Existing software in new hands without interrupting operations

A few years ago, you had an application built. It still works, but the developer has since left, the agency no longer exists, or the emails go unanswered. Meanwhile, your business runs on it every day. Nobody dares to change anything, because nobody knows what will fall over. We take over that code, work out how it fits together, and make sure there is someone again who knows it.

When the builder is gone

Software without a builder is a risk you only feel when something goes wrong. The server gets an update and the application stops working. An integration with your accounting package fails because the vendor changed its API. Or a client asks for a small change and there is simply nobody who can make it. Often the documentation is missing, the code sits on a laptop that was handed in long ago, and only a former employee knows the password to the hosting provider.

This is not rare. At accounting firms, wholesalers, and healthcare organizations, we regularly come across a portal or a planning tool that has been running on its own for years. It works, until it does not. The takeover is meant to get ahead of that moment, not to search for a new agency in a panic after an outage.

Secure everything first

The first step is not reading but collecting. Together, we make a list of everything that belongs to the application: the source code, the servers, the database, the domain name, the email accounts, the external services the software talks to, and the accounts needed for them. That list almost always turns out longer than expected. A payment provider, an SMS service, a certificate that expires in two months. Everything we find, we put in the name of your organization, so you never again depend on someone else's account.

Then we put the code in a repository that is yours and run a copy of the application in a test environment on a server in the EU. That way we can look and try things without your clients or your employees noticing anything. If the production environment is still with a party that no longer responds, we discuss how to move it safely. That is a separate step, and sometimes the first one that is urgent.

Review the code and document the findings

With a running test environment and the code at hand, we start reading. Not everything, because with a large system that is weeks of work you get little out of, but the places that matter: how users log in, where the data goes, which components are outdated, and which integrations run. Internally, we use AI here to get through large amounts of code quickly and see the structure, but the judgment is that of a developer who has been inside it.

The result is an assessment in plain language. What is well built and can safely be used for years to come. What is vulnerable and needs fixing soon. What is missing, for example backups or a test environment. And what can simply wait. Sometimes the conclusion is that the foundation can no longer be maintained responsibly. Then we tell you that right away, instead of invoicing a year of maintenance on something that really needs replacing.

Choose the next step

After the takeover, you know what you have, and everything is in your name. What happens next depends on what we found. If the foundation is healthy, the application moves on to Software maintenance: updates, monitoring, and someone you can call. If the foundation is outdated but the functionality valuable, we make a plan for Legacy modernization, renewing the system piece by piece while it keeps running. And if it needs an integration the previous builder never made, we handle that through System integration.

You are and remain the owner. The code is in your repository, the documentation is yours, and if you would rather continue with another party later, you can, without having to search for passwords again. That is exactly the difference from the situation you came from.