The rewrite quote is usually the expensive answer to the wrong question. Here is our reasoning, including when we would tell you to rewrite.
Request a free application review +44 (0)1293 562730If you have systems written in PowerBuilder you do not need to redevelop them, with all the risk and cost that involves. We can migrate you to a later version and then enhance the application to bring it up to date.
The rewrite pitch is seductive because it sounds like progress. You get modern technology, a clean codebase and a roadmap. What it does not mention is that the thing you are proposing to throw away is twenty years of encoded business rules, most of which nobody has written down, many of which exist because of a specific problem that occurred once and must never occur again.
Rebuilding that is not a development exercise, it is an archaeology exercise, and it is where rewrite projects overrun. A migration sidesteps it entirely: the logic comes across intact and you change the platform beneath it.
Migration work is quoted as a fixed price against an agreed scope, with phases, milestones and acceptance criteria defined before anyone starts. The estimating risk sits with us.
Your code moved to a supported Appeon release, refactored only where it genuinely has to be.
The application and everything it depends on, which is usually the trigger that put the project on the roadmap in the first place.
Oracle and SQL Server upgrades, SQL Anywhere moves, and the driver and retrieval behaviour that comes with them.
Windows Server and client upgrades, and re-integration with current versions of Microsoft Office.
Making it look and behave like software written this decade, without touching the logic underneath.
Redesigning application security, which for regulated clients is often the whole reason the project is funded.
Banking — Kansas, USA
A bank with around $79 billion in assets, migrated off PB6 with a SQL Server upgrade and a redesigned security model, and their own staff trained on the result. On schedule and on budget. If a regulated bank can be moved off PowerBuilder 6, your version is not the obstacle.
Pensions and insurance — UK
Teachers Assurance's CRM and policy administration system migrated to PowerBuilder 12.5 and EAServer 6.3.1, with legacy Java rewritten in PowerBuilder because it would not run under the newer EAServer. Delivered on time; we supported the testing programme through to implementation.
Engineering — Denmark
COWI's Caretaker application had failed to migrate before. We proposed a phased approach with defined deliverables so COWI could keep developing while we worked: migration first, then bespoke software to translate the application dynamically into any language, then a full interface rebuild.
We would rather say it than have you find out later. A rewrite is the right call when the business process underneath has genuinely changed and the application is now the wrong shape; when the application is small enough that rebuilding is cheap; or when nobody can establish what the code does and documenting it would cost more than starting again.
Those situations are real. They are also much rarer than the volume of rewrite quotes in this market would suggest. If yours is one of them we will say so, and we will not pretend a migration can rescue it.
Migrating is almost always cheaper and always lower risk. A rewrite means re-specifying, rebuilding and re-testing business logic that already works and has been proved correct over years of production use. A migration keeps that logic and changes the platform underneath it.
No. If you have systems written in PowerBuilder you do not need to redevelop them. We migrate the source to a later release and then enhance the application from there, which saves both time and money.
When the business process the application supports has fundamentally changed, when the application is small enough that rebuilding is genuinely cheap, or when nobody can establish what the code does and the documentation effort would cost more than a rebuild. Those cases exist. They are rarer than the people quoting for rewrites suggest.
Yes, that is what the free analysis is for. We review the code base, its dependencies and the platform around it, and tell you whether a migration is simple, complex, or not the right move at all.
Tell us the PowerBuilder version you are on, the database behind it and what is worrying you. We will give you an honest read on your options, including whether the answer is to do nothing for now. The initial review of your application is free, and we are close enough to come and see you.
Telephone: +44 (0)1293 562730
