Everyone has clients that are a pain in the butt. Frankly we are probably that way for a few key suppliers we have where we really push them to the limits. If you want a constructive and very funny way to say goodbye to them check out www.serverbeach.com and see their video on goodbye to www.youtube.com.
We all know that the ATS space is very overcrowded. Now even the integrated talent management space is getting that way. Today I searched on applicant tracking systems on google and found 15 unique listings for the first two pages - does anyone go any further? (It removes the buyers guides and definitions) in the organic search results. These are results that google indexes based on a company’s website and content. Interestingly enough, none of the top suspects made the front page. The people who have done the best job (top of the list for free listings) are in order on page 1 of google.
1. www.maxhire.net
2. Alchemus.com ( www.Brightmove.com )
3. www.CVManager.com
4. www.ApplicantPRO.com
5. www.recruitersnetwork.com
6. www.mindscope.com
7. www.iapplicants.com
Top paid listings (top of the page sponsored listings):
www.Taleo.com *
www.myStaffingPro.com
www.talenttech.com *
Page 2 free results:
8. www.myStaffingPro.com *
9. www.catsone.com
10. www.careerbeacon.com
11.www.workstreaminc.com *
12.www.redmatch.com
13. www.symedia.com
13. www.talenttech.com *
14. www.vision2hire.com
15. www.mindscope.com
Paid Listings:
Top
www.SonicRecruit.com *
www.MaxHire.com
www.myStaffingPro.com
Side bar
www.Talisma.com
www.kenexa.com *
www.StandoutJobs.com *
www.issuetrak.com
* Very familiar to HR.com; others are not know to HR.com
Others found include PC Recruiter, Staffingsoft, Simplicant, CVManager, Applicant Pro, Mindscope, iapplicants, CATS, careerbeacon, Sysmedia and vision2hire.
Note the absence of big major players such as Kronos, HRSmart, icims, jobvite, Oracle, SAP, Authoria, Successfactors, First Advantage, Trovix, Workopolis, Monster, Stepstone, Softscape…the list goes on and on…
This tells me that companies really need to work on the intrinsic free search engine optimization strategy… and quite frankly, they aren’t very good at it.
It seems like every day a new vendor pops up with the latest web2.0 offerings. My guess is the ATS and TM space is undergoing a radical transformation similar to what we saw from DOS-based to Web-based … I wonder how many of today’s top providers will make the transition or if we will have another case of too much VC funding coming into the market (disrupting the market leaders and creating a further fragmented market. This already happened in 1999 -2001 with restrac (webhire) and resumix - the then market leaders who are virtually gone from this space now.
Many start in the ATS space, like www.trovix.com, and transform themselves into something else like an HCM search engine… which by the way led them to their recent acquisition by monster for $72.5 M. You sure know venture capitalists were involved in this sale as there in no way just a search with very little revenue (to be used I would guess by just monster) would be worth $72.5 Million. What this does show is:
1) Just how broken the search is on all the major job boards, Talent Management Suites and Applicant Tracking systems.
2) That www.monster.com is seriously committed to fixing their search issue (to the tune of buying Trovix for $72.5M) . Of course this will help the search but have they considered removing those pesty full page ads that have nothing to do with a job (except offering you training or credit cards) to improve the user experience?
3) Similar to what engenium was (a private label semantic search engine used in the majority of the ATS’s) vendors need to start searching for their own next generation search engine to layer over their products. Check out my favorites - www.purediscovery.com and Vivisimo. I really do not think ATS , Talent Management Suite vendors or even ERP vendors need to own the search. They need to leave these search vendors as innovative, creative types who keep refining and defining the industry.
