Matrix uses GenAI to deliver new efficiencies that connect people to work

Challenge

Finding a scalable low-code platform for building an industry-leading experience

Matrix has multiple competitors in the UK market, and the employers and recruiters it serves may use other platforms in parallel. So the mission is clear for Matrix’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, Ashley Doody. “We make sure our platform is the easiest to use,” said Ashley. “So when recruiters have a really good candidate, they're more likely to submit them into one of our open roles. And that's good for our customers, because they’re more likely to get higher quality candidates. So it's a virtuous circle.”

To maintain that circle, said Ashley, “We put ourselves at the heart of our users—customers, suppliers, and workers—and bring them everything we can to facilitate their workflows end to end.”

That is the vision behind Prism, Matrix’s new platform that offers an expanding array of services, including workforce management, candidate screening, and project-based staffing, through a single interface. When Ashley and team began planning for Prism, they knew they needed to support it with highly flexible, agile development that would enable them to continually deliver new capabilities.

Matrix’s team of eight developers have used a different low-code solution to deliver their existing workforce management platform, a robust, reliable solution called CR.net. Given the quality of CR.net and the team's skill using low-code development to accelerate delivery, they planned to stick with low-code to develop Prism; but they wanted to upgrade to an enterprise-grade low-code solution that could help deliver a constantly evolving, AI-infused platform for all existing CR.net users, while also providing the scalability to accommodate growth.

Solution

Taking every opportunity to boost efficiency

Matrix chose to build the Prism recruitment platform on OutSystems, and it engaged OutSystems Professional Services to assist with moving data from CR.net and other existing solutions into Prism. The company is now taking a carefully managed, phased approach to the transition, working closely with all existing CR.net clients to tailor migration plans to their unique requirements.

An important factor in Matrix’s decision to use OutSystems was Ashley’s prior experience with the platform. “At a previous employer,” he recounted, “we developed a platform with OutSystems that supported about a million users, so I knew it had the scalability and the capabilities we were looking for.”

Other factors included OutSystems being multi-tenant out of the box to support Matrix’s SaaS environment, and its readiness to facilitate AI-embedded solutions. Ashley pointed to the OutSystems Forge repository as a valuable resource for easily connecting to large language models (LLMs) and other AI technologies to build automations into Prism. “Forge has loads of pre-built connectors to AWS and Azure AI features, as well as thousands of others,” said Ashley. “Speed to market is key, and being able to easily leverage AI connectors is such a helpful accelerator. I don't need specialist AI developers. When there’s a new feature we want, if our developers can find a connector for it on Forge, they plug it in, test it, tweak it, and off we go.”

The Matrix team also puts its new level of speed to work in response to continuous user input. “We get feedback from customers every day and have roundtable discussions with recruiters,” Ashley explained. The team uses OutSystems to quickly iterate and turn that feedback into valuable improvements, including:

Using AI to save time and protect quality

In the rush to submit candidates for new jobs, recruiters sometimes upload incomplete documents. Previously, Matrix had to catch these submissions manually, then email recruiters to resolve the issues. This work took time, and the risk of incomplete submissions could affect customer satisfaction. Matrix used the OutSystems connector for Azure AI Document Intelligence to build a step that automatically identifies incomplete documents and halts the submission process. “We even taught the model to recognize photos of incomplete documents,” said Ashley. “It’s a simple example, but it’s making a big difference.”

Leveraging AI-driven content

The team tapped into LLMs to generate job descriptions and corresponding interview questions, which are then checked and refined by hiring managers. These value-added services save significant time and effort for the hiring companies and recruiters.

Enabling more efficient stakeholder communications

Employers frequently wish to extend temporary assignments. Previously, these requests were processed via email between employers, workers, recruiters, and Matrix. Recruiter feedback prompted Ashley and team to create a messaging function in Prism that connects recruiting agents straight to hiring managers and allows them to extend assignments directly.

Taken individually, these improvements help save time and money. “But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” said Ashley. “It shows our evolution into more of a technology-based business, where we’re looking for every opportunity to make the process more efficient.”

Customer feedback has been very positive. For example, Rebecca Morris, an HR Business Partner at Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council, said, “hiring managers using the system regularly are extremely happy with it. Transferring onto a new system did come with some apprehension, however, the system is user-friendly and the instant chat has been great, as someone has been on the other end to assist promptly."

“So as we continue working with customers to bring them onto Prism,” said Ashley, “we’re really excited about the innovations and opportunities they’ll be able to take advantage of.”

Results

Speed, quality, and an ever better user experience

It’s still early for Matrix Prism, but the team is already seeing promising results. So far, Matrix has been able to migrate nearly a third of its customers based on specific factors related to their needs and readiness. Inbound emails from those customers have dropped about 47%. Inbound phone calls have dropped by 63%. The corresponding reduction in manual work has saved Matrix about £140,000 per year. “Customers have fewer questions and fewer issues, because Prism is enabling them to do more than they could before,” said Ashley. “And of course it’s time savings on our side. It means we’re more scalable. Our cost base doesn’t have to grow at the same rate as our revenue base.”

And Matrix is delivering more improvements faster than ever. Using OutSystems, it releases new software every two weeks, which is four times more frequent than with the previous low-code platform.

But has speed impacted quality? A veteran developer commented to Ashley that the team uses OutSystems to quickly create software that, in the developer’s words, “just works.”

“That’s one of the advantages of low-code,” explained Ashley. “You generate fewer bugs because of how the platform works and generates code. So not only are we releasing software faster, it’s relatively bug-free.” Ashley concludes,