Stabilising a Fragile Core to Fuel Upmarket Growth: How Infonetica Cleared 12 Years of Technical Risk
How Infonetica partnered with Build Circle to rescue a mission-critical research governance platform, dropping bug occurrences by 90%, cutting production incidents by 75%, and launching a next-generation architecture with 100% test coverage from day one.
“Working with Build Circle transformed our technology and team. They quickly tackled weaknesses in our systems and processes, improving code quality and release stability through automation and testing. Their hands-on coaching empowered our developers with new skills, creating a culture of collaboration and quality. Thanks to their expertise, our release cadence improved, and we gained the confidence to scale. Build Circle’s approach has been invaluable in setting us up for long-term success.”
Raja Prasanna, CEO, Infonetica
Drop in production incidents restoring client platform confidence
Reduction in bug occurrences post-migration and automated testing
Test coverage on next-gen V2 built and launched from day one
The Challenge
A decade of technical debt blocking commercial expansion
Infonetica provides cloud-based research governance, ethics approvals, and grant management software to major universities and research institutions across the UK. For these organisations, ethical compliance and audit trails carry severe legal and regulatory consequences.
After 12 years of continuous operation and commercial growth, the platform sat at a dangerous turning point:
- Zero safety net: The legacy codebase had grown for over a decade with zero automated testing. Any minor code modification risked unpredicted regressions, meaning defects were routinely discovered in production by clients rather than during development.
- Outdated tooling & release paralysis: Version control was trapped in legacy TFS, making modern continuous integration and automated deployment near-impossible. Deployments had become high-stress events rather than routine procedures, stretching the engineering team to capacity simply keeping the system online.
- The growth ceiling: Infonetica had ambitious plans to move upmarket and win larger institutional contracts, but the instability of the core product made scaling commercially challenging. With a next-generation (V2) platform already planned, the business could not afford to halt development to fix V1.
The Solution
To address these challenges, our team implemented a comprehensive solution that involved modernising the existing platform and laying the groundwork for the new V2 system.
Improving the Legacy System (V1)
Automation and Testing - We focused on improving the quality of the existing platform by introducing automated tests. This included wrapping the monolithic architecture in automated testing protocols to ensure more consistent and reliable performance.
Codebase Transition - The team transitioned the codebase from TFS to GitHub Actions, facilitating better version control and integration with modern development tools. We also utilised Bicep for infrastructure-as-code, streamlining the deployment and management of infrastructure.
Developing the V2 Prototype
Requirements Gathering - In the initial three months, we conducted thorough requirements gathering, engaging closely with the Head of Product and other stakeholders to understand the domain deeply. This phase was crucial for identifying the core functionalities and user needs that the new platform needed to address.
Prototype Development - We built a new MVP prototype that demonstrated a modern approach to software development, incorporating advanced technologies and methodologies. This included a modern release process with continuous delivery and automation within the pipelines.
Cultural Transformation
Embedding a Culture of Quality - We introduced a culture of automation and quality assurance within the teams. This involved regular coaching sessions, interactive mobbing on TDD practices, and pairing sessions to foster a collaborative and quality-focused work environment.
Training and Development - Our team led workshops on test-driven development (TDD), integration testing, and other best practices. This not only improved the technical skills of the existing team but also established a standard for future hires.
Technical Innovations
Continuous Delivery and Automation - By implementing continuous delivery, we enabled a more frequent and reliable release process. The use of modern CI/CD pipelines ensured that new features and updates could be deployed swiftly and safely.
Infra-as-Code - Leveraging Bicep for infrastructure management allowed us to maintain a consistent and replicable infrastructure setup, reducing errors and improving deployment efficiency.
Business Outcomes
A stable core, rapid release cadence, and an independent team
- 75% fewer production incidents: Stabilised the platform for university clients, turning high-friction releases into quiet, non-disruptive deployments.
- 90% drop in bugs: Swept away recurring defects, freeing the in-house engineering team from daily firefighting to focus on product features.
- Routine continuous delivery: Transformed deployment frequency from infrequent, high-risk releases into predictable, automated delivery.
- Permanent cultural shift: Infonetica’s internal engineers took complete, confident ownership of the modern toolchain, test-driven methodologies, and ongoing V2 development.
- Confidence to move upmarket: Removed the technical ceiling constraining the business, allowing Infonetica to pursue and win major enterprise-tier research contracts.
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