A major US Retirement Services firm specializing in retirement recordkeeping and tax-advantaged savings solutions for institutional clients was running its Non-Qualified (NQ) Deferred Compensation Services on a suite of aging desktop VBA applications. As the business expanded, these applications remained undocumented, isolated and increasingly brittle, creating significant barriers to operational scalability while amplifying compliance and regulatory risk.

Several factors complicated modernization efforts:

• The NQ Services environment comprised VBA desktop applications, none of which had current technical documentation making it nearly impossible to assess dependencies or plan changes safely.
• Unsupported legacy technologies created ongoing security and compliance exposure in a regulated environment where audit-readiness is non-negotiable.
• All import, payroll event creation and external system synchronization tasks were performed manually, consuming a lot of time and introducing consistent error risk.
• Disconnected systems forced operations teams to duplicate work across functions, reducing visibility and slowing response times for institutional clients.
• A growing client base meant the organization could no longer defer modernization scale as demands were outpacing what the existing platform could support.
• Critical business workflows and use cases lacked comprehensive documentation, making it difficult to understand application behavior and dependencies.
• Unsupported legacy technologies increased security, compliance and operational risks.
• Manual processes and fragmented data flows limited automation opportunities and constrained scalability.
• Operational silos created by disconnected systems resulted in duplicate effort and reduced visibility across business functions.
• The growing client base increased pressure to modernize the platform before operational inefficiencies and compliance concerns became larger business issues.

The organization needed a faster, more reliable approach to application discovery and modernization while minimizing disruption to ongoing business operations.

Re(AI)magining Legacy Operations Through AI-Assisted Modernization

Persistent partnered with the client to transform its legacy NQ Services platform using its AI Accelerator framework, SASVA. The engagement combined AI-assisted application discovery, modernization and engineering practices to accelerate the transition from monolithic desktop applications to a scalable modern architecture.

The transformation began with a comprehensive AI-driven assessment of the legacy environment. Using SASVA, the team rapidly analyzed existing applications, identified dependencies and documented key workflows and business use cases that previously lacked formal documentation. This enabled modernization teams to build a clear understanding of the application landscape while significantly reducing discovery effort.

Persistent redesigned the application ecosystem using a microservices-based architecture built on .NET Core. Monolithic VBA applications were decomposed into independent services, improving maintainability, scalability and operational resilience.

To support future growth, Persistent implemented asynchronous APIs that enabled parallel transaction processing and increasing the system’s throughput capacity for concurrent transactions. Business users gained a more unified operational experience through enhanced search, workflow management, reporting and visibility capabilities.

The modernization initiative also focused on operational automation. Automated ETL processes replaced manual activities, eliminating duplicate work while improving data consistency across systems. Scheduled reporting capabilities provided faster access to operational insights and reduced the effort required to generate business reports. Database structures were optimized and longstanding data quality issues were addressed, creating a stronger foundation for future innovation.

Throughout the engagement, AI-assisted engineering tools helped accelerate development and modernization activities, enabling teams to deliver value more quickly while maintaining quality and governance standards.

Delivering Faster, Smarter and More Scalable Operations

The modernization program delivered measurable improvements across operational efficiency, application development and business scalability.

Accelerated Legacy System Understanding: Using the SASVA framework, achieved a 40% reduction in discovery effort required to understand and document major workflows and business use cases within the legacy application environment. This significantly accelerated planning and modernization activities.

Improved Operational Efficiency: Automation of imports, payroll event creation and external system synchronization contributed to approximately 125 hours of manual effort per month. The organization also achieved a fivefold improvement in operational efficiency, enabling teams to support growing business demands more effectively.

Enhanced Quality and Reliability: Modernized workflows and automated validation reduced processing errors to a near zero which is a 98% reduction that directly eliminated a key source of operational risk and client facing disruption.

Faster AI-Assisted Development: The adoption of AI-assisted engineering practices increased feature delivery velocity by 30%, enabling modernization teams to deliver enhancements more rapidly and efficiently.

Scalable Growth Enablement: The improved operating model enabled the client to onboard new customers using a leaner workforce while maintaining service quality and operational performance.

Frameworks and Technologies Behind the Transformation: Persistent combined its proprietary AI-powered modernization capabilities with a modern engineering stack to accelerate delivery and reduce transformation risk.

Key technologies leveraged:

• Persistent SASVA AI Accelerator
• .NET Core
• .NET Microservices
• GitHub Copilot
• Cursor
• Workflow Automation Tools
• ETL Technologies

Turning Complex Modernization into Lasting Business Value

By combining AI-driven application discovery with modern engineering practices, Persistent helped the client transform an undocumented, monolithic legacy environment into a scalable, modern platform that has eliminated legacy risk, reduced manual workload and positioned the organization to onboard new Institutional Clients without proportional increases in Operational Headcount.