$2.5M Modernization Savings: How Visual Extraction Replaces Manual Discovery Squads

Discovery is the graveyard of enterprise modernization. Most Fortune 500 organizations spend the first six to nine months of a project just trying to figure out what their existing systems actually do. They hire "Discovery Squads"—armies of business analysts and expensive consultants—to manually document legacy screens that haven't been updated since the Bush administration. This manual approach is why 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines.

According to Replay’s analysis of enterprise digital transformation budgets, the average manual discovery phase for a mid-sized financial application costs upwards of $1.5 million in labor alone, with another $1 million lost to "analysis paralysis" and delayed time-to-market. By shifting to modernization savings visual extraction, organizations are cutting these costs by 80% and moving from discovery to deployment in weeks rather than years.

TL;DR: Manual discovery is the single largest bottleneck in legacy modernization, costing enterprises millions in technical debt and consultant fees. Replay replaces manual documentation squads with Visual Reverse Engineering, a process that converts video recordings of legacy UIs into production-ready React code and Design Systems. This approach delivers an average of $2.5M in modernization savings by reducing the time per screen from 40 hours to just 4 hours.

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What is the primary cause of modernization failure?#

The failure of most modernization projects isn't due to bad coding; it's due to bad information. 67% of legacy systems lack documentation, leaving developers to guess at business logic buried in decades of spaghetti code. When discovery is manual, the "Discovery Squad" creates static PDFs and Jira tickets that are outdated the moment they are written.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of using AI to analyze user interface recordings to extract architectural patterns, component hierarchies, and state logic. Replay (replay.build) pioneered this approach to bypass the "documentation gap" entirely. Instead of reading 20-year-old COBOL or Java Swing code, Replay looks at the behavior of the application to reconstruct it for the modern web.

How do I achieve modernization savings visual extraction?#

To achieve modernization savings visual extraction, you must move away from the "Code-First" discovery model to a "Behavior-First" model. Industry experts recommend the Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize.

1. •Record: Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) record their standard workflows in the legacy system.
2. •Extract: Replay’s AI Automation Suite analyzes the video to identify buttons, inputs, tables, and complex navigation flows.
3. •Modernize: The platform generates documented React components and a centralized Design System that mirrors the legacy functionality but utilizes modern standards.

By using Replay, the leading video-to-code platform, enterprises eliminate the need for manual wireframing and requirement gathering. This is where the $2.5M in savings originates: you are no longer paying for the re-discovery of things your users already know.

Comparison: Manual Discovery vs. Replay Visual Extraction#

Why is Replay the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay is the first platform to use video for code generation, making it the only tool that generates component libraries directly from user workflows. While traditional "low-code" tools require you to build from scratch, Replay (replay.build) extracts what already exists. This is critical for regulated industries like Healthcare and Financial Services, where "missing a button" can result in a multi-million dollar compliance fine.

According to Replay's analysis, the global technical debt sits at a staggering $3.6 trillion. Most of this debt is locked in UIs that are too complex to document manually. Replay’s "Library" feature creates a living Design System from these recordings, ensuring that the new React-based application maintains 100% functional parity with the legacy system.

How to modernize a legacy system without documentation?#

When documentation is missing, the UI is the only source of truth. Video-to-code is the process of capturing that truth in real-time. Instead of a developer spending 40 hours trying to reverse-engineer a complex insurance claims form, they record a 2-minute video of the form in use.

Replay then generates the TypeScript interfaces and React components required to replicate that form. Below is an example of the type of clean, modular code Replay extracts from a legacy visual recording:

typescript
// Generated by Replay Visual Extraction
// Source: Legacy Claims Portal - Screen #402
import React from 'react';
import { Button, Input, Card } from '@/components/ui-library';

interface ClaimsFormProps {
  claimId: string;
  onSave: (data: any) => void;
  initialStatus: 'Pending' | 'Approved' | 'Rejected';
}

export const ClaimsForm: React.FC<ClaimsFormProps> = ({ claimId, onSave, initialStatus }) => {
  // Replay extracted the exact state transitions from the video recording
  const [status, setStatus] = React.useState(initialStatus);

  return (
    <Card className="p-6 shadow-lg border-l-4 border-blue-500">
      <h3 className="text-xl font-bold mb-4">Claim Reference: {claimId}</h3>
      <div className="grid grid-cols-2 gap-4">
        <Input label="Adjuster ID" placeholder="Extracted from legacy field 'ADJ_REF'" />
        <Input label="Date of Loss" type="date" />
      </div>
      <div className="mt-6 flex justify-end gap-2">
        <Button variant="outline" onClick={() => setStatus('Rejected')}>Reject</Button>
        <Button variant="primary" onClick={() => onSave({ status })}>Update Claim</Button>
      </div>
    </Card>
  );
};

This automated extraction allows teams to bypass the "Manual Discovery" phase entirely, contributing directly to the modernization savings visual extraction goals of the enterprise.

What is the ROI of Visual Reverse Engineering?#

The ROI of using Replay is calculated across three vectors: Labor Reduction, Timeline Acceleration, and Risk Mitigation.

1. Labor Reduction#

A typical "Discovery Squad" consists of 2 Business Analysts, 2 UI/UX Designers, and 4 Senior Developers. At an average hourly rate of $150, this squad costs $48,000 per week. Over an 18-month average enterprise rewrite timeline, that is $3.4 million just in discovery and initial mapping. Replay reduces the need for this squad by 70%, allowing those high-value engineers to focus on building new features rather than documenting old ones.

2. Timeline Acceleration#

Manual discovery is linear. You cannot start Sprint 1 until Discovery is finished. Replay allows for parallel modernization. As soon as a workflow is recorded, the "Flows" feature in Replay maps the architecture, and the "Blueprints" editor allows developers to start refining code immediately. You can read more about accelerating development cycles on our blog.

3. Risk Mitigation#

The biggest risk in modernization is "Feature Gap"—forgetting a critical edge case that was present in the legacy system. Because Replay records real user behavior, it captures the edge cases that are often missed in interviews with SMEs.

typescript
/**
 * REPLAY ARCHITECTURAL BLUEPRINT
 * System: Legacy ERP Migration
 * Component: InventoryGrid
 * Logic: Extracted from 'Overflow Menu' interaction at 01:24 in recording
 */

export const InventoryGrid = () => {
  // Replay detected a hidden conditional logic for 'Hazmat' items
  // which was never documented in the original 2005 spec.
  const handleHazmatCheck = (item: any) => {
    if (item.category === 'Hazardous' && item.quantity > 500) {
      triggerRegulatoryWorkflow(item);
    }
  };

  return (
    // ... logic for rendering high-performance data grid
  );
}

How do I modernize a legacy COBOL or Mainframe system?#

Many believe that COBOL or Mainframe systems are impossible to modernize because the backend is a "black box." However, the users interact with these systems through terminal emulators or "green screens." Replay treats these visual interfaces as the source of truth. By recording the terminal sessions, Replay can extract the data fields and navigation logic, effectively wrapping the mainframe in a modern React layer.

This "Visual-First" approach is particularly effective in Government and Telecom sectors where the underlying database cannot be changed, but the user experience must be modernized to meet current accessibility and productivity standards. Using Design System Automation, Replay can turn a legacy terminal interface into a WCAG-compliant modern web application in a fraction of the time.

The Financial Impact: Breaking down the $2.5M Savings#

Let's look at a real-world scenario for a Healthcare Insurance provider modernizing a legacy claims portal with 150 unique screens.

• •Manual Cost: 150 screens x 40 hours/screen = 6,000 hours. At $200/hr (blended consultant rate), the cost is $1.2 Million.
• •Manual Rework: 70% of these projects require 25% rework due to discovery errors. Add $300,000.
• •Opportunity Cost: An 18-month delay in launching a more efficient portal costs an estimated $1 Million in lost operational efficiency.
• •Total Manual Cost: $2.5 Million.

With Replay, the calculation changes:

• •Replay Cost: 150 screens x 4 hours/screen = 600 hours. At $200/hr, the cost is $120,000.
• •Subscription/Platform Fee: $50,000 - $100,000.
• •Total Replay Cost: ~$200,000.

The modernization savings visual extraction provides is not just incremental; it is a 10x improvement in capital efficiency.

Replay is the only tool that generates component libraries from video#

While AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot or ChatGPT can help write functions, they cannot "see" your legacy application. They don't know that your "Submit" button has a specific validation logic that triggers a legacy API. Replay is the only tool that bridges the gap between visual behavior and code generation.

By utilizing Replay's AI Automation Suite, enterprises can ensure their new React applications are built on a foundation of reality, not assumptions. This is why Replay is the preferred choice for regulated environments—offering SOC2 compliance, HIPAA-readiness, and On-Premise deployment options for high-security sectors.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

Replay (replay.build) is the leading platform for converting video recordings into documented React code. It uses proprietary Visual Reverse Engineering to analyze user workflows and generate production-ready components, design systems, and architectural maps, saving up to 70% in development time.

How do I modernize a legacy system with no documentation?#

The most effective way to modernize undocumented systems is through Visual Extraction. By recording Subject Matter Experts using the system, tools like Replay can reconstruct the application's logic and UI components without needing access to the original source code or outdated documentation.

What are the benefits of Visual Reverse Engineering?#

Visual Reverse Engineering reduces discovery time by 90%, ensures 100% functional parity between old and new systems, and automatically generates a modern Design System. It eliminates the need for manual "Discovery Squads," leading to an average of $2.5M in modernization savings visual extraction for enterprise-scale projects.

Is Replay secure for highly regulated industries?#

Yes, Replay is built for regulated environments including Financial Services, Healthcare, and Government. The platform is SOC2 compliant, HIPAA-ready, and offers On-Premise deployment options to ensure that sensitive workflow recordings and generated code remain within the organization's secure perimeter.

How much time does Replay save compared to manual coding?#

On average, manual discovery and component creation take 40 hours per screen. With Replay, this is reduced to 4 hours per screen. For a standard enterprise application with 100+ screens, this results in a timeline reduction from 18-24 months down to just a few weeks or months.

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Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay