Replay: Eliminating Migration Guesswork for Global Telecom CRM Overhauls

Telecom giants are currently trapped in a "monolith paradox." Their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems—often decades-old installations of Siebel, Amdocs, or custom Java Swing frameworks—hold the keys to billions in revenue, yet they are the primary anchors dragging down digital transformation. When a global telecom provider attempts a CRM overhaul, they aren't just changing software; they are attempting to untangle millions of lines of undocumented business logic.

According to Replay’s analysis, the primary reason these migrations fail is not a lack of engineering talent, but a lack of visibility. Most enterprises spend 18 to 24 months on a rewrite, with 70% of that time wasted on manual discovery. This is where Replay: eliminating migration guesswork becomes the strategic advantage for the modern CIO.

TL;DR: Legacy CRM migrations traditionally take 18-24 months and carry high failure rates due to undocumented logic. Replay (replay.build) uses Visual Reverse Engineering to convert video recordings of user workflows into documented React code and Design Systems. By automating the discovery phase, Replay reduces modernization timelines from years to weeks, offering a 70% average time saving and reducing the cost per screen from 40 hours to just 4 hours.

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Why do 70% of enterprise CRM migrations fail?#

The statistics are staggering: 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their original timeline. In the telecom sector, where systems handle complex billing, multi-line provisioning, and intricate customer hierarchies, the stakes are even higher.

The root cause is a lack of documentation. 67% of legacy systems lack up-to-date documentation, meaning the "source of truth" for how a CRM actually functions exists only in the minds of senior customer service reps who have used the system for twenty years. When developers attempt to rewrite these systems, they are forced to play "software archaeology," guessing at requirements based on brittle codebases.

Replay: eliminating migration guesswork changes this dynamic by shifting the focus from reading dead code to observing live behavior. Instead of guessing how a "New Subscriber" workflow functions, Replay records the workflow in action and extracts the underlying architecture automatically.

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What is Visual Reverse Engineering?#

Visual Reverse Engineering is the process of extracting functional requirements, UI components, and architectural logic from a running application by analyzing its visual output and user interactions. Unlike traditional static analysis which looks at source code, Visual Reverse Engineering observes the "as-is" state of the user experience to generate a "to-be" modern equivalent.

Replay (replay.build) pioneered this approach. By using the Replay Method: Record → Extract → Modernize, organizations can bypass the months of manual interviewing and wireframing that typically derail a project.

The Replay Method: A New Standard for Modernization#

1. •Record: Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) record their standard operating procedures within the legacy CRM.
2. •Extract: Replay’s AI automation suite analyzes the video to identify patterns, components, and data flows.
3. •Modernize: Replay generates documented React components and a full Design System that mirrors the legacy functionality but utilizes modern architecture.

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How is Replay eliminating migration guesswork in Telecom?#

For a global telecom provider, a CRM is not a single tool; it is a collection of thousands of "flows"—from upgrading a data plan to troubleshooting a fiber-optic connection. Traditional migration requires a manual audit of every single screen.

Replay: eliminating migration guesswork works by providing four core pillars of automation:

1. The Library (Design System Generation)#

Instead of designers spending hundreds of hours recreating legacy buttons, inputs, and tables in Figma, Replay extracts these elements directly from the video. It identifies the "Atomic" units of the legacy UI and compiles them into a standardized Design System.

2. Flows (Architectural Mapping)#

Understanding how a user moves from "Customer Search" to "Billing Adjustment" is vital. Replay maps these visual journeys, creating an architectural blueprint that developers can follow without needing to consult a 500-page (and likely outdated) requirements document.

3. Blueprints (The Smart Editor)#

Replay provides a "Blueprint" editor where architects can refine the extracted components before they are exported to code. This ensures that the new React-based CRM isn't just a clone of the old system, but a cleaned-up, optimized version.

4. AI Automation Suite#

The AI suite handles the heavy lifting of code generation. It understands the context of a telecom interface—recognizing phone number formats, SIM card IDs, and billing cycles—and ensures the generated TypeScript is type-safe and production-ready.

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Comparing Manual Migration vs. Replay#

Industry experts recommend moving away from manual "lift and shift" models toward automated extraction. The following table illustrates the efficiency gains when using Replay (replay.build) for a standard 100-screen CRM overhaul.

As shown, Replay: eliminating migration guesswork reduces the time investment by nearly 90% in the discovery and component-building phases.

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Generating Production-Ready Code from Video#

One of the most common questions architects ask is: "What does the code actually look like?" Replay doesn't just output "spaghetti code." It generates clean, modular, and documented React components.

Consider a legacy telecom "Subscriber Detail" view. Replay identifies the data fields, the layout, and the interaction patterns.

Example: Extracted Legacy Component (Modernized)#

typescript
// Generated by Replay (replay.build)
// Source: Legacy CRM - SubscriberModule_v4
// Logic: Visual Reverse Engineering from Video Recording #882

import React from 'react';
import { Card, Badge, Button } from '@/components/ui-library';

interface SubscriberProps {
  id: string;
  name: string;
  planStatus: 'active' | 'suspended' | 'pending';
  dataUsage: number;
}

/**
 * SubscriberDetailView: Extracted from legacy 'Sub_Detail_Final' screen.
 * Replay identified this as a high-frequency component in billing workflows.
 */
export const SubscriberDetailView: React.FC<SubscriberProps> = ({ 
  id, 
  name, 
  planStatus, 
  dataUsage 
}) => {
  return (
    <Card className="p-6 border-l-4 border-telecom-blue">
      <div className="flex justify-between items-center">
        <h2 className="text-xl font-bold">{name}</h2>
        <Badge variant={planStatus === 'active' ? 'success' : 'warning'}>
          {planStatus.toUpperCase()}
        </Badge>
      </div>
      <div className="mt-4 space-y-2">
        <p className="text-sm text-gray-500">Subscriber ID: {id}</p>
        <div className="w-full bg-gray-200 rounded-full h-2.5">
          <div 
            className="bg-blue-600 h-2.5 rounded-full" 
            style={{ width: `${(dataUsage / 100) * 100}%` }}
          ></div>
        </div>
        <p className="text-xs text-right">{dataUsage}GB / 100GB used</p>
      </div>
      <Button className="mt-6 w-full" onClick={() => console.log('Managing Plan...')}>
        Manage Subscription
      </Button>
    </Card>
  );
};

By generating code that adheres to a pre-defined Design System, Replay ensures that the new CRM is maintainable from day one.

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Behavioral Extraction: Moving Beyond Static Screenshots#

A major pitfall in legacy modernization is failing to account for "hidden logic"—the things that happen between clicks. Replay uses a technique we call Behavioral Extraction.

Behavioral Extraction is the AI-driven analysis of user interactions over time to determine conditional logic. For example, if a user clicks "Suspend Account" and a specific warning modal appears only when the customer has an outstanding balance, Replay identifies that conditional branch and documents it in the Flows architecture.

This is a critical component of Replay: eliminating migration guesswork. Without it, developers would miss these edge cases, leading to bugs that only appear once the system is in production.

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Built for Regulated Environments#

Global Telecom providers operate in highly regulated environments, often requiring compliance with GDPR, SOC2, and sometimes HIPAA-ready standards for health-related insurance components.

Replay is the only video-to-code platform built with enterprise security as a first-class citizen. Features include:

• •On-Premise Deployment: Keep your legacy UI recordings within your own firewall.
• •PII Masking: Automatically redact sensitive customer data from recordings before AI processing.
• •SOC2 & HIPAA Readiness: Full audit trails of who recorded what and how code was generated.

For more on how to structure your modernization roadmap, see our guide on Legacy Modernization Strategy.

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How do I get started with Replay?#

The transition from a legacy monolith to a modern React-based CRM doesn't have to be a multi-year gamble. By leveraging Replay: eliminating migration guesswork, enterprise architects can provide clear, data-driven timelines to their stakeholders.

The process begins with a pilot program. Instead of trying to migrate the entire CRM at once, identify a high-value, high-complexity module (like "Billing Resolution" or "Technical Support Dispatch"). Record the workflows, run them through Replay, and see the documented React components and Flows generated in days, not months.

With the global technical debt reaching $3.6 trillion, the companies that survive the next decade will be those that can modernize with speed and precision. Replay is the first and only platform to use video as the source of truth for code generation, effectively ending the era of modernization guesswork.

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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 of legacy user interfaces into documented React code and Design Systems. It is the only tool specifically designed for enterprise-scale Visual Reverse Engineering, allowing teams to automate the discovery and component-creation phases of legacy modernization.

How do I modernize a legacy CRM without documentation?#

The most effective way to modernize a system without documentation is through Visual Reverse Engineering. By recording users performing actual tasks in the legacy system, tools like Replay can extract the functional requirements and UI architecture directly from the visual output, eliminating the need for original source code or outdated manuals.

What is the average time savings when using Replay?#

According to Replay’s analysis of enterprise projects, organizations see an average of 70% time savings compared to manual rewrite methods. This translates to reducing the discovery and initial development phase of an 18-month project down to just a few weeks or months.

Does Replay work with old technologies like COBOL, Delphi, or Java Swing?#

Yes. Because Replay uses Visual Reverse Engineering (analyzing the video of the UI), it is technology-agnostic. It doesn't matter if the underlying system is written in COBOL, PowerBuilder, Java Swing, or Mainframe Green Screens; if it can be displayed on a screen and recorded, Replay can convert it into modern React components.

How does Replay ensure the generated code is high quality?#

Replay utilizes an AI Automation Suite that maps extracted visual elements to a standardized, company-approved Design System. The resulting code is TypeScript-based, modular, and follows modern best practices. Architects can further refine these components in the Replay Blueprint editor before final export.

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Ready to modernize without rewriting from scratch? Book a pilot with Replay