PC
Recruiter
by
Main Sequence Technologies
I had the pleasure this month of
taking a look at the venerable applicant tracking software PCRecruiter, by Main
Sequence Technologies. I have
reviewed their product before in this column, but not for several years, and I
am happy to report on a wonderful array of interesting features, some of which I
have not seen before.
PCRecruiter has been around since
1998 and serves an international client base of companies, large and small. The
product I reviewed is entirely web-based, with nothing to install on your local
PC (with the exception of some auto-loading Java or ActiveX plug-ins), and Main
Sequence offers this software as an online service or you may run it on your own
web-server. They also continue to
offer their classic Windows version as well.
After logging in, you are presented
with a very simple, totally customizable interface. All of the buttons to access
the various screens in the program are up at the top, a three-way search
interface is situated in the middle of the page, and customizable folders with
your current activity at the bottom of the page.
Adding a new candidate is easy.
Their parsing engine parses contact information only, a method I happen to agree
with. Engines that try to parse everything often parse information of little
value, and other times information detrimental to future searches. The candidate
interface on the demo database I looked at had nine fields for each candidate
but the good thing is you can have as few or as many fields per candidate as you
like. If you prefer a minimal amount of information per candidate in your
database, choose a minimal number of fields…if you like 30-40 fields per
candidate, you can have that many as well. Design your own candidate screen to
whatever suits your way of working a candidate. You have a list of available
fields and simply pick from that list to add fields to your candidate screen at
any time. Setting up client/company records are similar in that they are also
customizable to best suit the way you work. You have the choice of column layouts, and this functionality
is per-user, controlled with permissions.
Another nice touch is that include
an email client that is integrated with the product and syncs with your
MS/Outlook program. I have seen other programs that sync your outgoing emails
but this integration syncs incoming emails as well, something I have not seen
very often. Their calendar also syncs up with your Outlook calendar as well.
The two-way synch requires a module called Courier to run on your own
computer.
Searching is easy. One way is to use
the extremely simple search interface on the main screen. Pick up the three
fields you want to search, fill in the search boxes with your criteria, and hit
the search button. You results come back in a list of clickable links that take
you to the full record if you like. You can also use their keyword search
feature that searches both the record fields and the resume for matches. Then
there is the advanced search feature that offers an exhaustive array of
sophisticated search capabilities to get whatever you want out of either your
candidate or client database. Using
a tabbed browser or the ‘open in new window’ command allows you to open as
many simultaneous records as you wish.
They have another feature called
“rollup lists”. These are
user-created lists of records for any purpose you can imagine. Lists of
candidates for a particular job order, list of companies from a particular
industry, etc. Theses rollup lists are a starting point for many subsequent
actions you might take in you daily affairs and in data integrations and
maintenance.
Another feature I was impressed by
was the integration they offer with VoIP telephone systems. This software knows
when you get a call and checks caller ID against the database, then adds a note
into the caller’s record that they called, whether you answered the call or
not. You can also set it up to dial outgoing calls for you and from a management
point of view you can track user calls and productivity.
Your phone extension is available anywhere with all of its features
intact. This feature is certified
with Altigen phone systems, and may work with others that use the h.323
communication standard.
Also available is a comprehensive
letter writing capability. You have a list of any types of letter you want from
agency fee agreements to recruiting letters. These are all customizable to merge
any database fields, and they can either be emailed directly from the system or
printed. The system has full
email campaign and tracking features using the rollup lists and HTML
letters/embedded images.
Reporting uses the rollup lists for
easy selection of information, and there are many standard reports to go along
with a complete ad-hoc report designer. For
people with a technical bent, you can also access the database directly with an
included SQL analyzer.
Pricing: For ASP Service, monthly
user costs are approx $85/month per user. Setup
fees vary by the professional services required.
Main Sequence claims great expertise with data conversions, which are
priced per job and include their own custom agreements that describe every step
of the process. For installation on your own web-server, they can charge per
server, per business unit, per-user, or via long term lease, depending on your
business needs. When the self-hosting option is available, like it is here,
you might want to do a careful workup of the costs and benefits of both models
to see which one fits your needs best.
In closing, if you are in the market
for your next ATS solution, a visit with the people at PCRecruiter may be
helpful as they clearly understand recruiting technology and they are
refreshingly focused on end-user satisfaction along with a solid technical
foundation.
I want to thank Martin Snyder,
President of Main Sequence Technologies for his assistance in writing this
article. Anyone with any questions
or comments about this software should contact Martin via email at martin@mainsequence.net
or voice at 440.946.5214 ext. 5300. For sales information, contact Main
Sequence’s VP Marketing / Operations, William Kubicek via email at william@kubicek.net
or voice at 440.946.5214 ext. 5402. You can also find out more
information at the PCR web site at www.pcrecruiter.com.
Online
Solutions
I recently had the opportunity to
learn about an interesting service that might be of interest to any of the
Fordyce readers who use one or more of the Internet job posting or resume
services. Online Solutions is your one-stop solution for all of those needs.
They act as the intermediary between you and the service and find the service
that is best for you at the best price. Hey will negotiate on your behalf with
some of the largest services out there including CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Dice
and over 100 boards total. They did over $1.5 million dollars in service last
year alone. Best of all for you…there service is free to recruiters as they
are paid a commission by the service. They also have relationships with over 100
background check companies as well for anyone needing that service.
I
spoke with Brad Hansen of Online Solutions and I know he would be happy to
discuss his service with anyone interested. He can be reached via voice at
612-920-3150 or via email at bhansen@onlinesolutions-adv.com.
You can also find out more about the service at the Online Solutions website at www.onlinesolutions-adv.com.
varsalesjobs.com
From
an email I received recently announcing a service specializing in VAR,
Integrator, Solution Provider, and Channel Sales type positions. I have never
used this service nor do I know anything about it but anyone with any interest
in this type of candidate should visit the webiste at www.varsalesjobs.com.
Tip
Internet Recruiting Best Practices
Over
many years of using the Internet to locate passive candidates on a number of
different search engines, I have compiled a list of what I call “Best
Practices”. These are nothing more than helpful hints that if utilized, will
make your Internet recruiting experience more enjoyable.
Minimizing Results – So often when you run a search you see tens of thousands of results. Sure, you might see some resumes as well but for all you know your next placement is link number 20,000. Your objective in any Internet search is to get your results down to in between 75 and 150 results. This is a manageable amount that anyone can go through in one session. They way you do this is through the use of additional keywords culled from your job order, and the often overlooked NOT words. NOT words are those keywords with a minus sign in front of them (when using Google) that you do NOT want to appear in the results. Sometime you can get rid of thousands of pages of unwanted “junk” by putting in a few of these
These “best practices” are excerpted and abridged from my new book, Power searching for free Resumes on Google - A Guide to Advanced Search Techniques and Methods. You can find out more information on this resource on my www.swatrecruiting.com website.