Recruity is a joint venture between software manufacturer Intermesh and recruitment agency Search & Co Group, both based in The Netherlands. The product combines state-of-the-art crm-software of Intermesh with the experience of the recruitment agency.
Recruity runs in production within the group since 2008. Professional peers saw the system and asked whether they could use it. Following the implementation of a number of peers we decided to make the software bundle available internationally.
The software was developed as the business units of the Search & Co Group were faced increasingly with the limitations of existing recruitment solutions. From its establishment in 2000 the company made use of a simple database application. Although easy to use and fast enough, the continued development of the functionality lagged behind the market. Particularly in the field of job vacancy management and website management the needs were growing, and changing.
Around 2005, they started a selection process for new software. One of the solutions which seemed suitable, was a Dutch application. It linked a focused recruitment and selection system to the websites of the company. After several years of use the agency was not so pleased anymore, because of increasing limitations and ever growing costs.
In 2007 it therefore decided to a re-inventory of the available software for recruitment agencies. The then used software was included in this process, but there were also many Dutch and international packages available. Although large differences were noted between the various solutions, the failures could be roughly divided into four categories:
In 2009 much attention was paid to further optimize Recruity. The system has been made faster, more user friendly and better tailored to the specific application in the recruitment industry. At the beginning of 2010 both business partners, Intermesh and Search & Co, are so pleased about the system that we have decided to offer it as an alternative on the market for specialist recruitment applications.
Via Recruity the two companies hope to increase the professionalism in the recruitment industry and to decrease the growing dependence of mediocre software products. The only sustainable way to achieve this ambition, is to work with open source software that can count on broad support from independent developers worldwide.
This is the solid foundation of Recruity.
The software was developed as the business units of the Search & Co Group were faced increasingly with the limitations of existing recruitment solutions. From its establishment in 2000 the company made use of a simple database application. Although easy to use and fast enough, the continued development of the functionality lagged behind the market. Particularly in the field of job vacancy management and website management the needs were growing, and changing.
Around 2005, they started a selection process for new software. One of the solutions which seemed suitable, was a Dutch application. It linked a focused recruitment and selection system to the websites of the company. After several years of use the agency was not so pleased anymore, because of increasing limitations and ever growing costs.
In 2007 it therefore decided to a re-inventory of the available software for recruitment agencies. The then used software was included in this process, but there were also many Dutch and international packages available. Although large differences were noted between the various solutions, the failures could be roughly divided into four categories:
- Proprietary and closed Most manufacturers would not give sufficient access to the databases, so access to this data was insufficient and not as efficient as wanted.
- Financial Particularly in the UK and the US is a small number of excellent systems available, but they are too bulky and expensive for Dutch standards. Investments in this software and its hardware proved irresponsible. Moreover, also the investments in existing software were getting more and more irresponsible, including the lack of business-oriented support and the lack of promised functionality in important areas such as CMS, CRM and SEO.
- Technology In many cases the underlying technology - the software upon which the recruitment applications were based - proved to be outdated or inflexible. This means that new developments cannot or only with great effort be implemented. Many existing software that was recognized by us can be classified under the term "spaghetti code".
- Support Even the Dutch software manufacturer was not able to meet our standards for support, so international suppliers without a substantial office in The Netherlands immediately lost weight in the selection for the new software. It would be a big threat for the daily running of the office.
Salvation
Until mid-2008 a former vendor of office software re-introduced itself with a completely new application for office and project tasks: Intermesh. A brainstorming session with this supplier led to the conclusion that this software could form a good and stable basis for a new recruitment system at Search & Co. With the great advantage that Intermesh provides open source software, which is free to adapt to own needs. Supplemented with open source products from other vendors the first version of what we now call Recruity evolved at the end of 2008.
In 2009 much attention was paid to further optimize Recruity. The system has been made faster, more user friendly and better tailored to the specific application in the recruitment industry. At the beginning of 2010 both business partners, Intermesh and Search & Co, are so pleased about the system that we have decided to offer it as an alternative on the market for specialist recruitment applications.
Joint-venture
This cooperation is now defined in the joint venture Recruity, where each of the partners hold half the shares. Intermesh is in this collaboration responsible for the technology, while Search & Co introduces the knowledge and experience from their daily practice.
Via Recruity the two companies hope to increase the professionalism in the recruitment industry and to decrease the growing dependence of mediocre software products. The only sustainable way to achieve this ambition, is to work with open source software that can count on broad support from independent developers worldwide.
This is the solid foundation of Recruity.