For the last three years, Certn has been rebuilding its core platform from the ground up.
If I’m being honest, now that I’ve lived through it, replatforming can be one of the worst decisions a technology company can make.
It is expensive. It introduces enormous operational risk. While you’re doing it, your customers don’t see dramatic new features. Teams get stretched. Momentum can feel slower, not faster. And internally, you will question the decision more than once.
There are also countless things I would do differently if we started again tomorrow.
And yet, three years later, it’s finally paying off.
Why We Had to Do It
Background screening has a structural issue that most people outside the industry never fully appreciate. Very few providers operate on a truly unified global platform. Instead, what often exists is a patchwork of systems assembled over time; separate regional platforms, disconnected datasets, multiple integrations into different ATS or HRIS systems, and wildly inconsistent candidate experiences depending on geography.
For global employers, that fragmentation creates friction everywhere. Onboarding slows down. Reporting becomes complex. Compliance requires constant oversight. Even small process improvements require coordination across systems that were never designed to work seamlessly together.
From a distance, this can look like a straightforward engineering challenge: just integrate everything into one system.
But background screening doesn’t live in a simple regulatory environment. Our industry sits at the intersection of data residency laws, cross-border data transfer restrictions, GDPR, CCPA, and dozens of local privacy regimes.
Layer on top of that credit reporting regulations that vary significantly by jurisdiction. Certn operates as a regulated credit reporting agency in many countries, which means we’re not just managing best practices — we’re operating under legally enforceable frameworks that are audited and, in some cases, contradictory across borders.
Designing a single platform that can satisfy those requirements simultaneously is extraordinarily difficult. It requires architectural decisions that anticipate regulatory conflict before it happens. It demands discipline around data flows, storage, access controls, and auditability at a level that most software companies simply don’t encounter.
That complexity is why many providers never truly unify. They layer systems. They acquire capabilities. They connect platforms through APIs. But they rarely rebuild the foundation.
We chose to rebuild.
Why Replatforming Is So Painful
Replatforming forces you to invest heavily in infrastructure while delaying visible wins. During the process, your teams are solving deep architectural problems instead of shipping flashy features. Revenue doesn’t spike because you rewrote your backend. Customers don’t celebrate that you improved data lineage.
Internally, it tests patience. Engineers must maintain legacy systems while building new ones. Product teams must think years ahead instead of quarters. Commercial teams need to sell the long-term vision while operating on the present-day system.
It is, in many ways, a bet on your future self.
And it only makes sense if the existing architecture is fundamentally limiting what you can deliver.
What Changed With CertnCentric
In Q4, we launched CertnCentric — our rebuilt global platform. After several months of active usage, the impact is measurable.
The most important metric in background screening is turnaround time. Speed affects hiring velocity, candidate experience, and operational efficiency. On CertnCentric, we’ve seen turnaround times drop by more than 90% on certain checks.
That improvement wasn’t cosmetic. It came from structural change.
The new architecture allows for deeper automation that simply wasn’t possible in our legacy systems. Manual handoffs have been reduced significantly. Quality assurance cycles are faster and more consistent, which in turn reduces error rates.
The candidate experience improves as a natural byproduct. There’s less back-and-forth. Fewer delays. Less confusion. The system feels cohesive because it is cohesive.
And compliance isn’t layered on after the fact — it’s embedded directly into how the system processes and moves data.
The Global Advantage
For multinational organizations, the benefits compound quickly. With CertnCentric, customers operate on one global platform with a single ATS or HRIS integration and one source of truth across regions.
Information can be shared appropriately between countries and departments without compromising local regulatory requirements. Reporting is unified. Oversight is simplified. Operational complexity decreases.
In an industry defined by jurisdictional nuance, simplicity is powerful. And simplicity built on compliant architecture is even more powerful.
The Real Takeaway
If you’re considering replatforming your own product, my advice is straightforward: think long and hard before you do it. Be clear about why the current foundation won’t carry you forward. Be honest about the cost: financial, operational, and cultural. Assume it will take longer than planned.
But if your architecture is constraining your ability to serve customers — if speed, compliance, scalability, or experience are limited by technical debt — then rebuilding may not be optional. It may simply be the price of long-term relevance.
For Certn, three years of intense effort are now translating into real, measurable value. Faster turnaround times. Less operational friction. Stronger embedded compliance. A better experience for both customers and candidates.
Replatforming is a terrible idea — until it’s the only idea that makes sense.
And when it works, the system becomes the strategy.
