Case study · StaffChecks Ltd
A screening portal, live on the promised Monday.
StaffChecks has run background checks for New Zealand employers since 1997. They had a new client portal built and a fixed date to move every client onto it. We reviewed it, secured it, redesigned its screens and ran the switch.
- Client
- StaffChecks Ltd
- Sector
- Pre-employment screening, NZ
- Our part
- Review, security, redesign, go-live
- Live
- 5 October 2026
You won’t see Isaac’s work on our website, but the backend he built is a work of art.
The portal is the business.
Employers order checks through it. Candidates’ consent forms and identity documents arrive through it. Staff process every job in it and the final report goes back out of it. If it is down, or wrong, the business stops.
A new portal had already been built to replace the old one. What StaffChecks needed was someone to make sure it was safe to trust with that much personal information, finish it to the standard their clients expect, and move everyone across on a date that had already been announced.
No failed launch. No second attempt. No surprises on Monday morning.
What every portal client asks for.
Order quickly. Know where things are up to. Hand over documents without email attachments. Control who sees what. Every screen in the portal was redesigned around those four things.
Place a request in a few guided steps.
A short, guided flow with prices and turnaround shown up front, so the usual request takes a minute and nothing half-finished is lost.
Know where everything is up to.
Every request carries a plain-English status and a dashboard sums up the whole account, so clients can check progress without picking up the phone.
Paperwork handled in one place.
Forms and supporting documents go straight onto the request they belong to, instead of travelling around as email attachments.
The right people see the right things.
Each client team has roles, so the people who manage the account, the people who do the work and the people who only need to read are kept apart.
Sensitive information treated as sensitive.
Stronger sign-in for every client account, tighter rules about who can reach what, and internal information that never leaves the server.
One console for the team running it.
Staff see the day’s workload and every client’s record in one place, and can step in to help a client with every action logged.
Boring on the night, on purpose.
- 01
Review before changing anything
We read the whole platform first and wrote a go-live assurance report: every table, every user role and every server function checked, with a findings register StaffChecks could follow line by line.
- 02
Go-live conditions in the contract
Eleven gates went into the Statement of Work. "Ready" stopped being an opinion and became a list both sides could tick.
- 03
A test site for everything
Every change was built, tested and reviewed on a separate test site with sample data. Nothing reached the live portal until it had passed there first.
- 04
Security, then polish
Two-step sign-in, tighter rules on who can read what, sign-in limits, logging and audit trails. Then twelve design rounds across every portal screen, keeping the StaffChecks colours and logo.
- 05
Rehearse the switch
On the Friday morning we ran the whole switch against a copy of the database. It took fifty minutes and caught an ordering problem that would have stopped the real one that evening.
- 06
One window, then Monday
One switch on Friday evening, a weekend for the StaffChecks team to settle in, a Sunday trial with a small friendly group, then every client invited on Monday at 7 am.
- days from signed contract to live
- 26
- gates agreed before go-live
- 11
- rounds of design across the portal
- 12
- tests passing on launch day
- 975+
- failed activation emails on launch morning
- 0
Engaging Isaac Vicliph of Tally Digital to rebuild our client portal is one of the best decisions StaffChecks Ltd has made in nearly thirty years of business. The portal sits behind the scenes and manages our entire background screening process and every client interaction. You won’t see Isaac’s work on our website, but the backend he has built is a work of art.
This was a major rebuild of a complex database, and Isaac turned what could have been a daunting process into a genuine pleasure to be part of.
From day one, his daily updates in Notion kept us informed at every step, so we were never left wondering where things stood. Every query, change request and refinement was handled promptly, thoughtfully and without fuss. His depth of knowledge in building, preparing and instrumenting a production go-live is obvious, but it is his calm, deliberate manner that truly sets him apart.
Isaac worked days, nights and weekends to make sure our launch date was met, and he never once lost his composure or his courtesy. We could call it five-star service, but that undersells it. I recommend Isaac and Tally Digital without reservation.
Since launch
The portal is live at StaffChecks and we look after it. Requests go to the test site first, get reviewed, then go live, the same way the launch did.
Built with
- TanStack Start
- React
- TypeScript
- Supabase (Postgres)
- Tailwind CSS
- Resend
Have a launch date you cannot miss?
Tell us what has to be live and by when. We will tell you plainly what it takes to get there.
Free 30-minute call. No pitch. Fixed quote within 48 hours.