Straight answers — no sales fog.
Why custom — why not an off-the-shelf ATS or SaaS?
Rented software makes you bend to it, charges per seat forever, and parks your data on someone else's servers. A custom system is shaped to how your team actually works, runs on the Microsoft 365 you already pay for, and is yours.
Do I actually own it?
Yes. It lives inside your own Microsoft 365 / SharePoint — no per-seat licence to me, no lock-in. If we ever stop working together, the system and all the data stay with you.
What if I want to switch later? Won't I be locked in?
Opposite of SaaS lock-in by design. You own the source code, the schema, the documentation and all your data — on day one, in your own repository and your own Microsoft 365 tenant. If we stop working together tomorrow, the system keeps running and another developer can pick it up cold from the docs.
Compare to Bullhorn / Vincere / generic ATS: your data lives on their servers, the export format is proprietary, your workflows are shaped to their UI, and per-seat fees compound for years. Migration off costs €20-50k and 6 months of chaos — which is why almost no firm ever leaves once they're on.
Custom on your own M365 is the opposite trade-off: more upfront work, zero lock-in afterwards.
Honest comparison → How does pricing work?
Fixed price for fixed scope, agreed before anything starts — then an optional monthly Care plan for hosting, support and improvements. I don't sell hours; I sell the outcome. No surprises, and you deal directly with the person who builds it.
Why does it cost €15k+ when it looks like “a SharePoint list”?
Because you're not paying for the code. You're paying for the work around it: understanding how your team actually works (not how you think they work), shaping the system so it doesn't break when a real recruiter uses it on a Tuesday afternoon, integrating with the email, document and calendar flows your team already lives in, the IT consent dance, the data migration nobody warned you about, the testing that catches the edge case before the client does, the documentation another developer can pick up cold, the post-launch support when someone's first instinct is to break it.
The code itself is maybe a third of the price. The rest is the experience that makes the code not be the wrong code. The cheapest quote you'll get is from someone who only counted the typing.
Is our data — and our candidates' data — safe?
It stays inside your own tenant, under the security and compliance you already have — nothing is copied out to a third-party SaaS. Built GDPR-aware from the start.
How many candidates can the system actually handle?
Three tiers, depending on your size:
Up to ~30,000 records — SharePoint-native, comfortable, fast. The default build pattern (Vorentis runs 25,000+ smoothly).
30,000–100,000 records — Hybrid setup. SharePoint stays for workflow and UX, a Swiss-hosted PostgreSQL layer handles candidate search and document index. Same look-and-feel, more horsepower underneath.
100,000+ records — Full custom platform: Swiss-hosted PostgreSQL as the source of truth, M365 as the workflow + UX layer, semantic search and analytics built in. Different scope (€35–80k+), different timeline (3–5 months) — and an honest "do you actually need custom?" conversation, because at that scale Bullhorn or Vincere might serve you better if you're happy locking into a SaaS.
What if you get hit by a bus?
Fair question with any solo consultant. Three things protect you:
Full documentation, delivered with the system. From day one you get the complete source code, schema, integration notes, deployment guide and runbook — everything another developer needs to take over cold. It lives in your own repository, not mine.
Your system lives in your own Microsoft 365 tenant — not on my server. If I disappear, your system keeps running. No vendor lock-in, no service that goes dark.
For 30+ day unavailability your contract includes a clean termination option with no penalty, and I maintain working relationships with peer M365 developers who can step in for Care continuity if needed.
Bus factor is real for any solo practice. The answer is code escrow from day one, full documentation that another developer can actually use, and a documented handoff path baked into the contract — not pretending the risk doesn't exist.
We just have spreadsheets and a half-working setup. Worth changing?
That's the usual starting point — and the usual first project. The first step is deliberately small and fixed-price: turn today's chaos into one working system in weeks, so your team places more and hunts less.
What about all the old CVs we already have?
We extract them — PDFs, Word, scans, and ZIP exports from old ATSes — into structured, searchable records inside your CRM. A 20,000-CV archive typically runs in 3 to 5 days. Can be a standalone project or bundled into a CRM build. See
Archive Unlock.
How long until we see something?
A useful first version in weeks, not months — delivered in steps you can see and approve, not one big reveal at the end.
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