May 2005 Column

I had been meaning to write something on Contact Magnet now for a couple of months and am glad I finally took the time. This review won’t be very long as there is simply not much to write about this simple, easy to use data-capture tool by Broadlook Technologies. This program simplifies data entry as it captures names, titles, emails, phone numbers, fax numbers, cell numbers, company names, addresses and websites from emails, web pages, Word or Excel docs, or any other document.

Contact Magnet is not meant to capture resumes. It is highly specialized to capture contact information only, either single entry or lists of contacts. Due to its list capturing ability, they are really offering two programs in one (and for the price of one). Installation is easy. After a download and install, you launch Contact Magnet and it sits in your System Tray until you need it. Get a resume or email up in front of you, highlight the contact information, then simply click Control/C/C on the keyboard and Contact Magnet launches with the contact information you highlighted parsed properly right in front of you. From that point you are able to export the data into many different formats including Outlook, ACT!, Goldmine, Excel, Eudora, Broadlook, Bullhorn, CAPS, cBizOne, COATS, Gopher, Maxhire, PC Recruiter, ProHire, RESUMATE, RezKeeper, Lotus Organizer, and over 50 other systems.

I tried a couple of records and was pleased with the 100% accuracy I noted in the captured data. If you, as a recruiter adding 10 new contacts per day to your ATS or CRM, then you are spending about 10 minutes a day doing manual data entry. This does not seem like much, however, 10 minutes per day equates to 1 week per year. How much can you bill in an extra week per year? The value proposition is obvious. You may or may not be aware of it, but Contact Magnet is already built-in behind the scenes in several Applicant Tracking Systems. Does your ATS already have great single and contact list capture ability? It may be Broadlook's Technology behind the scenes. If your ATS does not have these powerful features, Contact Magnet may be your next great productivity enhancement.

I have written about Broadlook Technologies products a number of times over the last couple of years and as always, they are staying true to their mission: Creating software that enables people to spend more time with people, and less time doing manual things that the computer should be doing for us. This product normally retails for $200 but I am told that any Fordyce subscriber interested in this program and makes a purchase by the end of May can purchase it for $100. Anyone interested in this type of product can locate further information at the Broadlook Technologies website at www.broadlook.com.

Viruses Smiruses. We all know the danger of computer viruses…being in the news all the time. Hopefully by now everyone reading this column has some type of virus protection installed on his or her computer (RIGHT???). What you might not be protected against…yet…is spyware. Not a new problem but one that is causing more and more problems for computer users. To say it is running rampant would be an understatement. Spyware is generally, but not always, a small program (cookie) placed on your computer, unknown to you, that secretly sends your Internet surfing habits to whoever placed the spyware on your computer in the first place. Spyware can be bundled with software downloads, attached to e-mails, or transmitted through networks. The purpose of this activity is to allow the marketers to send you emails or even pop-up ads customized to your Internet surfing habits. For the most part, most spyware is harmless in the sense that it is not malicious. The major problems can be that it clogs your memory making your computer run slower, changes you home page without your permission, or maybe you’ve noticed excessive pop-ups. If your computer has shown any of these symptoms lately, spyware may be the problem. Once upon a time my computer was giving me all kinds of grief. Of course, I blamed my ATS vendor and called up raising you know what. Fortunately, they have an excellent support staff and upon investigation it was determined that my computer was infected by spyware. I was encouraged to download and install an anti-spyware program and on my first scan found over 250 instances of spyware on my computer. I was in shock. My partner John went through the same procedure and found almost 400 spyware infections on his computer. He was on the floor. Sometimes spyware is malicious. There is spyware that seeks out personal data like credit card information and / or passwords. All the more reason to protect yourself. The good news is that there are several commercial anti-spyware programs available for a very reasonable price you can install to protect yourself from this invasion. Try one of these:

These products range in price from free to about $40 a copy. I have been using an anti-spyware program for about the last six months and can tell you it removes approximately 20-30 spyware infections per day (yes…per day). Although most of these sites offer a free scan, which is safe, don’t be fooled by pop-up ads or unsolicited emails offering a free scan as they are normally a spyware program masquerading as an anti-spyware program. Get one today.

This piece is somewhat of an add-on to the spyware program above but really a different danger altogether. Pop-up ads used to be nothing more than a nuisance. As soon as you close one another opens. Nowadays they can be more of a problem. Some of the more underhanded programmers have now written code that is associated with the close button on the ad (the “X” in the upper right corner of the ad). When you click the close button the ad does close but some of these now run malicious programs on your PC. Best bet, for now is not to use the close button. I have been right clicking on the title bar of the ad (the very top bar with the title) and selecting “close” from the drop-down list. Gives me a little piece of mind.

I have been in contact with Net-Temps recently, the venerable job posting and resume board that has been around almost since the inception of Internet recruiting. One aspect that sets these people apart from the pack is that the Net-Temps' service is available only to staffing companies, not direct employers. Candidates searching for jobs understand they will be working with recruiters. You are not competing with your own clients for candidates from the same database. Net-Temps has announced their 2005 pricing, which seemed fairly reasonable for the service you get. Their pricing for a single user with 10 job slots and the complete resume database comes to something less than $450 per month, on a twelve month contract. Volume discounts are also available for companies with large job posting requirements. I believe further discounts can be had depending on circumstances (prior customer, for example). This is definitely much less than other nationwide services. Although I do not use them currently, I have in the past with much success. Anyone looking for a nationwide Internet recruiting service can contact Sue Meeks, their Senior Sales Consultant via email at sue@net-temps.com or voice at 800-307-0062 x 437. You can also check out the website at www.net-temps.com.

I recently read the latest Bullhorn newsletter and wanted to share this press release with you. I have reviewed Bullhorn in this column in the past and can advise anyone seeking an ATS solution to give these people a look. From the newsletter:

Boston – February 24, 2005 – Bullhorn, Inc., the leading provider of On-Demand Staffing and Recruiting software, today announced banner revenue and corporate growth during 2004.

“Over the past year Bullhorn increased sales substantially and achieved a consistent period of profitability,” said Arthur Papas, CEO and co-founder of Bullhorn. “We also introduced a major upgrade to our high-performing On-Demand software, established new strategic partnerships and significantly expanded our services expertise to the Bullhorn staff – all of which position us well for tremendous growth in the coming year.”

Bullhorn added over 100 new customers, including staffing firms such as Core Medical, Hollister and Winter, Wyman & Company, as well as two of the ten largest global staffing firms. In addition, Bullhorn achieved a 98 percent retention rate among its current customer base.

“The year ended on a high note for the staffing industry as the economy continued to improve and the jobs market continued to grow – factors which in turn drive demand for Bullhorn’s solutions,” said Barry Hinckley, president and co-founder of Bullhorn. “Recruiters and staffing agencies know that Bullhorn’s rapidly-deployed services and easy-to-manage software enable them to increase sales and customer service capabilities by automating and integrating key business functions and working more efficiently.”

In June 2004, Bullhorn unveiled numerous flexibility, performance and interoperability enhancements to Bullhorn 8.0, the newest version of its industry-leading applicant tracking, customer relationship management and groupware software.

Bullhorn also entered strategic partnerships in 2004 designed to provide clients with best-of-breed solutions, including a referral relationship with CareerExchange and technology partnerships with Panscopic and Broadlook Technologies.

The Company intends to continue its growth trajectory with increased sales, fund raising, technology innovations and corporate hiring slated for 2005.

I wrote an article last month on a service, ICCI, run by a Chris LaVoie. The articles’ appearance set off a firestorm of activity for both Paul Hawkinson, our publisher, and myself. Evidently, there are some readers / subscribers out there who had some negative past dealings with this individual, which can be said for almost every product or service I write about. One reader, a competitor, was unhappy as he thought I ranked Chris’s product over his, which I did not do (as my faithful readers know I have never ranked or compared products in any of my 75+ columns to date, nor will I attempt to do so in the future). Another reader, another competitor, was so upset with the article he was evidently making crank calls to Chris telling him he was my business partner. Unbelievable. I know many of you may find this hard to believe but I do not know everything about every vendor in this business.

Many vendors do contact Paul or I and specifically request a review in my column. In order to provide the level of service we have in the last six years I often am happy to oblige, as long as the product or service relates to technology or the Internet somehow. Other times, however, I am the one to make the initial contact with a vendor and ask them if I can review their product or service in the column. This was the case with ICCI/LaVoie. I had received a number of emails from them advertising a passive contact database. As I had written about at least two other similar services in the last year or so I contacted Chris and asked him if he would be interested. In my 25+ years in the industry I have never heard of nor had any dealings with Chris, negative or otherwise. Chris agreed to let me review his product and allowed me to download one of his industry databases. From there I handled the review just like I have every other one. Did some searches, mentioned features…nothing out of the ordinary here. All appeared on the up-and-up so the review went in the column. He seemed to have a decent product at a reasonable price. Normally something Fordyce readers appreciate knowing about. I stand by my review. It was strictly by the book.

This has happened before. On a number of occasions in the past we have heard from disgruntled readers that have had a bad experience with a reviewed product or service. “How could you say that” or “How could you give them a good review”. I do understand and sympathize with those individuals as I have been unhappy with a few of my vendors in the past but that does not mean that everyone that uses that vendor will have the same bad experience. What I have tried to explain to readers in the past is that, as a writer for Fordyce that has a full-time day job, a large family, and many of the same responsibilities in life that they do…I do the best I can. I often have a very limited amount of time to focus on a particular product or service. Most of the time an hour or two. I try and give the readership a feel for a service, not to rank anything or tell the readers what they should or should not buy, but only to offer food for thought…a starting point for further investigation.

I wish I could guarantee that each and every one of my future articles will contain only those products or services that each and every user (and ex-user) has good things to say about but I can’t. I know already that is an impossible task. Please do continue to write me at any time and let me know your feelings about a product or service written about in this column but the only thing I can guarantee you is that I will continue to do the best job I can do for you.

I have run this tip in the past but not in quite some time. This is a list of what I call resume-blasting services. Companies that typically charge the job seeker a fee for listing his or her resume and then blasting it out to numerous, usually thousands, of recruiters. I am personally signed up with each and every one of these services below. Some, I do admit are of little value but others seem to produce the right candidates on occasion. The ratio of received resumes to placements is very low but I can say I have made more than a couple of placements by simply opening resumes that appear regularly (daily) in my Inbox.

ResumeDeliver	http://www.resumedeliver.com
TargetResume	http://www.targetresume.com
HiTechBlast	http://www.hitechblast.com
BlastMyResume	http://www.blastmyresume.com
ResumeBlaster	http://www.resumeblaster.com
ResumeViper	http://resumeviper.com
ResumZapper	http://www.resumezapper.com
ResumeDart	http://www.resumedart.com
ResumeWahoo	http://www.resumewahoo.com
ResumeAction	http://www.resumeaction.com
ResumeStorm	http://www.resumestorm.com

The cost to the professional recruiter community is zero for these services so why not take a look and give it a try.