A small studio that likes old code.
Most of this trade wants to build something new. The interesting work is usually the opposite: a system that has run a business for a decade, that nobody wants to touch, and that everyone has quietly organised their week around.
Four things we will not do.
We will not quote a rescue before reading the code. Any number offered before the diagnosis is invented, and you will pay for the invention one way or the other — either in a padded quote or in a change order six weeks in.
We will not sell you a rewrite by default. A rewrite is occasionally the right answer and it is always the easiest thing to sell, which is exactly why it should be argued for with arithmetic rather than assumed. Most systems that feel unsalvageable are three findings away from being fine.
We will not hold your system hostage. You own the code, the credentials and the documentation, at every point, including the point where you decide to work with somebody else. The report is written to be useful to whoever reads it next.
We will not tell you that you need us. Sometimes the honest verdict is that the system is fine, or that it should be retired for a subscription and an afternoon of data migration. Because the health check is paid, we can say that without it costing us anything.
The pain already exists, which changes the whole conversation.
Selling new software means asking a business to believe a forecast. Rescue work does not: the system is already failing, the owner already knows it, and the question is not would this be worth building but how bad is it and what does it cost to fix. That is a question with an answer.
It also plays to the thing that actually takes years to learn. Reading somebody else's code and forming a defensible judgment about it — quickly, under time pressure, in a language you did not choose — is a senior skill, and it is not one an agency can staff junior. It is the part of this work worth paying for.
The studio side of NexusMind builds new systems too. If a rescue turns into a replacement, we can do that; but the diagnosis comes first, and it comes with the option of walking away from us afterwards.
Montréal, and remote wherever the system is.
Most of a health check is done with read access and a video call, so distance rarely matters. On-site is available and occasionally necessary — a machine under a desk that nobody can log into remotely is a real category, and it is usually the interesting one.
We work in English and in French. A report is delivered in whichever language the people who have to act on it actually use.