Crelate vs. SmartSearch ATS

• Crelate allows you to quickly import candidates to your database from LinkedIn. Very good resource that is quick and user friendly!
• Crelate allows an unlimited number of job positings
• Easy to prioritize your searches
• Good resource to tracking placements and billing

Incentivized

I think our environment has stretched SmS and their capabilities (positively) but we have grown together and developed an enormously capable system together that is now very well integrated into our business. For doing applicant tracking, requisition management and offer management that has really been strong. I think we can partner together and build some better analytics and reporting capabilities that would be better suited for our business.

• Crelate has a very useful SMS system where you can engage with candidates via text and receive quick responses
• Crelate has generally useful widgets such as bookmarks, engagement activities, and ad response tracking

Incentivized

• The search functions are outstanding. It is the reason we originally went with SmartSearch many years ago. The ability to do very simple or complex searches gives the recruiting staff great flexibility in how they look for and narrow down candidates.
• The hire and onboarding traks allow us to create very specific processes we want our staff to follow to insure a consistent and repeatable result. I can create traks that can be very general or traks that literally provide emails and reminders to all of the players (recruiters, managers, candidates, etc...) every step of the way. This is particularly helpful where we have customers who have extremely stringent contractual guidelines that must be followed.
• Support. Their customer support is second to none. We always joke that they are our favorite vendor to deal with.... Anytime we have an issue or question. They are there to walk us through it. The training is on target and the staff has always been friendly and more than eager to help make us successful with the tool.

• Interface isn't great - there's a lot of clicking around required that I wish was streamlined
• This isn't a self-explanatory platform - you have to dig around a while before you figure out how to use some features, like the filtering of contacts, for example. There's a place that you'd think you filter, but that actually changes the contacts list instead.
• It often crashes and you have to sign out and sign back in for it to work again.

• SmartSearch has a steep learning curve if you want to extensively use the features like automated tasks and the report writer
• Technical support is spotty and sometimes very frustrating, they don't respond for weeks at a time.
• SmartSearch user interface is old and has far less ability to customize the interface than other tracking systems
• SmartSearch has virtually no ability to connect directly with other software and allows now other software to connect in - so no Microsoft Flow, no Zapier, no mail parser, etc. and since Smart Search capabilities are limited, not being able to integrate it with other platforms easily is unfortunate.

It works, but not sure that it's the best/we might try out alternatives first.

Incentivized

I believe over the past 30 or so pages (or so it seems), you have every reason for my business to continue as a SmartSearch ATS client and user. The support is off the charts great the few times I need them (generally not even once per year). My business has been a client since 2004. That should say it all.

There are so many facets of SmartSearch, that to know everything about it is nearly impossible. While it is mainly straight forward, there is a lot. After using the program for a while, you become pretty comfortable with the basics and can start adding some of the other features.

Incentivized

My license for SmartSearch goes back to 2004. It has always been available for me - don't remember a single time it was not available in all of those years.

Usually the Crelate support is very responsive and quick to fix any problems that arise. I've personally seen emails of the threads where Crelate support was quick to resolve problems and act courteously while doing so. While I have never called their line, it seems that their phone support is also well experienced.

Incentivized

Once you get the 1 person on the phone they are very knowledgeable and tend to solve the problem. The issue is there are not enough resources to handle all the clients. Their primary clients are "recruiting firms" and I think that is where most of the their support resources go

Using the basic functions of SmartSearch is an easy implementation. But consider carefully what your organization needs to really drive placements. Because we only did a basic implementation first, we were caught off guard when later trying to implement more functions and realizing that the capabilities were limited or were difficult to learn and implement and realizing that tech support was not going to be consistent.

• Easier to use, modern, supports drag and drop. Easy to set up and use. Fewer keystrokes
• better support than zoho, not as good (but getting there) as PCR
• Crelate is a smaller company, nimble and has ear of the customer
• LIke ability to click and dial!

Incentivized

Functionally, SmartSearch is not on the same page as ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter as a platform is much more geared toward helping applicants and is essentially a glorified resume database. SmartSearch offers so much more in terms of features and abilities, that would not really be appropriate to try and compare the two. Similarly, the overall use of SmartSearch is an apples and oranges comparison to LinkedIn Talent. LinkedIn is great for sourcing and attracting talent, but in terms of tracking candidates all the way through a hiring process and tracking a heavy volume of job orders across a variety of states and locations, the two just don't really compare.

Incentivized

• Crelate has allowed me to customize my recruiting process for business development. This will be a great ROI moving forward.
• Crelate links all candidates to the company that they work for. This is extremely important to quickly identify profiles in the database with the companies that they work for. Sounds simple but very important!
• Quickly interfaces with LinkedIn to important candidates. This makes importing candidates quick and easy!

Incentivized

• That's easy - they have helped us grown and make more money. The core element of their technology (e.g. the ability to search for, identify and contact candidates is excellent).
• They are a business partner and do their very best to help us succeed.