How we work
Legacy on the left. Cloud on the right. We run the cord.
UK systems integration and secure managed operations for regulated estates. Here is how a project with SOLARIS INNOVATIONS LTD actually runs, stage by stage.
Every engagement follows the same broad sequence. The honest version is below, including the parts clients tend to find slower than expected.
Book a discovery sessionDiscovery and estate mapping
This is where the project is actually won or lost. We inventory the systems, the interfaces between them, the data each one holds, and who inside your organisation currently understands each piece. Undocumented interfaces are common and they are the main source of delay later.
Discovery output is a written map, not a slide deck. It is yours to keep whether or not the project continues, and most clients find this stage useful on its own.
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Systems inventoried
Every hosting environment, database and application line, named and dated.
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Interfaces registered
Direction of flow, protocol, authentication method and current owner for each one.
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Data accounted for
Classified by sensitivity and mapped to the interfaces that touch it.
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Owners named
Who actually knows each system, whether or not they are on your current org chart.
What slows projects down
None of these are fatal. All of them are easier to plan around when they are named at the start.
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Interfaces
Undocumented interfaces that discovery has to reverse-engineer. They are rarely undocumented on purpose; the person who wrote them simply moved on.
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Internal owners
A missing internal owner for a legacy system. Decisions that only that system's history can answer stall until someone is appointed.
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Compliance review
Review cycles that run on a fixed calendar rather than the project's schedule. Building the timeline around them beats discovering them at cutover.
None of these are fatal. All of them are easier to plan around when they are named at the start.
Six steps, run in order, each one leaving the estate coherent
Architecture, security planning, build, operations and handover sit between discovery and the closing review. The sequence is fixed; the length of each step is not. Where the estate is well documented, discovery is short. Where it is not, discovery carries the project.
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Architecture and options
From the map, we produce two or three viable architectures rather than one recommendation. Each one carries an explicit statement of what it costs in change effort, what it assumes about the estate, and where it fails if those assumptions are wrong.
This is the stage where we argue for keeping systems a client assumed would be replaced, and where a cloud-only plan often gets revised into a hybrid one. The decision on which option to take is yours; we make the trade-offs visible rather than burying them in an appendix.
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Security and compliance planning
Before any build starts, we agree on authentication between interfaces, least-privilege access to the data each interface needs, logging format, and the retention period for that logging. In regulated environments this stage also produces the documentation a reviewer will ask for later.
Doing it here rather than after the build is the single largest cost saving available on most projects. It also tends to change the architecture, usually by removing an interface that was doing more than it needed to.
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Build and migration
Build happens interface by interface, with old and new paths running in parallel where the risk warrants it. Change windows are agreed in advance, rollback paths are rehearsed, and no cutover happens without a named person on both sides available during the window.
For larger estates we sequence the work so that each stage leaves the system in a coherent state. That means a paused programme is still an improvement rather than a half-finished change — the estate is never left spanning old and new with no way back.
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Managed operations after go-live
Once an interface is live, someone has to watch it. Our managed operations service covers interface health, monitoring, patch and change coordination, and escalation for the systems your team does not want on its on-call rota. This can be full operation or co-managed alongside an internal team.
The measurement is deliberately plain: whether interfaces stay within their expected behaviour, and how quickly anything that does not gets addressed. No dashboards full of noise, no numbers that only exist to look well on a report.
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Handover and documentation
Every engagement ends with a handover package: the estate map updated to reflect reality, interface specifications, runbooks, and the escalation contacts. If you want to operate the systems yourself afterwards, that package is designed to make it possible. If you want us to keep operating them, the same package is what the managed service runs on.
Either way, the documentation is produced during the project rather than reconstructed at the end. That is the only way it stays accurate.
Co-managed IT as a delivery model
Co-managed IT is not a separate product for us; it is a way of running the operations stage alongside your team. It suits organisations that have internal capability and want to add specialist coverage in specific areas: hybrid infrastructure monitoring, interface health, or out-of-hours escalation.
It fails when it is bought as outsourcing and then measured against an outsourcing contract, so we are explicit about which one you are buying. If there is no internal team to co-manage with, full managed operations is the right model.
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Co-managed
You hold the ownership; we supply specialist coverage in named areas.
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Full managed operations
No internal team yet, or the environment is small enough that building one is not the right spend.
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Outsourcing with a co-managed label
A mismatch. The contract measures differently from how the work actually runs, and the friction shows up in month two.
Tell us which model you are buying before the contract is drawn. The conversation takes an hour and saves a quarter of renegotiation.
Start with discovery. Everything else follows from the map.
Discovery is the stage that decides whether the rest of the programme runs on the calendar you planned or the one the estate hands you. Bring us an estate and a deadline; we will tell you honestly which one is realistic. If a discovery session is not the right first move, we will say so.
Questions buyers ask in the first hour
A short list of the questions that come up before a discovery session is even proposed. If yours is missing, the email above reaches the delivery team directly.
How long does a typical integration take?
Discovery alone ranges from a few weeks on a well-documented estate to a full quarter where undocumented interfaces are the norm. Build is then sequenced interface by interface, so you see progress on a regular cadence rather than waiting for one cutover. We will give you a realistic window after discovery rather than before it.
Do you only work with cloud-first estates?
No. Most of our work is hybrid, and in several cases we have argued for keeping a legacy system in place because replacing it would cost more than it earns. The architecture stage is built around making that trade-off visible, not around a preferred vendor answer.
What does the handover package actually contain?
The estate map updated to reflect how the systems really stand after the build, interface specifications for every connection we touched, runbooks for the operations the service performs, and the escalation contacts. It is produced as the project runs, not reconstructed at the end, which is what keeps it trustworthy.
Can we run the systems ourselves after handover?
Yes, and the handover package is built to make that possible. If you would rather we stayed on to operate them, the same package is what the managed service runs on. There is no lock-in mechanism inside the documentation — it is designed to work either way.
Which sectors do you have the most experience in?
The regulated ones — financial services, energy and public sector work make up most of the portfolio, because that is where the compliance and audit trail parts of the sequence earn their keep. Smaller estates without a compliance review cycle simply skip the parts that do not apply.