Small, But Mighty!

One of the more heartwarming stories in the news last week was that of the “Operation Chihuahua" airlift which has helped relieve overcrowded West Coast animal shelters of their glut of these small dogs, flying them to the East Coast where they are in high demand.  What struck me most when I read about the efforts to move these dogs East was how rare and valued the petit canines are in cities like New York where living space is at a premium, and that animal shelters have compiled long waiting lists of those wishing to adopt Chihuahuas.  This appreciation of how something so small can offer so much in the way of value and reward brings to mind how clients in the SMB market are underappreciated by their talent lifecycle vendors.

While so many Talent Acquisition and Talent Management firms have focused their energies on mergers and acquisitions and claiming their piece of the Fortune 500 marketplace, the needs of the mid-market clients are too often forgotten.  These clients are forced to re-evaluate their SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) opportunities to ensure they are getting the best customer support and reliability they need. As a result, they are skipping over the bigger vendors and jumping straight to the vendors, who have aligned themselves with the mid-market community.

So, let’s look at what iCIMS, the leader in mid-market dominance, is doing (warning, blatant self-promotion). Besides being named the leader in total service satisfaction by Bersin & Associates, iCIMS has remained committed to what it does best: serving small to mid-sized clients in their Talent Acquisition and Management efforts.  And this focus has paid off, as iCIMS’ dominance of the SMB market has propelled it into the #2 spot among providers of SaaS talent acquisition solutions as it prepares to enter its 2nd decade.  And of the over 225 new clients that iCIMS signed in the record breaking year of 2009, over 70% were in the mid-market.

From the tiny teacup Chihuahuas that are finding new homes in downtown studio apartments and even in subway-bound handbags, to the mid-sized variety Chihuahua mixes like the one that my neighbor shares her more spacious midtown pad with (she claims he is half German Shepherd!), these West Coast transplants are finding just how accommodating the Big Apple can be, in much the same way that iCIMS’ SMB clients appreciate the flexibility and scalability of the iCIMS Talent Platform.  Offering a single, highly configurable technology Platform that can grow and evolve with each client as they grow, accompanied by customer support that even a Great Dane would love, more and more small and mid-sized businesses are finding a home with iCIMS every day.