Last week I wrote about the CRM market and how I’d been approached by yu:talent to have a look at their new product. Having taken a proper look I’ve done a small review. The product is targeted at boutique recruitment agencies with 2-20 users looking for a modern cloud based system.
Overall it’s straightforward and intuitive with four main areas; projects, contacts, adverts and search. The project area is where you create a new assignment and manage it.
One of the features I like is that whist it’s not explicitly integrated into an email system (like some CRMs are) you can add all email correspondence via a simple ‘bcc’ process. The advantage of this system is that you can correspond with clients/candidates from any system (work email, personal email, phone, etc). The database uses a tagging feature so that contacts can be categorised as individual recruiters wish. You can also invite team mates to work on projects with you (likely to work better in boutique agencies than larger ones – so fits in with their target audience).
Another feature I especially like is the CV Drop feature. A recruiter adds candidates to the system by emailing (or batch emailing) in the CVs. For each candidate a profile is created as well as a automatically branded PDF CV to provide to your clients.
They use the CV parsing technology provided by industry leaders Daxtra. As part of this the parsing extracts skills (using some complicated system I won’t pretend to understand) and the candidate database is immediately searchable – no need to add keywords yourself or tag them (unless you want to). When searching the candidate database you can automatically search your LinkedIn network as your profile is connected.
For yu:talent the real power of the system is the developer framework which means that you can bespoke your system by adding from a list or by creating your own plugins and modules. With traditional CRM systems you either have to request a change be added to their developer list or pay for the work to be done for your specifically. Obviously with time and cost implications. The list of plugins includes things such as video interviewing, and a MailChimp hook-up with automated candidate skill sorting, candidate auto-responders and website integration with 2WaySMS coming very soon.
If you have the resources inhouse/externally a recruiter can do it themselves, or use one of the yu:talent developer network at about $20 a hour. I’m no techie but having seen the developer area and the steps involved in creating a a basic app I’d say it looks pretty simple.
When I viewed the product I noticed some features missing (such as management reports, overview of existing projects for the individual recruiter, etc), however, with the developer framework you can fairly quickly add them on meaning that you do get the system you really need. I wonder if some recruiters might find the fact that anything is possible actually quite limiting in terms of knowing what to do though!
The system is also bit lacking in the candidate integration piece. However, they are working on a candidate portal to allow recruiters to interact more fully with the candidate pool. So, whilst maybe a small frustrations for users it’s certainly on it’s way in the very near future.
The pricing structure is very interesting indeed. Firstly you can create a free trial where you pay nothing until you are ready. Once you decide it’s for you there are three models; innovator, early adopter or professional. If you sign up today you can buy the innovator product at £35 per user per month – this is for recruiters who want to invest their time with us to develop the product. You will get a 60% lifetime discount for being an active member of their ‘Innovator program’. A bit further down the line you’ll have to go for early adopter where you still get to be involved but without the beta testing obligations. Finally, probably after the end of the first quarter, recruiters will buy the “professional” package. Worth checking out the pricing model as it’s got to be a pretty unique way for CRMs to be sold and if you feel you are an innovator it could work well for you.
They have created a nice simple core system with good flow and which is quick and easy to use. The value is their developer framework that allows anyone to add any features they want meaning you end up with a totally bespoke system. I wasn’t so sure at first – but less is certainly more.
