November 1999 Column
Web-Based
Databases (and other products you can use)
This
month we will speak about a few useful services available to recruiters who want
to utilize the vast resources of the Internet to increase their productivity.
The
first two services we write about, RecruitMAX and APS, are Internet-based
database services. I think most recruiters have some type of database in their
office by now. Some I know still use their trusty, speedy DOS databases that
they have used for years and years. Others use some type of Windows database,
sacrificing speed and reliability for features, integration with other programs,
and that GUI interface that most of us cannot live without any longer.
These
services differ from other database products in that you are not purchasing any
software. All you need is on your vendor’s server and is accessed via your
browser like any other web site. You will, however, pay a set-up fee and a
monthly service fee. You will decide what is best for you. Keep in mind these
are not resumes services but your own database where you enter and store your
own candidate information, enter your own job orders, keep track of your own
interviews, set reminders perform candidate searches. No more software crashes,
worrying about updates, paying extra to share data, not having access to your
data from home.
To make
best use of these services, you will probably need DSL (more on that below) or a
cable modem. These two newer technologies are ‘always on’ and do not require
and dialing. Imaging having to dial into your ISP every time you needed a phone
number. You will also need an extremely reliable ISP. Remember – Internet
connection down – Database down.
Obviously,
I have not personally used either of these services as the time it would have
taken me to properly enter a lot of data would be prohibitive. Both sites,
however, offered me the opportunity to evaluate their DEMO sites for several
days. I think at the very least I got a good feel for many of the features,
capabilities and limitations of these services.
A big
positive includes being able to access your database from work or home, day or
night, including your employees if desired.
Overall,
a great option for those firms with a speedy, reliable Internet connection. I
could also see this type of service being very useful with those firms
experimenting with work-from-home recruiters or ‘virtual offices’. Read
on…
A quote
from the RecruitMAX email:
“RecruitMAX
offers the easiest, most powerful recruiting software on the market. By offering
a solution for Human Resource departments and a solution for executive/contract
recruiters, RecruitMAX has a solution for you. Bring the candidates right into
your world with our web integration products.”
A
complete contact manager, candidate database, applicant tracking, job order
database and communications interface all rolled into one. Best part is…the
only thing you need on you local machine is an Internet connection and a
browser. Everything else is on the web.
I was
given a user name and password and logged onto their test site, which is fully
functional. You are presented with a very busy starting page with a variety of
categories including Call Logs; Saved Searches; Favorites; Top 5 Recent Jobs;
Tasks; Statistics; Activities and Bookmarks. This is also your main page for
adding, editing and searching your data. A little too busy for me but I noticed
you can minimize some of the category boxes down to one line. I did not see any
way to customize the categories or create new categories. They also have an
interactive calendar and web search engine you can use directly from the main
page. You also get a ‘Reminder’ feature and a separate ‘Tasks’ feature
to keep track of interviews/appointments/duties, etc. Another nice feature is a
statistics section that keeps track of a number of important recruiter
statistics. You can also designate candidates as ‘favorites’ and job orders
as ‘hot’.
One
endearing aspect of this service was its ease of use and navigation. You can get
to anywhere from anywhere. There are checkboxes everywhere where you can tag
people, companies or jobs to send to other lists or clients. For example, you
could run a search then tag several candidates to forward to the client. Then
email directly from the program.
I spoke
with Glenn Howell, the RecruiterMAX Sales Manager by telephone regarding his
service and he was kind enough to answer a few questions. They promise a secure
environment with redundant data on backup servers. Backups are stored offsite.
Repeated failed attempts to login to the systems will cause a lock out. Their
basic pricing is $30,000.00 for up to 10 users. The price increases
incrementally from their depending on the number of users. They did not offer a
package for smaller organizations. They also provide data conversion and forms
customization services with pricing depending on the complexity of the project.
You can
reach Glenn directly at 877-394-5644, x106 or email at ghowell@recruitmax.com
for more information.
From a
recent email from APS:
“SmartSearch
Online, a complete Web-Based staffing management system!
No need to maintain PC hardware or software because the system is only
installed on the server...no need to worry about a WAN or PC configuration.
No problem with remote access because all remote users connect up via the
Internet. And, because our
browser-based interface is so intuitive, most of our customers are productive
immediately ... without training! Oh,
I almost forgot to mention that the system is completely customizable because we
offer the source code with every purchase!
Why even consider a Client/Server system? ... Go Web-Based!”
All
true!!
I was
assisted by their technical expert, Paul Mendiola, as I logged onto their demo
site (populated with over 4000 records) and was presented with a very intuitive,
easy-to-use interface that has a number of buttons including Search – Folders
– Candidates – Jobs – Businesses – Contacts – Admin and Help over to
the left. Most of the rest of the screen was taken up by the search interface.
Starting
with the search interface, you have many different screening options. The
interface allows you to toggle back and forth between two types of searches –
Search By Keywords (candidates) and Search By Requisition (job orders).
Regarding the keyword search, you can screen by required keywords, desired
keywords and excluded keywords. You can also search by state of residence, area
code, aging, name and status (i.e. employed/unemployed). When searching
requisitions, you simply input a job title or some text for the job description
and it performs a text search of all your entered orders.
When
entering a new candidate, the first thing you do is to paste the candidates
resume into the database record. Not a link or an attachment, the actual resume.
A nice feature. Then you are able to fill in the rest of the record.
Interestingly, you do not need to fill out a skill section for each candidate.
The search engine picks up all the skills directly from the resume and not the
candidate record. You do not have to enter a resume for a candidate but then I
am not sure how you would search on skills for that candidate.
APS
uses a ‘Folder’ concept to assist you in organizing your data. You can
create new folders and then tag other records (i.e. candidate and/or orders) to
go into the folders. They should probably have these folders displayed in a
tree-view like Windows Explorer but generally they have created an easy and
intuitive way to organize your data.
They
also have an ‘Admin’ section for you to add/delete groups and users, modify
the contents of drop down boxes, customize email messages, and run reports (you
cannot customize the reports at this time). A ‘Reminder’ box helps you
remember all you meetings and appointments.
I spoke
with their President, Doug Coull and Paul again recently and was filled in on
their service a bit. I was assured they had recently undergone a 3rd
party security check and had taken all necessary precautions to insure the
safety of your data. They have multiple servers using ‘hot backup’
technology for a worst case scenario. They perform both on and off site backups.
Pricing is $100/month for the first 5 users (per user), between 6 and 15 users
costs $75/month (per user) and over 16 is $25/month (per user). There is also a
$1500.00 set-up fee. They also provide data conversions and forms customization
services with pricing depending on complexity.
You can
reach Doug directly at 800-875-0588, x126 or email at dcs@aps.com.
“Infonautics
Inc. yesterday announced the launch of Job Sleuth, a free service that searches
the Internet's top job sites and databases for job postings based on users'
profiles. Job Sleuth will reduce the time spent on searching for jobs by sending
daily e-mails containing job opportunities from over a dozen job sites. Users
can submit five different profiles of the job they are looking for and be
notified of job prospects.
Included
in Infonautics' searches are HotJobs, Career Mosaic, and Career Web.”
The
above quote is from a Press Release from Infonautics, Inc. I thought I would
make quick mention of this free service. They ask that you fill out one or more
profiles (job specs of sorts) and then Job Sleuth will search a number of public
Internet job posting boards for matches. You are then sent an email
automatically notifying you that a position has been posted at a particular
site. You then click on the link contained in the email message to view the job
posting. I filled out one profile and have actually received several emails with
genuine job order leads for my company. Why not?
I would
like to tell you a little more about this service and did try and contact these
people by telephone but did not receive any return calls. Interesting strategy.
Tired
of getting “404 – Object Not Found” errors during your searches?
Alexa Internet can often retrieve old, expired pages that are not
accessible to other search engines. In
addition, it provides site traffic statistics and other features.
Price? It’s free!
Check it out at http://www.alexa.com
Do you
like doing domain searches but dislike waiting for the web?
Domain Searcher basically allows you to bring the results of your domain
search to your hard drive so you can speed up your search. Cost: $19.95. Check
it out at http://www.igsnet.com/dsearch.html.
If you
use a notebook computer, this is a great tool!
WebWhacker allows you to save web pages, just as they appear on the web,
to your hard drive so you can view them later.
This is a great way to cut down reading time during a search and get the
data in your hands where you can analyze it at your convenience – and at the
higher speed of your machine, versus the speed of your Internet connection.
Cost: $49.95. Check it out at http://www.bluesquirrel.com/whacker/download.html
The
onslaught of Internet related products and services continues. We will be
diligent in keeping you abreast of those items we feel would be of most interest
to the Fordyce Letter readership. Pick what you can use and throwaway the rest.
Not everything is going to be the right for everybody. Identify – Investigate
– Act Accordingly.
I have
been using DSL (via Southwestern Bell here is St. Louis) for at least a month
now and could not recommend it more highly. The sales pitch was almost too good
to be true so I was leery that this service would live up to its reputation. It
passed with flying colors. It cost me a two hundred-dollar sign-up fee, which
included a DSL modem and a Network card. From there it is about $40 per month
which includes the ISP connection. There
is no ‘dial-up’ with this service. You simply boot up your Internet browser
and you are on the Internet. Nothing to connect – nothing to disconnect. Get
it now.
The
basic idea is that you have a lot of pointing and clicking to do to get things
done in a Windows application. This
takes time and is hard on the wrist (carpal tunnel).
Thankfully, almost all Windows applications use the same shortcut
keystroke commands. Too much to
cover completely in this article, but here is an example:
A
common operation is to copy something you find on the Web, like a resume, and
paste it into your database or Word. If
you have found a large number of resumes you like on a search, this repetitive
task can get old real quick. For the sake of following along, close all
applications on your PC except your word processor, which you should set to a
blank page and your browser (Internet Explorer or Netscape).
Go out on the web to any page and get ready to follow along.
Do this with me now at your keyboard to get the feel of it:
1.
Find a page on the web and click your cursor on the page anywhere (accept
on hypertext – the blue stuff)
2.
With your left hand, place your pinkie finger on the CTRL key (bottom
row, far-left key). While holding
it down, use your middle finger on your left hand to touch the letter “a”. When you do, all the text on the page should get highlighted.
If it didn’t get highlighted, one of two things went wrong: either you
didn’t click your cursor on the page to make the page active with the browser
or you didn’t hold down the CTRL key while you pressed “a”.
Try again.
3.
Now that the entire page is highlighted, hold down the CTRL key again
with your left pinkie finger and use your index finger to touch the letter
“c”. This copies all the
highlighted text into your clipboard in Windows.
4.
Now place your left thumb on the ALT key (just left of the space bar).
While holding down the ALT key with your left thumb, hit the TAB key with
your left middle finger. This will
take you the blank page on your word processor.
5.
Put your left pinkie finger back on the CTRL key and hold it down while
toggling your hand to the right to touch the letter “v” with your left index
finger. This will paste the page you copied from the Internet into
the blank page of your word processor.
6.
Notice that your cursor is at the bottom of the document in your word
processor. Let’s pretend that the document is a resume you copied from
the web and you want to save it using the person’s name. Typically their name is at the top of the document so, give
your left hand a break and place your right thumb on the CTRL key (just below
the Shift key on the right side of the keyboard).
While holding down the CTRL key with your right thumb, toggle your right
hand up to hit the “home” key with your right middle finger.
This takes you to the top of the document.
By the way, CTRL + “end” takes you to the bottom of the document.
Now, pretend that this is a resume and pick any two words at the top of
the document and highlight them. I
actually find it quicker to use the mouse for this part although it can be done
from the keyboard.
7.
Now that you have 2 words highlighted that we are pretending represent
the name of the candidate on a resume, use your left pinkie finger to hold down
the CTRL key and toggle your left hand to hit the letter “c”.
This copies the 2 highlighted words into the Windows clipboard.
8.
Place your left thumb on the ALT key (remember, it’s just left of the
spacebar). While holding down the ALT key with your left thumb, hit the
letter “f” with you left index finger and then the letter “a” with your
left pinkie finger. This will open
a box in which you name the file you are saving.
9.
Place your left pinkie finger on the CTRL key and, while holding it down;
toggle your left hand to touch the letter “v” with your left index finger. This will past the 2 words we highlighted that represent the
candidate’s name into the Save As box.
10.
Finally, place your left thumb on the ALT key (just left of the space
bar) and, while holding it down, use your left middle finger to touch the letter
“s” to actually save the document in your word processor.
This takes a lot longer to write than it does to do. Your hand will get trained in the repetitive motion so that you don’t have to think about it any more than an accountant thinks about using a 10 key by touch. People that see me work the net are typically blown away by how fast I get things done and shortcuts like this example are one of the big time savers. We don’t make money surfing the Net, so let’s maximize our productivity while we are out there.