Database & Business Software Support

When a business-critical system develops problems, finding the right support is harder than it should be.

The original developer has left. The supplier no longer exists, or no longer answers. The documentation was never written. Nobody internally fully understands how it works.

And the business still relies on it every single day.

We support the systems you already have — Microsoft Access, SQL Server, and bespoke applications whoever built them. ☎

What happens when you ring

[IMG-1] — Same person, at their desk, actually working on something. Not a headset stock photo. The point is that this is a real, small team.
Alt: Speaking directly to the people who support your system

Everyone says “no call centres”. Here’s what it actually means.

You get a person who has already seen your system. Not someone reading it off a ticket for the first time. The same people, call after call, who know how your database is put together and why your business does it that way.

You don’t explain it twice. No first line, no triage, no “I’ll pass this to the team”.

We can usually look at it during the call, over remote support, rather than arranging something for Thursday → remote support

You get told what’s actually wrong, in plain English, including when the answer is “that’ll take a day and here’s why”.

It’s a small team. That’s the point — it’s what makes the continuity possible.

Systems somebody else built

This is most of what we do.

The original developer has retired, moved on or become unreachable. Over the years the knowledge has drained away while the business’s dependence on the system has grown. Every change feels like a risk somebody’s taking personally.

We take those on:

• Work out how the application actually works
• Review the database and the code, including the parts nobody’s opened in years
• Document the things that matter, so the knowledge belongs to you rather than to whoever’s looking after it
• Clear the long-standing problems everyone’s been working around
• Support it day to day
• Tell you what’s worth improving, and what isn’t

The aim is to be a long-term support partner, not to fix one thing and disappear.  legacy software rescue

What we support

Microsoft Access — troubleshooting, performance, data corrections, changes and new features, reports, recovery and migration planning → Access support

SQL Server — performance tuning, query optimisation, administration, troubleshooting, reporting and upgrades → SQL Server support

Bespoke and inherited systems — line-of-business applications, departmental systems and anything that doesn’t fit neatly into a category → database and inherited system support

Mixed environments, which is what most businesses actually have — Access front ends on SQL back ends, desktop and web together, bespoke software with third-party integrations, cloud alongside on-premises. We’re comfortable across the join, which is usually where the problems live.

MySQL and other databases behind web applications and inherited systems → MySQL support

How support works

Arrangements

• Ad-hoc — ring when you need us, billed for the time. Suits businesses with occasional problems and no appetite for a commitment.
• Support agreement — an agreed allowance of time each month, with a response commitment and priority over ad-hoc work. Suits anyone whose system is genuinely business-critical.
• Managed — we take responsibility for keeping it running: monitoring, backups checked by restoring them, maintenance, and telling you about problems before your users do.

Hours — 9 – 5
Response — 1 Working Day

What’s covered — problems, faults and breakages, plus the small changes that come up constantly: a new report, an extra field, a form that needs to work differently because the business does. Bigger pieces get scoped and priced separately so you decide whether they’re worth it.

Purchase orders and approvals — we’d rather sort the paperwork afterwards than hold up a fix, and we’ll work with whatever your finance process needs.

Support that improves things, not just holds them together

Most calls aren’t breakages. They’re a report finance needs, another field on a form, a process that’s changed, a customer wanting something the system was never built to do.

We do that work as it comes. Small changes usually go through in days.

And because we already know the system, the bigger things get easier and less risky too — reviews, upgrades, web portals, mobile apps, better reporting, integrations, and planning what happens over the next three years.

Plenty of clients start with one problem and stay for a decade.

modernise existing systems

→ [LINK: modernise existing systems → /modernisation/]

Continuity is the whole point

Support gets better the longer it runs.

As we get to know your systems, we build up knowledge of your processes, your users, your data structures, your reporting, and what actually matters when something breaks at month end.

That’s what turns a two-hour diagnosis into a ten-minute one. It’s also what stops you being one person’s holiday away from a problem.

how we work

Why people ring us

• The original developer has gone
• The existing support has ended, or was never any good
• The system has quietly become business-critical
• Changes take too long, or nobody will quote for them
• Database problems are affecting users
• The internal knowledge has walked out of the door
• There’s no documentation
• The software needs developing as well as supporting

If any of those sound familiar, that’s the call to make.

If it’s urgent

System down, database won’t open, nobody can work? Ring rather than email.

emergency database support · emergency Access support · emergency SQL Server support

Case studies

all case studies