Modernization
Years in Business
shipping production software since 2004
Client Problems Solved
across 6+ industries
What LoadSys modernization is, in 90 seconds
LoadSys rebuilds internal custom applications — portals, MES, admin systems, operational tools, vertical SaaS modules — in 90 days for a fixed price between $80K and $150K. We use Spec-Driven Development: senior engineers write the specification, AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot) execute the bulk of the implementation, and every commit is reviewed by a human before it ships.
The price is fixed before work starts. A two-week, $2,500 Discovery Sprint produces a five-section spec covering scope, user stories, risks, architecture, and the implementation plan. You can walk away with the spec at the end. If you proceed, the $2,500 credits against the project fee. If we miss the 90-day deadline, you recieve a 25% discount of the fee.
Best fit: a working internal application in the 20K–200K LOC range running on an end-of-life or near-EOL stack, with a weekly executive sponsor and decision authority on the buyer’s side.
Four reasons internal applications get rebuilt
The conversation about modernization usually sits on the roadmap for 18–36 months. These are the four pressures that move it to the top.
Talent gap — you can’t hire the engineers who maintain it
Senior PHP, Rails 4, AngularJS, ColdFusion, and .NET Framework engineers are aging out of the workforce. Median time-to-fill for a senior Rails 4 developer in 2026 is 4.7 months. Once your last engineer who knows the codebase leaves, the cost of any change goes up by an order of magnitude.
Source: 2026 Stack Overflow Developer Survey · BLS labor market dataRuntime EOL — the stack hits end-of-life
Once your OS, runtime, framework, or CMS reaches end-of-life, security patches stop. Average breach cost when running EOL software: ~$5M, roughly 30% higher than a comparable breach on a supported stack. Known CVEs stay open until you migrate.
Source: IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025Insurance exposure — cyber carriers are pricing you out
Carriers now require asset-list disclosure of unsupported frameworks. 21% of cyber insurance claims were denied or partially denied in 2025, up from 15% in 2023. Renewal cycles are annual. One denied claim is catastrophic.
Source: Marsh Cyber Claims Report 2025Operational scale — the system that worked at 10K records breaks at 100K
Workarounds your operations team built to keep the app running are the system now. Migration cost compounds the longer the workarounds accumulate. The system worked, until it stopped working at scale.
Three steps. Ninety days.
Discovery Sprint, build, launch. Each step has a defined output, a clear duration, and a defined exit criterion.
Discovery Sprint
2 weeks · $2,500 · walk-away clauseWe audit the existing application, scope the rebuild, and produce a five-section specification: scope, user stories, risks, architecture, and implementation plan.
You can walk away at the end of the sprint with the spec in hand. If you proceed, the $2,500 credits against the project fee.
OUTPUT · written specificationDECISION · go / no-go before fixed-price contract
Build
8–12 weeks · fixed price · weekly check-insSenior engineers run AI coding agents — Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot — against the spec. Plan → Execute → Verify on every story. Every commit reviewed by a human before merge.
Weekly executive-sponsor check-in. No mid-flight scope changes; the spec is the contract.
OUTPUT · working application against specDECISION · production-ready milestone signoff
Launch & handoff
90-day mark · production · code ownership transfersCutover, deploy, migrate data, document. You get the running application, full source code, architecture documentation, and runbooks. 100% code ownership, no vendor lock-in.
60-day post-launch bug-fix warranty. Optional ongoing maintenance retainer.
OUTPUT · production application + full handoffGUARANTEE · 25% discount of fee if past day 90
Most AI-assisted projects fail at the same step. Ours don’t.
Vibe coding works on small tasks and falls apart on real systems. Spec-Driven Development is the workflow that lets AI coding agents survive contact with production.
The completion illusion
Most teams using AI coding agents are stuck in a loop: prompt, review, re-prompt, repeat. The agent reports “done.” The code looks plausible. Only 30–40% of the work is actually finished. The remaining 60% surfaces in production, when it’s expensive.
What we do instead
The specification becomes the contract between the team and the agent. The plan is written before code is generated. Execution runs against the plan. Verification confirms the code matches what was specified — not what the agent imagined.
PLAN → EXECUTE → VERIFY
Senior-engineer supervision
The spec is written by people who have shipped production software for 20+ years. Every commit the agent produces is reviewed before merge. The agent is fast; the engineer is the source of truth.
The four ways to rebuild this app, side by side
Most teams evaluate three alternatives before they reach LoadSys. Here's the honest comparison.
| LoadSys | Traditional dev shop | AI-only builders | Internal team + Cursor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timeline | 90 days | 9–12 months | Days to demo | 6–18 months elapsed |
| Price | $80K–$150K fixed | $300K–$500K T&M | $0 software, $? rework | Loaded cost of internal team |
| Code ownership | 100%, no lock-in | 100%, IP standard | Generated, often unmaintainable | 100% |
| Deadline guarantee | 25% discounted if missed | None — overruns common | None — demo ≠ production | None — slips into next quarter |
| Methodology | Spec-Driven Development | Agile / waterfall | Vibe coding at scale | Vibe coding at small scale |
| Senior-engineer review | Every PR/MR | Varies by project | None | Tied up on the day job |
| Best fit | Internal apps, 20K–200K LOC | Multi-million LOC enterprise | Prototypes, MVPs | Small features, ongoing |
LOC = lines of code · MVP = minimum viable product · T&M = time and materials · IP = intellectual property · EOL = end of life · PR = pull request · MR = merge request
Where this works. Where it doesn’t.
The 90-day fixed-price model breaks the fast / cheap / good triangle for a specific shape of project. Outside that shape, the triangle holds and we're a worse choice than the alternatives. Self-qualify here before the call.
Best fits
Say yes to the call- Customer or partner portals built 5–15 years ago
- Internal admin systems and operational tools
- MES, ERP layers, line-of-business applications
- Vertical SaaS modules in the 20K–200K LOC range
- Apps running on EOL or near-EOL frameworks (PHP 5/7, Rails 4, AngularJS, ColdFusion, .NET Framework)
- Mid-market companies with a weekly executive sponsor
- Companies whose insurance renewal flagged unsupported software
Not a fit
We'll tell you on the call- Multi-million-LOC enterprise systems
- Deeply regulated rebuilds (HIPAA, FedRAMP, classified)
- Terabyte-scale data migrations as the primary work
- Greenfield “build me a new product” engagements
- Projects without a weekly executive sponsor
- Projects where requirements will change weekly during the build
- Apps where the existing team wants to do the rebuild themselves
The executive sponsor requirement is non-negotiable. Internal-app modernization without a weekly sponsor with decision authority is the most reliable predictor of slippage. We won’t take the engagement without one.
The questions buyers actually ask
Q.01 What if you miss the 90-day deadline? +
You receive a 25% discount of the fee. It applies to the production-readiness milestone defined in the spec. The discount is real money on our side, which is why we scope tightly in the Discovery Sprint and walk away from projects we can’t ship in 90 days.
Q.02 What does AI actually do versus what your engineers do? +
AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot) write the bulk of the implementation against a written spec. Senior engineers write the spec, supervise execution, review every commit, and verify against the spec before launch. The agent never ships unsupervised.
Q.03 Can we keep our existing database? +
Usually yes. The Discovery Sprint scopes the database decision explicitly. Most modernizations keep the existing schema with targeted migrations, which removes a major source of risk and shortens the timeline.
Q.04 What happens to the legacy system during the build? +
It runs as-is until cutover. The new system is built in parallel; we don’t ask you to freeze features in the old one. Cutover is scoped as part of the launch step and is usually a single-weekend operation for internal apps.
Q.05 Do you sign NDAs before Discovery Sprints? +
Yes. NDAs are standard before any Discovery Sprint engagement. We can use yours or provide our standard mutual NDA.
Q.06 What stack will you migrate us to? +
Whatever fits. We are not stack maximalists. Common targets are Node/TypeScript, Python, or Ruby on the backend; React or HTMX on the frontend. The Discovery Sprint produces the architecture decision and the rationale.
Q.07 What if our app is bigger than 200K lines of code? +
It’s probably not a fit. The 90-day fixed-price model works for internal custom applications in the 20K–200K LOC range. Above that, we recommend a phased approach scoped over multiple engagements, or a different vendor.
Q.08 Does this work for COO-sponsored internal apps where the CTO is not the buyer? +
Yes. Most internal applications are COO- or operations-sponsored, not CTO-sponsored. We require a weekly executive sponsor regardless of title; what matters is decision authority and weekly availability for 90 days.
Q.09 How does Spec-Driven Development differ from agile or waterfall on a modernization project? +
Spec-Driven Development uses a written specification as the contract between your team and the AI coding agent. Plan, then execute, then verify against the spec. Agile changes the spec mid-flight; waterfall writes a 200-page spec nobody reads. SDD writes a spec the agent can execute against and the team can verify against.
Q.10 What is the Discovery Sprint and what do we get? +
Two weeks, $2,500. You get a five-section spec covering scope, user stories, risks, architecture, and the implementation plan. You can walk away with the spec at the end. If you proceed, the $2,500 credits against the project fee.
A 30-minute call. We’ll tell you if your app fits in 90 days.
If your app fits, we book the Discovery Sprint. If it doesn’t, we tell you why and recommend the right alternative.