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Building a custom employee recognition platform in 8 weeks
A Texas technology company replaced its locked-down recognition SaaS with a custom platform featuring rewards, gamification and HR analytics — built in eight weeks.
Software developmentWeb developmentTechnologyNode.jsReact
The challenge
The existing recognition tool lacked customization and gave HR no engagement data or analytics. The vendor locked the team out of reward logic changes, and recurring SaaS costs of $6K–$7.2K per year bought no IP ownership or roadmap control.
Our solution
- React frontend with real-time updates across recognition, rankings and balances.
- Node.js backend handling concurrent transactions, automation workflows and WebSocket updates.
- Dual-currency system (Kudos-to-Coins) with full transaction attribution.
- 15+ badges, percentile ranking and automated lifecycle rewards for birthdays and anniversaries.
- HR analytics dashboard with date-range reporting.
- Mobile-optimized responsive UI without a separate mobile codebase.
Results
78%
Employee adoption in month one
12
Modules live at launch
$6–7.2K
Annual SaaS fees eliminated
3-day
Rollout with zero rollback
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