Design-partner pilot
Prove it on one system before you bet the bank on it.
In four to six weeks, Montora migrates one of your COBOL systems with your team and proves, account by account, that it behaves exactly like the original. You keep the code and the evidence.
Migrations rarely fail in the code. They fail at the switch.
New code is easy to write and hard to trust. When TSB moved its customers to a new platform in 2018, the fallout ended in a £48.65m fine from UK regulators, who cited failures in planning and governance. Bank of England.
A pilot answers the three questions your board will ask before anyone signs off a programme.
- 01
Does it work on our code?
Not a vendor demo on a toy program. One of your own systems, migrated with your people, under your security rules.
- 02
Can we prove it?
Every recorded run replayed against the new code, every difference caught and explained, every approval on the record.
- 03
How long would the rest take?
Measured throughput and expert time from your own pilot, turned into a forecast for the rest of your estate.
What you walk away with.
Your system, migrated
In Java, Python or C#, reviewed and approved change by change by your own people. Yours to keep.
Proof for every change
What was compared, what matched, what didn't and why, and who decided.
See a sample evidence packYour business rules, written down
What the system actually enforces, in plain English, linked to the code and confirmed by your experts.
A forecast for the rest
Throughput and expert time measured on your code, turned into a plan and estimate for the next wave.
How the four to six weeks run.
Your people stay in charge throughout. Nothing merges without their approval.
- Before week 1
Scope and security
Choose the system, agree what success looks like, complete your security review and agree where the code runs. The clock starts after this.
- Weeks 1–2
Capture and map
Record representative runs of the legacy system, map its dependencies and risk, and draft its business rules.
- Weeks 2–5
Migrate and replay
Migrate piece by piece. Every change is replayed against the recorded runs, and your expert approves or rejects it.
- Weeks 5–6
Evidence and readout
Hand over the code and the evidence, walk engineering, risk and audit through it, and decide on the next wave together.
Be one of our first design partners.
We are taking on a small number of banks and insurers to modernise real systems with us, hand in hand. Design partners get more from us than any customer after them, and in return they help shape Montora.
What you get
- Direct access to the founders, not an account manager
- A say in what we build next
- The design-partner rate
- Your pilot fee credited against a production contract
What we ask
- A named sponsor who can make decisions
- An expert for a few hours a week
- Honest feedback at the midpoint and the end
- Permission to describe the work, anonymised if you prefer
If it doesn’t hold up on your code, you find out in weeks, not years into a programme.
You keep the migrated code and the evidence either way, and there is no obligation to continue.
All we need to start.
- One contained COBOL application or batch job
- A way to record representative runs, which we help you set up
- A contact for your security review
A good first system.
- Self-contained: clear inputs and outputs
- Well understood: someone can say what correct looks like
- Important enough to matter: interest, fees, statements, payments
- Small enough to finish in the pilot window
Cost.
A fixed fee, scoped with you before anything starts, so there are no surprises halfway through. We quote after the scoping call, once we have seen the system you want to start with.
Your code and data.
Migrated code runs only in an isolated sandbox with no network access. We act as a processor of your data, never its owner, and delete it when the pilot ends. Where your code runs is agreed in the scoping phase. How we keep it safe.
Questions buyers ask.
How long does a Montora pilot take?
- Four to six weeks of work on one contained COBOL application or batch job, once scoping and your security review are complete, ending with the evidence pack and readout.
How much does a pilot cost?
- A fixed fee, scoped with you before anything starts. We quote after the scoping call, once we have seen the system you want to begin with.
What happens if replay finds differences?
- That is the point of it. Each difference is shown with the account and field it affected and traced to the code that caused it. The change is blocked until your reviewer resolves it, and the evidence pack records what happened.
Do you need production data?
- We need representative runs of the legacy system. They can be recorded from masked data, as long as the masking keeps formats, signs and the links between records intact. We help you set that up.
How much of our team's time does it take?
- A subject-matter expert for a few hours a week to review and approve changes, a sponsor to make decisions, and a security contact for the review at the start.
What happens after the pilot?
- You keep the migrated code and the evidence. If it worked, we scope the next wave together from the plan in the readout. There is no obligation to continue.
Have a system in mind?
Tell us what it does and what's at stake. We reply personally and set up a scoping call.