Success story
From legacy modernization to AI-driven enterprise integration
Modernized 80+ legacy apps, established the first AI co-pilot, unified UI/UX, and achieved 100% on-time delivery across all modernization projects
- Technologies:
AI co-pilot, AQA, CI/CD
- Industry:
Health & Fitness
- Platform:
Web
- Timeline:
4+ years
Legacy Modernization & AI Integration Success — this case study shows how Dfuture partnered with Trustmark to modernize legacy systems and implement AI-driven solutions across the enterprise. How a four-year collaboration evolved from a single app integration into a company-wide modernization partnership, unifying systems, introducing AI co-pilots, and setting the foundation for enterprise-wide cohesion.
Key outcomes
100%
on-time delivery across all modernization projects
80+
legacy apps migrated or upgraded from IBM/Struts stacks
First AI co-pilot and AI-driven QA frameworks established at Trustmark
A unified UI/UX architecture is planned for the HealthFitness 360 ecosystem
Advanced to Tier 2 partner with Tier 1 engagement under possible discussion for 2026
Background & business context
For over a century, Trustmark has helped businesses fulfill their promises to employees through comprehensive benefits, wellness, and financial protection programs. Recognized with an A (Excellent) rating for Insurer Financial Strength by A.M. Best (April 2025), the company is known for striking a balance between care, innovation, and long-term stability.
Our collaboration began when Trustmark acquired our FitReserve fitness platform as part of its HealthFitness initiative. The goal is to connect wellness and benefits data to enhance workforce engagement and productivity. What started as a single system integration evolved into a strategic partnership spanning modernization, AI enablement, and enterprise-wide UX unification.
From FitReserve to long-term partnership
The first engagement focused on integrating FitReserve into Trustmark’s internal systems — the challenge was in diverse coding languages used within FitReserve and other HealthFitness apps. Through disciplined engineering and transparent delivery, we ensured interoperability, stability, and scalability without disrupting operations.
The success of this integration enabled us to gain operational control of the HealthFitness 360 ecosystem, where we continued to enhance performance and security. When Trustmark sold the FitReserve asset to eGym (Germany), our mature documentation and reliability enabled a seamless handoff — proof that disciplined modernization creates business value beyond code.
That outcome solidified a new level of trust. Over time, we became not just vendors, but partners responsible for critical modernization initiatives across Trustmark’s engineering landscape.
Legacy modernization and vulnerability upgrades
Our next mission was to tackle Trustmark’s legacy systems—a portfolio of aging IBM and Struts-based applications vulnerable to security and performance risks.
Starting small, we successfully completed a vulnerability upgrade ahead of schedule. That pilot opened the door to a complete modernization program — one we won against IBM itself and a 20,000-person Latin American engineering firm.
We won through clarity, not scale. Our proposal offered fixed pricing, predictable milestones, and feasibility grounded in data. Over several quarters, we migrated and modernized two batches of over 40 apps each.
Teams across Trustmark reported faster performance, simplified governance, and renewed confidence in their modernization roadmap.
This success naturally evolved into a deeper partnership focused on accelerating engineering and enabling AI.
AI co-pilot implementation and knowledge transfer
By the beginning of 2025, Trustmark’s leadership sought to integrate AI copilots into its development workflows — but without transparent governance, adoption risked inconsistency and data exposure.
Drawing on our three years of internal R&D in AI-assisted code generation, we partnered with Trustmark to design and deploy their first co-pilot environment, establishing guardrails and measurable impact indicators.
We implemented:
- AI governance and acceptable-use frameworks
- Repository-level integration with version control and CI/CD tools
- Metrics for measuring code quality and delivery speed
Delivered pro bono, this initiative introduced a scalable, responsible model for AI adoption. Within months, developers reported tangible improvements in velocity and review efficiency. More importantly, AI became an enhancer of engineering excellence — not a threat to it.
Unified front-end architecture
When Trustmark began replacing in-house wellness platforms with third-party tools, a new challenge appeared: fragmentation. Different systems meant inconsistent experiences for employees and administrators alike.
Trustmark asked if we could rebuild unity without dismantling what worked. We proposed a unified front-end architecture — a flexible “experience layer” that restored cohesion across HR, health, and benefits platforms.
This design restored visibility and usability, creating a single intuitive interface without disrupting backend systems. The success of this project prompted Trustmark to extend the same architectural concept across the entire organization, transforming a tactical UX problem into a strategic unification initiative that continues to evolve today.
Automated quality assurance (AQA)
As Trustmark’s understanding of automation and AI capabilities grew, AQA became a cornerstone requirement for every technical project. We were among the first to coherently integrate automation and AI-driven AQA frameworks into project planning and execution. By dynamically generating and maintaining test cases through AI, the system achieved 80-90% automation coverage, drastically reducing manual testing hours and regression cycles.
Integrated into Trustmark’s CI/CD pipelines, AQA provided real-time feedback, faster releases, and greater reliability. For Trustmark’s engineering teams, testing became a catalyst for continuous improvement, turning a bottleneck into a strength.
Future outlook
Our ongoing collaboration with Trustmark focuses on:
- Completing the corporate-wide unified UI/UX framework
- Expanding AQA automation across engineering pipelines
- Developing AI-driven observability tools for proactive incident prevention
The shared vision remains clear: to make modernization seamless, secure, and human-centered — where innovation amplifies wellbeing across every digital touchpoint.
| Category | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Delivery Performance | 100% on-time delivery across 4 years |
| Legacy Modernization | 80+ IBM/Struts applications migrated or upgraded |
| AI Enablement | First AI co-pilot and QA frameworks implemented |
| UX Consolidation | Unified interface for HR, health, and benefits systems |
| Vendor Trust | Advanced to Tier 2, Tier 1 pending for 2026 |
Performance snapshot
Reflective insight
Our experience with Trustmark reaffirmed a core belief: enterprise transformation isn’t about chasing innovation — it’s about earning trust through predictable, disciplined progress.
Technology changes fast; relationships built on reliability endure.