SaaS Customer Bill of Rights

For all people considering going into Saas (Software as a Service or online software) this is a great document that paves the requirements for true SaaS suppliers. This report is MUST READ for anyone purchasing SaaS models. I am proud to say that my company, PeopleXS, meets these requirements seemlesly.

Source: www.altimetergroup.com

AG Customer Bill of Rights - SaaS - Live

iphone en recruitment goeie combinatie

Dat de iphone een geweldige telefoon is weten we allemaal inmiddels wel. Ook ik heb er onlangs één aangeschaft om te zien hoe de consumenten- en bedrijfsapplicatietoepassingen erop kunnen werken. Opvallend is dat er op het gebied van recruitment nog niet heel veel toepassingen zijn gebouwd. Voor Gordon Lokenberg reden om hier als recruitment goeroe op in te springen met Lokloq.

Met de gedachte van Forrester Research dat op direct messaging of sms op mobiele telefoons een 95% penetratiegraad is en 5 tot 25% response rate lijkt het ook logisch om het mobieltje nog meer in te lijfen in het recruitment vak. In principe betekent het, dat bijna alle mobiele telefoongebruikers het ontvangen bericht zullen lezen wanneer zij zich daarvoor aanmelden. Inkopper toch, zou je zeggen. Lees het hele artikel...

Perfect Example on Recruiting through Social Media

This must be one of the best examples I have come across in recruiting on how to fill a position. This shows that Forrester understands the effect of Social Media. They are recruiting through Jeremiah’s own blog with a guest post.
For those that don't know Jeremiah Owyang, he is the one leaving the verry position they are recruiting for. Jeremiah is one of the people that people turn to with questions on Social Media and has travelled around the world for Forrester to teach people and corporates about this topic. You can refer to him as a guru on this subject matter and has met probably thousands of people that know this subject. He therefore is "the one" with the network to recruit for this position.

Recruiting at the heart of your market and using Jeremiah as brand ambassador for ‘his Job’ is brilliant. Perfect example that Forrester understands recruitment and social media use.

Just for the example I think it would be great to follow the rest of the process and apply for the job myself, but since I don't qualify for the "non-negotiables" and I love what I am doing now, I will skip that part.

So why is this such a great example for the recruitment industry? Here are some thoughts:

• The introduction by Jeremiah himself. You cannot be more convincing than this. He knows best what the job includes!


• Recruiting on this blog puts them at the heart of their target market


• They use the online Social Media network to spread the word. Connecting through facebook allows them to draw more friends in the network to the blogpost and so to the position.


• Jeremiah continues to be a brand ambassador to Forrester, even after he's gone


• They use links to twitter & blog profiles to follow people and get their impressions to set the company and job culture


• They introduce the team with pictures and profiles that the applicant will become part of


• They define clear and non-negotionable must-haves for the job


• Clear links to twitter and Linkedin profile of the "recruiter"


• Clear links to Forrester community for more impressions


• Options to share this post with multiple social media channels so the viral marketing of this post can do its work

It would be interesting to see how fast this job is filled, how qualified the person is and if he comes out of Jeremiah's realm of influence.

Some more thoughts you can consider when posting jobs:

• Make sure you follow up correctly when people start applying for the job on your website.


• The webform and follow up responses are critical. Make sure it is branded and looks the part.


• If possible skip the webform and either parse the CV automatically or have people apply for the job with their Linkedin profile or Facebook profile.

At PeopleXS we can make sure that the Facebook profile is read directly into your ATS with contact details, work experience, etc.

So for all recruiters out there. Keep this list in mind when you post your next job. I will do my part in making sure you are enabled to do this easier when using PeopleXS allthough a lot of this comes down to your own creativeness.

Let me know if you have more good ideas and I will include them in this listing
Good luck!



(special thanks to @bvdhaterd's tweet and reference to rectec.nl)

Flexibility in SAAS

Flexibility as SAAS supplier remains an interesting and disruptive topic. Even though PeopleXS has set a new standard since the year 2000 in approaching software development for an Applicant Tracking System, it seems that different parties are finally trying to catch on.

What does flexibility mean?

Typically all suppliers say they are very flexible in their system. They can change things such as tab labels, workflows, reports, etc. But that is just it. They can change it, but "they" have to do it! Real system flexibility however means that admdinistrating users of an application can change these items themselves. And I am not talking about changing a label on a field or tab or changing the data selection for input on a standard report.

The kind of flexibility within a SAAS model that I am talking about (or that PeopleXS is enabling) includes creating your own new custom fields that:

• you can immediately use in the application;


• you can immediately use in reports;


• you can use in the report wizard when you are creating your own reports;


• you can use and immediately display on an application form on the website;


• you can use as a field on the vacancy text dislay on your vacancy portal;


• and that you can use within your search engine.

That is the kind of flexibility that we are talking about at PeopleXS. Customizable by your own administrator within our normal user interface.

Why would I want to have this flexibility?

The foremost reason is that you don't need a PeopleXS expert, you don't need development and you don't have to spend money to get it done.

Secondly Software as a Service (SAAS) is per definition suitable for this kind of functionality. Isn't this what the internet is all about? Making things easier for all involved! If we would not create these kinds of benefits within SAAS we might as well have stayed with the client-server model that we were all used to.

As a third reason we can see that technology and organizations are constantly changing and so, even though you may standardize your work processes and candidate and vacancy handling, you should have the same options to change your ATS along just as quickly and easily. Again, without the use of expensive expertise.

Ofcourse, when you don't want to be bothered with system settings you should have the option to have your supplier do it, but it should be an option, not something you are forced to do as otherwise your investment becomes worthless.

PeopleXS is still market leader in customization within one standard product. We have been doing this since day one, and even though, others are trying to catch up. It is not done this intensely to serve the end-user and value the people that are using the tool.

This was recently confirmed by Jacco Valkenburg, Dutch Recruiter of the year 2009 and author of the book "Recruitment via Linkedin". Jacco is currently writing his new book "Recruitment Systems and Technology" where he is comparing the different Recruitment Applications on the market. After a meeting with Jacco as one of the last ATS suppliers on his list he stated about PeopleXS "I am very impressed with the flexibility of the system setup and have not seen it in this intensity before"

Unique visitors facebook.com doubled

Really increadible, but the number of unique visitors on facebook over the last six months doubled. Leaving myspace behind in the dust, facebook literally took off from 59 million to 122 million! Facebook clearly is becoming the next big thing in Social Media even though they are not a new party in this arena. They are averaging 700,000 new users each day. Most growth, 70%, is located outside the US.

Een ander perspectief op Social Media

Sociale Media in de wereld van recruitment is echt groot aan het worden. Logisch want er zijn veel mogelijkheden om je online tussen de mensen te bevinden waar je naar op zoek bent. Er wordt zelfs zoveel over gesproken dat men hier en daar ook uit het oog verliest wat je er nou werkelijk mee kan doen. Juist om die reden denk ik dat het goed is om niet te ver vooruit te streven of onszelf te verliezen en ook bij de mogelijkheden van 'nu' stil te blijven staan. Focussen we wel op de juiste technologie?

Lees het volledige bericht hier verder

Social Recruitment Evolution