The same problems, in different buildings
Across modernisation and integration work the same patterns recur. These are anonymised field notes: the problem, the diagnosis, and what actually changed.
Seven patterns from the field.
Each is an anonymised composite from real modernisation and integration work: the problem, what was really going on, what we did, and what changed. They stand alone, so start wherever one sounds familiar.
The Real System Was a Clerk's Friday Spreadsheet
A 20-year-old order platform's most important logic lived in a clerk's Excel sheet, not the code. Here is how we found the hidden load-bearing parts before they broke the project.
Hidden load-bearing logic found before it broke the project Read the pattern → ManufacturingTwo Systems That Disagreed on Order State
A manufacturer's order system wasn't slow. It was lying, and three people cleaned up after it every morning. A tight, one-domain fix that paid back in year one.
~EUR 55k fix, year-one payback Read the pattern → ManufacturingThe 19-Month Parallel Run
A manufacturer ran their old and new ERP side by side for 19 months because nobody would switch the old one off. The cutover took two weeks once the decision was de-risked.
19-month stalemate to cutover in 2 weeks Read the pattern → Manufacturing743 Stored Procedures, 58 That Mattered
A manufacturer's production-scheduling system had 743 stored procedures. Only 58 carried the actual business. Here is what happens when you rebuild those and delete the rest.
Delivered roughly 30% under quote by rebuilding only what mattered Read the pattern → ManufacturingThe Column Rename That Took Three Weeks
An ERP, a shipping tool, and a reporting app all wrote to the same tables. Renaming one column took three weeks of two engineers. Here is what a database boundary nobody decided actually costs.
One rename, three weeks, roughly 30k in loaded labour Read the pattern → AutomotiveThe Label Printer That Went Quiet
A 9-site automotive supplier moved onto new middleware. At 3am one interface started silently dropping messages under load. The dashboard was green. Here is what caught it.
Silent message loss caught minutes before rollback Read the pattern → TechnologyThe Modern Rewrite That Made It Worse
We replaced a twelve-year-old batch job with a clean event-driven system. It was the most modern thing we shipped, and it made everyone's life worse. Here is what that cost to learn.
Roughly 70k and four months to rebuild something that already worked Read the pattern →Recognise one of these?
Talk to TrueForgeSee how we'd approach it.
Explore solutionsAll patterns are anonymised composites from real engagements. Figures are openly estimated, not audit-grade.