Spring Point
AI-powered legacy system modernization: a new SaaS product for the electromechanical industry
Industry
Technology
What we delivered
Software Modernization
Date
2024-2025
Through a legacy system modernization project accelerated by Artificial Intelligence across all development stages, Spring Point is preparing to launch a new SaaS product, featuring an exceptional user experience and ready to scale.
The challenge
Spring Point is a U.S.-based company headquartered in Portland, Maine. Its mission is to deliver software solutions that enable data-driven management for the electromechanical industry. The company’s core product is MotorBase, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that centralizes business process management for companies in this sector.
Spring Point’s product portfolio also includes over 10 digital solutions for customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
MotorBase offers features tailored to the electromechanical industry’s requirements, such as financial accounting, inventory management, and pricing for industrial maintenance products and services. Originally developed as in-house software for a motor manufacturing company, MotorBase was later enhanced to meet highly specific industry needs.
However, MotorBase was first built in the 1990s. Despite various updates over the years, its technology stack had become outdated. The ERP still followed a client-server model and was accessed via Remote Desktop, limiting scalability and complicating new user onboarding. Spring Point aimed to modernize its flagship product by adopting new technologies, migrating to a cloud architecture, and significantly improving user experience — a key requirement identified during discovery.
The legacy system modernization initiative became even more critical as Spring Point set a strategic goal to expand its products globally.
Our contribution
In 2022, Spring Point faced a pivotal decision: to modernize its flagship product, MotorBase, by delivering a cloud-based software solution with a redesigned user interface. The company had many ideas and opportunities for the new system but lacked the internal capacity to execute them all.
That’s when Spring Point partnered with SoftDesign. In addition to expanding the team with skilled developers, Spring Point sought guidance to identify opportunities and establish clear priorities for the product’s evolution.
As a software company, we always view our clients as partners — because the more transparency you have, the more trust there is, the more open the dialogue becomes, and the better the product gets. We could see this from the very first conversation with SoftDesign.”
– Troy D. Locke, CEO and Co-founder of Spring Point Solutions
The project kickoff took place in person in Maine in March 2023, focusing on product understanding and prioritizing the modernization roadmap. SoftDesign structured the project in incremental deliveries, accelerating user validation cycles.
In parallel, technology choices were made carefully to ensure a safe and sustainable modernization process, allowing Spring Point’s internal team to learn, adapt to, and master the new technologies.
Development of the new system officially began in February 2024. Since then, teams have met face-to-face every three months — either in the U.S. or Brazil.
Having worked with SoftDesign for several years now, I can confidently say that the teams we collaborate with are excellent. During our sprint plannings, reviews, and retrospectives, it’s clear how much they’ve invested in our product, how well they understand it, and how they’ve been able to make suggestions we might not have thought of ourselves.”
– Troy D. Locke
The SoftDesign team includes 14 professionals: Team Manager, Product Manager, Designers, Software Engineers, Cloud Engineers, DevOps Engineer, and QA Engineer.
Alongside MotorBase’s legacy system modernization, the teams also developed and upgraded complementary products: QM Wizard App, Mobile Time Clock, and Pricing Analyzer. Additionally, to support Spring Point’s global expansion strategy, SoftDesign built Fabric, an Internal Developer Platform.
AI-augmented development teams
By integrating Artificial Intelligence into SoftDesign’s software development lifecycle (SDLC), the modernization process became even faster. Code generation efforts were reduced by up to 90%, significantly accelerating the delivery of the new system.
In this AI-augmented legacy system modernization project, Artificial Intelligence was used to:
- Transform Visual Basic code into .NET Core;
- Generate automated tests, improving code quality and test coverage;
- Support project documentation, making business rules easier to understand.
As a result, the AI-powered development service reduced the lead time for new features from four days to two.
AI also translated parts of the codebase for Spring Point, improving client understanding from an end-user perspective.
Osmar Pedrozo, CEO of SoftDesign, says: “AI alone is not enough: it simplifies legacy code understanding and accelerates product conversion, but the expertise and technical skills of the team are essential. AI has become indispensable in projects like this – a powerful tool, but not one that works alone. That’s the care we bring at SoftDesign with AI-augmented services: blending deep technical expertise with Artificial Intelligence.”
The tools SoftDesign uses give us confidence that we are making the right decisions.”
– Troy D. Locke
A nearshore advantage
Spring Point had a negative offshore experience years ago. The time zone gap delayed the project and made communication difficult — teams exchanged emails on alternating days and struggled to schedule virtual meetings or calls.
SoftDesign’s nearshore approach, operating in a time zone closely aligned with Spring Point’s headquarters, proved to be a significant advantage. The company reports smooth collaboration between teams.
“Communication is easy. We’re online at the same time, constantly connected via Teams. This makes everything much simpler. There are no delays,” summarizes Troy D. Locke.
Additionally, cultural alignment creates what Troy calls “a great experience”:
“We really appreciate how SoftDesign challenges us. We understand our product and our clients, but they come to us saying: ‘Hey, have you thought about this?’ or ‘We’ve seen this work well elsewhere.’ That’s refreshing. It forces us to think about our product differently.”
Legacy modernization outcomes
The legacy system modernization of MotorBase is transforming it into a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution — easier to access, more intuitive to use, and offering greater autonomy for customers. This shift directly supports Spring Point’s strategic goal of global expansion.
The beta version of the new product is currently being tested by Spring Point’s three largest customers. The full SaaS version of MotorBase will launch in 2025 with a completely redesigned interface and improved navigation.
While MotorBase always offered robust features, its outdated technology and complex navigation no longer reflected its potential. This modernization prioritized streamlined operations and process improvements, helping users interact with the system more efficiently and intuitively.
The SaaS launch marks just the beginning of MotorBase’s new chapter. Spring Point and SoftDesign are already building the product’s enhancement roadmap. Planned features include the integration of Artificial Intelligence to answer user questions and suggest relevant information without requiring assistance from the support team.
I see this partnership as long-term. SoftDesign is who we turn to for guidance, continuous development, and new ideas. We know we can reach out and ask, ‘Hey, how can we make this happen?’”
– Troy D. Locke, CEO and Co-founder of Spring Point Solutions
At SoftDesign, we believe that innovation and digital transformation should be seamless. Interested in exploring how we can accelerate your digital journey? Let’s talk. We are passionate about crafting solutions that deliver results.