MrTed Heralds Next Generation of Talent Acquisition Systems

Being a visionary comes with responsibilities. And when it comes to being responsible for visionary talent acquisition software, MrTed Ltd. easily takes responsibility for creating some of the best-performing talent acquisition software (TAS) not only for small and medium-sized businesses, but also for the enterprise.

For 10 years, Europe-based MrTed has been at the forefront of innovation in cloud computing, and in 2010, the launch of MrTedTalentLink 9 (a.k.a. MrTedTalentLink Cloud 9 or, simply, Cloud 9), MrTed's TAS, continues this tradition. For three years, MrTed worked closely with its user community in order to ensure that MrTedTalentLink 9 would reflect their desires. The result, which launches today, Jan. 11, is the world's most advanced TAS platform.

"With the release of MrTedTalentLink Version 9, named Cloud 9, users and organizations will have more power to find top talent and experience an unprecedented flexibility of data, and improved user experience will allow them to access the information they need when and where they need it,” says Jerome Ternynck, CEO and co-founder of MrTed.

The Talent Acquisition Systems Marketplace—Growing and Evolving

In a recent study, Bersin & Associates projected the marketplace for TAS to grow by about 33 percent over the short term—from just shy of $783 million in 2009 to more than $1.04 billion by 2012. The same study, "Talent Acquisition Systems 2009: Facts, Practice Analysis, Trends and Provider Profiles," observes that the TAS playing field has noticeably evolved over the past several years, with the powerhouses of past years yielding to the powerhouses of today. For instance, Taleo and Vurv, two of today's largest players, now take the place of BrassRing, Kronos offshoots such as Unicru and Deploy Solutions, and others—all former mainstays in this sector of the HR tech marketplace.

Parallel to this shuffling of the primary players in talent acquisition over the past decade has been an attendant shift in focus, again according to Bersin & Associates' research. TAS providers, having assimilated internal search compatibility, as well as resume processing and scanning capabilities, into their offerings, have since turned their attention to creating products that embrace and work in concert with the well-documented tools of Web 2.0. These encompass the usual suspects, of course, such as search engine optimization (SEO) and real simple syndication (RSS). But equally as important, they include job-matching and more. In a larger sense, this progression has seen the industry widening its scope and relevance. In earlier days, TAS software addressed solely the recruiter's view. Only recently have solutions catered not only to the recruiter's point of view, but also to the candidate's. It's a change in perspective largely made possible by ever more sophisticated use of the Internet.

And, yet, despite these myriad advances in TAS delivery and functionality, all TAS providers are far from equal: Whereas the focus of many large players in this market space has diffused, MrTed remains fixed, like a laser, on TAS specifically. This specialization breeds a solution from MrTed that provides unique benefits to companies that use its technology.

The Theory of Everything

For years, physicists have sought to develop a so-called theory of everything, a codified, mathematical model that explains the universe itself. Recruiting is not physics, but talent acquisition does have its own, analogous challenge: to marshal the many needs of recruiters and realities of candidates' behavior within new technological environments to render tools that indeed make the hiring of talent easier and more efficient. And on all these counts, MrTed delivers the goods.

The Benefits of MrTedTalentLink 9

Exceptionally flexible, MrTedTalentLink enables users to completely customize their settings according to their unique needs and preferences. Furthermore, the architecture and user interface have been redesigned per the latest cloud computing protocols. The implications for product usability and return on investment in cloud computing are broad. Bersin & Associates' aforementioned report maintains that MrTedTalentLink Cloud 9 "brings the next generation Talent Acquisition Solution [to] the market."

MrTedTalentLink features a configurable candidate database that easily integrates data from any source, an independent business logic layer exposed through Web services, and an on-demand user interface so recruiters can customize their own workspaces. This open architecture makes it fast and simple to connect with other talent management and HR applications; users experience several benefits of cloud computing on their desktops:

A World of Apps—MrTedTalentLink 9 presents business processes as portable application modules that users can turn on, turn off or customize to create a personalized experience. Cloud 9 includes apps for all major business processes, including internal and external recruitment, outplacement, contingent workforce management, vendor management, candidate processing, time sheeting, offer management, on-boarding and more. Being portable, these apps can be used with other systems and interfaces, while external applications developed by other vendors can be integrated inside the Cloud 9 workspace. By leveraging the power of MrTed apps, users can enjoy the benefits of a personalized platform that meets their individual needs and preferences.

Dynamic User Interface—In order to create a personalized workspace and navigation experience, users of Cloud 9 are free to configure and rearrange apps. The dynamic interactivity of the user interface allows apps to be resized, dragged, dropped and even layered. Even though the interface processes large amounts of data, Cloud 9’s asynchronous data retrieval keeps the presentation layer running quickly and smoothly—a result that can only be described as enjoyable for the user. Users spend most of their time in a dynamic and personalized workspace, rather than jumping from screen to screen or module to module. In this way, MrTedTalentLink more closely resembles a favorite website than an enterprise software program.

Read the Free White Papers

Several free reports from MrTed walk readers through Cloud 9's capabilities. For instance, TASs often fail to integrate smoothly (or at all) with existing cloud applications in the enterprise. "Cloud Computing Matures to Bring Consumer-Friendly Functionality to Enterprise-Level Recruitment Applications" shows how Cloud 9 is a notable exception to this rule. Furthermore, they typical TAS greatly restricts recruiters' options for personalizing their onscreen workspace or adapting a system to their unique workflow or processes. "The Next-Generation GUI: A Truly Personalized Workspace to Leverage the Power of Enterprise Computing" explains how the graphical user interface (GUI) of MrTedTalentLink Cloud 9 embraces open architecture, cloud computing and portable applications modules (apps). Cloud 9 creates a truly personalized, on-demand experience for recruiters in the enterprise, in fact, as "A Truly Personalized User Experience for Enterprise-Level Talent Acquisition Software" explains.

TAS: A Vision for the Future

Gartner Inc. recently identified MrTed as "Visionaries" in the "2009 Magic Quadrant for E-Recruitment Software." Gartner evaluates vendors according to their ability to execute and their completeness of vision. Those in the "Visionaries" quadrant have a well-articulated strategy that includes deeper focus on talent acquisition or a broader focus on talent management. It is no wonder that MrTed impressed Gartner: MrTed has an ambitious, holistic vision for the future of TAS; it is a future that MrTed has, in fact, already made a reality.

(For continual updates on the company's exciting new product for TAS, be sure to follow MrTed on Twitter @MrTedtalentlink.)

NOTE: In late 2009, TMT hosted a series of TAS-focused webinars sponsored by MrTed and presented by Bersin & Associates. A link to a recording of the second installment in that series is available to anyone who first completes free registration at TMT. Go here to register, and then here to gain access to the recording.