Re-Envisioning the IT Landscape of a
Global Recruiter
How we helped a global recruitment firm navigate a complex technology landscape, and build a clear, evidence-based strategy for transformation
Fast-growing businesses face a common technology challenge: the systems that served them well at one stage of their development can struggle to keep pace as complexity increases. For the French branch of a global recruitment firm, that challenge had become acute. An estate of fifteen systems, many of them integrated over time to meet specific operational needs, was placing pressure on the payroll function, data integrity, and cyber security posture of the business.
Recognising that the situation needed an independent, structured assessment, the firm engaged Cambridge Management Consulting to evaluate the current landscape honestly, quantify the risks, and define a coherent path forward.
The firm had the ambition to transform. Our role was to give them the evidence and the roadmap to do it with confidence.
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The
Challenge
Our starting point was a thorough audit of the current environment, to develop an objective view of the full landscape and give the firm's leadership the evidence they needed to act decisively.
The payroll function was under significant pressure. The core platform experienced regular instability during the six-day month-end close period, and batch accounting integrations could take up to eight hours to complete. Multiple payroll incidents were occurring every month, a pattern the team was managing with considerable skill, but one that carried growing operational and financial risk.
Data integrity presented a further challenge. With recruitment information flowing across multiple systems, re-keying was common and the opportunity for error was significant.
The firm recognised the need for change and was committed to getting it right. What it needed was a structured, independent view of the landscape and a clear plan to realise a solution.
Our
Approach
Our role was to bring independent rigour to a complex challenge — and give the business a plan it could act on with confidence.
We designed and delivered a Diagnostic Discovery Work Package — structured to give the firm's leadership an independent, evidence-based assessment they could act on and present with confidence.
We conducted stakeholder interviews and process mapping sessions across France, the UK, and Barcelona, building a picture of end-to-end workflows and capturing the operational expertise that existed across the team. We assessed every system in the estate against a structured Maturity Rubric, rating each against a defined scale from reactive and manual through to cloud-native and strategically integrated.
From that foundation, we identified critical workflows — what we call the Golden Path — that any replacement system would need to support. Standard assignment creation, rate changes, and others. These became the design brief for the vendor evaluation that followed: a weighted RFI framework, calibrated specifically to the demands of the French regulatory environment.
Outcomes & Results
We helped a global recruitment firm move from a complex, pressured technology landscape to a clear strategy for transformation, with the evidence, the roadmap, and the governance design to back it up.
The firm entered the engagement knowing change was needed. It left with the independent analysis, the quantified risk picture, and the structured plan to make that change with clarity and conviction.
Working in close partnership with the firm's leadership, our engagement delivered three interconnected areas of value.
1
A Clear & Shared Understanding of the Current Landscape
Leadership had a complete, structured view of the technology estate — what it comprised, what it was costing operationally, and where the most material risks lay. That view was independent, evidence-based, and ready to present to a Risk Committee.
2
A Quantified Foundation for Decision Making
We translated complex operational challenges into specific, measurable terms — error volumes, incident frequencies, compliance gaps, and cyber vulnerabilities assessed by severity. This gave the firm's leadership the evidence base to make investment decisions with confidence, and to build a compelling case for change internally.
3
A Prioritised Roadmap for Transformation
We delivered a structured remediation plan, not just a list of findings. Immediate actions were scoped within a four-week window. The medium-term transformation was anchored in a clear recommendation: move to a cloud-native, end-to-end platform already built for the French labour market, consolidate legacy point-solutions to reduce risk and complexity, and embed the governance to sustain progress over time.
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