iCIMS Hire Expectations™

Last week, iCIMS formally announced a new and exciting partnership with Workopolis, the largest online recruitment provider in Canada. Each time the company enters into a partner relationship with any outside vendor much thought and consideration is put into how clients will be impacted. With the Workopolis decision, iCIMS saw this vendor as an ideal candidate to work alongside based on the shared values that both companies are committed to delivering including ease-of-use, flexibility, and scalability. The alignment is particularly fitting as both organizations successfully serve companies of all sizes, from small businesses to enterprise clients.

Now, let’s discuss how everyone will benefit from this relationship! First, iCIMS will now be able to leverage the power of the Workopolis brand in Canada, with Workopolis becoming the exclusive Canadian distributor of the iCIMS Talent Platform and its related solutions and services. To bring this arrangement full circle for Workopolis, the iCIMS Talent Platform will replace the existing “1.0” ATS that is currently being provided to Workopolis customers. Both iCIMS and Workopolis are capitalizing on one another’s best-of-breed abilities to take their individual organizations to the next level.  iCIMS will be more visible in the Canadian marketplace and Workopolis will obtain the innovative 2.0 talent acquisition functionality that the company needs to ensure that customers can stay ahead of the competition in the war for top talent. Both organizations are receiving a boost to their credibility as leaders in the talent acquisition world.

While each company is greatly anticipating what the future will hold as the two recruitment technology experts join forces, let’s not forget about the clients. Now that iCIMS will be providing products to larger number of Canadian clients, the company is creating a Canadian data center. Additionally, iCIMS is in the process of establishing French language support. Furthermore, existing customers will be seeing tighter integrations between the iCIMS’ Talent Platform and Workopolis Jobs.

Overall, this partnership was put in place as a way for each company to utilize the other’s strengths and allow them to continue providing a best-of-breed experience to clients. For more information regarding iCIMS’ partnership with Workopolis, please click here to read the press release.

It is hard to tell if it is collective wishful thinking that the recession is truly easing (or even past history), but the headlines in the business news continue to look more and more positive.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average seems to be holding ground at over 10,000, major retailers are reporting higher sales than same time last year, and shippers UPS and FedEx are predicting higher holiday shipping volume over last year.  But despite all the numbers and predictions in the news, on the home front I can report my own corner of the recession is easing- my husband found a new job! 

While technically not a victim of the recession, but rather someone who found himself at the expected end of an entrepreneurial endeavor just as the employment market went south, he still had the pleasure of re-entering the job market at its worst.  Spending hours each day searching through job boards, visiting career sites, filling in online applications- he had a tough few months.  And he was happy to report to me (not that our household would be at all biased) that his candidate experience with Talent Portals hosted by iCIMS was the best he encountered!  In the end, however, (while he will miss being able to go surfing whenever the waves are good, and it was nice that he had some extra time to work on the “This Old House” candidate home we bought,) he is more than happy to be getting back to work. 

And many others are out there looking to join him!  So, with the economy showing more and more signs of life every day and lots of talent out there, what can your organization do to land the best candidates?  To help you prepare, iCIMS is happy to announce a complimentary webinar this week on “Post Recession & Seasonal HR Practices”. This one-hour webinar will consist of a panel discussion featuring HR leaders from the retail industry and will focus on the parallels between retail seasonal hiring and post recession HR practices.  The goal of the webinar is to prepare companies in all industries for the new post-recession hiring landscape by considering the example of the retail industry’s experience with seasonal hiring.   The webinar takes place tomorrow, Wednesday, November 18^th, 2009 at 1:00 pm EST.  To register for the webinar, you can click here. 

Well, I guess it’s more like an Emmy nod and a People’s Choice award nomination.  A finalist for two customer service and satisfaction awards, iCIMS is gearing up to walk the red carpet later this fall. 

In September, the NY Enterprise Report will recognize iCIMS for best practices in customer service.  “Who are you wearing!?” “Who’s your date!?”  iCIMS is prepared to answer all the hard-hitting questions from the paparazzi as we step out of the limo. 

Come October, Sift Media in the UK will announce who’s taking home the statue at the Software Satisfaction Awards in London.  Gathering customer feedback to come up with the shortlist of nominees, users and buyers are the actual voters. Rest assured we will remember to thank our moms, dogs, and our fans (err, clients) in our acceptance speeches if we make it to up the podium.  Serving over 750 companies worldwide, the on-stage music is sure to cut us off.

If I had a nickel for every time I came across someone talking about “the cloud” lately, I’d be a rich, rich woman.

If I had a nickel for every person who could accurately define what exactly it means to be “in the cloud,” I’d be broke.

In spite of what a hot topic the cloud is, especially in light of its implications as seen in the recent break-in of confidential Twitter accounts, it seems that there is little industry consensus on what exactly it means to be in the cloud. Pair that with some preexisting confusion over what is true Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), and you find us all in a hot mess.

I’m going to break down my opinion of what it truly means to be Software-as-a-Service and what it means to be “in the cloud.” And just for some perspective, I’ll throw in where iCIMS as a talent management solution falls. Feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong.

Buzzwords

Cloud computing is the most recent buzzword, but this isn’t the first time an innovative method has had the industry buzzing. Back in the day, ASP (application service provider) was the hot topic. An ASP is a company that provides software in an on-demand SaaS method.

After ASP, the buzz turned to Software-as-a-Service, which is a method to deliver software (typically web-based software).

Thus, the progression went ASP --> SaaS --> cloud computing.

Where does iCIMS fall? We are an ASP and we offer a SaaS Talent Platform.

SaaS

I can’t speak for other organizations, but I can explain what it means that the iCIMS Talent Platform is SaaS. iCIMS owns a couple dozen servers on which we host our clients’ highly confidential or sensitive material, like EEO data, personal information, etc. These servers are very much a physical entity and they’re stored in AT&T data centers in NJ.

All other client information, such as their graphics, style sheets (aka static information) is hosted on the 15,000 servers we have access to through our partnership with Akamai Technologies. We do not own 15,000 servers, Akamai does, but we use them.

Therefore, highly private information is safely stored with us on those iCIMS' owned servers which is obviously a huge plus.  And because Akamai hosts all static information on their 15,000 servers that are all over the world, this ensures that those static elements of the Talent Platform will be as fast as possible.

The cloud

Instead of buying, maintaining, repairing and being in charge of those servers we own to store clients’ information, we could essentially rent the servers from a vendor; this is what it means to be in the cloud. 

Just as iCIMS clients don’t have to install or host their own Talent Platform, but we do that for them in the Software-as-a-Service model, these cloud vendors would be hardware-as-a-service. We’d no longer have to purchase dozens of expensive servers. Instead, we’d simply use a vendor’s hardware and put all data there, and we’d pay them a monthly fee to ensure that they had someone maintaining the servers. 

The advantage to this is that it would cure the problems experienced through the SaaS model. We wouldn’t have the physical responsibility of purchasing/maintaining/repairing servers.

The downside? Well, no one’s all that clear on the issue yet because this is unexplored territory. That is precisely why, as appealing and exciting as going to the cloud might seem, organizations must proceed with caution.

What do you think? Do you agree with my assessment of SaaS and the cloud or is your definition different? Let's get some dialogue going on this.

...has become synonymous with negativity and crisis.  From recruitment freezes to lay-offs, most mid-market business employees may be finding it difficult to see a light at the end of the office. 

But just when all hope was about to be lost, ITChannelPlanet.com released the aptly titled article, “Study: Mid-market Not Drastically Cutting IT Budgets”and stated that not every office budget is suffering, and one aspect is even seeing growth…

“A new study commissioned by IBM Corp. of nearly 2,000 mid-market companies worldwide revealed that despite the economic slowdown, most midsized businesses have not dramatically curtailed IT spending but instead are redirecting available resources to improve efficiencies, reduce costs and prop up relationships with customers.”

Either these IT directors are attempting to single-handedly stimulate the economy, or there's a different reason for this growth in software spending.  The author continues to explain that there is some money... somewhere... to be spent.  Mid-market companies are taking their budgets, investing in technology, and in turn, are seeing a nice ROI. 

“The study’s participants identified their top business priorities as improving efficiency and reducing costs, increasing employee productivity, upgrading customer service and pursuing new customers. More than 80 percent of midsized companies in the study said that improving efficiency, reducing costs and boosting productivity were highest on their list of business concerns.”

Funny, I thought better food in the cafeteria would be in there somewhere?  Probably next on the list. In any event, as technology continues its relentless march towards increased automation and power, companies are realizing that in order to stay ahead of the competition, they must continue to invest in IT.  To the short-sighted, plunking down dollars on software in the midst of a recession may seem a foolish thing to do, especially if a company is doing fine with the IT that it currently has.  But what company wants to do just fine?  Don't forget, if you're happy to continue doing fine, your competition is saving many more thousands of dollars by increasing efficiency, automating routine tasks, and eliminating needless processes and workflows.