Tips on selecting an Applicant Tracking System Property of Fran Quittel, Inc.© 2006 May be Reproduced with Attribution I. Project Stages, Timelines, and Vendor Criteria Project Stages: "bake off", selection, configuration, implementation, testing, staging, release, training and documentation Timelines: 6 weeks to 3 months for a "quick and dirty" small company implementation to 1 - 2 years for a large company "automate everything" implementation ROI: True ROI can come early and complicated automations can take away from your Small Vs. Large ATS vendors. I prefer vendors with advanced technologies and good-looking user interfaces. I look at how easy the application is to use, internally and externally, the pricing and the implementation team. If a vendor is really small and new, they probably won't have references or solid financials, or maybe even enough people to do the customization, testing, implementation and training, which then would become headaches of epic proportion! On the other hand, larger vendors can make this process infinitely complex. Your budget and timelines can go out the window. II. Criteria for vendor selection Questions to ask your vendor: Can you import our entire database of job descriptions and open, route and approve requisitions on line? Can you interface with and export data into your client's payroll system, usually PeopleSoft, so that the new hire can be paid? Can you interface with and export data into other applications, e.g. our onboarding system, so that the new hire's office, equipment, applications, etc. can all be set up in one movement? How do you handle interfacing with our IT staff? Can you make the application "secure," e.g. https? How do you handle customizations so that the basic application can really do what we need? Do you provide custom documentation and onsite training? Do you have a copy we can look at? Are there quick "cheat sheets"? (The documentation is important; it should be really readable so that anyone logging onto the system trains for a few minutes and can do the basic things.) Are job descriptions used as postings or can we create true job postings that sell our positions? What job boards to you interface with and how do we export our postings to job boards? When we fill positions, what "clean up" do we need to do in the system? How secure is this application and the data? How stable are you financially and can you provide recent references? III. Are you a company that is ready internally for this implementation? Is your data ready to import into an applicant tracking system or is it a hodge-podge of files that need first to be updated and cleaned? Will your IT, web design, and security people work smoothly with the applicant tracking system or will you have problems that take time to resolve? Does your IT department have a release process that you need to interface with before the application is release? Do you have a defined scope, or will you fall in love with automation and discover new and endless things to automate into this application? Do you know the customizations you will need? Have you selected an internal systems "go to" person for users? Who will do the training? Who will prepare the business case and ROI for the application? Comments? Questions? Please feel free to write: Thank you!
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