Legacy System Modernisation
26 January 2026
Legacy system modernisation has become a critical priority for enterprise organisations navigating growth, regulatory oversight and increased investment scrutiny. While many legacy platforms continue to operate reliably on a day to day basis, they are rarely designed to withstand the level of examination introduced by technical due diligence, rapid scale or the introduction of new digital capability.
In these environments, risk does not usually present itself through system failure. Instead, it emerges through architectural rigidity, fragile integrations and operational dependencies that limit change and increase exposure as expectations rise.
At Gathered & Found, we regularly work with organisations whose legacy systems are functioning, but whose underlying structure creates growing constraints. Architecture decisions made years earlier, tightly coupled platforms and limited integration layers often become pressure points during periods of growth, audit or transformation.
Modernising legacy applications in these contexts is rarely about wholesale replacement. It is about making deliberate, well sequenced decisions that reduce fragility while preserving continuity across revenue generating and compliance critical systems.
A common misconception around legacy system modernisation is that disruption is necessary to deliver value. In reality, the highest risk programmes are often those that attempt to change too much, too quickly, without accounting for the operational reality of systems that support customers, revenue and regulatory obligations.
Enterprise leaders increasingly recognise that modernisation must be approached as a controlled progression. Clear ownership, defined outcomes and incremental improvement are essential to maintaining confidence at both operational and board level.
Periods of technical due diligence often bring legacy system risk into sharper focus. Platforms are examined not only for their current performance, but for their ability to scale, integrate and adapt over time.
Indicators such as API maturity, system coupling and data accessibility frequently influence both valuation and confidence. These signals help investors and executives assess whether a technology estate can support future growth without introducing unacceptable operational risk.
Successful legacy system modernisation programmes focus first on strengthening foundations. By decoupling systems through robust APIs, addressing data constraints and improving deployment confidence, organisations can create platforms that support growth while maintaining stability.
This approach allows new capability to be introduced in a controlled manner, reducing risk and avoiding disruption to core operations.
At Gathered & Found, our role in legacy modernisation programmes is to bring clarity and accountability to complex delivery environments. We help organisations modernise legacy platforms in ways that stand up to scrutiny, support future integration and preserve operational momentum.
By prioritising stability before innovation, organisations are better positioned to scale, respond to change and introduce new capability without compromising performance or confidence.
Testimonials
Gathered & Found were able to deliver a great, experienced, culturally right fit for what we were looking for at FreeMarketFX covering a whole range of Service Design, User Experience, Front and Back end Engineers. This enabled us to scale our team capability very quickly, something we would not have been able to do ourselves. The team supplied were heavily motivated and experienced within the Fintech space and have helped deliver some great outcomes. I would definitely recommend the G&F calibration.
Greg Sherwin
CIO & CTO FreeMarketFX
I’ve been partnering with Gathered & Found while working for several companies now and I have systematically been impressed by their responsiveness, flexibility, overall ease to work with, forward thinking and the consistent level of their engineers and consultants. It has been a real pleasure working with them over the last years.
Nicholas Goubert
CPTO, Ocean Technologies Group
Gathered & Found have completely changed how we approach delivering our most critical projects. We usually have to wait 6 weeks for skilled engineers and delivery managers, but with G&F that timeframe has been turned on its head. Not only do they provide incredible consultants that deliver great work, but they find great culture-fits and their team understand exactly what we need for each engagement.
Engineering Director
Global Insurance Firm
As Founders who have never built a mobile app before, Gathered & Found were incredible at taking us through the entire process and making it very understandable from the outset. They supported us with complete app design, user experience and app development, and delivered an incredible product that will completely change our loyalty and rewards capability. Their Engagement team were also brilliant at keeping us updated with all developments and we honestly couldn’t be happier with the final product. We highly recommend them to any F&B or Retail businesses that need a supportive and amazing tech partner.
Tom Stock
Founder, Burger & Beyond
We brought in Gathered & Found for a critical engagement that required highly talented engineers. Our previous consulting partners had done a decent job, but were struggling with the complexity of delivering the initiative at scale in a regulated environment. The G&F squad that we received was extremely high bar and allowed us to keep in-line with our roadmap and ultimately delivered a great piece of work ahead of schedule and under budget. We are very pleased to have them as part of our wider partner team
Investment Bank
CIO
Gathered & Found have consistently exceeded our expectations with regards to delivering talented consultants that genuinely understand our business and mission. Their consultants are very well versed in our way of doing things and hit the ground running straight away. They have enabled us to deliver a number of high priority projects over the past 3 years, largely due to their ability to rapidly deploy great consultants into our teams and projects extremely quickly
Global Insurance Firm
Transformation Director
