Proposal — Prepared for Direct Supply, Inc.

Engineering judgment.
AI acceleration.

Modernizing legacy systems with experienced engineers.

Prepared For
Shalini & the Platform Architecture Team
Prepared By
Connective Consulting
Engagement
2 Engineers · 2-Month Pilot
What We Heard

The monolith is ready to come apart — carefully, and by people who've done it before.

Direct Supply is ready to begin breaking up a legacy VB6 / ConfigMan codebase — full of tangled object references — into containerized services that can eventually run on Linux inside an orchestrator, each deployable on its own.

The Technical Picture

  • Legacy VB6 and ConfigMan components with deeply intertwined object references
  • Target state: containerized, individually deployable services running in an orchestrator
  • Migration path from Windows containers toward Linux
  • .NET backend, with DevOps and CI/CD pipeline work in scope
  • Observability moving from New Relic to Dynatrace
  • Some Angular-to-React conversion is possible, but not a hard requirement

What Success Requires

  • Engineers comfortable navigating unfamiliar legacy code without leaning on AI as a crutch
  • Senior-level judgment — roughly 9+ years of experience preferred
  • Comfort working alongside an existing platform architect and domain dev leads
  • AI tooling is expected and encouraged, paired with the judgment to know when not to use it
  • A 2-month pilot structure to prove ROI before Direct Supply commits further
Why Connective

Engineers matched for fit, not just résumé keywords.

Direct Supply doesn't need more hands typing code against a legacy system nobody understands. It needs engineers who genuinely want to untangle it, who've done comparable modernization work, and who will partner well with the architecture team already in place.

01

Legacy-first engineers

Both engineers on this proposal have hands-on experience decomposing legacy .NET / Angular systems into modern, modular architectures — not just building greenfield apps.

02

AI as a tool, not a crutch

Our engineers use AI to accelerate documentation, diagramming, and delivery — but bring the judgment to work through genuinely unfamiliar legacy code on their own when it counts.

03

Built to prove itself

A 2-month pilot gives Direct Supply a low-risk way to validate fit and ROI before scaling the modernization effort further.

The Approach

Two embedded senior engineers, aligned to your architecture — not around it.

We recommend a focused staff augmentation engagement: two senior engineers embedded directly with your platform architecture team for the first phase of monolith decomposition.

Recommended Engagement

Legacy Modernization Pilot — Staff Augmentation

Two senior engineers work embedded with your platform architect and domain leads to begin decomposing the VB6 / ConfigMan monolith into containerized, independently deployable .NET services — with an eye toward Linux migration and improved observability.

Partner directly with your platform architect and domain leads on every decomposition decision
Document and diagram existing object-reference dependencies before extracting each module
Validate each extracted service independently before moving to the next
Establish repeatable patterns your own team can continue after the pilot
Use AI to accelerate documentation and pipeline work — while applying judgment to the legacy code itself
Deliver a prioritized roadmap for scaling the effort beyond the pilot
The Team
Senior Software Engineer

Austin Patterson

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Senior software engineer and certified Scrum Master with four years building and modernizing enterprise .NET and Angular applications. Currently engineering on a mission-critical public-safety platform; previously led a .NET Framework 4 → .NET 8 modernization and incrementally rewrote legacy ASP.NET / Knockout.js web forms into a modern Angular + .NET Web API architecture.

.NET / .NET CoreAngularEntity Framework Azure DevOpsSQL ServerLegacy Modernization
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Senior Software Engineer

Travis Detert

Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin

Senior software engineer with 20+ years across full-stack development, enterprise integration, and DevOps. Currently supporting a migration from an on-premise enterprise solution to a cloud-based, real-time platform. Deep experience owning difficult, multi-vendor modernization problems and applying AI-accelerated documentation to complex legacy environments.

Legacy ModernizationCloud MigrationDevOps / CI/CD Enterprise IntegrationAI-Accelerated DeliveryInfrastructure-as-Code
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Investment

A low-risk pilot — priced to prove itself.

This is a time-and-materials staff augmentation engagement covering two senior engineers for a two-month pilot. The rate reflects senior-level (9+ years equivalent) legacy modernization expertise, embedded directly with your team.

Following the pilot, Connective will work with Direct Supply to define next steps — whether that's extending the engagement, scaling the team, or transitioning ownership internally.

Rate per engineer$153/hr
Engineers2
Duration2 months
Total Pilot Investment
$107,712
Time & materials · billed per Direct Supply's standard Service Agreement terms.
Next Steps

Ready to move quickly, on your timeline.

01

Arrange intro calls

Schedule short conversations between each engineer and Shalini's platform architect to confirm project fit and mutual interest.

02

Finalize terms

Confirm the SOW and pilot terms so both engineers can be scheduled without delay.

03

Set a kickoff date

Lock a start date and begin Week 1 onboarding and architecture immersion.