SmartSearch
Online by APS
In my quest to keep the
Fordyce Letter subscribers as up to date as possible regarding ATS solutions I
am happy to review SmartSearch Online this month, one I have reviewed in the
past but not for a couple of years. Many changes and revisions have occurred
since my last review for this industry-leading service so any of you who are on
a hunt for your next ATS, read on.
SmartSearch Online (a
product of Advanced Personnel Systems, Inc. APS) has been around a long time,
since 1985, having been on the forefront of browser-based solutions and the
entire industry in general. This product is marketed as a total Internet
recruiting solution. In addition to all the basic requirements you need to run
your business including candidates, contacts, job orders, etc. it has an
extraordinary number of advanced features, many of which are completely
customizable, that allow you to run your software the way you run your business.
This is a 100% browser-based solution and does not require any software locally
installed. No additional hardware is required although you will need an Internet
connection. Broadband (cable or DSL) is recommended but not necessary as this
service also works well on a dial-up connection.
Moving right along, adding a
candidate is easy. Click Candidate – New to add a new one. You can either
paste the resume into the resume window, or browse to upload a local file to the
resume parser. You can also import a Candidate from an email. Once parsed, you
have a preview of the candidate for your review. The
resume parser captures primary contact info including name, address,
multiple email addresses and phone numbers, SSN (if included), highest degree
attained, source, years of experience, and the entire resume, which is indexed
for searching.
Once reviewed, you can save
the record and click on any one of a number of tabs including resume, profile,
qualifications, tests, user defined questions, and hours (for staffing). Most of
these candidate record pages have drop down boxes for ease of selection that are
completely user configurable.
Searching for these
candidates is also easy. SmartSearch Online offers a variety of ways to easily
search your candidate database including searching by job title and/or job
description, keyword searches (including AND’s, OR’s, phrases, date ranges,
etc.), searching by profile (which is to search on any field in the candidate
record), and note searching. Once a search is complete the results (lists of
names, corresponding resumes and contact history) are displayed on screen. All
search criteria is highlighted within the resume results in order to facilitate
screening. By clicking on a candidate name in the search results queue you open
the resume up and from the you can view other information on the candidate and
also add them to a call list, a folder, email the resume to a client, add a
note, or view a history of activity with that person.
To enter a job order you
have the ability to link the order to both a company or a hiring contact. Once
either is selected, your job order form is presented and ready for you to fill
in. From there you add the order specifics, and outside of the job
description/requirements, are able to populate the form with easily customizable
dropdowns.
Navigation and customization
is definitely a great feature. All of your needs are met by a toolbar on the top
of the page. You can access your candidates, contacts, businesses, jobs,
projects (you can organize your work into projects if you like), searches,
folders, tools, help, and emails all from this toolbar, which is always on the
top of the page. Then, on the left side of the screen is another bar that gives
you one-click access to all of your “work-in-progress” including you
calendar, notes, recent searches, call lists, open jobs, submittals, interviews,
offers, and other information as well. Part of the beauty of this system is that
everything is linked to everything. You work flows smoothly as there is not a
lot of opening and closing windows just to get to another item. You can access
all of your data from almost any page you happen to be on.
They
also have a very useful Folder tool for sorting and organizing candidate and
client contact records that serves as an extremely flexible CRM tool. There are
two types of Folders. Regular Folders are user created for organizing Candidates
as well as Client Contacts into desired groups such as "hot" or by
skill set. Each user can create or delete his or her own Regular folders,
not unlike creating folders in Word or Outlook. Once a group of records are sorted into
a Regular Folder, the user can enable a variety of group function tools such as
Broadcast Email, Mail Merge or create Call List. The other type of Folder
is specific to a Job. A new Job Folder is created automatically when a new Job
Order is opened. To match Candidates to a Job, the user simply files selected
Candidate’s into the appropriate Job Folder. Once a Candidate is filed in a
Job Folder, regular group function tools plus the Job Track toolset is
enabled for tracking & status reporting on each step of the hiring
process. Candidates and Contacts may be sorted in more than one Folder
at a time, and Candidates that self-apply are automatically routed into the
desired Job Folder.
They have at least a
couple of dozen management reports. Accessed from the Tools menu, you can select
a report and then there is some ability to customize the report results from
there. You can either show the report on screen, or export it to Word or Excel.
The tools menu also has all your setup information, where you are easily able to
customize the drop down boxes found throughout the program.
SmartSearch
Online integrates directly to MS Outlook for all calendaring and scheduling.
When Outlook notifies you of a schedule item originating from SmartSearch it not
only references the appropriate information in the actual schedule record but it
contains a “link” which when clicked automatically opens the appropriate
record. Another neat feature is the wireless access. Access your data from any
net ready cell phones and/or palm devices. You can look up records, review
activities and even get maps to your customer’s facilities. For non-Outlook
users, the system supports virtually an email and calendar with the optional
vCard and vCalendar tool.
With their Career Center,
you can fully integrate your database and your website. Candidates visiting your
web site can search for jobs and submit their resume. You can also allow them to
create an account that allows them to apply for jobs and update their resume
when needed. They can also create a job profile that messages them when a job
meeting their requirements is entered. Employers also have the ability to log
onto your site and enter jobs that they would like for you to work on.
Pricing: SmartSearch Online
offers a scalable, moderately priced solution to serve one or two person
shops all the way up to their largest multiple-office client, Adecco Technical.
The base system starts at $3,500 one-time set-up that includes initial user training
for up to 10 users, and monthly hosting and maintenance cost from $100 per
month per user or less depending on the number of users. Larger clients have a
choice of add-on modules, additional training packages and customization
services at competitive prices.
As always, these reviews are
not meant to cover every aspect nor feature of the product or service.
SmartSearch Online has much more to offer than can possibly be described in the
few paragraphs above. I would encourage anyone looking for their next ATS
solution to give SmartSearch Online a look. I want to thank Sylvia Dahlby,
National Account Manager for her help with this article. Anyone with any
questions or comments can reach Sylvia via voice at 480-502-4513 or via email at
sylvia@aps2k.com. You can also get more
information at the SmartSearch Online website by visiting www.smartsearchonline.com.
CareerWoman.com
I recently received an email
announcing discounted job postings from this site. They call themselves the
“National Leader in Women’s e-Recruiting”. I have not used nor do I know
much about this service but for those with any interest they claim to have
100’s of women-friendly employers, 1000’s of women job seekers and are also
a portal for women’s employment related news and information. They have a
special on 60-day job postings for $199 down from $249 regular price. Check out
their website at www.careerwomen.com.
TIP –
Job Leads
I have recently given a
couple of classes on finding job leads on the Internet. Thankfully, due to some
great Internet resources, this activity is not nearly as technically oriented or
time consuming as finding resumes. Although you can use Google or other search
engines to locate job leads, it is not very productive compared to other
methods. There are a number of FREE sites available to all of us called job
aggregators that cull job leads from company websites, national career boards,
niche sites, university and government sites, agency sites, free job sites, and
other places as well. A few of the larger and well-known sites are:
Indeed – www.indeed.com
SimplyHired – www.simplyhired.com
Jobster – www.jobster.com
GoogleBase – www.googlebase.com
(click on Jobs link)
The Ladders – www.theladders.com
Just to name a very few. Aside from being free, these sites are very simply to use. Usually, you just type in a job title or other keywords, a location if applicable, click the search button and you are presented with a search engine style results queue with clickable results that take you to the actual job posting. Most of the services offering additional filters for further screening and an advanced search page. Next time you have that perfect candidate and no job order, give one or more of these sites a try.