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08/11/2005

How WebPAS Meets Four Critical Applicant Tracking System (ATS) Needs

WebPAS ATS meets four critical needs defined by Kevin Wheeler in ERE article "How to Choose and Implement an ATS".

By Phil McCutchen, Marketing Manager

The issues, business drivers and innovations within the industry keep any recruiting and staffing company on its toes. But those things important to success remain the same.

This concept was reinforced when I came across an article entitled, "How to Choose and Implement an ATS," by Kevin Wheeler in my daily ER Exchange newsletter. It got to the heart of what recruiting and staffing companies need to ask themselves when purchasing software.

As the most experienced staffing and recruiting software vendor in the industry, we couldn't agree more. In fact, it makes sense to address the questions that Kevin's article raises from the perspective of how our WebPAS recruiting and front-office staffing solution answers them.

Let's start with Kevin's first question:

"Does the system have at least 80 percent of the features you think you will need?"

The short answer is YES. WebPAS is a software solution that can automate and streamline your sales, recruiting, staffing and placement flows. Proven in use by thousands of recruiters and employment agencies, it reduces or eliminates manual or cumbersome processes, enabling you to concentrate on your main business objective building relationships that make placements. Further, because it can easily be run over the Internet, you can work anywhere, at anytime.

Okay, that's the overview; now what specific functionalities are going to improve the way you do business?

WebPAS has the capability to reduce the effort managing resume and conducting resume searches through a sophisticated resume harvesting system that drills down to the most relevant data. Additionally, WebPAS can auto-match jobs to candidates or candidates to jobs. This automation frees up your time to work on finding more candidates or, if you're into contract or contingent staffing, fill more orders for your customers.

You'd be lost without MS Outlook today, and WebPAS enables you to integrate your email messages to simplify your work flow process. Additionally, you can integrate your Outlook 'to do' list within the WebPAS system. This enables you to email market your candidates, employees and clients with a few clicks of the mouse.

You need flexibility in your business processes, and WebPAS helps here as well. You can set up custom user-defined fields based on the information you want to capture within your system. This information can include text, date, multi-value lookups, single-value lookups and more. All the fields you custom design are searchable and reportable.

Well, we've discussed some of WebPAS' basic technology, but how would you like to integrate a real business-generator?

Connecting your business to the Web with WebPAS WorldLink enables you to generate more orders with greater ease, cutting your recruiting costs and improving client communications. WebPAS WorldLink serves as a 'virtual' 24/7 office that can be accessed by your clients and customers to view information, update their information and see what new jobs or candidate information has been posted.

Next, let's look at Kevin's second question.

"Has the vendor installed the applicant tracking system in another organization of a similar size to yours?"

WebPAS provides an amazingly flexible recruiting and staffing environment for employment agencies. Our clients range from five-person recruiting offices to mid-size multi-line staffing firms to national firms with hundreds of recruiters.

That flexibility enables your firm to take your business as far as you want to go. With WebPAS, you can easily grow -- integrate and manage multiple offices, lines of business and a variety of Web-based services for candidates, employees and customers. More importantly, we offer WebPAS through ASP, Enterprise or Managed Services programs to match your business needs.

Kevin's third question was of particular interest to me because I often look at a vendor's vision and values before considering a purchase. The question:

"What is the vision and growth strategy of the ATS vendor?"

This can be answered through VCG's core values and mission statement as well as its belief in the technology of the future.

VCG's goal is to ensure our customers' loyalty through our technology solutions and support. With more than a quarter of a century's experience in the staffing software industry, VCG is uniquely suited to serving the recruiting and staffing industry's needs.

Recruiting and staffing software solutions should make your life easier. Our solutions do because they are based on listening to the unique needs of recruiting services like your employment agency, and delivering products that help you excel at what you do best. Our success can be measured by our leadership in recruiting software technology solutions going back to 1976, and more importantly, in the success of our clients.

But beyond our present mission statement and core values, VCG is looking to the future. At VCG, our commitment to technology and development is unparalleled. We continue to offer new releases of our products, and make significant investments in new technology to make your job easier. In fact, we listen to our clients and many of the enhancements that are made to our software programs are a direct result of customer feedback.

The final question Kevin asks the readers to think about is:

"Are you in control of the ATS selection process?"

An imperative question to ask yourself and those in your organization as selecting a software provider is a big commitment.

In our nearly thirty years' of experience, we've built our success on 'win-win' partnerships with our clients. Some have been with us more than 25 years. A majority of our customers have been with us for more than ten. We will dedicate the time and resources necessary to lead your employment agency through the evaluation process so that you can make an informed decision. This decision will serve the best interests of you and your company.

You're looking for a vendor that develops superior technology and cares about their client relationships. VCG has the industry experience to guide your company through the selection, implementation and training process with people that have worked in the recruiting industry. In fact, our staff has well over 400 years of staffing industry related service experience.

I would urge that when you are looking for an ATS vendor that you also look further than just the product. What type of training does the company offer? How extensive is it? Make sure any ATS vendor that you 'interview' through the selection process has strong operations support to handle any unforeseen issues.

How the vendor handles software support is a measure of how much they value you as a client. VCG currently has a 96 percent customer satisfaction rating on its support. What's more, we have our support services independently surveyed -- and customers like you have given us 'excellent' marks -- well above the industry standard.

For details, click: High Marks in VCG Customer Survey Emphasize Importance of "High-Touch" Staffing Software Support.

So, yes, ask yourself the four questions Kevin Wheeler laid down for you, but feel free to ask a lot more. When you select your recruiting and staffing software vendor, you should feel you've made one of the best business decisions possible to increase your employee's productivity and your bottom line.

More about VCG's WebPAS recruiting software solution.

About Electronic Recruiting Exchange

Founded as an email discussion list for recruiting professionals in February, 1998, the Electronic Recruiting Exchange (ERE) has grown to become the preeminent source of information and networking opportunities for recruiters and HR professionals on the Internet.

For more information about the Electronic Recruiting Exchange, visit their Web site at: ERE.