Off the thing you have outgrown, with your history intact
A planned, reversible move off the system that is holding you back, without losing a single record or a day of trading.
- Typically costs
- £35k–£110k
- Live in
- 10–26 weeks
Leaving a system
3 parts01Where this usually starts
The system is twenty years old, the supplier has been bought twice, and the only person who understood it retired. Support is gone, your data feels locked in, and everyone is frightened of touching it.
02What changes
What you end up holding.
- 01A clear account of what is actually in there, including the parts nobody has looked at for years
- 02Your history brought across, checked against the old system, and shown to you before you commit
- 03A move that happens over a weekend, with a way back that has been tested rather than assumed
- 04The old records readable for as long as you need them, without paying to keep the old system running
- 05Your people trained before the move rather than during it
A move rehearsed three times before the real one, with a way back that gets tested rather than assumed.
03The pieces
What a system like this is usually made of.
You will not want all of it on day one, and you should not pay for all of it on day one. The estimator lets you choose, and shows what each one adds.
Bringing your history across
Checked against the old system and shown to you before you commit to the move.
Running both for a while
Old and new side by side for a cycle, compared, and the old one switched off when you are satisfied.
Reading the old records afterwards
The history stays readable without paying to keep the old system running.
04How it would run
10 to 26 weeks, in five phases you approve one at a time.
01
Getting to the truth
A written account of how your work really runs today, what the current way is costing you, and what your new system has to do about it.
02
Shaping it
Every screen and every decision your system will make, in front of you and signed off, with your live date fixed at the end of it.
03
Building it
Your system takes shape week by week in your own account, with something you can click on and try at the end of every fortnight.
04
Proving it
Your own people put it through real work with real records, and everything they find is fixed before anybody depends on it.
05
Going live
Your team moves across trained, with their history intact, on the date fixed months earlier.
05Asked most often
The questions that come up.
We have been told our data cannot be extracted.
It nearly always can. Direct from the underlying records, through whatever export exists, or by reading its screens. It is your data and there is almost always a way, though it occasionally costs more than the supplier's own fee, and you get that comparison up front.
What if it goes wrong on the day?
The way back is planned before the way forward, and the whole move is rehearsed on a copy first. Going live is the fourth time it has been done rather than the first, and you will have watched one of the rehearsals.
Can we run both for a while?
Usually the calmest way. Both live for a cycle, compared against each other, and the old one switched off when you are satisfied rather than on a date set in advance.
06The rest of it
Most projects are two or three of these at once.
- 01Customer and salesEvery customer, conversation and deal in one place, arranged the way your business works rather than the way a software company guessed it might.£45k–£120k
- 02Invoicing and paymentsInvoicing that matches your contracts however awkward they are, takes payment the way your customers want to pay, and follows up on its own.£38k–£95k
- 03Access and auditAccess controlled to the person and the record, every change recorded, and your answer ready the day an auditor, a client or a regulator asks for one.£32k–£85k
- 04Planning and schedulingWork, people and equipment scheduled against real constraints, reshuffled in seconds when something changes, and visible to everyone who needs to know.£48k–£140k
- 05ReportingOne honest set of figures drawn from every system you run, assembled by nobody, argued over by nobody, and ready on the first of the month.£30k–£75k
- 06Quoting and proposalsYour pricing rules, however involved, applied correctly by anyone on the team, inside a document that looks like it came from you.£34k–£88k
- 07Client portalsA calm, private place your clients sign in to, see exactly where their work has got to, and get what they need without emailing anybody.£30k–£80k
- 08Documents and approvalsForms filled in once, routed to whoever has to agree, signed, filed where you will find them again, and chased the moment they stall.£30k–£70k
- 09Field work and jobsThe job tracked end to end, your engineer given what they need on their phone, and the paperwork finished before the van leaves site.£55k–£160k
- 10BookingsAvailability your customers book against themselves, with every one of your real rules applied, and far fewer people failing to turn up.£30k–£70k
- 11Stock and assetsStock, tools, vehicles and installed equipment tracked accurately enough that you stop buying things you already own.£35k–£90k
- 12Joining systems upThe systems you already pay for, talking to each other reliably, so a thing entered once appears everywhere it belongs within seconds.£30k–£65k
- 13Reading documentsPaperwork arriving by email or on a phone camera, read accurately, checked against what you expected, and put in front of a person only when it needs one.£38k–£95k
- 14MembershipsMembers joining, paying, renewing and getting what they pay for, without anybody in your office administering a single one of them.£32k–£85k
- 15MarketplacesA platform where your suppliers and your buyers find each other, agree terms and pay, with your commission taken cleanly every time.£65k–£200k
- 16Compliance recordsThe records your regulator, your insurer or your biggest client requires, captured as the work happens and produced on demand in minutes.£32k–£80k
Put a date on it.
Half an hour with whoever would build it gets you the shape of the work, a figure you can take to your board, and the week it could start. No deck, no discovery fee, no follow-up sequence.
Or ring 01603 552024. A person answers it.