Gopher
2004
For this month
we have a review for an ATS that has been around for quite some time but never
reviewed before in this column. I have been hearing about this database, Gopher
by BlackDog Recruiting Software, for years and am happy to finally be able to
review this product. Billed as a complete recruiter's contact management, call
management, and calendar system. This service is a 100% web-based with a twist,
they also are able to host your entire suite of software products. More about
that later but please read on.
Even though
there is no local database software, you do need to install Citrix to use this
product. This is a free and easy download and install that allows you to connect
to their system. From there, simply open the web page and log in. Normally at
this stage you would open your database but in this case you are opening to an
entire Windows desktop with not only an icon to start Gopher, but also any other
software program you use. Again, more on that later. Once you click on the
Gopher icon the program opens and you log in again. You open up to an interface
that includes your calendar and daily planner, a good idea for any database.
Here is your list of tasks to accomplish for the day.
I
always like to start with the candidates, called Profiles in this program.
Adding a new one is easy. Click the Plus sign, a blank record appears, fill in
whatever you need, including a customized skills listing (Keyword Dictionary),
and save. Using their iRex add-on, you import a resume any number of ways and a
new profile (record) is created with all Keyword Dictionary entries highlighted,
a copy of the text resume is copied to the profile, the original resume is
saved, a Calendar record is created noting the new profile for follow-up, a Note
Pad record is created noting the date of entry, the work history is extracted
and saved in a Snap Shot, and the skills highlighted are compared to open job
orders, all with virtually one click. Once entered and worked a bit, you can
access data about this candidate easily, including a resume, memos, positions,
and a great tracking page with access to information including Resumes Sent,
Interviews, and past Placements. A nice feature – you can stack your new resumes
and using the Auto Import feature the system checks periodically for resumes to
add and does this automatically. There
is no separate tab, screen or table for companies in this database as all
companies can be searched from the client interface. Clients, along with their
corresponding Companies are entered in the same way; with job orders having a
Client/Company relationship, either manually or via iRex. Whenever a new job
order is entered, the entire database of profiles is automatically checked for
matches. When entering multiple candidates from the same company, they have a
nice Copy Record feature that automates populating the new Client record.
Another feature I haven’t seen lately is your ability to import a scanned or
faxed document.
Once
you get the data into the database, searching couldn’t be easier. In most
databases, the search interface is a separate page, where you need to enter your
search criteria. Not here, your search page is the same as your Profile page.
Click the Find button, your screen is filled with blank fields, fill in any
search criteria into any field, including wildcards (*) and then click the
Complete button and your search results come back in single-form view, which you
can easily change to a list view with one easy click. For those with a need to
search skills you use the same Keyword Dictionary for searching those. You can
also search all the resumes directly for any keyword you like. Great
interface…simplest I have seen in a while. Reporting is handled with Crystal
Reports, Excel and Access. Although there are numerous included reports,
user-created reports are completely customizable.
It’s
later now… What really sets this group apart from many of the others is their
ability to not only host your ATS software, they allow each user access to an
entire Windows desktop as I described earlier. Once you login, use your
day-to-day software including, but not limited to, Outlook, Word, Excel, Gopher,
etc., remotely. What that means to the user is that locally, all you need a
basic, simple and inexpensive solution including a pc or laptop, a Windows OS,
an Internet browser and an Internet connection. I imagine Cable or DSL would be
preferred but you can even connect with a 56k modem. Besides the Gopher review,
I did open and work with Word and Internet Explorer remotely and surprisingly,
did not perceive a decrease in performance. This could appeal to those of us who
feel particularly challenged and generally uninterested in always keeping up
with the latest software, patches, etc.
Pricing
starts with a one-time cost of $1,200 for one user with an additional $50 per
month for their upgrade plan, which offers access to the iRex feature. For a
one-user, networked version the one-time costs is $1,500 and the upgrade plan
charge is an additional $70 per month. The pricing decreases from there
depending on the number of user and networking needs.
I want to thank Ken Peck of BlackDog Recruiting Software for his assistance in
preparing this article. Anyone with
an interest in more information on this service can visit their website at www.recruiting-software.com.
Those with any questions or comments can reach Ken directly via voice at
970-349-0364 or via email at ken@recruiting-software.com.
TechNames
One
of the reviews this month is for a fairly new contender in the Internet research
tool category, TechNames Online, by TechNames, Inc. This web-based service
provides, with an easy-to-use interface, access to 300,000 plus contacts from
thousands of technology companies including rosters from over 15,000 of them,
from individual contributor to CEO, and many vocations including information
technology, engineering, product management, sales, marketing and business
development.
One
of the unique aspects of this service is TechNames built-in ability to search
for relationships. Let’s say you search and identify a likely prospect for
your current search assignment. Turns out he is too strong for your job order.
With a click or two you can then search for all the people that reported to this
person, or if seeking a stronger candidate, search for those he or she reported
to. Another great feature is the users ability to update the database. When you
notice an outdated entry, click the “Send Corrections” button. To confirm a
correct entry…click “Data is Valid”. An extra step but cuts down on time
wasting in the future.
The
Technames full-time research staff tracks as technology companies with an
emphasis in the hardware, software, telecommunications, semiconductor, and
electronics industries. Their service not only accesses the public domain
information available to anyone on the Internet, at least 75% of their data
comes from telephone research.
I
know everyone understands we don’t normally have a lot of time with the
products we review but I had access to their database for a bit and was able to
run some searches.
I
ran a search on Oracle Corp., picked at random. They are a large software
company out of California and I was expecting a large return. I was
returned 8245 results that should be a great starting point for any search. Each
returned contact was listed in a table format with their job title and a link to
further information. Everyone from HR to Software Development, Executives, etc.
Pricing
for this service runs $500.00 per month per user with an additional $75.00 per
month for additional users.
I
want to thank John Moed of TechNames for his assistance in writing this article.
Please visit the TechNames web site at www.technames.com.
Anyone wanting a test drive, or with any questions or comments can reach John
via voice at (925) 831-2900 or via email at john@technames.com.
Hispanic-Jobs.com
Any
diversity recruiter or those that seek out Spanish-speaking candidates might
benefit from visiting this site. As of this writing they were making an effort
to introduce potential new users to their services. I have not used their
service nor do I know much about it other than the email I received but the free
postings caught my eye. From their email (edited):
“We
would like to introduce you to our new job posting website.
Hispanic-Jobs.com is a website where you can reach and find Spanish speaking
professionals for any openings you may have.
Posting
jobs is free and it only takes a few minutes of your time to register.
You can click on the link below to register and then immediately post
your jobs.
All
companies that register will be listed as a featured company and all jobs will
be listed in the featured job section on the home page.
So,
if you are searching for Spanish speaking professionals or would like to
increase your diversity, give us a try, post your job and let us handle the
searching for you.”
Anyone
with any interest in this type of service can visit the website at www.hispanic-jobs.com.
Haley
Marketing
Haley
Marketing, a high-class operation we have written about in this column before,
is now actively marketing their web design services for recruiters. Last review
we had for this company was for an outstanding email communication / marketing
program, HaleyMail, their flagship product. They have now taken the next logical
step to further enhance the image and communication of their customer base and
now offer professionally designed, custom web sites, specifically for our
industry.
Pricing
starts at about $2500 for a basic, 5-page template based site and goes up
from there but you end up with a site that portrays you as the professional you
are.
Please visit
their website at www.haleymarketing.com/Services/stwebsites.html.
Anyone with any questions or comments can reach David Searns, President of Haley
Marketing Group, via voice at 888-696-2900
or email at dsearns@haleymarketing.com.
Tip
This
month I am pinched for time and deadline is today so I am going to steal a tip
from Advanced Google – A Recruiter’s Cheat Sheet by Shally Steckerl
of JobMachine, an excellent resource that we mentioned last month in this
column. Shally…thanks in advance and hope you don’t mind. Here it is…a
dandy on searching Internet community homepages, an often overlooked but
bountiful source of millions of free Internet resumes.
keyword
keyword site:members.aol.com resumes
At
www.google.com use this exact string
but simply replace “keyword” with the keyword of you choice, without quotes.
What you are doing here is searching the “members” pages of the “aol.com
site” for “resumes”, and then using other keywords to limit your results.
Shally also suggests replacing the “members.aol.com” with tripod.com or
angelfire.com, or any Internet community you can think of, again without quotes.
You can also search any isp or other host with this string by changing the
“site” to the host or isp of your choice.
Like
I said last month, anyone interested in an excellent, very handy, inexpensive
resource to maximize your Google resume output should check out the JobMachine (www.jobmachine.net)
website for more information on this item. It is a $9.95 download using PayPal.