Will you tell us to replace it?

Only if it genuinely warrants it. We take no commission from any platform, so a replacement earns us nothing that a stabilisation doesn't.

Can you support software you didn't build?

That's most of what we do. Custom products, legacy platforms, open source and software abandoned by its vendor.

How do we avoid a big-bang cutover?

Function by function where the architecture allows, with both systems running. Where it doesn't, we say so early rather than during the cutover weekend.

Can we just buy the assessment?

Yes. Two to four weeks, fixed price, and a written picture of what you have and what the options cost. Plenty of clients stop there for a year.

AliveCommerce / What we do / Applications

Legacy platform modernization

It still works. That's what makes it difficult. Nobody left knows how it was built, and every year it becomes slightly more load-bearing and slightly less understood. The risk isn't that it fails. It's that it fails at the worst possible moment.

Assessment2 to 4 weeks, fixed price

Common outcomeKeep and stabilise

CommissionsNone, from any alternative

Talk to us about this What drives the cost

Fixed budgetAgreed before work starts. Scope flexes, the number doesn’t.

No vendor pays usNo commissions, referral fees or markup. Ever.

You own everythingCode, documentation, credentials — throughout, not at the end.

Nearly 20 years2,000+ projects for 500+ organizations, from SOHO to Fortune 1000.

What's included.

Scoped and priced up front. Exclusions written as explicitly as inclusions.

Legacy assessment

What it actually does, what's custom, what's reachable, and what the options genuinely cost. Available as a standalone purchase.

Customisation archaeology

Reading and documenting code nobody has looked at in years. Most upgrade anxiety is documentation anxiety.

Stabilisation and maintenance

Keeping it running properly while you decide, which is frequently the whole answer rather than a holding pattern.

Incremental modernization

Function by function where the architecture allows, so there's never a single day the business bets on.

Migration and replatforming

When it genuinely warrants it, including data migration with reconciliation evidence.

Wrapping and integration

Extending a legacy system's useful life by connecting it properly rather than replacing it.

How we approach it.

In this order, because doing them out of order is how these go wrong.

Understand it before judging it

We read code we didn't write for a living. Before recommending anything we establish what it does, including parts nobody remembers requesting.

Seriously consider keeping it

Stabilised, documented and maintained, a legacy system frequently serves for years more at a fraction of replacement cost.

Move in pieces where possible

Big-bang replacements are how these go wrong. Where the architecture won't allow it, we say so early.

Document as we go

Whatever the outcome, you end up with something written down. That alone removes most of what made this hard to approach.

Assessment

2 to 4 weeks

Fixed price, standalone, yours to take elsewhere

What moves the cost

Documentation

Undocumented customisation is the single largest variable — which is why the assessment exists separately

Most common trigger

An EOL notice

Or a developer leaving, or a failed change

Not sure this is what you need?

Tell us what's actually happening and we'll say which part of this applies — or that a different approach fits better, or that you don't need us yet. That last answer is more common than you'd expect.

Get a straight answer Or call 416-639-5876, weekdays 8:30–5:30 ET

What we work with.

Chosen on fit. We take no commission or referral fee from any of them.

PHPASP.NETJavaDelphiVBPerlMySQLMSSQLOracleCOBOL adjacent systemsOn-premise to cloudContainerisation

If this shouldn't be a project.

Some of this work never really ends. When that's true, we'll say so rather than selling you a project that restarts in three years.

Continuous ownership

Champion1

When the answer is to keep it running properly. We take on custom and unsupported software nobody else will touch.

See Champion1

Continuous plus build

Champion1 Foundation

When modernization is a continuous programme rather than a project with an end date.

See Foundation

Straight answers.

Start the Conversation.

No qualification questionnaire. No nurture sequence. A person reads it and replies within a business day — and tells you plainly if we're not the right fit.

01A person reads itNot a scoring model. It goes to whoever would actually do the work.

02A reply within a business dayUsually a question or two rather than a calendar link.

03A conversation, not a pitchTwenty to ninety minutes. No deck, no slides.

04Then, only if it's warrantedA scope or assessment with a price attached before any work starts.

Prefer to talk first? 416-639-5876 · [email protected]

About legacy platform modernization

Three fields. We'll ask the rest on the call.

Related.

Articles are matched by tag; services, capabilities and programs are curated.

Tell us what's breaking.

We'll tell you roughly what this costs, how long it takes, and whether it's worth doing at all — including when the honest answer is that you don't need us.

Start the Conversation

Knowledge and process

Applications and data

Customer and web

Browse by symptom instead

The structure

Continuous ownership

Before you commit

Start with one problem

Priority sectors

Also

Or by situation

Not sure you fit?

Reading

Most read

Proof

Nobody owns the application layer