Bringing Stability to a Business-Critical System 

Background

Our client provides a digital platform that plays a vital role in their business model and day-to-day operations.

The challenge

Internally, they had started experiencing slower platform performance and increasing challenges communicating with their offshore development partner. Although the system continued to function for end-users, a recent buyout of their developer’s business had disrupted the relationship, and communication had become inconsistent and difficult to manage.

Recognising the risk, the client made the decision to bring development back to the UK. They were looking for a trusted partner who could help stabilise the platform, provide dependable day-to-day support, and work with them to future-proof the system for long-term success.

The solution

We discovered that the inherited system had outdated infrastructure and dependencies, so the first step was a stabilisation phase before any development could begin. We prioritised updates, patches, and process improvements to make the platform production-ready.

We started a full technical audit across all core applications, which revealed vulnerabilities, high technical debt, and a lack of foundational infrastructure like automated testing and deployment pipelines.

Working closely with the client, we:

• Patched buds and security vulnerabilities to stabilise the platform
• Upgraded to the latest versions of PHP and Laravel across all apps
• Refactored legacy code to improve performance and reduce technical debt
• Introduced automated deployment pipelines to save time and reduce risk
• Added automated tests across services to improve quality and release confidence
• Set up tightly vulnerability scans to ensure dependencies remain secure.

Read more about how software testing makes or breaks a successful product here. 

Once stabilised, we moved into a continuous improvement model, acting as their outsourced product team to support and evolve the platform.

Based on end-user feedback, we have implemented the following new functionality:

• Increased control and permissions functionality for partners and clients
• Additional data and filtering functions
• Additional reports
• Improved email functionality from the system
• Improved in-app help and support information

The Impact

With automation in place, the team was able to shift focus from maintenance to delivering real value. In just 12 months, we completed 199 automated deploys saving around 100 hours of development time equivalent to approx £1,000/month.

Security has also improved significantly. Over the past year, ~1,000 automated scans have run across the system, identifying and automatically patching 10 third-party vulnerabilities. These now generate daily, reviewable reports for peace of mind.

We’ve also started implementing test coverage, going from 0% to:

• 4.92% on core backend services
• 20.83% on authentication functionality
• 6.91% on the main user-facing app

New in-app functionality has empowered users with greater autonomy, resulting in a substantial drop in levels of system administration, from dealing with 10 client requests per day to just one or two, freeing up internal resources.

Most importantly, customers are noticing the app’s functionality improvements. In a recent end-user satisfaction survey, the platform achieved a 95% end-user satisfaction rate and a Net Promoter Score of 76.

Ongoing Partnership

Today, we continue to work closely with the client on a monthly basis, delivering new functionality, providing day-to-day support, and ensuring the platform stays secure, stable and up to date. As a long term digital partner, we’re helping them build confidently for the future.