How we work
Diagnosis first, then a price you can rely on
Old codebases hide surprises. The only honest way to give a fixed price for the repair is to be paid a small, fixed amount to look first — which is why every engagement here starts the same way.
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A 30-minute call
You describe the symptom and the deadline. We say whether this is something we can help with, and roughly what it would cost. If it is not our kind of problem we will say so and, where we can, point you at someone whose problem it is.
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A scoping note
One page: what we will look at, what we will not, what you need to give us, and a firm price and duration. Signed as a short statement of work under a mutual NDA. We can work from a read-only repository copy in our own isolated environment if you prefer not to grant access to yours.
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The assessment
We read the code, build it, run it, profile it and break it. You get a short interim note halfway through — nobody should discover the findings for the first time at the end.
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The report and readout
Severity-ranked findings, each with the artefact that proves it: a profiler trace, a memory snapshot, a failing UI Automation check, a reproducible build log. A prioritised plan with effort ranges. Then a recorded walkthrough, so people who could not make the call still get it first-hand.
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Whatever you decide next
You own the report. Take it to your own team, to another supplier, or back to us for a fixed-price project scoped directly from it. Roughly half of the work we do is a project that came out of an assessment; the rest of the time the report was the whole job.
Five rules we hold ourselves to
What we don’t do
- Web applications, mobile apps and cloud platforms as a primary offer. We will happily work alongside the team that does.
- Junior capacity by the hour.
- Round-the-clock incident response.
- Recommend a rewrite we would then be paid to deliver, without first showing you what the cheaper options would cost.
- Take on a fixed-price project on a codebase nobody has assessed.
Working with partners
We take white-label and overflow work from agencies, component vendors and platform vendors who need a Windows desktop specialist on a bid. Your client relationship stays yours.
Where we work
Remote, and honest about time zones
Assessments and projects are written-first, so they work anywhere on earth. Support plans carry response targets, so we only sell those where a working day genuinely overlaps.
| Where you are | Shared working hours | What we offer |
|---|---|---|
| UK, Ireland, EU, Switzerland, the Nordics, Israel, South Africa | 5–8.5 hours | Everything, including Gold support with a one-hour critical response. |
| US East Coast, Toronto, Brazil, the Gulf, India | 3.5–5.5 hours | Assessments, projects and advisory work. Support with a stated afternoon window that covers your whole morning. |
| US Central and Mountain | 1.5–2.5 hours | Assessments and projects, run asynchronously with recorded readouts. |
| US Pacific, Asia-Pacific, Australia | 0–1.5 hours | Written assessments and partner-delivered work. We will not sell you a response target we cannot meet. |
Based on a 09:00–17:30 working day at both ends during British Summer Time. For teams five or more hours behind us, the gap is often useful: an issue logged at the end of your day is investigated overnight and answered before you are back at your desk.
Start with a diagnosis, not a proposal
A Health Check is a fixed price, a fixed duration and a written report you own — whether or not you ever hire us again.