An AI or automation plan meets an existing application
A planned improvement needs reliable access to data, workflows or business rules held inside an older ERP, CRM or bespoke system.
For software, AI and IT partners
When a client opportunity reaches software your team did not build.
I help when a valuable integration, automation or upgrade depends on an inherited, bespoke or poorly documented system. I recover the relevant code, interfaces and business rules, expose the risks, and create a controlled route forward alongside your team.
Where I fit
The difficult boundary between a good idea and the systems it must work with
The obstacle is often not the new product or platform. It is the existing application, undocumented interface or business rule that the change must depend on.
My role is focused: recover enough reliable understanding to decide what can be connected or changed safely, what must be protected, and what delivery should involve.
Partner situations
Useful when client delivery reaches an existing-system constraint
An interface cannot be trusted or explained
An EPOS, head-office, supplier or operational integration is poorly documented, understood by too few people or inherited from a previous provider.
A client application needs focused legacy expertise
An agency or MSP must support, change or connect a business-critical application without distracting its core team or guessing at the risks.
A complementary role
Focused on the constraint, not competing for the whole relationship
I can take responsibility for investigating the difficult existing-system boundary while you retain the wider product, platform or client relationship.
The delivery structure, responsibilities, client communication, confidentiality and commercial boundaries are agreed before work begins.
AI-assisted analysis is paired with experienced human review and practical testing. Permitted tools and data handling are agreed for each engagement, and AI tools are not given production access.
Relevant evidence
Experience at the points where systems and suppliers meet
I carried out the work in all four examples within multidisciplinary teams, often alongside external suppliers, and through the contracting routes identified in each experience snapshot. The later Specsavers and Virgin Media engagements used agile delivery. All four predate my current AI-assisted method.
Over three and a half years, maintained and extended international Drupal and Symfony platforms, became a subject matter expert for two important subsystems, gave presentations on those areas and led high-risk work in them.
See the Specsavers experienceOver two and a half years, contributed within an agile team to legacy PHP migration and extension, including an IP address-management system moved toward Symfony 4.
See the Virgin Media experienceDuring a fifteen-month engagement, recovered missing interface information, wrote Retail-J XML middleware for a new EPOS system and supported the test team.
See the Dunelm experienceOver six years, led middleware design, oversaw live implementation, solved cross-solution issues, and recruited, trained and built tools for the technical implementation team delivering the first few hundred stores.
See the Arcadia experienceQualify before prescribing
Start with the client change, not a technology pitch
A useful first conversation establishes whether there is a real, owned problem before an investigation is proposed.
- What integration, automation, migration or operational change is wanted?
- What is the consequence of leaving it blocked?
- Which existing system or interface creates the constraint?
- Who owns the decision, budget and timing?
- Can controlled access to source code and database structure be authorised?
A bounded first step
Investigation before implementation
When the client-side blockage concerns a qualifying PHP application running on Linux, the defined initial engagement provides a focused route from uncertainty to a decision. Other platforms and wider estates require a tailored scope.
Start the conversation
Has a client change reached software nobody wants to guess about?
Describe the client change, why it matters and which existing system creates the constraint. I will tell you whether focused legacy investigation looks appropriate.
I will read this personally and use it only to respond to your enquiry.