Item: SmartSearch ATS
Rating: 10
Author: David Stafford

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SmartSearch is being used primarily as our candidate intake, recruiting, applicant tracking and onboarding tool. Additionally we use it to track employment and various HR functions and documentation. I solved the problem of obtaining and organizing a lot of information surrounding each candidate. It allowed us to also create a number of procedures in the form of 'traks' to move candidates and customers through our process in a consistent manner.

Pros and Cons

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.

Would like to see some additional reporting options. There are some very powerful reporting tools in the software but they are not very intuitive for the basic user.

Return on Investment

I think one of the most positive impacts has been our value proposition we offer our customers. It has allowed us to be more consistent in our responses to them. It has made us better at recruiting by enhancing the recruiters ability to reach more candidates quicker and keep better track of skills, training, education and experience. It has made us a better employer by insuring we are following our procedures from start to finish each and every time.
Additional we feel there have been incremental positive impacts on our investment. Over time as SmartSearch has created new features and has integrated with other systems and products we have seen the productivity of our recruiting staff increase. This became increasingly apparent when email templates, document, templates and docu-sign were integrated into the system. we probably saved thousands of dollars a year just in document costs alone. Allowing recruiter contact candidates and employees via text messaging through Zipwhip. Creating texts and emails that can be automated eliminates the need for numerous 'reminder' phone calls. Now these messages show up on employee or candidate phone in second without the recruiter having to stop what they are doing to place a series of phone calls or emails. These incremental enhancements to our business add up.

Alternatives Considered

We really have not used any other products. We started with SmartSearch a very long time ago when the ATS business was in it's infancy and have never seen a demo or a recommendation that has convinced us to move elsewhere.

Support Rating

They are great.... Don't really know what else to say. They are always there for us. I enjoy interacting with everyone on their staff. They are knowledgeable about their own product as well as the staffing industry. They are always looking for feedback or suggestions in or to continue improving the product.

Usability

The product is pretty easy to pick up. Unlike some systems where every new release or update changes the interface and users have to 're-train' whenever there is an update. The interface remains consistent. This allows users to adapt to new features without feeling like they are starting from scratch with a new product each time. It does not have all of the bells and whistles some other systems may have to make it more intuitive however the training is excellent and they are always available if users have any questions. We have had no problem having new users become very efficient with the system very quickly.

Key Insights

Do you think SmartSearch ATS delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SmartSearch ATS's feature set?

Yes

Did SmartSearch ATS live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of SmartSearch ATS go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy SmartSearch ATS again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft Office 2016, QuickBooks Desktop Premier, Sage 100cloud (formerly Sage 100 ERP)

Likelihood to Recommend

If you have a recruiting organization that needs flexibility and a wide range of options to address an ever changing landscape than this is your system. It does not try to pigeon-hole recruiters into a single recruiting model. It allows you to customize how your organization does things but also allows you to control where you need to control.

We have been using SmartSearch for more than 24 years. We started out on one of the first versions because we liked the company and the direction they were taking. SmartSearch has not always been the tool with the flashiest features.... but it has always had some of the best features. They have always been of the cutting edge of the next technology and have the tools and features that make SmartSearch a complete solution. We have not seen anything else out in the marketplace that has encouraged us to change.

SmartSearch - efficiency, flexibility and features... This does a lot for your business.

Overall Satisfaction with SmartSearch