Ageing systems modernised, then owned in-house

The result

Oldham's contracts, sales, production and reporting software was brought up to date and made faster, and it gained a contract forecast report and a better link to its shop-floor system.

Then Oldham took ownership. We helped recruit the in-house specialist who took the system on, ended our retainer in December 2023, and left the business depending on nobody outside it.

The problem

Oldham Engineering machines, fabricates and assembles heavy components for nuclear, defence, oil and gas, rail and power generation, from Castle Iron Works in Oldham.

A business like that runs on its own software for contracts, sales, production control and reporting. At Oldham that software had fallen behind. Parts of it were slow, it was hard to change safely, and the business had no path to owning it itself.

What we did

From March 2021 we worked in two-week blocks, each with a fixed scope and tracked on a board the client could see. We worked through the business modules one at a time, added the reports the business needed, and brought in design help where screens needed it. From July 2021 one of our team worked full-time on the system, and from November Max ran project management and releases.

By 2023 the heavy lifting was done, and we moved to a small advisory retainer. That retainer also covered hiring: we ran Oldham's recruitment for the role from September to December 2023, including first- and second-stage interviews, technical tests and marking, and an on-site interview. We then helped it take on a further role through The Developer Academy in early 2024.

For the technical reader:

• Sprint 1: moved the system's source into version control (Git), updated library versions and fixed performance problems.
• Sprints 2–6: reworked the core business modules, including a two-sprint migration of the sales module, and introduced Telerik Reporting.
• Sprints 7–11: a contract forecast report, reviews, an upgrade of the JobBOSS ERP integration, and the start of an integration with Fastems shop-floor automation.
• Retainer: the JobBOSS and contract sync jobs, report performance, database compatibility, and liaison with the firm's IT provider.

If your business runs on software that one person understands and nobody wants to touch, we can modernise it and leave it in a state your own team can own. Talk to us.