Bullhorn
8.5
This
month we have the honor of reviewing the venerable ATS provider, Bullhorn, one
of the industry leaders and one we have written about in this column before.
Bullhorn just released their latest and greatest, version 8.5 which I am going
to write about today. They provide a fully integrated, Web-native front office
solution, comprising integrated email, calendaring, applicant tracking, customer
relationship management, and job order management…meeting the needs of all
sized of staffing and recruitment firms, including temporary and permanent
placement.
The
focus of this column will be on the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This is the
staffing and front office solution that you leave open on your desktop all day
long and can also be accessed from a wireless device. As a result, they refer to
it as the “virtual office that drives your company’s growth”.
Since it is a web-based
product there is nothing to install on your local PC and all you need to get
started is an Internet connection and your web browser.
After entering your user
name and password, Bullhorn opens up to an integrated email client, similar to
Outlook, with your folders on the left and your messages and preview pane on the
right. Its functionality is similar to Outlook and other email programs, and is
designed for you to start working with it immediately.
I jumped right into the
Candidates area, which is feature rich. Other than adding a new candidate
(either manually or with the Resume Wizard), you can view your complete
Candidate List, which is searchable. From the Candidate List view you have many
options. I started by clicking on a link to view a candidate. The next screen
opens to your candidates’ overview, which is laid out nicely and easily
configurable with the admin layout toolkit. You have a quick and easy view of
pertinent data including the resume, status, notes (the last 10), salary
information, contact information, category (title), location preferences, and
other information as well. There are an unlimited number of “tabs” of data
per candidate (the demo account showed 14) including attachments, education,
notes, references, matches, edit (for updates to record), test scores, work
history, and others. You may not need each tab for every candidate but they are
there if you do and can be hidden if you don’t.
I’ll take this
opportunity to mention a nice feature. One of the tabs is a “login” tab. You
can assign your candidate a user name and password, and then they can log into a
candidate portal and update their own record, which then becomes part of the
permanent record. The Resume Wizard (resume data parsing feature) seems to work
well. I parsed a couple of resumes and the new records appeared with no errors,
including skills, which is impressive.
Searching your candidate
records is easy and intuitive. Nicely done is a Quick Search feature accessible
directly from the candidate List View where you can run a search for data from
any field in the candidate record simply by typing in a word or two and then
clicking the Find button. There are also both a Search and a Custom Search
feature enabling a much more comprehensive search of your database including
attachments and notes. If you run the same types of searches over and over
again, there are Saved Queries you can access and run with one click. Overall, a
great suite of searching features guaranteed to allow you to access any
candidate that you are looking for.
I won’t spend a lot of
time on the Clients screen as it has many of the same views, data and features
of the Candidates screen. I do like the Activity tab, where you can view all of
the activity with this client, including current or previous interviews and
placements. Interestingly, they have this one area for both hiring contacts and
companies, which I think is well thought out design. Many database products have
separate screens for this feature, separating the two but since they are so
closely associated, I appreciate the consolidation of information. The Job List
(job orders) is also similar to the other screens mentioned above. You can have
only the Open jobs listed if you wish or look at job orders by type (temp,
temp-perm, perm, contract, project, search, etc.).
Let me also mention that as
I have been working in various screens I have noticed that if you open a screen
and don’t close it, it remains open while you are able to open while you are
able to open and view other screens. There is a list on the left side of your
screen of all of your open pages and you are able to bounce from one to another
and really get some work done when you need to.
Their placement form is
very simple, as it should be, with a total of thirteen fields, not all of which
are mandatory. I should also mention that all records (candidate, client,
contact, job, placement) are easily configurable. Placements can be as simply as
salary and fee percentage or more complex depending on the user’s needs. The
placement form can also be filled out automatically directly from the
Candidates’ screen. Invoicing is then handled directly from the placement form
information. I also like the fact that if you split fees it has an area for 3rd
party referral fee payments.
Integration is a
cornerstone component of this product. Not only is the email client and
candidate communication integrated with the database but they also offer fax
integration with eFax, online timecards for those who support staffing services,
and integrated invoicing and payments.
Reporting is one of the
strong points. I noticed at least a couple of dozen reports available including
activity, mail merge, mailing labels, job listings, placements, sales, etc. I
also want to mention they have an excellent Help feature that I used several
times in the course of this review, and is very thorough and easy to navigate.
Bullhorn subscription
pricing is based on enabled users, and entitlement - Full Users, Admin Users,
Email Users and other roles – and costs approximately $135 per user, per
month. Discounts are available for larger firms based on user commitments.
Implementation costs vary with the complexity of your business needs but
typically vary between 15 and 30 percent of the annual lease cost.
This
service is so packed with features that I knew that I was not going be able to
cover them all in this article. Some features of note that I do not have the
space for include an excellent integrated Calendaring/Task List feature,
wireless connectivity, ticklers, activity tracking, customization, and many
others.
I
would encourage anyone seeking a first-class front office solution to consider
and investigate Bullhorn. They can be reached toll-free at 866-538-7795 or you
can visit them on the web at www.bullhorn.com.
AIRS
2006 Job Board & Recruiting Technology Guide
AIRS, one of the leaders in
recruitment training and technology, recently announced the availability of
their new 2006 Job Board & Recruitment Technology Guide as of October 31st.
I downloaded and took a look at the guide and can attest to the fact it is a
comprehensive listing of general, niche and specialty job boards. It has a
“yellow pages” design style and is organized into two sections: job board
listings and recruiting technology, including applicant tracking systems, career
site hosting services, and job order cross posting services. Best new yet is
that the guide is provided free of charge by visiting the AIRS website – www.airsdirectory.com
and signing up for the download. Anyone seeking a career site or niche job
board, or maybe a geographically oriented service, should definitely check this
out.
ClearanceJobs.com
Update
We wrote a review earlier
this year for an excellent career portal for resumes and job order postings for
individuals with government issued security clearances, ClearanceJobs.com. This
is an excellent service for this type of recruiting specialty that I have used
personally with very good results. I heard from the recently noting some updated
information about their service.
They have experienced
enormous growth this year, nearly tripling the number of registered cleared job
seekers to almost 60,000. They have the largest database of security-cleared
candidates anywhere.
Look for more improvements
to their service in 2006. They will be improving the Resume Search Engine, plan
on increasing the number of registered Job Seekers and also plan on improving
their Job Posting performance.
If you place people that
require security clearances check out this service at www.clearancejobs.com.
Press
Release
TalentHook
Teams up with SmartSearch Online ATS
San Diego, December 1, 2005
- TalentHook, the resume search tool, announced today its partnership and
integration with popular applicant tracking system SmartSearch. Users of the two
products will take advantage of a streamlined process with TalentHook finding
the resumes and exporting them directly into their back-end database and
tracking system SmartSearch.
'Our
customers want tools that enable them to find and connect with qualified
candidates,' said Doug Coull, CEO of APS - SmartSearch Online. 'Our partnership
with TalentHook means our customers have access to one of the leading online
recruiting resources; they can now easily transfer candidates found using
TalentHook into their SmartSearch Online database. This integration maximizes
recruiter productivity and improves the quality of hires by opening up a wider
candidate pool.'
"TalentHook
is always looking for ways to improve the process and save recruiters valuable
time," adds Phil Gonzalez, CEO of TalentHook. "Our integration with
SmartSearch is just another example of how we are improving things for
recruiters every day. When two great software products like TalentHook and
SmartSearch work together in tandem, everybody wins."
APS has been in the
business of developing and implementing large-scale recruitment management
systems since 1985 and has successfully provided systems to thousands of users.
Having pioneered the field of resume-scanning-based recruiting solutions, APS
remains the leader in developing innovative approaches to recruitment data
management. An example of this leadership is SmartSearch Online - its
browser-based staffing management system now in its 9th release, with more than
200 current customers worldwide. Learn more about SmartSearch Online by visiting
www.smartsearchonline.
Tip
– Search Engines
Everyone knows (or should)
about retrieving free resumes from Google. Also, I had just written a tip
recently about the Yahoo search engine. Keep in mind there are many others that
can produce results for you. Below is a list of search engines that you can try.
Go into the help section for each one as the operators for each one are similar
but not exactly the same. For example, some use spaces for AND’s, some use
plus signs (+), and others use the word AND. Same with other operators as well.
There is also a shorter list of “meta” search engines. These make your life
easier as you can type in your search string once, then they search multiple
search engines for you. A lot less tedious, however, the downside is that they
are less flexible than going into each search engine individually. If you have
the time and inclination to take a run and locating free resumes on the Internet
for your next search, give some of these a try. Good Luck!
Search
Engines
Google
– www.google.com
Ask
Jeeves – www.askjeeves.com
AllTheWeb.com
–www.alltheweb.com
AOL Search – search.aol.com/
HotBot
– www.hotbot.com
Teoma
– www.teoma.com
AltaVista
– www.altavista.com
Gigablast
– www.gigablast.com
LookSmart
– www.looksmart.com
Lycos
– www.lycos.com
MSN
Search – search.msn.com
Netscape
Search – search.netscape.com
Open
Directory – dmoz.org/
Meta
Search Engines
Dogpile
– www.dogpile.com
Vivisimo
– www.vivisimo.com/
Kartoo
– www.kartoo.com
Mamma
– www.mamma.com
SurfWax
– www.surfwax.com