First piece

Run plan · from $3,000 a year The infrastructure it runs on, kept up, backed up and watched. The server it runs on. Storage, and backups you can be restored from. Dependency and security updates. Monitoring, and someone who notices. Cancel at any renewal. You own the software either way.

That’s the starting price. A busier or more complex system costs more to run, and we agree on the number in writing along with the build, so it never comes as a surprise.
Not included: what you pay other companies. AI model and API keys, third-party licences and app subscriptions stay in your own accounts, at cost. I don’t mark them up.
The plan doesn’t include hours for changes. Each change gets its own price, agreed before I build it.
I’ll never take a percentage of what you sell: no royalties, no cut of transactions, no per-user fees for software you own.

Each further piece is quoted from the assessment and paid when it ships.

When it’s the right choice

A process the business depends on only works because one person knows how.
The tool still works, but nobody dares change it.
A spreadsheet has turned into a database, and people keep overwriting each other’s changes.