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Rescuing a system your last vendor left unfinished: how to assess it
Your system has been in development for years and still isn't live. The original vendor can't deliver or won't answer. Do you repair it or r…
TOPIC 02 / 08
Legacy takeover & maintenance
Previous vendor never finished? Get your system and data back in your hands first.
20 articlesStart with these three
02
When your software vendor goes under or stops answering: getting back your code, hosting and data
The engineer has read your LINE messages and not replied. The company phone goes unanswered. The system still runs, but nobody knows how lon…
03
System maintenance fees: annual, monthly, or per incident
Your system went live and you're still paying every month. Many owners think that's unfair. This post breaks down what a maintenance fee act…
All articles 20
How fast should a broken system be fixed? SLAs explained, and how to write them into your contract
The system is down and the vendor only says “we’ll handle it as soon as possible”? This post explains in plain terms what an SLA is, why res…
What happens when nobody updates your system: the minimum security maintenance standard owners need to know
A system that has been live for years and that nobody touches because it isn't broken looks cheap to run. The risk is building every day. In…
Switching system vendors: 9 things you must get at handover
You've decided to switch vendors for system maintenance, and the original vendor has agreed to cooperate. But “we gave you everything” doesn…
Hire an in-house engineer or sign a maintenance contract? Run the staffing numbers
Once your system is live, should you hire your own engineer to look after it, or outsource it to a vendor on a maintenance contract? This po…
What a system maintenance contract should include: 12 clauses to check before you sign
Maintenance contracts are often one page that says "the vendor provides system maintenance services." The day something breaks, you find out…
Who owns the code in your custom system? The license clauses your contract must include
Paying for a system is not the same as owning the code. If the contract is vague, you only find out when you try to switch vendors, make you…
A ten-question system audit: find where your company is leaking money
A system that runs can still be leaking money. This post gives you a ten-question system audit checklist. Each question maps to one of the p…
Your system keeps getting slower and buggier: fix it or rebuild it?
Every bug fix creates two new ones. Pulling up one order takes forever. This post breaks down the technical debt behind slow, buggy systems,…
The 91APP breach: how one unpatched internal tool set off a subscription scam wave across dozens of brands
Consumers got "subscription order" scam emails showing their own name, address and what they had bought. Brand customer service lines were f…
Zeabur Is Shutting Down: Hacked Twice in Two Months, 3.21 Million Secrets Leaked
3.21 million environment variables, 320,000 accounts, 101 servers logged into with top-level privileges. Taiwanese deployment platform Zeabu…
Brightstream Technology: Our Response to the Critical PHP Vulnerability (2026/10/22)
On 10/21, PHP disclosed critical security vulnerabilities (CVE-2026-109618, CVE-2026-109619). Most Brightstream Technology systems are not b…
Video platform development: taking over an OTT system someone else couldn't finish
An OTT video platform looks like just membership, payments and playback. Building one means a chain of modules that all depend on each other…
PHP2Shell explained: how serious the PHP flaw is, and why Japan's prime minister posted a late-night warning
No password needed. One request may be enough to take over a web server. PHP, used by about 70% of websites, turned out to have a flaw hidde…
When your software vendor goes under or stops answering: getting back your code, hosting and data
The engineer has read your LINE messages and not replied. The company phone goes unanswered. The system still runs, but nobody knows how lon…
Rescuing a system your last vendor left unfinished: how to assess it
Your system has been in development for years and still isn't live. The original vendor can't deliver or won't answer. Do you repair it or r…
System maintenance fees: annual, monthly, or per incident
Your system went live and you're still paying every month. Many owners think that's unfair. This post breaks down what a maintenance fee act…
How to outsource system development without the vendor vanishing halfway
The worst outcome in outsourced system development: halfway through, the developer disappears, and the code and servers go with him. This po…
Why your team still secretly uses Excel after you bought a system
The system is live and paid for, but the Excel file on your sales support staff's desk is still being updated. That's not laziness or resist…
When to Replace Your Old System: Five Signals
You already have a system, and using it is exhausting. That is a completely different problem from "we still run on Excel, should we get a s…
When your team won't use the new system: an adoption rescue
The system has been live for months, and people on the floor still have that old Excel file open. The owner's first reaction is usually 'our…