Case study - Modernising a content platform for tax guidance

Starting point

The existing platform had grown over the years and was costly to maintain. Search quality was no longer adequate for a tax portal, content performance was hard to measure, and changes inside the editorial system pulled along disproportionate follow-up work.

The task

Modernisation of the platform during ongoing editorial operation. The established editorial workflows had to remain largely intact; the technical foundation underneath needed to become exchangeable.

Key architectural decisions

Approach

We decoupled the delivery layer from the editorial system and built it as an independent, modular layer while the editorial team continued to work in its established routines. Data contracts between editorial, search, and rendering define which content is passed on in which structure, so each of these layers can evolve on its own.

For search, we indexed the content in a structured way and made relevance scoring controllable, so editors and engineers can both follow why a result appears where it does. Delivery performance is measured per content type against documented thresholds, and reproducible deployments with preview and stability stages bring changes into operation in a controlled way.

Status and handover

In productive operation. Architecture documentation, interface contracts, and operations notes are with the client. Concrete performance and reach figures are treated as confidential by the client; ranges are available on request.