Crelate vs. SmartSearch ATS

There is definitely a little bit of a learning curve (but this would be with any platform) but what we have loved most is the ability to centralize both relationship management and workflows. We feel it has given us much better visibility into our pipeline.We love that the platform is highly customizable (with the help of our customer success manager) which has allowed us recreate workflows that have already worked for our team and has been easy to use for our new team memebrs

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.

• Very good resource to track and organize client business development
• Very customizable to allow you to modify the activities to you preference
• Great training and support to help you customize your processes

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.

• The Crelate ad response can be pretty touch and go. Crelate should be able to identify similar emails and phone numbers and replace them into the stage they were in.
• Crelate needs to have better interface with job board sites such as Indeed, Glassdoor, LinkedIn, etc.

Incentivized

• 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.

Like said earlier there is definitely a little bit of a learning curve but support and CS is wonderful to work with. Our team trainings have helped significantly. The ui is really easy to navigate as well, a little outdated but easy to navigate but they are in the process of improving it I believe.

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

• Can more easily organize our candidates and we have a lot of info at our fingertips - this translates to quicker processes which is positive
• We keep all our notes on Crelate - very useful for the whole team to see
• We have multiple team members scheduling so it really helps to see all the emails that have gone out, to ensure there's no overlap

• 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.