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Application Modernisation Services

Revitalise your legacy system with Application Modernisation Services

Outdated IT infrastructure stops your team working to its full potential. We modernise your application so you can unlock new ways to collaborate, innovate, and serve customers.

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App modernisation services

Outdated applications stunt your business’s growth

If your existing IT systems were custom-built 15+ years ago, you’re probably struggling to adopt new technologies today. What’s more, the outdated platform you’re relying on accrues more technical debt each day, resulting in:

  • Rising maintenance costs
  • Data security risks
  • Service outages

You’re left with a serious business challenge—and an overstretched IT team that’s constantly fighting fires.

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What is application modernisation

Modernisation gives your outdated application a new lease of life

App modernisation is about updating, re-writing, or replacing the parts of your application that are now out of date. In effect, you keep the ‘layers’ of technology that are working well and switch out the rest.

Common modernisation scenarios include:

  • Moving your application from on-site hosting to cloud hosting
  • Transferring your ‘closed’ IT infrastructure from an outdated platform (like Oracle) to an open-source, API-ready one
  • Refreshing your screens and user interfaces

But legacy application modernisation isn’t just about fixing technology — it’s about ensuring your IT infrastructure supports your business goals.

Benefits of application modernisation

Solve technical issues and trigger new business growth

Your IT infrastructure is the engine that drives your whole organisation. Modernisation gets you in the fast lane again, empowering your enterprise to collaborate and serve customers effectively.

Enable new innovation

Enable new innovation

By moving to a modern open-source platform, you can open up your systems to a wide range of APIs and integrations. It’s the first step in creating modern digital services—or adopting new technologies like Generative AI.

Resolve technical debt

Resolve technical debt

Outdated systems often suffer from improper code, bugs, poor- quality design, and missing documentation.Modernisation involves assessing how your system works and resolving these issues, ultimately making your system stable and scalable.

Future-proof your systems

Future-proof your systems

When your application is built on an outdated platform, it becomes almost like a ticking time bomb—and maintaining it is costly. Moving to a modern platform guarantees excellent functionality for at least the next 10 years, along with affordable, on-demand support.

Protect your data

Protect your data

Your IT infrastructure becomes more stable after modernisation, empowering you to mitigate data risks and comply with security and privacy regulations. Modernisation also lets you access a greater range of security, monitoring, and cloud storage systems.

Software modernisation processes

A multi-phased approach to safe, successful modernisation

Legacy modernisation is complicated, and there’s a lot that can go wrong. Most of our app modernisation projects involve the following steps:

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1. Legacy assessment

to determine what your application’s current state is

For most custom-built IT systems, your original developers are long gone—and your team has a sparse understanding of the code they created. We start with a full legacy assessment, reverse-engineering code when necessary. At the end of the process, we’ll understand:

  • How does the app help business goals/processes?
  • What’s the quality of the app from a technical standpoint?
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2. Project roadmapping

to ensure smooth delivery

Thorough planning helps us get to the right project milestones, in the right order. We provide a project roadmap optimised to deliver the highest business value in the shortest timescales, minimising risk at every step.

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3. Proof-of-concept testing

to validate bright ideas

When replicating or moving important layers of your application, it’s vital to know that everything will function correctly. Where appropriate, we test ‘light’ versions of the updated application with your data to confirm that all plans are viable.

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4. Phased modernisation

to protect your business continuity

Doing an all-in-one ‘big bang’ changeover puts your data at risk. We migrate your application in phases, allowing for effective modernisation without disturbing day-to-day business.

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Application modernisation trends

How modern businesses are getting more value from their existing infrastructures

Your outdated application is an asset, and modernisation gives you multiple ways to increase the return on your investment. Today, many businesses modernise with specific digital transformation goals in mind:

Move to the cloud

Move to the cloud

Switching from on-premises to cloud hosting (or a hybrid of both) gives you more ways to collaborate, while also enabling new digital services. Cloud application modernisation makes your IT systems more scalable, more flexible, and arguably more secure. What’s more, moving to the cloud can help you adopt cloud native applications into your systems quickly and easily.

Adopt microservices architecture

Adopt microservices architecture

By updating your monolithic application to a modular format, you enable your IT team to make small improvements without disrupting the overall IT infrastructure. The result is that you can update, maintain, and scale your application in multiple ways at the same time, significantly increasing business agility.

Enable API integration

Enable API integration

Legacy applications are often built on ‘closed’ platforms that can’t connect with new services via API. By switching to a modern platform, you can more easily integrate a wide range of tools and services, future-proofing your application.

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Application modernisation strategies

Find the right path to modernisation

While no two modernisation projects are the same, they typically involve one of the following strategies:

Re-hosting or ‘Lift and shift’

Re-hosting or ‘Lift and shift’

This strategy helps you move to a new hosting environment without changing your underlying architecture or codebase. It’s often used to move from on-premise hosting to the cloud, and it’s ideal when you need fast migration. It’s also a suitable solution for government organisations who need mainframe modernisation.

Containerisation

Containerisation

This process allows you to encapsulate an application in a ‘virtual server’, using technologies like Docker or Kubernetes. This allows you to run the application in a computing environment that it wouldn’t otherwise be compatible with. By containerising your application, you can successfully move it to a cloud platform like Microsoft Azure.

Application facelift

Application facelift

If the application’s workflows are functioning well but the system is ugly or difficult to use, it’s time for a UX design rework.In this scenario, we keep the existing business logic but overhaul the system’s front end.",

Re-factoring

Re-factoring

This strategy involves making significant changes to your application’s code. This is ideal when you want your application to behave in the same way, but you need to improve its structure, design, or architecture.",

Rewriting

Rewriting

If the application’s code is problematic and full of technical debt, developers may deem it necessary to rewrite it from scratch. This is arguably not modernisation, but the development of a brand new system. "

Why choose Griffiths Waite?

Get expert help from one of the UK’s leading application modernisation providers

Legacy modernisation is complicated, and there’s a lot that can go wrong. Most of our app modernisation projects involve the following steps:

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No-stress partner

We’re one of the UK’s leading enterprise developers, with over 30 years of experience in software modernisation and application development.

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Reliable on-shore support

Unlike many vendors, we don’t outsource to off-shore contractors. Our team is made up of permanent UK staff, so your development team will be around for years to come.

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Close collaboration

We love collaborating with our clients. Meet us face-to-face at our headquarters in Birmingham or on-site at your offices anywhere in the UK, or work with us remotely.

Application modernisation technologies

Bridging the gap between old and new systems

Legacy platforms we modernise from:
Oracle Forms
PL/SQL
Oracle SOA
Oracle ADF
Oracle JET
Modern platforms we build on:
Open Source
Microsoft TypeScript
Kubernetes
Microsoft Azure
Programming languages:
React
Node.js

Case studies

See how software modernisation transforms organisations

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Liverpool Victoria — Melius

Griffiths Waite helps LV= become a competitive powerhouse by future- proofing its BPM systems

LV= wanted to deliver superior customer service but was held back by a business process management system built on an outdated platform.

We modernised the application and improved the user experience, leading to LV= improving its competitive positioning.

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Isle of Man — Benefits Payment System

Griffiths Waite modernises and future-proofs the Isle of Man’s benefit payment system

The Isle of Man was relying on a 20-year-old system to allocate benefit payments to thousands of citizens each month.

We modernised the system while keeping private data secure, resolving technical debt while enabling the organisation to begin its digital transformation.

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Get in touch

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FAQ


How can managed app modernisation boost my ROI?

Reducing maintenance costs

With outdated platforms, you’re typically putting out fires, fixing malfunctioning code, or paying extra for specialised support. Modernisation resolves your technical debt and reduces your maintenance requirements to a fraction of what they previously were.

Increasing productivity

Application modernisation gives you new possibilities to connect, streamline, and automate workflows. For example, when working with British insurer LV=, we reduced the steps in its workflows by 75%. This reduced its labour costs, contributing to greater profitability and improved competitive positioning.

Identifying bottlenecks and opportunities

Modernisation gives you the opportunity to introduce the latest analytics technologies to your infrastructure. With improved visibility over what’s happening in your business, you can see where processes are slowing down—and find out how to serve customers better.

Enable innovation

Modernisation enables you to adopt new technologies, such as the latest Generative AI tools. From here, you can create new digital, web-optimised services, giving your customers the flexible and convenient experiences they need.


Is it possible to modernise a legacy app with no detailed documentation (functional specifications)?

Yes, it’s possible to modernise a legacy app with no documentation if you reverse-engineer the code. By extracting the business logic in the existing IT system, you can determine its capabilities and the opportunities for modernisation.

This is a fairly common scenario, and something that Griffiths Waite has completed with many clients. While reverse-engineering code is complex, we use automation to simplify and accelerate the process.


How does cloud computing impact application modernisation strategies?

Moving applications to the cloud is often—but not always—a part of application modernisation. Many companies want to take advantage of the services that come packaged with cloud platforms. These services typically include AI, business intelligence, security, and monitoring tools.

In addition, cloud application modernisation offers some other clear advantages:

Improved data capabilities

Cloud hosting offers convenient (and cost-effective) ways to capture, store, and share data.

Remote access

Cloud hosting also makes it easier for employees and customers to access your services from a greater range of locations and devices.

Lower maintenance costs

On-site data storage is expensive and complex, and moving to the cloud greatly reduces your maintenance requirements.


How do application modernisation services enhance business agility?

Markets change quickly today, and your business needs to be able to adapt quickly. Modernising your existing IT systems helps in several ways:

Make changes faster

Modernised applications typically use microservices architecture. The application is essentially broken down into smaller components —making it easier to update or change parts of it without affecting the rest.

Scale easily

When your customer base or workload changes, this affects the demands on your system. Modern applications can scale up and down more easily, helping you operate cost-effectively.

Provide better user experience

With modern architecture, you integrate with other systems and services to deliver a superior user experience. For example, you can make your organisation’s services available on new apps and platforms that your customers are adopting.


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