Subcontractor Portal
A construction company with up to 500 employees in Germany was managing a web of subcontractors, documentation obligations, and real-time coordination demands that no standard project management…
View Case Study →End-of-life platforms, ageing frameworks, hardware that is no longer sold
Ageing applications do not always need to be replaced.
They need to be understood first. We assess what is worth keeping, what needs rebuilding and what can be retired, then migrate in stages that keep the business running throughout. Windows CE handhelds to Android, Windows tablets to iPad, Xamarin to MAUI, .NET Framework to .NET, desktop to web: the workflows your people depend on stay, the platform underneath them changes.
Big-bang rewrites fail more often than they succeed.
A full rewrite sounds decisive. In practice it usually means months of parallel cost, a frozen feature set while the old system still needs changes, and a single cutover date that puts the whole operation at risk to fix a platform problem. Meanwhile the trigger is rarely negotiable: the hardware is end of life, the operating system is out of support, the framework has stopped receiving security updates, the last person who understood the code is retiring.
The alternative is not to do nothing. It is to separate what the application does, which is usually right and hard-won, from what it runs on, which is what has aged, and to move the second without breaking the first.
What we deliver.
A technical assessment first, then a staged plan. Most modernisations keep the data model and the integration surface, and replace the platform, the UI and the delivery path.
- Technical audit and modernisation roadmap: what to keep, what to rebuild, what to retire, in which order, with the risks named
- Platform migrations for mobile and field devices: Windows CE handhelds to native Android, Windows tablets to native iPad, Xamarin to .NET MAUI
- .NET Framework to modern .NET, and WinForms or desktop tools to web applications where the job has moved to the browser
- Rebuilds that keep the integration surface: the new app talks to the same ERP data layer, the same SAP middleware, the same partner format, so nothing downstream has to change
- Incremental re-architecture, module by module, with live modules in production while the next ones are built
- Data migration with reconciliation, so the numbers on the new system can be proven against the old one before anyone relies on them
- Parallel running and cutover planning, per site or per user group, with a way back at every step
- A delivery pipeline and environments set up as part of the move, so the modernised application does not age the same way again
Why exbisoft.
Audit before we touch code.
We assess what is actually worth keeping before recommending a rebuild. Not every legacy system needs to be thrown away, and the parts that encode twenty years of business rules are usually the parts worth the most.
The workflow stays, the platform changes.
A software vendor's warehouse and production app had to leave Windows CE. We rebuilt it as a native Android app on the same Sage 100 data layer, so its customers kept every workflow for inventory, receiving, dispatch and production through the hardware change, and the vendor kept shipping it under its own brand.
Hundreds of devices, no backend change.
A jewellery manufacturer ran more than 500 in-store kiosks across Europe on ageing Windows tablets. We rebuilt the application as a native Swift iPad app that connects to their existing SAP middleware, coordinated with the middleware vendor and the client's SAP team, without touching the backend.
Incremental by default.
Modernisation happens in stages that keep your business running, not a frozen six-month rewrite with a single cutover date. A construction company's subcontractor portal moved its native apps from Xamarin to MAUI while the portal stayed in daily use on site.
Migration paths we know.
Windows CE to Android, Windows tablets to iPad, Xamarin to MAUI, .NET Framework to .NET. We have executed each of these before, and we know where each one hides its surprises.
Living with software that has outgrown its platform?
Tell us what it runs on, what it talks to and what is forcing the change. We will tell you honestly what is worth keeping, what has to go, and how to move it without stopping the business.
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