Engineering & IT consultancy · Working remotely, in the UK and internationally
Lost in the forest of your own systems?
We do the homework to build a living map of your IT and software systems, one that stays up to date as your business changes. Then we help you get more from what you’ve got, and work out what (if anything) is worth changing.
An honest, impartial outside set of eyes for management and IT leaders. Built by small business owners, for business owners.
01 / The problem
You’re too busy running the business to see how it really runs.
We run small businesses ourselves, so we know how this goes. Nobody designs their systems in one go. You grow them, one at a time: a tool here to fix one problem, a spreadsheet there to bridge a gap, a workaround that became “just how we do it”. Each choice made sense at the time. And once a system is in, replacing it is a lot of work, so you don’t.
Years later, you’re lost in a forest you built yourself. Nobody has the full picture. Data gets typed in twice. Reports don’t agree. A few people hold the knowledge in their heads. And there may be gaps in security that nobody has spotted.
Here’s the part that’s easy to miss: the tools you already pay for can often do more than you’re using them for. Staff were shown the basics once and never trained to the level they could be, so you may not be getting full value from each piece of software, or from the older systems that still quietly run the place.
And if anything was ever written down about how it all fits together, it’s probably a document that went out of date the week after it was finished.
You and your IT team know something should change. But you’re tied up in the day-to-day, and you never get to step back and ask: what are we doing, why this way, and is there a better way? It’s hard to see the wood for the trees when you’re standing in them.
That’s where we come in. Not to rip everything out, but to help you see it clearly.
02 / What we do
First, we build your map. Then we help you use it.
Understanding the system comes first, so the map is our core offer. Everything else we do builds on it.
The living map of your systems
We talk to your people, look at how things are set up and do the homework. Then we build a dynamic map of your IT and software systems inside 8090 Software Factory®: what you run, how it connects, how data moves, what the business needs from it and where it hurts. It’s not a one-off report that gathers dust. It’s a living model that can be kept up to date as your business changes, and that you, your team, your developers and your AI tools can all work from.
01
Find and plan
Using the map, we pick out pain points and opportunities, starting with features in the tools you already own that nobody is using. We set them against where you want the business to be and help you decide what to do first, what can wait and what to leave alone.
02
Get more from what you’ve got
Often the best first step is better training and adoption of the tools you already have, not a new system. We help your people get more out of them.
03
Take it further
When you’re ready to change something, we can stay alongside you and help build the solutions, working with development partners where needed, and keep the map current as things move.
03 / How it works
How we build your living map in 8090 Software Factory®
The Software Factory is a tool from a company called 8090. We didn’t build it. We’re expert users of it, and we think it’s one of the most useful tools around for understanding a business’s systems, though few people have heard of it yet. Our job is to do the legwork that makes the map accurate: the conversations, the digging and the checking. The Software Factory keeps it all together in one place, so the picture stays joined up.
Step 1.
Do the homework
We talk to the people who use your systems every day, not just the people who bought them. We look at how things are set up, and gather the documents, spreadsheets and know-how that live in people’s heads. AI tooling helps us go faster and miss less, so we can build your understanding without breaking the bank.
Step 2.
Map the system as it is today
We build a current-state map of your systems, data flows and hand-offs inside the Software Factory, so it lives in one place rather than in a slide deck.
Step 3.
Capture your requirements
From the conversations, the documents and the map itself, we write down what the business actually needs: the must-haves, the nice-to-haves and the things that have quietly stopped mattering.
Step 4.
Turn problems into blueprints and work orders
For each problem worth solving, we write a blueprint: what’s happening today, what good looks like and how to get there. Fixes become work orders, clear pieces of work ranked by what matters most to your goals.
Step 5.
Feed back and keep it current
Your feedback goes back into the map. As work gets done and priorities shift, the map, blueprints and work orders can be updated with it, so the picture stays true instead of going stale.
One living picture, with each decision traced back to a real problem and a real goal.
Map first. Then AI.
Everyone is being told AI will fix their business. But you can’t just point an AI tool at your company and ask it to solve your problems. It doesn’t know how your systems fit together any more than a new starter does. With an accurate map of your systems, your AI, your people and your IT team can all do their best work. Without one, everyone struggles. We think this will be one of the core challenges for businesses of every size over the next few years, and it’s why the map comes first.
04 / Where to start
The Systems & Goals Map
A fixed-scope first step. Clear deliverables, agreed up front.
Before anyone writes a line of code or buys another tool, you need to know what you’ve got and where you’re going. The Systems & Goals Map is how we start. We begin with your long-term goals, build the living map of how your systems work today, and hand you findings you can act on, with us or without us.
Fixed scope, agreed up front. The price depends on the size of your business, and we’ll tell you before we start.
What you get:
A current-state systems map, built in 8090 Software Factory®: your systems, how they connect and how data moves between them.
Your pain points, named: where time, money and risk look to be leaking, and why.
A ranked list of improvements: what to fix first, what can wait and what to leave alone, with better use of your existing tools near the top where it makes sense.
A goals-first roadmap: the long arc from where you are now to where you want to be.
Blueprints and work orders: written so a developer, or your own team, can pick them up and build from them.
05 / Your choice
The map is yours. You decide what happens next.
1. Run it yourselves
Keep using the Software Factory yourselves on an ongoing basis, so your team can keep the map current and work from it. Whether that’s worth it depends on your goals, and we’ll talk it through with you.
2. Keep the map
Simply take the blueprints and findings as your own map, to understand your systems better and make better decisions. No ongoing commitment.
3. Go further with us
Have us take it further: keep the map current, and help build the solutions with you and other partners.
No lock-in. Whatever you choose, you keep what we’ve mapped together.
06 / What you can expect
What changes when you can see the whole system.
01
Peace of mind
An honest, impartial view. If your current setup is fine, we’ll say so, and you don’t need to pull the rug out from under the business.
02
More from what you already have
A clear view of what your existing software and older systems could be doing for you, and what would help your people use them properly.
03
Clarity
One clear, living picture of how your business runs on its systems, written so people from the board to the front line can follow it.
04
Priorities
A ranked list of what to do first, so you can put the budget where you think it’ll make the biggest difference.
05
A path to a secure, modern flow of data
A plan for getting data entered once, moving where it should and protected along the way, based on current good practice rather than old workarounds.
06
A roadmap you own
A plan from now to where you want to be, with blueprints and work orders that a capable team can build from.
07 / Who it’s for
For leaders who know something needs to change.
We work with management teams and IT leaders in small and medium-sized businesses. You might be:
A managing director or owner who suspects the business has outgrown its systems, but can’t see where to start.
An operations or finance lead fighting the same data problems every month.
An IT lead or a small IT team keeping everything running, with no time to step back and plan.
A growing business about to choose new software and wanting to get it right.
If you’re too close to it, too busy for it, or just want a second opinion, we’d like to hear from you.
08 / Why us
Engineers first. Fresh eyes always.
01
Business owners too
We’ve built and run small businesses ourselves. We know systems get built one by one, that budgets are real and that nobody wants to rip out something that works. We try to give advice that fits how businesses actually grow.
02
We’ve lived with technical debt
We’ve worked in software development for startups, where shortcuts pile up fast. We know what technical debt costs, and how painful it is when a change goes wrong and nobody can say why. That’s why we map first and change second.
03
Trained as engineers
All three of us trained and worked as engineers. We think in systems, flows and failure points.
04
We’ve lived on both sides of IT
We’ve built small-scale IT systems, run them and used them every day. We’ve worked in organisations of all sizes, so we appreciate how complicated things can get once teams grow. We know what a system looks like on the diagram, and what it feels like at 5pm on a Friday.
05
Expert users of 8090 Software Factory®
We use the Software Factory in our own work and know it well. It’s not an obvious tool, and most people haven’t come across it yet. We think it’s incredibly useful, and we can show you how to get the best from it. We’re independent of 8090.
06
AI-native, not AI-hype
We use AI tools every day and keep up with where they’re heading. We use them where they make the work faster and sharper, and we tell you plainly where they don’t belong.
Honest and impartial. We don’t resell software, and we only recommend tools we use ourselves. We may be able to show you a much better path, and it could be an easy one; it’s just hard to see from inside. Or we may show you that your setup is better than you first thought. Either way, you get a view you can trust, and help to figure out the path forward.
09 / Why we started
Mapping your Software Forest
We’ve built small businesses and worked on software for startups. More than once we watched a change go astray and had nothing to fall back on: no single place to see how the requirements, the design, the infrastructure and the feedback all fitted together. On our own projects, we were working it out from scratch every time.
So when we started using 8090’s Software Factory, the value was obvious straight away. It’s the tool we wish we’d had back then. For the first time we could step back and see how every part connects, from what the business needs, through the blueprints and the systems underneath, to what people say once it’s live. When something goes wrong, you can trace it back. When you want to change something, you can see what it will touch.
Now we can see why that map matters so much, and why it will matter even more as businesses lean on AI. That’s why we started Software Forest: to help other businesses see their systems clearly, so they can make better decisions. We’re expert users of the Software Factory and will do the homework to map your systems in it, from requirements through to blueprints. Then, if you’re ready to make the jump, we can help you go a step further and build the solutions to your problems.
Understand the system. Then decide.
10 / Why systems drift
Why systems drift: Lehman’s laws
When we first came across the Software Factory, the light bulbs went on. It’s not an obvious idea, but in hindsight it’s plainly useful, even necessary. Everyone wants to jump straight in and start building, and with AI tools it’s never been more tempting. But you’re usually better off stepping back first and seeing that what you’re starting is a long journey. Without an eye on maintainability, sustainability and process, you can end up in a big pickle. We’ve been there, with physical systems and with software.
The computer scientist Meir Lehman saw this decades ago. Between 1974 and 1996, he and his colleagues set out a series of “laws of software evolution”, based on studying large real-world software systems over many years. They were written about software, but we think they apply just as well to a business’s wider systems. Four matter most here:
(1974)
1. Continuing change
A system in real use must keep adapting, or it becomes steadily less useful.
For you:
your business changes, so your systems have to keep up. Standing still is falling behind.
(1974)
2. Increasing complexity
As a system evolves, it gets more complex, unless someone does deliberate work to keep it simple.
For you:
every new tool, fix and workaround adds a tangle. It doesn’t untangle itself.
(1996)
3. Declining quality
A system will seem to get worse over time unless it’s rigorously maintained and adapted to the world around it.
For you:
“it used to work fine” often means the business moved and the system didn’t.
(first noted 1974, set out as a law in 1996)
4. Feedback system
Evolving a system is a feedback process with many loops and many people, and it has to be managed as one to improve it significantly.
For you:
real improvement comes from listening to the people who use your systems, then acting on it, again and again.
Map first. Plan the arc. Keep the map current.
These laws are why a one-off report isn’t enough, and why we step back before anyone jumps in, especially with AI. First we map the system as it really is. Then we plan the long arc from where you are to where you want to be. And because change never stops, the map lives in the Software Factory, with the blueprints, work orders and feedback alongside it, where it can be kept up to date. That way the picture you rely on can get clearer over time, not more tangled.
Source: Lehman et al., 1997
11 / FAQ
Questions we get asked
What is 8090 Software Factory®, and did you build it?
No, we didn’t build it. It’s a tool made by a company called 8090. It keeps a business’s requirements, blueprints, work orders and feedback together in one place, so you can see how everything connects. We’re independent, expert users of it. We do the homework to build an accurate map of your systems inside it, and we think it’s one of the most useful tools around for this kind of work.
Do we have to keep using you or the Software Factory?
No. After the map, you choose. You can keep using the Software Factory yourselves, if that suits your goals. You can simply keep the blueprints and findings as your own map. Or you can have us take it further and help build the solutions. The blueprints and work orders are written so a developer or your own team can build from them, so you’re not locked in.
Can’t we just use AI to fix this?
Not on its own. An AI tool is only as good as what it knows about your business, and on day one it knows nothing about how your systems fit together. Give it an accurate map and it becomes much more useful, for you, your staff and your IT team. Skip the map and you’re asking it to guess. We use AI every day; we just start with the map.
Are you going to tell us to replace everything?
No. We know how much work replacing a system is. We’re honest and impartial: sometimes changing a system is too intrusive and simply not worth it, and we’ll tell you so. Then you get peace of mind that your current path is okay. Other times there’s a better path, and sometimes an easy one. It’s just hard to see from inside the company. We don’t resell software.
Can you help us get more out of the tools we already have?
Yes, and it’s often a good place to start. Plenty of businesses use only part of what their software can do, because staff were never trained to the level they could be. We help you see what you might be missing and help your team adopt it, before anyone talks about buying something new.
How long does it take?
It depends on how many systems you run and how many people we need to talk to. We’ll agree the scope and timing with you before we start.
What do you need from us?
Some time with the people who use your systems, access to look at how things are set up, and a clear view of where the business wants to go. We’ll keep it as light as we can and work around your day-to-day.
How do you handle our data, access and AI?
Carefully. We only ask for the access we need, we agree it with you up front, and we treat what we see as confidential. We’re happy to sign an NDA before we start. Your map is built in 8090 Software Factory®, and we’ll agree that with you first. We use AI tools to map, analyse and write faster, but we agree with you which tools touch your information, and nothing sensitive goes into a tool you haven’t agreed to.
Where do you work?
Anywhere. We work remotely with businesses in the UK and internationally.
Ready to see the whole picture?
Tell us a little about your business and what’s bothering you. We’ll get back to you quickly with an honest view of whether we can help, and what a Systems & Goals Map could look like for you.
Talk to us