A Cheaper Alternative to Microsoft Office
One thing I have always tried to do with Recruitment Views is to pass on any tips to save you money and this post is one more, which I hope you find useful.
When it comes to setting up your own recruitment company, apart from recruitment software you will also need to buy a Microsoft Office suite or an alternative for opening and reading those cvs, but with a price tag of £329 for the Office Standard Edition, it can put a dent in those set up funds.
Obviously there are ways to get around this, like borrowing a friends disk, downloading an illegal version or even paying for it with your credit card. But the other day I cam across an alternative via my web hosting company www.fasthosts.co.uk, where you can get a legal version of Microsoft Office from £4.99 per month, more details can be found here. OK it is rental but at least you can get up and running before you need to fork out £329, and if you combine that with a 3 months free trial from Microsoft you can spend the savings on some advertising or a coffee machine for the office.
Now if you still want to pay nothing and do it legally you can always go with www.openoffice.org and combine that with Thunderbird a good alternative.
What No Blackberry for Christmas!
Why is it whenever you go on a company visit or out interviewing, there is always an urgent call to cancel or arrange an interview and you haven’t the candidates or the hiring managers number.
OK I could have one of these new Internet phones or a Blackberry or even the trendy I-phone, but there was none to be found in my stocking on Christmas day! Although I did get the new I-Pod Nano, so I could finally take my music with me. Yes I have to admit I have been a bit slow here, but that’s what comes from working from home.
Anyway to my surprise when I hooked it up to my computer, I found it synced with my Outlook contacts and diary so although I cannot pick up my emails at least I can find that urgent number without having to phone the office.
Mind you I am sure some companies will feel uncomfortable with this with data protection and all, but none the less a cheaper option than having to buy a Blackberry and the associated network charges.
Arithon Recruitment Software Demo
It’s been a few days since my last post, which was mainly due to having my right hand in plaster, fortunately that will be removed on Monday and I will be able to get back into the swing of it again. My other excuse is I have been working hard on the production of my first ever video demo for Arithon’s recruitment software, which you can watch below via youtube or follow this link to see a larger and clearer version.
I have to admit it hasn’t been easy to put together, and it is still far from perfect, but I have been promising to do this for sometime. With the hand in plaster, it was a good excuse to take some time out to finally put the task to bed. So I am happy for any criticisms to help improve the presentation.
What I did find funny was yesterday a competitor tried to attach a link to their recruitment software video from within the comments on my blog, what depths some people will go to!
New Feature with Skype
As you may or may not know I am keen on VOIP, although at times quality can drop. Still I couldn’t survive without my skype number for so many reasons. The most obvious of which is, I never miss a call and generally I will know who is calling. You just cannot rely on virtual receptionists these days, as they never seem to want to answer the call!
Still last week I got the latest upgrade and I was finally pleased to see that they had implemented the call transfer feature, an absolute must when you have more than one in your company or you finally have a new recruit.
Free Recruitment Software
I was in two minds about writing this post as I sell recruitment software, still I was a Recruitment Blogger first, so honesty should win me a few more friends!!
This post was inspired as a result of a comment on UKrecruiter forum by Mark of Project House, in regards to Recruitment Software. What caught my eye is he mentions Google Desktop for searching candidates. A concept I had not thought of before. So before I tested it out, I spent some time searching for any free recruitment packages on the web.
Obviously it was difficult to find, because who in their right mind would give it away for free, still I managed to come up with one company called chameleon-i who offer the first user licence for free, but you will still need to pay for some add-ons and of course extra users.
As an alternative I wanted to test out Google Desktop as mentioned by Mark, so yesterday I downloaded the application and let it index my computer. Whether or not you use this application for recruitment, I will still recommend it because on a personal note I found it a very useful tool. What I particularly liked is how it integrates with outlook or thunderbird to find messages with ease, in all my folders and even on my gmail account. I have to admit I hate spending 10 or 20 minutes looking for an email, when all I can remember is their first name or just part of the conversation, or am I just getting old ;) .
So if you have a database of a few thousand cvs and want to find a sales engineer in Manchester, then Google Desktop will do it. There is also a nifty preview screen of the cv, saving you the need to open the document. Then just attach the cv as a contact in Outlook, which you down loaded for free with an email account at Fasthosts and you have a fully functioning free recruitment software package.
To be honest it isn’t the most ideal scenario but it will get you up and running on a limited budget. On a personal note I still would prefer to pay the £50 per month to Arithon, but then again I am biased. The reason is that by using a recruitment software package that has been developed exclusively for Recruitment Consultants, over a number of years will save you time and money, because you will get your candidate in front of the client faster than your competitors. Which is what its all about at the end of the day.
So to finish with a small sales pitch, which I had too do after passing some fee leads to our competitors!!
Isn’t Arithon free, if it saves you between 1 and 2 hours a day?
I will let you make that decision.
Need some free leads?
If you are scratching you head because you are under pressure to find some fresh candidates or clients, then you may want to take advantage of this offer from Andy at Broadlook.
Broadlook have just launched a new product called Diver. I am not sure about the name but I get what they mean!! Anyway if you like me and find yourself staring at Google and saying “there must be some leads here somewhere”, but the effort to extract them makes it not worth while, then this little application may help.
With this tool all you need to do is search as you would do normally, then let Diver find the contacts within those results, saving you the need to click each link just to be disappointed. Then with this fresh new list of contacts you upload them to your database, ready to call.
If you want to test it it out then download it here, and enter this code (M21D39301R3318671) for free access, for as many leads and candidates you can find in 3 days.
In addition Andy has asked for any comments to be directed to him at atheimer@broadlook.com, as it is a new application and any views will be appreciated.
Automatic Backups
After my recent computer crash, which seems to be at least twice a year at the moment, I thought I would revisit the subject of “backups” something that is critical to recruitment or any other business of course.
In the past I would have backed up my data on CD’s, which was never as often as I should have, and I always managed to lose some data. (It is also worth noting that CD’s have a limited time date, as they degrade).
One of the advantages of using a web based recruitment software package is your resumes and contact details are backed up off site automatically, so if your computer crashes you can always work on someone else’s while its being fixed.
Whatever the case you still need to back up those contacts and cv’s off site, and the best way without an ASP recruitment package, is to use a virtual server or an online backup system.
Fortunately the prices are now coming down, which I am sure is reflected by the number of competitors there are, you may want to visit Mashup for their recent list of 80+ File Hosting sites they have compiled.
Over the last 8 months I have been using www.box.net, which is free up to 1 GB and has an easy interface, where you can drag and drop your resumes onto their server. More recently I have been using Omnidrive which integrates into your computer so you have a virtual harddrive, but unfortunately they do not do automated backups.
So before I finally wrote this post I wanted to find a good alternative and after checking out a few sites I finally opted for Crash Plan, it isn’t expensive and you get a 30 days free trial, which always helps. What I liked about their offering was its simplicity in its setup and they give you an option of backing up between computers, such as one in the office an one at home, without the cost of having to pay for a server application if you do not want it. Still it certainly saves you having to remember to take your CD home! In addition it does automated backups and at times to suit you, which makes it the real winner.
Which is the best offering, well that is a little difficult to say, particularly as I have not checked out the other 70 odd, but I do like the 3 I mentioned earlier for different reasons. At the end of the day it will come down to cost, but so long as you some kind of backup off site, then you will be able to sleep at night if someone steals your computer or it decides to give up on you.
One final thought and tip regarding emails, which are just as valuable as the cv’s of course and that is to set up a imap account rather than the pop3 for your emails, that way all correspondence will be saved on a virtual server, with the added benefit of being able to read them from any computer with web access. A small thing but in my opinion essential, if only someone had told me about that a few years back!
Back to Normal
Well it has been quite some time since my last post on Recruitment Views, so I thought I would explain why, after 12 months of writting on this blog and keeping up the work rate with my employer, I just hit a mental block. Not so much as having nothing to say, but more like I just couldnt face looking at the computer screen after 5.30.
I couldnt face the personal emails, the RSS feeds or even the emails to Recruuitment Views. I have to admit it is a strange feeling after so much intensity over the last 12 months I suppose it isnt surprising, as a result I have quite a few posts pending and I thought this small post would ease me back into it.
But before I finish I just wondered if my compatriates ever felt the same particulary Jim Stroud and Cheezhead, do they have moments like this and what keeps them going!!
Powered by Qumana
skype vs voipcheap
Often Recruitment consultants, in particular new consultancies starting out, ask me what I think of voip and in particular skype. Well in the past I have been very positive with skype, but at times it has let me down in quality of calls, particular with mobile phones, which is no good when you are trying to pitch a client or candidate.
Well a few days ago voipcheap was recommended to me by a friend, he told me he felt the calls were far more superior with voipcheap than skype. What made my look again, was in the same week I was told the same again, so after 3 years as a dedicated skype user I thought I would take another look. I have to say I was impressed with the canvass calls I made, more importantly to mobiles and they couldn’t tell the difference.
Based on this I have decide to move over to voipcheap, it isn’t the end of Skype as I do appreciate their skypein where I have a number that travels with me all over the world, but quality of the call must comes first.
Oh and one other important factor it’s cheaper than skype not to mention that you can have phone to phone as with Jajah.
Powered by Qumana
No Candidates No Vacancies No more Excuses
Well it has taken me some time to write this review for many reasons, partly because I couldn’t look at a computer for a week or even find time to read my feeds, still no more excuses!!
One subject that is dear to my heart is new business well maybe dear is overstating it, who likes new business after all. What is true I have the ability to build a division or market from scratch, which is very satisfying and rewarding of course.
What makes it so difficult is the gathering of canvas material, in the past it was a case of cutting up recruitment ads from newspapers and magazines and sticking then to pieces of card, which is still a good system today. What I do find tedious is the routing through directories for telephone numbers to call, no amount of coffee could keep me awake at times.
One of the real positives about writing this blog, is I need to be more aware of the recruitment industry as a whole and keep abreast of the various tools that become available. While doing this I came across Broadlook technologies and having looked at zoominfo, which although had its advantages I could not see it working in the UK, even with all the hype, so as a result I was not expecting my view to change.
So the demo was booked and again as I sit here, I can only remember one part as it just blew my mind, to the point if another recruitment company ask me to start a division from scratch it has to include Broadlook. I know this is a strong statement but when I think of the hours I have spent compiling lists of contacts form directories such as Kelly’s or Kompass in particular Applegate, I would run a mile if I had to compile my own list again.
Why was I impressed, well when the broadlook sales rep asked me which directory I use, I thought Applegate, superb but useless, in regards to the effort to extract data. So I directed the rep to my last painful experience, Engineering companies in the UK. The sales rep unleashed Broadlook and in no time at all the software read the company list, found the contact details and if the companies had a websites it happily went of to search for contacts within those companies, while I slept ready for me to load into my recruitment software the next morning.
I know this may seem a blatant plug but I was blown away, I know there are other spidering software products, but this is dedicated to our industry. So if you are about to launch a new division or have consultants who are complaining they do not have enough candidates or vacancies, then now they have no excuses and more importantly as a manager you can keep them busy!
So I apologies for the plug but when I think of the pain I could have saved I thought this was worth sharing.
Tags: recruitment software
Powered by Qumana
-
-
Subscribe
