Login

On successfully entering your Chameleoni login, you’re presented with a Dashboard with tips and upsells / cross-sells for other Chameleon services – website services, enhancements to the basic package, links to purchase extra licenses etc – the usual stuff.

The meat is on the left – the ‘Smart Navigation’ panel, which is essentially a tree-like set of links for the most important parts of the system.  Neatly laid out – the only thing I might add here, is that maybe some users would find ‘Vacancies’ or ‘Diary’ more useful if it was higher up the list – I’m not sure they should be that far down the list from a useability perspective but would love to hear your thoughts.

Dashboard

Clicking the Dashboard link in the navigation opens a screen with 3 tabs – Activity, Performance, and Forecast.  Activity is selected as the default option, and lists outstanding diary entries – as you’ll see from the screen shot, no data on mine as I’d just started tinkering, but you’ll see your follow up calls etc logged here for action when you start adding entries to the Diary.

The Performance tab is pretty self explanatory, as is the Forecast tab, listing previous, or expected future conversions.

Mail

I wasn’t set up with a mail account as this was a demo, so full testing wasn’t possible.  What I can say is that it seems simple enough to use, with some search features at top allowing you to search by different criteria, and then further refine the sort order of the mail returned in that search.

(*Bulk Email isn’t available for single-user accounts, but it looked like it worked well enough for emailing individuals)

You can also use the Shortlist / Placement feature to email candidate and clients details on a particular Vacancy direct from the Vacancy itself.

Candidates

The Candidates screen covers extensive information for all the basic personal details for the individual Candidate such as name, contact information, DOB and address.

In addition to this, are fields to enter Current Position information, References, preferred Job and Remuneration, availability, location, and system info such as registration date.  You can also upload a CV for the Candidate here.

Companies

Now, from playing around a little, it seems Chameleon has Companies (the organisation) and then Clients (the contacts within that organisation).  The terminology may be a little different to other systems, but it’s the same deal: – set up a Company, then assign Clients (contacts) to that company.

The Companies screen allows you to add new companies, and delete or edit existing ones.  Clicking the ‘New’ link at top left of this screen brings forth the new company form.  Here you can add the essential information for companies you deal with.

After you add your new Company, there are also some handy links at the top of the screen to view or enter other related data, such as business addresses, company contacts, vacancies associated with this company. placements, email and notes etc.  We’ll cover Vacancies later in the review.

Clients

To add a Client with Chameleon, head to the Clients link on the tree in the navigation on the left hand side, or to the Company, where you can also view Clients for that company.

From the individual Client’s file, you can see Vacancies and Placements that are associated with them, and check Email and Notes etc.

Vacancies

Adding a Vacancy can either be done from the Client screen, or from the Vacancy menu.  Essential information such as Reference ID, title, company and client can be entered along with description.

You are also able to set the Vacancy’s status to show whether it is live or inactive.  Once you’ve added the Vacancy, it’s ready to go to whichever Candidates you think would be interested.

A couple of  minor things that could be improved here – the pay rate, salary etc wouldn’t allow me to type figures in with the keypad – I had to use the up/down arrows, which was a little frustrating, especially with larger figures – may be it was a problem with my firefox – would be interested to hear if anyone else has the same issue, or if this is fine in Internet Explorer.

Also, I had a Server Error in ‘/’ Application pop up when I tried to save the Vacancy, and had to start over – some problem with the Date.

Apart from that, Vacancies seem to work pretty smoothly.

Placements

Does what it says on the tin – a fairly straightforward screen for filtering Placements according to different criteria

Diary

The diary screen is fairly straightforward, displaying upcoming reminders and events

Click on an item in Day view for example, and up pops the detailed record for that appointment.

Search & Advanced Search

As well as filtering & searching in Candidate / Client records you can perform an Advanced search using the Search menu on the left.

You can search on tags, names (didn’t have much luck searching on name – just kept saying ‘you must enter a name’), perform a free text search on things such as Desired Job Title, or search comments and CV’s and other details including location, salary, country etc.

Communications

Okay, so as well as the Mail feature above, you can also Bulk SMS Candidates and Clients regarding Vacancies that are available.  I don’t think we had full functionality for SMS as we’d probably need credit for this – but between Bulk Mailing (if you have more than a single user account) and SMS, you should be able to keep all your contacts up to date on the latest Vacancies / Candidates for placement.

We really liked the ability to add in CV’s for attachment on the Mail feature, but assume that’s not available on the SMS function.

Tools – Content Management

We weren’t set up with an integrated website for this demo, so unfortunately can offer no comment on this feature apart from saying it looks fairly straightforward from the data entry point of view, with the obligatory ‘What you see is what you get’ editor which allows you to format text, and insert links to the page of your choice.

Data Migration

And of course, the handy time-saver of migrating data to your new system is also here – let’s be honest – do you fancy entering thousands of records again?  No, we don’t either!

This is the usual route of downloading a template Excel file, then uploading and waiting for the import to appear.

Setup/Settings

The system came ready to use, just requiring me to enter my Company Details and defaults, add Users for my company, company address etc in the Admin area.

We only had a ‘single user’ system for demo, so maybe if you have a lot of users they come already setup on the system to save you time, but adding a new user and assigning their User Level seems quite straightforward here.

Simple to navigate and enter the information you require in this area – also with options for the CMS (although we did not have an integrated website for this demo) and Import / Backup options.  Daily backups are included automatically, and if you want to download your own backups, you can subscribe to this as an extra service.

Support

Need help?  At the top of your screen you have access to both the Knowledgebase, and Help sections.

The knowledgebase has Getting Started Guides, topic specific help and the option for Live Chat also.

Summary

Overall, an easy to use system that should cater for the needs of most Recruitment businesses, and Chameleon were helpful throughout with providing a demo and user account.  If you’ve used Chameleon before, let us know in the comments, or add your vote to let us know what you think!

At the time of writing, online recruitment software seems to be where we are heading. If you wish to pusue the avenue of a client-server program, you'll want to have a think about your office locations first. If you have multiple office locations, then a web-based recruitment software solution may be for you. If you run your business from one location, or the telecoms network and internet are not very reliable or fast, then you may think a client-server program could be suitable.

Points To Check

A good starting point to figuring out the quality of after-sales service you'll receive is right from the first phone call or email you make. Is it easy to contact the company you are thinking of purchasing the software from, or do you have to trawl through pages of information just to get an email address? Does the company respond promptly? Is the software provider keen to help you get the most use out of their system? Online recruitment software reviews are a good place to start your research, with the proviso that they are written by publishers with few vested interests?

Of course, if you have a recommendation from a business associate in the same field this can be a great help, but be sure that they are not recommending the software to you on the basis of their own business requirements – check that the software will cover the needs of your business before signing on the line.

Any serious company will be keen to give you a good run through their software to demonstrate the benefits before you part with your money. Be sure to include some of the key information below on a checklist before taking your demo.

Check During Your Recruitment Software Review:

• Easy to contact the provider?
• Clarity of instructions / support
• Costs of setup / maintenance / upgrades
• Workflow automation
• Integration with website
• Reliability/downtime of servers (particularly important with web-based systems)
• Do they own the software, or are they just 'resellers'
• Communications integration (sms texts/emails)
• Customisation – can you configure the system to suit your business?
• Is backup automated – do you need to backup yourself??
• Audit trail – can you tell who did what, where, when and why from your logs?
• Is data migration from your existing software possible? Is there a charge?

When purchasing a piece of software this critical, you need to avoid as many problems as possible, so be sure to use at least some of the questions above when reviewing your recruitment software before committing your budget. If you take more detail down in your notes, you're less likely after paying your cash to say…"ahhh – I presumed we'd be able to…"

Research definitely pays off here – try before you buy, and make detailed notes for comparison.

Jake Robertson

Recruitment Software Review

http://www.recruitmentsoftwarereview.com/

Posted via email from recruitmentsoftwarereview’s posterous

We’ll post back with our findings as soon as we’ve finished drafting the review.

In the meantime, these links may be of interest:

eboss recruitment software review

arithon recruitment software review

recruitment software review home page

Eboss | Arithon | Chameleon | Eclipse | Bond Adapt | RDB Pronet | Eploy | CV Plus | Voyager | Evolve | Microdec

So, to kick off our of Arithon recruitment software review, there were a few initial steps to walk through.  I first tried it in Firefox as that is my browser of choice, but that didn’t seem to work, and fair enough, my mistake, I didn’t read the instructions!  They do say to make sure you are using an updated version of Internet Explorer – so make sure that’s what you’re using if you want to check this software out.  Maybe other browsers are supported, but check with Arithon first.

When you have Internet Explorer fully updated, there are a few simple steps to follow – downloading and installing a file provided by Arithon, which looks like it updates your Windows Registry, then downloading it again to double check (it says to do so in the instructions to ensure that your PC settings are up to date).

Let’s get into the guts of it.

GUI

Arithon’s GUI is usable and functional with the calendar to top left and key navigation down the left hand side, and the system opens on the Candidates screen.  When you click one of the main navigation links on the left, such as candidates, or vacancies, the main portion of the screen is filled with the relevant information for that selection.  There is a handy ‘Quick Links’ menu also to the left, with links to Email Candidates, Clients, or the results of your last Search.

Desktop

The desktop is the bottom link on the left hand side of the navigation, and gives access to handy information such as tcurrent interviews, candidate selections and submissions, open vacancies, vacancies about to start/finish, a to-do list, and upcoming candidate birthdays.  There is also a large part of the screen devoted to candidate and client call-backs to be followed up, thus ensuring they won’t be missed.  I’m just wondering if this would be better placed as the first screen you hit on entering the system (rather than the candidates screen) – maybe there is an option to customise – I’ll dig into that later on when reviewing the setup and options.

Overall, the desktop is well laid out – main navigation and links are on the left as in most of the software’s primary function screens, and the aggregation of data into sections makes things pretty clear.

Candidates

The candidates screen again follows the theme of other main pages, having the navigation, quick menu and calendar on the left hand side.  Finding candidate records can be done either by clicking through one by one, or in List View which allows navigation page by page, or by clicking Search in the main navigation to the left.  Searching is probably where you’ll spend most of your time when looking for a single candidate – and you are well-served, being able to search on all the fields you have input data for.  If you search for candidates with a surname of Jackson, all the candidates with that surname are then returned in the bottom half of the screen.

There are also options here for SMS, Callback reminders and further information categorised into tabs along the bottom half of the screen, including address, skills, bank details, general comments, attachments, education, employment history and jobseeking.  The history section shows you what selections, interviews and placements that candidate has been to.

Clients

The primary information for each client is visible, with similar navigation to the Candidates screen (click through, list and search).  A consultant can be assigned to the client, as well as a preferred contact.  The client status can be assigned, ie whether they are recruiting or not.  The calendar, quick menu and primary navigation are down the left hand side consistent with other screens.

The main functions across the top of the Clients screen are browse, list view, add new, save, add vacancy, callback and template.  Clicking on Template allows you to either pick an existing template, or create a custom template for correspondence.  Adding a new contact works well, and the Add Vacancy takes you from the client screen to the Vacancy screen, pre-populating the common fields with the Client’s data.  Time saver – nice touch.

Further information is tabbed at the bottom, including address details, comments, attachments, vacancies with current status, and callback history.

Vacancies

Again, the left hand side of the screen holds the usual suspects – calendar, quick menu and main navigation.  Essential contact and company information for the Vacancy is displayed in the top half of the screen, such as hours, hourly rate/salary, keywords for CV search, location and start date etc.  You can also track the source of the vacancy for marketing purposes.

Key functions at the top of the screen are browse, list view, save, callback, template and a couple of nice touches – Clone and Tweet (both do what they say on the tin) .  Further detailed information can be entered in the bottom half of the screen via tabbed sections, including skills, description, benefits, comments, attachments and address.  Selections, interviews and placements can also be tracked here.

It looks like the Website Upload functionality is manual, but we’re unable to test as we’re running the demo version.  We’d like to see the details of the vacancy auto-populated here, but to be fair, this does look like new functionality and would be great if it works in the right way.

Search

Search is available for the Candidate, Vacancy and Client screens, with the Quick Menu offering options to search Candidate, Vacancy and Client Attachments.  Search is accessed by clicking the Search link to the left of the screen.

The search fields available depend on what screen you are in when you click search – if you are in the Candidates screen for example, all the regular fields you use to enter data about that Candidate will be available – you’ll know you’re in the search screen when a little search icon replaces all the standard Candidate function buttons at the top of the screen.

Communications

Arithon recruitment software offers a few different options to communicate with your contacts.  SMS is available to Candidates, along with Email to both Candidates and Clients.  When emailing, you can send the email to the results of the last match, or the results of the last search, or search for candidates in the Search field.

The SMS functionality allows sending of either individual texts by typing or copying/pasting the mobile number into the To field in international format, or, more conveniently if you have many to send, populates the recipients from the results of your last search for bulk sending.

Data Migration

Arithon have saved you the hassle of typing in thousands of records here.  And let’s face it, you really don’t want to do that.  You get a handy CSV template, make sure your data’s in that format, and upload / import.  Bob’s your mother’s brother.

If you’re not sure about anything here, give the nice folks at Arithon a shout – ask for Rod, tell him I sent you from Recruitment Software Review.com.  They might even offer a data migration service, who knows?

Setup/Settings

Ooh.  Settings.  Things to tinker with.  I can feel my geek trying to escape.  Oh, I’m okay again.  Crisis over…

If you do have the urge to tinker, here is where to indulge your fetish.  Skill mappings, menus, Reports, Job Boards, Imports, Backups, Email importing, preferences, correspondence and Radius Search, all under one roof.

Plenty of options here to set the system up with your own preferences.

Support

Support comes from the Arithon website, bearing the name of ’360 degree Support’.  Sounds all-encompasing, and there are certainly a few options here – Support Centre, Knowledgebase, Arithon Users and Contact Details.

Further options here include Training, Assistance, Coaching and Administrative tasks, and their phone numbers are at the top of every screen.

Summary

Overall, a very functional piece of software, handling searches on thousands of candidate records with ease.  Would prefer the Desktop to be the primary screen as default out of the box, but this is minor and there may well be an option to configure this that I have missed. If Rod or any of the guys from Arithon read this, maybe they can clarify for us.  

Posted via email from recruitmentsoftwarereview’s posterous

Posted via email from recruitmentsoftwarereview’s posterous

GUI

The eBoss system has a nice, clean graphical user interface overall.  Everything is laid out nicely and you’re not much more than a click away from the key day to day functionality you’ll require.

The system makes extensive use of popups to display key information or tips when you hover your mouse over a contact, client or vacancy for example.  The screens are pretty consistent in their look and feel wherever you may be in the system which makes for ease of navigation.  And all the while you’re carrying out your tasks, the Recent History on the left hand side gives you an easy option to get back to a contact, or job, client etc if you think of something you need to add.

Dashboard

The eBoss dashboard is where it’s all at.  Starting here I can get immediate access to the Diary which lists key events as scheduled automatically by the system.

System stats are right in my face, as is the ‘Pipeline’ – I can best describe this as a quick way to see how many candidates / vacancies are at exactly what stage of your process.  Dead handy for prioritising and expediting those ‘must-do’ tasks.

Candidates

The Candidates screen makes good use of tabs and pop-ups to pack as much information into a small space.  The popups work really well, hovering over the relevant icon for a Candidate will instantly give you their phone, email, notes, or ‘to do’ information.  It doesn’t feel like I’m overwhelmed, but at the same time, using the tabs/popups, key information is right there, broken down into the categories as defined by the ‘Pipeline’ so you can check who has submitted their CV, who is on what Interview stage, right through to who is placed and my Consultant taking care of them.

The Search and Advanced Search facility here is very detailed, and looks to deliver the flexibility to either hit up a quick search on common info, or to drill down your list of contacts with some pretty refined search criteria.  Uploading, processing and searching of CV’s is also available from this screen.  It’s an information gold-mine.

The CV is uploaded, parsed, and then the eBoss system figures out dates of employment history, experience, contact name and details, and also gives a nice summary.  The accuracy is pretty good here, but you can amend, add or edit any information on top of the info gleaned from the CV by the software.

Clients

As with the Candidates, Contacts and Jobs screens, there is a handy ‘+’ icon next to each on the main navigation to the left – this is a quick link to allow insertion of a record without having to navigate to the full screen and select a new record.  Again, the Clients screen is well laid out, making use of tabs and popups to maximise the information packed into your screen.

The tabs allow easy filtering of Clients by sector type, potential targets, existing clients etc, and the search options (available via a separate search link to the left) are built right into this screen, giving quick access when needed.  Once you’ve identified the Client you’re looking for, there are a host of Actions to the right of the screen which give instant access to allow sending of SMS or email among other things, direct from the system.

Adding a new client is as straightforward as hitting the plus sign, and entering the required data – it all works very smoothly.

Once the basic client details are added you’ll have an ‘Essential Details’ box on the right hand side which displays, well, essential details!  Email, phone, contact details etc.  Along with this are the host of other functions available via the tabs at the top of the screen including detailed company information, consultant, web searches, email, sms, notes and diary.

Contacts

The Eboss Contacts screen is, in terms of layout, very much similar to the Clients screen.  Tabs allow filtering of Contacts by type, for example ‘targetted’ or ‘active’ – and by sector, ie sales, marketing, manufacturing.  The recruitment software offers search functionality which allows you to search by contact name, company, or even through their notes.

There is also the availability of email messaging to the contact once you’ve identified them using pre-defined email templates stored on the system.  To add a new contact, hit the plus icon on the main Contact link to the left of the screen and hit the new contact details into the pop up screen.

Vacancies

Called ‘Manage Jobs’ on the Eboss system, this screen affords detailed drilling down of the jobs you’ve logged.  Jobs can be filtered by client, contacts, or the consultant assigned to that job.  You can also search for a job with the job ID, or use the highly detailed Advanced Search which offers a greater variety of search criteria including keywords, type of work, job title, industry, key skills, country, hourly rate, start date, postcode and more.

Once you have your required job selected, you can save the search for later use, create a report on multiple jobs, or export the report to another format.  To add a job, simply select a client, click – there is even an option to Tweet the job to your Twitter followers when you create it.

Search & Advanced Search

Search options depend on the particular area of the system you happen to be in when searching.  The screenshot below is an example of what you’ll see in the candidate search.  Probably enough here to find your target.

If not, then never fear, there is the Advanced Search option.  With a plethora of criteria to hone and refine your search, I think it’s fair to say that if you can’t find what you’re looking for using this, then move on, it probably doesn’t exist.

Communications

Eboss offers some pretty swish communications management built in.  There are a number of default emails that the system can send, including initial responses to clients and candidates, and regular emails too.  The recruitment software can tap into your existing email account and pull any relevant emails related to your contacts, clients or candidates right into the system so you don’t have to check your email via a separate client.

As well as this, you have the option to Add your own custom emails, or edit the defaults to get them just the way you want.  Within the Automation section, you can configure Eboss to automatically email candidates on registration and job application, choose the email to send them, save your options and forget it.  SMS texting to candidates is handled from the Candidates screen and is another full-blooded feature you’ll love.

Tools – Content Management

Content management within Eboss comes in the flavour of variables that can be amended by you shown in the screenshot below.  The recruitment software handles basics such as address, to the text your candidates see when they log in to their dashboard, through to confirmation email content, website footers, privacy statements – it’s all dealt with in this screen.

You’ve also the option to set up your website title, description, keywords, contact email and basic colouring such as font and background colours here.  More control on this is offered in the frontend design control panel, see below.

Tools – Frontend Design

Okay, so you have your website, it’s up and running, and you want to play around with those colours.   Here’s where you do it.  You’ve got colour options for page backgrounds, menu backgrounds, links, hover links, sidebar panels, sidebar links, logo uploads, main menu customisation – I’ll stop there.  But here’s the killer that I like:

Social integration – in this screen you can hook your system up to your Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin profiles.  Remember earlier we talked about Tweeting your new Vacancy?  Well this is where the nuts and bolts are.  Gotta say I love it.

Data Migration

Oh the joy.  Who’d love to manually migrate thousands of existing records from your old system to your new one?  Forget it.  It’s normally one of the major ball aches for any business when upgrading any of their IT systems, software or infrastructure.

Eboss offers a handy CSV template that you can download, copy your client or candidate data into, upload and process.  Copying and pasting from your existing data is much swifter than manual entry, obviously.  But if you still don’t like the sound of that, you can give support a call – I think they offer data migration for a modest sum of beans.

Setup/Settings

Eboss will set up your recruitment software so you’re good to go out of the box pretty much.  But, if you do like to tinker under the hood….

Okay, who’s intensely interested in this part?  Who wants to know?  Anyone left?  Well, I’ll list them anyway – it’s the nuts and the bolts, the cogs and the wheels that don’t grab the limelight, but if you want to know what flexibility a system offers, then this is a good indicator.

We’ve got options here for user profiles, client, candidate initial & regular emails, system global configuration, form field properties, branding, consultant, candidate and client user passwords, regional and country admin, head office and management users, account unlocking for users who couldn’t remember their passwords, deleted account retrieval, data migration, and billing.

We’ve also got reporting for user sessions, number of sms and emails sent, number of emails to candidates and clients, jobs posted, calls made, clients accepted.  And the automation settings show up here to for setting up automatic emails to clients / candidates.  On top of this is the Labels screen – every data entry form field has a label – and if you want, you can change what it says to suit your business.

Okay – that’s enough with the settings now, but you get the picture.  Tweak away to your heart’s content.

Support

Any time you feel like you’re drowning, there are a number of support options.  You’ve got Youtube videos for walkthroughs, the Support Desk to send support tickets, the Help Desk (knowledge base) or Live Chat – Eboss are also able to take remote control of your machine for certain tasks if you give them permission to help things along.

Summary

All in all, we like it a lot – clean GUI, starts out of the box with minimum hassle, is customisable as far as you want to take it, and has some great features including automation of communications and CV parsing.  Follow the link if you want more info on Eboss recruitment software, or head back to our recruitment software review homepage.

Related Blogs

Eboss set up a dummy account for us online, and then also gave us a guided tour through the system, according to them in much the same way they would a completely new user to the system.

We’ll be posting the results of our Eboss recruitment software review very shortly.