May 27, 2010 — Oceanside CA — Advanced Personnel Systems, Inc. (APS), the maker of the SmartSearch applicant tracking system (ATS), announced the release of its new Version 14. Many of the v14 upgrades are a result of suggestions from SmartSearch customers, including the addition of new Forecasting tools. As the economy and hiring rebound, these robust tools help organizations forecast upcoming recruiting needs and compare forecasted needs to the candidate pool, plan for future business growth, and fine-tune recruiting and talent acquisition strategies proactively in order to reduce time-to-hire. New, comprehensive reports summarize forecasts by title, location and user as well as measure forecasting accuracy to help lower hiring costs.
SmartSearch was the first ATS to integrate with Outlook in real-time, and its Outlook toolbar plug-in makes it simple to manage email from within the application, with tools that import inbound email or outgoing replies, as well as forward resumes into the database. The new v14 builds on these popular features. Now for the first time, SmartSearch offers the ability to synchronize email and calendar functions from Outloook/Exchange, and this ensures that all user activities are accounted for in performance measurement and reporting. Doug Coull, CEO at APS, said, “Organizations have struggled to accurately capture and report on all emails and scheduling events because users often enter information into Outlook directly instead of working within their database. APS is the first talent acquisition system vendor to reflect all Outlook/Exchange activities automatically with our new
synchronization capability.”
Another customer suggestion incorporated into Version 14 updates the SmartSearch Outlook toolbar plug-in by adding the ability to forward an inbound email containing a job requirement and parse it into the database with a single click.
SmartSerch v14 also features a new self-customizable interface for reviewing resume search results. Like many user-configurable SmartSearch functions, the new interface provides a “drag and drop” choice of candidate information to display at a glance, along with new tools that make it easier and faster to match selected candidates to job openings. Additional search engine upgrades include the ability to find candidates that have previously applied or been considered for a similar position in the past.
For enhanced sourcing, the new version offers built-in integration with TalentHook “web spider” resume search tools, and a new licensing agreement that passes a significant discount along to SmartSearch users. Other vendor partnership updates available with v14 include the addition of XML indexing of jobs on Indeed.com to extend job posting reach and attract more qualified candidates, and a new integration with VoiceScreener to save time through prerecorded telephone screening of candidates.
“SmartSearch is designed to seamlessly integrate with our clients’ existing systems and other applications for managing all employment related information,” said LJ Morris, CTO of APS. “We are particularly excited about the opportunity to offer our clients value-added integrations with our Version 14 release.”
Version 14 marks the launch of a new, more powerful and versatile ad-hoc report writer that enables users to create and save custom reports from any criteria in the database. This includes a wide variety of activity and performance metrics to drive process improvement.
SmartSearch also improved its self-configurable HireTrak toolset that aligns workflow automation with the desired hiring process and procedures. V14 enhanced HireTrak activity triggers such as email reminders, new hire on-boarding and tracking, paperless document management for approval routing, and the ability to associate forms, employment documentation and correspondence templates with candidate records and scheduled events.
In addition, minor enhancements to the VMS-Smart Vendor Management System add-on module for tracking staffing agency candidates and managing contingent workers, job expense tracking, Call List functionality, and social network integrations to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as mobile recruiting tools are all part of the v14 release.
APS designed the SmartSearch talent acquisition system and recruiting business solution to bring together the myriad building blocks of recruiting workflow in one easy-to-use application, with fully integrated web portals for candidates and employees, hiring manager self-service, and vendor partners to support communication, collaboration and branding.
About SmartSearch: Advanced Personnel Systems has developed and deployed quality talent management and recruiting solutions since 1986. Having pioneered the field of resume-scanning-based recruiting solutions, APS is a recognized leader in on-demand technology and innovative approaches to recruitment data management. Its signature product, SmartSearch, currently in its fourteenth release, serves over 165,000 users and 4.7 million job seekers worldwide. Learn more about SmartSearch by visiting www.smartsearchonline.com
This press release was distributed through PR Web by Human Resources Marketer (HR Marketer: www.HRmarketer.com) on behalf of the company listed above.