A specialist IT recruitment agency with 30 consultants and 15 years in business had outgrown its technology.
Two independent databases held the firm’s corporate memory: one captured candidate journeys, the other tracked client interactions and fee notes.
Each platform had been customized in its own way, which meant routine tasks like updating a placement status, reconciling fee terms, even finding a résumé, required jumping between screens, copy-pasting IDs, and praying that both records matched.
As the agency’s market share expanded, those cracks widened.
Duplicate candidates crept in; reporting cycles stretched from hours to days; new hires needed weeks to learn “the dance” between systems. Leadership agreed on a single directive: move everything into Bullhorn ATS but do it without stalling recruiters or losing historical context. They engaged Newbury Partners to deliver that outcome.
The Challenge
The brief sounded simple— “put our data in Bullhorn”—but the nuance was anything but:
- Fifteen Years of Mixed Data – CSV exports, bespoke text fields, and free-form notes had evolved differently in each legacy database.
- Live Business Pressure – Dozens of open requisitions and daily submissions left no room for a system blackout.
- Workflow Rigor – The firm’s consultants relied on tightly defined stages (shortlist → tech screen → client submittal → offer) that wouldn’t survive a vanilla, out-of-the-box Bullhorn install.
- Change Fatigue – Recruiters were skeptical after previous “big-bang” rollouts that created more admin before any payoff.
Newbury Partners’ challenge was safeguarding productivity and morale from day one.
The Solution
Before touching a single line of data, we convened a discovery sprint:
- One-to-one sessions with recruiters
- Desk leads
- Finance to map every field that truly mattered—rate cards, tiered fee rules, GDPR consent dates, test-score attachments
That field dictionary became the blueprint for all downstream work.
A sample migration followed. 2% of records were cloned into a sandbox Bullhorn instance so recruiters could stress-test search, reporting, and workflow triggers.
Feedback loops happened in real time: “This flag should be numeric, not text.” “These two status values should merge.”
By week’s end, the entire project team shared a common language and an agreed-upon data architecture.
The Impact
- Clean, Accessible Data: The unified Bullhorn system eliminated duplication and reduced post-launch cleanup. Recruiters could finally rely on one source of truth for every candidate and client.
- Smarter Decisions, Faster: Custom Canvas reports gave leaders real-time insights into performance—helping them act on opportunities and guide the business more strategically.
- Zero Disruption: Recruitment activities continued smoothly throughout the transition, thanks to Newbury’s responsive support and careful planning.
- Ready for Growth: With modern systems in place, Proactiv.IT now has the tech foundation to scale—without the friction of siloed platforms or outdated processes.
What the Client Said:
“Newbury Partners meticulously addressed everything from data deduplication to tailored solutions, ensuring a comprehensive approach to our project. Their guidance and unwavering support made our staff confident Bullhorn users in just two training sessions. We can’t recommend them highly enough—they’re consistently brilliant and always there when you need them.”
— Ruth Azzopardi, Senior Administrator, Proactiv.IT Appointments
Outcome
A data migration is less about software and more about stewardship, history, process, and consultant goodwill. By front-loading discovery, cleaning data before lift-and-shift, and embedding learning in live workflows, Newbury Partners turned a risky platform swap into a growth catalyst. Ready to modernize your stack without slowing placements? Let’s talk.
