CHAPTER · 01
Why consolidation fails
Most failures are operational, not technical — operators were not given a working path back.
Our review of 34 mid-market consolidation attempts (14 with Aixys, 20 without) shows that 78% of failed projects shared the same fatal pattern: the cutover was too abrupt, the rollback path was undefined, and a single high-priority quarter consumed the margin.
Consolidation is an operational problem disguised as a technical one. The architecture is usually fine. The sequencing is what goes wrong.
CHAPTER · 02
The six phases
Discover · Shadow · Parallel · Pilot · Cutover · Retire. Each has explicit entry and exit criteria.
Discover: map the current stack, label every operator ritual, and identify the tools that will be retired. Shadow: run Aixys alongside the current stack in read-only mode against the same data. Parallel: operators write to both surfaces for one cycle. Pilot: one team cuts over fully. Cutover: organisation cuts over. Retire: contracts wind down.
The rollback gate is at Parallel. If operators cannot commit to cutover after one full cycle, the project pauses — it does not push forward.
CHAPTER · 03
The rituals to preserve
Operators protect rituals more than tools; consolidation must carry rituals forward.
The fastest way to kill a consolidation is to remove a ritual operators relied on without offering a replacement. We interview every operator about the three rituals they would miss most, and design the cutover around preserving those.
This often means the new system exposes functionality in a shape that matches the old habit, even if the underlying memory is different.