The Challenge
Vertex Engineering Group is a civil and structural engineering firm with 200 employees across four offices. They had been using BambooHR at $12 per employee per month, plus add-ons for performance management and time tracking, totaling approximately $6,200 per month.
BambooHR worked well enough for basic employee records, but the firm's HR needs were more complex than what a general-purpose platform could handle. Their PTO policy varied by employee tenure, office location, and project assignment. Engineers on billable projects accrued PTO differently than administrative staff. Some senior engineers had negotiated custom PTO arrangements that had to be tracked manually outside the system.
Performance reviews followed a dual-track system where engineers were evaluated on both technical competency and project delivery metrics. BambooHR's review templates could not accommodate this structure without significant compromise. The HR team maintained separate spreadsheets to track technical certifications, professional licensure, and continuing education requirements — all critical in a regulated engineering practice.
Project staffing was another pain point. When a new project came in, managers needed to find engineers with specific certifications, availability, and relevant experience. This information was scattered across BambooHR profiles, project management tools, and the licensing spreadsheets.
The Solution
SaaSAway built a custom HR platform centered around the specific needs of a professional services firm with complex staffing and compliance requirements.
The employee management module included all standard HR record-keeping plus engineering-specific fields: professional licenses with expiration dates, technical certifications, project history, and specialization areas. Automated alerts notified both employees and HR when certifications or licenses were approaching renewal deadlines.
The PTO engine was built to handle Vertex's layered accrual policies. Rules could be defined per employee group based on tenure, location, role type, and project status. Individual override policies for senior engineers were supported natively. Employees could view their real-time PTO balance, submit requests, and see their team's availability calendar from a single dashboard.
The performance review module implemented the dual-track evaluation system with customizable review templates. Technical competency assessments were linked to certification data, while project delivery metrics pulled from the firm's existing project management system. Review cycles could be configured per department with automated reminders and deadline tracking.
A staffing search tool let project managers find available engineers by filtering on certifications, experience, location, and current project commitments. This feature alone consolidated three separate tools into one searchable interface.
The Results
The custom HR platform was delivered in six weeks and deployed with full data migration from BambooHR. Employee self-service features were launched first, followed by manager and HR admin tools in a phased rollout over two weeks.
Monthly costs dropped from $6,200 to approximately $400 in cloud hosting — a savings of $5,800 per month or nearly $70,000 per year. The one-time build cost was recovered in less than six months.
The HR team eliminated four separate spreadsheets that had been tracking certifications, custom PTO policies, review schedules, and staffing availability. License renewal compliance improved from approximately 85 percent on-time to 99 percent with automated tracking and alerts.
Project managers reported that staffing searches — previously a multi-hour process involving emails and phone calls — now took under five minutes. The dual-track performance review system received positive feedback from both engineering staff and management for accurately reflecting how engineers contribute value to the firm.
Vertex has since added a training and continuing education module that tracks required coursework, integrates with online learning platforms, and automatically updates certification records upon course completion.