Tuesday, July 8, 2008

infoGIST vs. TalentHook vs. SourcePoint vs. DataFrenzy

If you use job boards to source candidates - including pay boards, free boards, Craigslist and LinkedIn - you can either go from one site to the next duplicating your searches or you can use a resume aggregator to compile them into a single list. It is a huge time saver if you are a frequent visitor to multiple sites. This posting is not going to be a comprehensive review of each of the four tools, but rather a brief comparison and my final verdict on which one I chose for my company. It's also important to note that I posted a question about this on LinkedIn and am drawing from the answers given.

DataFrenzy RAM - Advantages: Because it is web-based, DataFrenzy allows multiple users to share a single license. Information is shared, so if you contact a candidate through the interface, other recruiters can see that activity. The price is the cheapest of the bunch at $1,200 per year ($100 per month) and there are no long term contracts, so you can cancel at any time. Disadvantages: Only 10 searches can be performed per day per license. I know that many recruiters like to set up hordes of agents to continually scour the resume universe, so this would necessitate buying multiple licenses. The bulk email feature is limited to a few hundred people at a time.

AIRS SourcePoint - Advantages: Gobs of functionality. This is a very robust tool. It's also web-based, so there is multi-user collaboration. Disadvantages: More functionality than I needed (includes ATS, career site, job publishing). It was the most expensive of the bunch at $4,490 for a single OFCCP enterprise license.

TalentHook - This has been my bread and butter for the last year. Advantages: Very intuitive (although they require a training session before you can get full access). Lots of sites added weekly and great partnerships with many popular ATS. Sweet bulk email application. Handles OFCCP compliance. Disadvantages: New features means new prices. A single-user annual subscription runs $3,495 per year plus a setup fee. Comes with a built in ATS (not as good as a stand alone ATS). Resides on your machine, so you can't collaborate easily with other users.

infoGIST's Platinum Recruiter - For most of the sourcers out there, it might be enough to say that Shally Steckerl uses this product. For the rest of you - Advantages: Search results are rated according to their match against your search criteria. Second best price of the bunch: $2,500 per year for a single user license. Handles OFCCP compliance. Disadvantages: Resides on your machine. Isn't integrated with as many applicant tracking systems as TalentHook...but Shally likes it, so who cares?

VERDICT: We signed up for a year long contract with infoGIST. I felt that it is the best bang for the buck for the features that are important to my business. Ask me in a few months if I made the right decision.

Have you used one of the tools? Do you use a different aggregator that isn't listed? Did I leave out something important? Please share your comments.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you still happy with your purchase and use of InfoGist? We are in the process of evaluating all 3.
Thanks for your blog post.

Bill Branstetter said...

I've had a few issues with infoGIST so far, but they've been very responsive in addressing them. I'm having to learn the new functionality, but that is to be expected. No final verdict yet.

Anonymous said...

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We have come up a long journey since the inception of “Recruit Plus™”. Today we have acquired quite a few happy clients by working closely with them, understanding their problems, translating the functional requirements into a technical robust solution rather than offering only a tailor made off the shelf product; which may/may not be in line with client requirements.

Since we want to be No-1 into recruitment solutions industry globally (In fact We had been able to beat our competition in a big way; we could snatch some big clients from our nearest competition; Indian market has started giving us the No-1 rating into recruitment solutions space.

I am also in search of a Co-founder/Investor or business partners across globe to accomplish our mission (“We strive to be ERP for Recruitment Market by being business and technology leader in Recruitment solutions space”).
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Unknown said...

Bill -
So...a little over a year later...what are your thoughts on infoGIST?

I'd love to hear how it's working for you. I've been looking at CRMs for us to use on the clinical/healthcare side of things. I'm wanting a tracking database that do reporting but also do the candidate import from searches, email campaigns, etc. I've been seeing it come from SourcePoint and JobVite but would really like to get some feedback.

Anything you can share would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Bill,
Check out ReferYes, they have a good and reasonably priced tool, the link is:
http://www.referyes.com/source_people.htm

Rick Searns said...

I'm doing some research and came across your review from long ago. I'm wondering if anyone has current pricing for these four products. It would save me some leg work.

Thanks

Rick Searns
rsearns@talmax.com

Recruitment Software said...

Nice Reviews.

But I will suggest - Platina Software Recruitment Software too!

Michael D'Antonio said...

infoGIST has to many errors to be that efficient lack or organization.

TalentHook has less error brings down a local copy so in a month when you say to yourself who was that candidate I saw when I searched for X is much easier to find since the app is better organized.

AIRS is to clunky and tried to do to much with the app. Not streamlined not easy to go back and find someone without all the details.

Mark said...

I also would recommend to check out ReferYes.com they have a good tool.

Thanks for the review.

Anonymous said...

We use Taleo and find it's functionality for sourcing/prospecting very limited and have been looking at SourcePoint as a tool to assist with this. However it may get held up in contracts. Does anyone know of another good option?

Anonymous said...

And who is the best in 2014? infoGIST vs. TalentHook vs. SourcePoint vs. DataFrenzy

Julie Brown said...

We have been using AIRS SourcePoint for years but do not like the newest version. I loved the old version. We only need it to search paid and unpaid websites by setting up agents that search for us automatically and then enter those resumes into a database that we can use for any future searches. It is great for that. However the new version makes you set up REQ's and then Agents and it is very confusing for our team who do not access it everyday. I also liked in the old version that you could set up campaigns and it would allow you to email out to those candidates over a period of time, We used it to send out job search tip emails - once a month over a year to keep our company name in front of potential candidates, it no longer allows you to do campaigns. The new version is confusing but doesn't freeze up like the old version. I would love to find an alternative that will allow us to use agents, add people to a CRM and then easily be able to search the CRM for positions I have to fill and send auto letters and campaigns. The Refer Yes seems to have some of those abilities but doesn't search our paid job boards and no campaigns. Any other suggestions?