How to Scale Modernization Across 50+ Global Business Units

70% of enterprise legacy modernization projects fail. When you multiply that risk across 50 global business units, you aren't just looking at a project delay—you’re looking at a systemic threat to the organization's viability. Global technical debt has ballooned to $3.6 trillion, and for the average enterprise, the "Big Bang" rewrite is a death march that lasts 18 to 24 months per application, only to result in a product that lacks the nuanced business logic of the original.

TL;DR: To scale modernization across 50+ business units, move away from manual "code archaeology" and adopt Visual Reverse Engineering with Replay to reduce per-screen development time from 40 hours to 4 hours.

The Archaeology Trap: Why Global Modernization Stalls#

Most CTOs approach modernization by hiring a small army of consultants to perform "code archaeology." They spend months digging through undocumented COBOL, Java monoliths, or legacy .NET frameworks trying to understand business rules that were written by developers who retired a decade ago.

The data is grim: 67% of legacy systems lack any meaningful documentation.

When you attempt to scale this manual discovery process across 50+ business units—each with its own localized requirements, regulatory hurdles (HIPAA, SOC2), and tech stacks—the friction becomes exponential. You don't need more developers; you need a better way to extract truth from the systems currently running your business.

The Cost of Manual Extraction vs. Visual Reverse Engineering#

How to Scale Modernization: A 5-Step Framework#

Scaling requires a shift from rewriting to extracting. By using Replay, you treat the existing UI as the "source of truth." You record real user workflows, and the platform reverse-engineers those interactions into modern React components and documented API contracts.

Step 1: Audit the Global Technical Debt#

Before touching a line of code, you must quantify the debt. Most global units operate as "black boxes." Use Replay’s Technical Debt Audit to map out which screens are high-traffic and high-complexity.

💰 ROI Insight: Reducing the discovery phase from 6 months to 2 weeks saves an average of $450k in consultant fees per business unit.

Step 2: Record Visual Truth#

Instead of interviewing users to ask what a system should do, record what it actually does. Replay allows teams across 50 business units to record standard workflows. These recordings capture:

• •State transitions
• •Hidden business logic
• •Data validation rules
• •Edge cases often missed in BRDs (Business Requirement Documents)

Step 3: Automated Extraction to Modern React#

Once a workflow is recorded, Replay’s AI Automation Suite extracts the visual elements and logic. It doesn't just "scrape" the UI; it generates clean, modular React components that match your target architecture.

typescript
// Example: Replay-generated component from a legacy Insurance Claim screen
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { Button, TextField, Alert } from '@/components/ui'; // From Replay Library

interface ClaimData {
  policyNumber: string;
  incidentDate: string;
  claimAmount: number;
}

export const LegacyClaimForm: React.FC = () => {
  const [data, setData] = useState<Partial<ClaimData>>({});
  const [error, setError] = useState<string | null>(null);

  // Business logic preserved: Validation for claims over $10k
  const validateClaim = (amount: number) => {
    return amount <= 10000 || "Requires Senior Adjuster Approval";
  };

  const handleSubmit = async () => {
    const validationError = validateClaim(data.claimAmount || 0);
    if (typeof validationError === "string") {
      setError(validationError);
      return;
    }
    // API Contract automatically mapped by Replay Flows
    await fetch('/api/v1/claims/submit', { 
      method: 'POST', 
      body: JSON.stringify(data) 
    });
  };

  return (
    <div className="p-6 space-y-4">
      <TextField 
        label="Policy Number" 
        onChange={(e) => setData({...data, policyNumber: e.target.value})} 
      />
      <TextField 
        type="date" 
        label="Incident Date" 
        onChange={(e) => setData({...data, incidentDate: e.target.value})} 
      />
      {error && <Alert variant="destructive">{error}</Alert>}
      <Button onClick={handleSubmit}>Submit Claim</Button>
    </div>
  );
};

Step 4: Centralize with the Replay Library#

To scale across 50 units, you cannot have 50 different versions of a "Submit" button. Replay’s Library feature acts as a centralized Design System. When you extract a component in one business unit, it is cross-referenced against your global standards. This ensures brand consistency and reduces code duplication by up to 60%.

⚠️ Warning: Without a centralized component library, global scaling leads to "UI Fragmentation," where maintenance costs eventually eclipse the original legacy debt.

Step 5: Generate API Contracts and E2E Tests#

Modernization isn't just about the frontend. Replay uses the recorded workflows to generate:

1. •API Contracts: (Swagger/OpenAPI specs) based on observed network traffic.
2. •E2E Tests: Playwright or Cypress tests that mirror the original legacy workflow.

typescript
// Generated Playwright Test to ensure parity between Legacy and Modern
import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('Verify Claim Submission Parity', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/modern/claims/new');
  await page.fill('input[name="policyNumber"]', 'POL-12345');
  await page.fill('input[name="claimAmount"]', '15000');
  await page.click('button:has-text("Submit")');
  
  // Replay identified this specific error message from the legacy recording
  const error = page.locator('text=Requires Senior Adjuster Approval');
  await expect(error).toBeVisible();
});

Solving the Global Governance Challenge#

When operating in regulated industries like Financial Services or Healthcare, "scaling" often hits a wall of compliance. Replay is built for these environments:

• •SOC2 & HIPAA Ready: Data masking ensures PII (Personally Identifiable Information) is never stored during the recording phase.
• •On-Premise Deployment: For government or high-security manufacturing, Replay can run entirely within your firewall.
• •Blueprints Editor: Allows Enterprise Architects to set "Guardrails" for AI generation, ensuring the extracted code follows specific security patterns.

The "Strangler Fig" 2.0#

Traditional Strangler Fig patterns involve wrapping a legacy system and slowly replacing pieces. While effective, it's slow. Replay accelerates this by providing the Blueprints for the new pieces instantly. You aren't guessing what the legacy system does; you are looking at a digital twin.

ROI Analysis: The 10x Modernization Effect#

Consider a standard enterprise application with 200 screens.

Manual Approach:

• •200 screens x 40 hours/screen = 8,000 hours
• •8,000 hours / 40 hours week = 200 man-weeks
• •At $150/hr = $1.2 Million per application

Replay Approach:

• •200 screens x 4 hours/screen = 800 hours
• •800 hours / 40 hours week = 20 hours man-weeks
• •At $150/hr = $120,000 per application

When scaled across 50 business units, the savings exceed $50 Million and, more importantly, save 4+ years of time-to-market.

📝 Note: These savings don't include the "Avoided Failure Cost." Since 70% of rewrites fail, the true ROI is the guaranteed delivery of the modernized platform.

Frequently Asked Questions#

How does Replay handle complex business logic buried in the backend?#

Replay captures the manifestation of business logic at the UI and API layers. By observing how the frontend reacts to specific inputs and what the resulting API payloads look like, Replay’s AI Automation Suite can reconstruct the logic in modern TypeScript. For deep backend logic (e.g., stored procedures), Replay generates the API contracts required to interface with those legacy endpoints until they can be migrated.

Can we use our own Design System?#

Yes. Replay’s Library is designed to ingest your existing Figma tokens or React component library. When the extraction engine identifies a pattern (like a data grid or a modal), it maps the legacy functionality to your modern components rather than generating new ones from scratch.

How long does it take to see the first results?#

Typically, we can extract a fully functional, documented React screen from a legacy environment in less than 4 hours. For a pilot project involving a full user flow (5-10 screens), most enterprises see a finished "Blueprints" output within 48 to 72 hours.

What about data security in regulated industries?#

Replay offers an On-Premise deployment model. All video processing and code generation happen within your VPC. We also include automated PII scrubbing, ensuring that sensitive data captured during a recording never leaves the secure environment.

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Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay - see your legacy screen extracted live during the call.