Informix for Insurance: Visual Discovery for Underwriting Engine Flows

The "black box" of underwriting logic is currently costing insurance carriers billions in technical debt. If you are managing a legacy Informix-based system, you are likely dealing with Informix 4GL codebases that haven't been fully documented since the late 1990s. When a senior underwriter navigates a 20-step risk assessment flow, they aren't just entering data; they are navigating a labyrinth of hardcoded validation rules, nested stored procedures, and terminal-style UI triggers that no living developer fully understands.

The challenge isn't just the database; it’s the Informix insurance visual discovery—the process of extracting the tribal knowledge embedded in the user interface and translating it into a modern, scalable architecture. According to Replay's analysis, 67% of these legacy insurance systems lack any form of current documentation, leaving IT teams to "guess" the business logic during a rewrite.

TL;DR: Legacy Informix underwriting systems are bottlenecks for insurance innovation due to undocumented logic and $3.6 trillion in global technical debt. Informix insurance visual discovery via Replay allows architects to record real user workflows and automatically generate documented React components and design systems. This methodology reduces the average modernization timeline from 18 months to mere weeks, saving 70% in labor costs by replacing 40-hour manual screen recreations with 4-hour automated exports.

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The Informix Bottleneck in Modern Underwriting#

Insurance carriers often rely on Informix for its legendary stability and high-concurrency handling. However, that stability comes at the cost of agility. In a standard underwriting engine, the "flow" is often a rigid sequence of terminal screens or early PowerBuilder-style GUIs.

When a carrier attempts to launch a new "Quick Quote" feature for a digital-first market, they hit a wall. The logic for calculating a policy premium isn't sitting in a clean API; it’s buried in an Informix Dynamic Server (IDS) stored procedure triggered by a specific keyboard interrupt in a legacy UI.

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of capturing these UI interactions and translating them into modern code structures without needing to manually parse 30-year-old COBOL or 4GL scripts.

The Cost of Manual Discovery#

Industry experts recommend against manual "rip and replace" strategies. A typical enterprise rewrite of an underwriting module takes 18-24 months. During this time, the business is frozen. Using Replay, architects can bypass the manual requirements-gathering phase.

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Implementing Informix Insurance Visual Discovery#

To successfully execute an informix insurance visual discovery project, you must bridge the gap between the terminal screen and the React component. The goal is to capture the intent of the underwriting flow.

Step 1: Capturing the Underwriting Flow#

In a legacy Informix environment, the "Flow" is the most critical asset. An underwriter might move from "Applicant Information" to "Risk Assessment" to "Premium Override." Each transition involves hidden state changes.

By using Replay's "Flows" feature, you record these sessions. The platform doesn't just record video; it maps the DOM (or terminal coordinates) to functional requirements. This is vital for insurance because the sequence of data entry often dictates the validation logic (e.g., if "Smoker" is checked, the "Respiratory History" field becomes mandatory).

Step 2: Extracting the Design System#

Most Informix insurance UIs are visually inconsistent, having been patched over decades. Replay's "Library" feature takes these disparate screens and normalizes them into a unified Design System.

Video-to-code is the process of converting these recorded interactions into functional, styled React components that maintain the original business logic while adopting modern UI/UX standards.

Step 3: From 4GL to TypeScript#

The core of the modernization lies in the code. Instead of manually writing TypeScript interfaces that mirror Informix tables, Replay's AI Automation Suite generates the boilerplate and the functional logic.

Consider a legacy Informix 4GL snippet for an underwriting risk check:

sql
-- Legacy Informix 4GL Logic (Simplified)
FUNCTION check_risk_threshold(p_amount, p_age)
  DEFINE l_risk_score INTEGER
  IF p_age > 65 AND p_amount > 500000 THEN
    LET l_risk_score = 10
    DISPLAY "High Risk: Manual Review Required" AT 24, 1
  ELSE
    LET l_risk_score = 1
  END IF
  RETURN l_risk_score
END FUNCTION

Using informix insurance visual discovery, Replay identifies this interaction during the recording and generates a documented React component. Below is how that same logic is represented in a modernized, type-safe environment:

typescript
// Modernized React Component generated via Replay
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { Alert, Input, Button } from '@/components/ui';

interface UnderwritingProps {
  applicantAge: number;
  policyAmount: number;
  onValidationComplete: (isHighRisk: boolean) => void;
}

/**
 * @component RiskAssessmentModule
 * @description Extracted from Legacy Informix Underwriting Flow (Screen ID: UW-042)
 */
export const RiskAssessmentModule: React.FC<UnderwritingProps> = ({
  applicantAge,
  policyAmount,
  onValidationComplete
}) => {
  const [isHighRisk, setIsHighRisk] = useState<boolean>(false);

  useEffect(() => {
    // Logic discovered via Replay Visual Reverse Engineering
    if (applicantAge > 65 && policyAmount > 500000) {
      setIsHighRisk(true);
      onValidationComplete(true);
    } else {
      setIsHighRisk(false);
      onValidationComplete(false);
    }
  }, [applicantAge, policyAmount]);

  return (
    <div className="p-6 border rounded-lg bg-slate-50">
      <h3 className="text-lg font-semibold">Underwriting Risk Check</h3>
      {isHighRisk && (
        <Alert variant="destructive" className="mt-4">
          High Risk: Manual Review Required (Legacy Rule UW-042)
        </Alert>
      )}
      <div className="mt-4">
        <p>Status: {isHighRisk ? 'Flagged for Review' : 'Auto-Approved'}</p>
      </div>
    </div>
  );
};

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Why 70% of Legacy Rewrites Fail#

The $3.6 trillion global technical debt isn't just a number; it's a graveyard of failed modernization projects. In the insurance sector, the failure rate is particularly high because of the "Integration Gap."

Most teams attempt to build a new system while the old one is still running. They try to recreate the Informix schema in a modern SQL or NoSQL database without understanding how the UI interacts with that data. This leads to missing edge cases that were only "documented" in the minds of the users.

Replay mitigates this by focusing on the "Blueprint." The Blueprint acts as an editor where architects can refine the discovered flows before a single line of production code is finalized. This ensures that the informix insurance visual discovery process includes the nuances of the underwriting profession.

The Role of AI in Discovery#

According to Replay's analysis, AI-assisted discovery can identify up to 85% of redundant UI patterns that human architects miss. In an Informix environment, you might have 500 different screens that essentially use the same 5 patterns. By identifying these patterns, Replay allows you to build a Design System for Legacy that is actually maintainable.

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Architecture of a Modernized Underwriting Engine#

When moving away from Informix, the target architecture usually involves a micro-frontend approach. This allows the carrier to modernize the "Claims" module independently of the "Underwriting" module.

Component-Driven Modernization#

Instead of a monolithic rewrite, use the informix insurance visual discovery data to create a component library. These components are:

1. •State-Aware: They know how to handle the complex validation states of insurance.
2. •Documented: Every component includes the "Why" behind its logic, linked back to the original Informix screen.
3. •Themed: They utilize a modern Component Library that matches the brand's new digital identity.

Data Mapping and Flow Visualization#

The most difficult part of insurance modernization is mapping the "Flow." In Informix, a "Flow" is often just a series of

statements or menu selections.

In a modern React application, we represent this as a State Machine. Here is how Replay helps visualize and code that transition:

typescript
// State Machine for Underwriting Flow Discovered via Replay
type UnderwritingState = 'IDLE' | 'COLLECTING_INFO' | 'RISK_ASSESSMENT' | 'MANUAL_REVIEW' | 'APPROVED';

interface UnderwritingMachine {
  currentState: UnderwritingState;
  dispatch: (action: string) => void;
}

export const useUnderwritingFlow = (): UnderwritingMachine => {
  const [state, setState] = useState<UnderwritingState>('IDLE');

  const dispatch = (action: string) => {
    switch (state) {
      case 'IDLE':
        if (action === 'START') setState('COLLECTING_INFO');
        break;
      case 'COLLECTING_INFO':
        if (action === 'SUBMIT') setState('RISK_ASSESSMENT');
        break;
      case 'RISK_ASSESSMENT':
        // Logic mapped from Informix insurance visual discovery
        if (action === 'FLAG_HIGH_RISK') setState('MANUAL_REVIEW');
        if (action === 'AUTO_APPROVE') setState('APPROVED');
        break;
      // Additional states...
    }
  };

  return { currentState: state, dispatch };
};

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Security and Compliance in Regulated Environments#

Insurance is one of the most heavily regulated industries globally. Any tool used for modernization must meet rigorous standards. Replay is built for these environments, offering SOC2 compliance, HIPAA readiness, and On-Premise deployment options.

When performing informix insurance visual discovery, data privacy is paramount. Replay’s AI Automation Suite can be configured to redact PII (Personally Identifiable Information) during the recording process, ensuring that sensitive policyholder data never leaves your secure environment. This is a critical advantage over manual discovery, where developers often export production data to local machines to "see how the system works."

For more on handling sensitive data in legacy transitions, see our guide on Mainframe Modernization.

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The ROI of Visual Reverse Engineering#

The financial argument for using Replay in an Informix modernization project is straightforward. If an enterprise has 500 screens in its underwriting system:

1. •Manual Discovery: 500 screens x 40 hours/screen = 20,000 hours. At $150/hr, that is $3,000,000 just for the UI layer.
2. •Replay Discovery: 500 screens x 4 hours/screen = 2,000 hours. At $150/hr, that is $300,000.

This 90% reduction in labor costs for the discovery phase allows the budget to be reallocated to high-value features like predictive analytics and AI-driven risk scoring. Furthermore, because the output of informix insurance visual discovery is documented React code, the "handover" period between the discovery team and the development team is eliminated.

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Frequently Asked Questions#

What exactly is Informix insurance visual discovery?#

It is a specialized methodology using Visual Reverse Engineering to map out the user interface, business logic, and data flows of legacy Informix-based insurance applications. By recording user sessions, tools like Replay can reconstruct the underlying logic into modern codebases without requiring access to the original, often undocumented, source code.

Can Replay handle terminal-based Informix 4GL screens?#

Yes. Replay is designed to capture interactions from various legacy interfaces, including terminal emulators and early Windows-based GUIs. It maps the visual triggers and data entries to functional React components, effectively bridging the gap between "green screens" and modern web architectures.

How does this approach impact the $3.6 trillion technical debt problem?#

By reducing the time and cost of discovery by up to 70%, Replay makes it economically viable for insurance carriers to tackle their technical debt. Instead of letting legacy systems rot, carriers can systematically convert them into modern, documented, and maintainable assets.

Is the generated React code "clean" or just "spaghetti code"?#

Replay generates structured, type-safe TypeScript and React code that follows modern best practices. It creates modular components and a centralized design system, ensuring the new application is easier to maintain than the legacy Informix system it replaces.

Does Replay require a permanent connection to my Informix database?#

No. Replay works by capturing the visual and functional output of the system during the discovery phase. Once the components and flows are generated, they are independent of the legacy database, though they are designed to be easily integrated with modern APIs that replace the old Informix backend.

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Conclusion: Moving Beyond the Legacy#

The era of the 24-month "big bang" rewrite is over. For insurance carriers running on Informix, the path forward is informix insurance visual discovery. By leveraging the power of Replay, you can turn your legacy systems into a roadmap for the future. You don't just get a new UI; you get a fully documented, componentized, and scalable platform that can keep pace with the modern insurance market.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay