An integrated digital, technology and marketing partnership
Product Design, Website design, API and application development, ongoing maintenance and marketing support.
CLIENT CASE STUDY
Harrison Holgate
A long term partnership covering API work, onsite and digital tech support, iOS and Android app development, and IT maintenance.
The Case Study in Brief
Harrison Holgate is a specialist recruitment business operating within the insurance and financial services sectors. Keystone Foundry has worked with the company across a broad range of digital, technical and marketing requirements, providing everything from bespoke software development and mobile applications through to day-to-day IT support and creative services.
Rather than treating each requirement as a standalone project, our work with Harrison Holgate has developed into an ongoing technology partnership.
We understand how their business operates, how their consultants work, how candidates interact with the company and how the various systems behind the scenes need to communicate with one another. That allows us to provide practical, joined-up solutions rather than simply supplying individual pieces of technology
The Idea
A recruitment website built around their ATS
At the heart of Harrison Holgate’s digital presence is a bespoke recruitment website integrated directly with their ATS.
Rather than maintaining a separate website database of vacancies, candidate information and applications, the website communicates with the ATS through its API.
This allows the website to become an extension of the recruitment team’s existing systems.
Jobs entered and managed by Harrison Holgate’s consultants can be presented through the public website, while candidate interactions can be fed back into the systems the team already uses internally.
This integration reduces duplication, keeps information consistent and gives consultants a single operational workflow rather than creating another platform they have to administer.
From a candidate’s perspective, the technology remains largely invisible. They can search vacancies, view roles and interact with Harrison Holgate through a modern website, while the underlying integration ensures that activity is connected with the recruitment infrastructure behind it.
It is a good example of the type of work Keystone Foundry specialises in: taking established business systems and building the technology required to make them work together effectively.
1/ Product Design
Candidate job alerts
Alongside the main recruitment platform, we developed a bespoke job alerts system designed to maintain engagement with candidates after their initial visit. Candidates can register their areas of interest and receive relevant opportunities as new vacancies become available.
Rather than expecting candidates to repeatedly return to the website and perform the same searches, the system allows Harrison Holgate to proactively reconnect with people when suitable roles are added.
For a recruitment business, this has value on both sides of the relationship. Candidates receive useful, relevant opportunities, while consultants gain another mechanism for reaching an existing audience of people who have already demonstrated an interest in particular types of roles.
Because the system forms part of the wider website and ATS infrastructure, it can be developed around Harrison Holgate’s actual recruitment processes rather than being constrained by an off-the-shelf mailing platform.
2/ Application and Ongoing Development
iOS and Android app development
Our work with Harrison Holgate extends beyond the traditional website.
Keystone Foundry has designed and developed mobile applications for both Apple iOS and Android, giving candidates another way to interact with Harrison Holgate and access recruitment opportunities.
Building a mobile application is considerably more involved than reproducing a website inside an app.
The project involves the user experience itself, communication with backend systems and APIs, authentication and data handling, mobile-specific functionality, testing across platforms and the practical process of preparing and maintaining software for Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
By handling the complete development process, Keystone Foundry is able to maintain consistency between Harrison Holgate’s website, mobile applications and underlying recruitment technology.
New Ideas Considered Collectively, not in Isolation
A feature introduced to the recruitment platform can be considered across the website, API and mobile applications as part of the same wider ecosystem.
Ongoing development rather than one-off delivery
Digital platforms rarely remain static.
Recruitment processes change. Candidate expectations change. Third-party APIs evolve. New marketing requirements emerge and internal teams find new ways they would like their systems to work.
Our relationship with Harrison Holgate therefore continues beyond the initial development and launch of individual systems.
We provide ongoing technical development, troubleshooting and improvements as requirements emerge.
Because we already understand the architecture and the business processes behind it, Harrison Holgate does not have to repeatedly brief different suppliers whenever something needs to change.
That continuity is particularly valuable when several systems are involved.
If a requirement touches the website, ATS integration, database, email delivery and mobile applications, we can look at the complete chain rather than treating each component as someone else’s responsibility.
3/ Maintenance and Support
Full remote and onsite IT support
Keystone Foundry also provides Harrison Holgate with day-to-day IT support.
That includes both remote support and onsite assistance, allowing us to deal with everything from individual user problems through to wider technical and infrastructure requirements.
For a modern recruitment company, reliable technology is fundamental to the working day. Consultants depend heavily on email, cloud services, recruitment software, communications systems, laptops, mobile devices and access to business data.
When something stops working, the commercial impact can be immediate.
Our role is therefore not simply to maintain servers or respond to isolated support tickets. We act as a practical technology resource for the business.
Users can ask for help when something is not behaving as expected, while management can involve us when considering wider technical decisions or changes.
Because the same team understands both Harrison Holgate’s internal IT and the bespoke platforms we have developed for them, problems can also be investigated across the usual boundaries between “IT support” and “software development”.
That can be extremely valuable when the cause of an issue is not immediately obvious
Technology that supports the business
One of the principles behind our work with Harrison Holgate is that technology should support the way the business operates rather than forcing the business to work around the technology.
Where an established platform such as ATS already performs an important role, our job is not necessarily to replace it.
Instead, we can use APIs and bespoke development to extend it, integrate it and create better experiences around it.
Where a new capability is required, such as mobile applications or candidate job alerts, we can build it.
Where the requirement is operational rather than developmental, our IT support services provide continuity.
And where the objective is commercial or marketing-led, we can contribute the creative work and strategic thinking required to bring the entire project together.
4/ Marketing Support
Marketing and creative support
Technology forms a major part of the relationship, but our work with Harrison Holgate also covers their wider marketing activity.
This can include digital and printed artwork, campaign assets, social media graphics, branded materials and other creative
requirements as they arise.
We also provide marketing consultancy, helping Harrison Holgate consider not just how something should look, but what they are trying to communicate, who they are trying to reach and how different channels can support one another.
Having development and marketing handled as part of the same relationship has practical advantages.
A campaign may require new website content, a landing page, changes to a form, tracking, artwork and supporting digital material.
Rather than those elements being commissioned independently, they can be considered as parts of the same objective.
Case Study Outcomes
One technology partner, multiple disciplines
The Harrison Holgate relationship demonstrates the breadth of what Keystone Foundry can provide.
Our work includes:
| • Bespoke website design and development • Automated vacancy integration • Candidate registration and application workflows • Bespoke candidate job alerts | • Backend and API development • iOS application development • Android application development • App Store and Google | • Play deployment support • Ongoing software development and maintenance • Remote IT support • Onsite IT support | • Technical troubleshooting and consultancy • Marketing strategy and consultancy • Graphic design and artwork • Digital marketing assets and campaign support |
Building Understanding, not Confusion
For Harrison Holgate, that means fewer boundaries between suppliers and a technology partner with a detailed understanding of the organisation.
For Keystone Foundry, it represents exactly the type of relationship we aim to build: long-term, practical and commercially focused, combining technology, creativity and support to help a client operate more effectively and continue developing their business.
