From a rigid SaaS solution to a job portal of its own

The previous SaaS solution made that almost impossible. Custom products, regional specifics or new ideas for applicants and companies ran up against the vendor's limits.

The custom Laravel build was already well advanced when we joined in autumn 2025. Our task: take over the platform, finish it and take it live safely, without losing any employers, job listings or applicant profiles along the way.

Guests want to find jobs without hurdles, applicants want to maintain their profile and apply in a few clicks, and companies want to post listings, manage applications and present themselves as employers. Each of these journeys had to work simply, on a smartphone just as on a desktop.

After the takeover we stabilised the platform, prioritised the open items up to go-live and prepared the migration. Since then we have been developing the portal in short cycles, in close coordination with the operator.

We transferred employers, job listings, applicant profiles, applications and orders via the API of the previous system, saved images and documents locally and geocoded company locations automatically. The final switch-over ran in a short maintenance window so that the last changes in the legacy system were captured too.

Job search runs on Meilisearch: fast filters by town, district, working hours and occupational field, typo-tolerant and with no waiting time. It is complemented by a semantic search via the OpenAI API, which also finds suitable jobs when the search term and job title do not match word for word.

Companies book listing packages, company profiles and access to the applicant pool through a redesigned checkout, manage applications in their own area and invite colleagues to their company account. Larger employers deliver their jobs automatically from their HR systems via an XML interface.

Applicants have suitable jobs sent to them via the job radar, with double opt-in and even without an account. In the Worklife magazine, companies from the region tell their stories; the editorial team maintains the content in Statamic and the platform serves it directly.

In the Filament back end, the operator manages employers, products and orders, controls the XML imports and sees the key figures at a glance. With impersonation, they see the portal exactly as a customer does, so support requests are resolved in minutes rather than hours.

The switch from the SaaS system is complete and all data has been transferred. New products, prices and features now appear when the operator needs them, not when a vendor eventually puts them on its roadmap.

With the new design, the revised mobile application process and the new checkout, the portal has become simpler for every audience: applicants get to their application faster, and companies get to a booked listing faster.

Since the takeover we have supported unterland.jobs as its technical partner, from idea to implementation to operation. We assess new requirements together in terms of effort and benefit, so that every enhancement also makes economic sense.