Legacy system modernisation: keep, connect, modernise or replace?
Decide whether to keep, connect, modernise or replace business software, with practical checks for support, data, integration and a controlled changeover.
Michael Szalaty
Blog & insights
How technology actually gets used in business.
Practical thinking on software, automation, AI, integrations and operational systems. No technology for technology's sake.
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A director reads it and replies within one working day, either with a time for a call or a note if we are not
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The reading list
More articles.
Operational technology · 12 min read
↗Timesheet reconciliation: check hours before payroll
Check approved timesheets against saved shift records before payroll, with a clear process for missing hours, duplicates and unresolved differences.
GEO & SEO · 8 min read
↗SEO content writing that earns AI citations, not just rankings
Google has no preferred word count, no ideal keyword density and no heading formula. What actually moves both rankings and AI citations, with the numbers that hold up.
GEO & SEO · 8 min read
↗Local SEO for a UK business: what it actually means
Google names three local ranking factors and no others. What they actually are, what genuinely helps, and what the rest of the industry is guessing at.
GEO & SEO · 8 min read
↗LLM SEO: what it actually means to show up in ChatGPT and Claude answers
Each AI assistant crawls and cites differently. What ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity's own documentation says about being found, and what still needs checking.
GEO & SEO · 8 min read
↗GEO vs SEO: what actually changes
GEO is not a replacement for SEO. It is the same crawlable, well-sourced content, read by a system that synthesises an answer instead of ranking a list of links.
GEO & SEO · 9 min read
↗SEO and GEO: the types that matter, and what actually still works
The industry cannot agree on how many types of SEO exist, or what separates GEO from SEO. Here is what Google's own documentation says, and what does not.
Operational technology · 9 min read
↗Agency Workers Regulations: what recruitment agencies actually need to track
The Agency Workers Regulations qualifying period is not a date sum. It is a record-keeping problem: who worked, for which hirer, on which dates, and why any gap happened.
AI & automation · 7 min read
↗How an AI worker actually runs a weekly timesheet
How an AI worker actually runs a timesheet: read, decide against written rules, act in payroll, escalate the rest, and how that relates to agentic AI.
Integrations · 6 min read
↗System integration when one of the platforms has no API
When one platform in the stack has no API, system integration comes down to three routes: a supplier export, logged screen operation, or replacement.
AI & automation · 7 min read
↗A back-office process has to be mapped before it is automated
Business process automation only works once the process is written down. How MSD Systems maps a process and agrees a written baseline before it builds.
AI & automation · 10 min read
↗Process mapping before automation: turn the map into a scope
Turn one business process map into a defined automation scope, with ownership, a measured baseline, exception handling and acceptance checks.
How we prepare an article
Experience, sources and a named author.
Each article should answer a practical business question. We distinguish firsthand experience from examples, link to the sources behind factual claims and record substantive updates.
Articles name their author and record director approval for publication. Michael Szalaty leads technical delivery. Martin Sylvester leads the commercial conversation.
Follow your curiosity
What are you
working through?
Software, automation and the relationship between processes, people and technology.
AI & automation
Understanding where AI and automation genuinely improve operational work.
Business systems
When existing software stops fitting the way the business works.
Integrations
Connecting the systems that businesses already rely on.
Operational technology
Looking at the relationship between processes, people and technology.
GEO & SEO
Helping buyers discover and assess a business through search and AI answers.
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Your operation is the starting point.
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A director reads it and replies within one working day, either with a time for a call or a note if we are not
the right people for it.