Working smarter, better, faster at Commercial Recruitment

In Brief

Commercial Recruitment had been using a system that was difficult to use, unreliable and poorly supported. The implementation of an integrated solution of Voyager Commercial, Voyager Mid-Office and Sage has enabled the business to operate far more efficiently and thereby increase revenues.

The Detail 

The most successful types of recruitment software packages allow agencies to store and manipulate large amounts of data in a simple manner. They are functionally rich, easy to use and intuitive and provide businesses with the ability to maintain control and work smarter. The key objective is to enable users to become more productive, giving them the time to increase the number of positions available and enabling them to fill them quickly and effectively. The ultimate aim is to boost revenue.

Hence when an agency is using a software package that is difficult to use, often unreliable and poorly supported; it can prove difficult to gain competitive advantage. This was the situation faced by Commercial Recruitment of Cheltenham, specialists in a wide range of office-based recruitment.

In the words of Liz Emery, Administration Manager: “Although our previous system did everything including Payroll, it wasn’t user friendly and always proved difficult to use; it appeared to be written by Accounts people who didn’t really understand how the sales-end of recruitment companies work. We desperately needed a replacement system that would enable us to work smarter, better and faster.” 

Liz continued: “Our replacement system needed to be fully integrated providing both front and mid office functionality linked to a Payroll package. Luckily many of our users had already had a very favourable exposure to Voyager software, therefore our decision was made easy. We chose a combination of Voyager Commercial and Voyager Mid-Office linked to Sage for our Payroll. In just a few months this combination has transformed our business.”

Joined-up Solutions

“Our life is so much easier now - we have a front office system that is intuitive and everybody finds it so much simpler to use. Using Voyager Commercial means that we are able to take on more jobs and more candidates and we have eradicated our previous duplication problems. The search facilities and linkages are also infinitely superior to what we had before, we are therefore able to find the right candidates with ease and be in contact far quicker.”

There have also been some major improvements in the mid office: “Voyager Mid-Office is very comprehensive and it links seamlessly with the front office. The big improvements for us are that: timesheet entry is so much quicker; making amendments is so much easier; and there is no duplication of data. We are also able to print out our own invoices; this was something that we could not achieve with our previous system and we were therefore reliant on our parent company. We’re also finding that Payroll doesn’t take so long now. All in all, the end-to-end process enables us to have a lot more control over the business which is perfect.”

“Voyager has enabled us to work smarter, better and faster.” – Liz Emery, Administration Manager, Commercial Recruitment.

Liz also pointed out that in the past, taking on new sales people was difficult and this was inhibiting growth: “Because our old system was difficult to use and the training provided was poor, we always had problems getting new users up to speed. We no longer have these problems with Voyager – our new people are able to familiarise themselves with the system very quickly and are hence becoming productive that much sooner. We haven’t needed a lot of training but when we have, we’ve found the Voyager team to be highly effective. Our initial training was excellent.”

Liz has also been impressed by the reliability of the Voyager software: “Although no software implementation is completely trouble-free, on the whole we were very happy with the implementation and once bedded down, the software has proved to be very reliable. We haven’t needed to call the Voyager Help Desk very often but when we have; we’ve found their support to be brilliant. With our previous system, the support was poor and the help desk very technical, this meant that I had to spend a lot of my time resolving problems and chasing support; now I have a lot more time to concentrate on more important matters.”

“We are now more in control of our business.” Liz continued: “Before, our users could get away without entering vital information; Voyager is now forcing them to record all such detail. This means that our database has now a lot more information and we can all understand what’s going on elsewhere in the business. We’re taking on more clients and more positions; filling them faster and improving our revenues. In short, we are operating smarter, better and faster."

How we made a difference at Commercial Recruitment

Time and time again we are told that the key attributes of a successful recruitment system are: ease of use; a rich functional set; flexibility; reliability and the ability to hold and access detailed information easily. Although Commercial Recruitment’s previous system did everything including Payroll, it was difficult to use, functionally poor, inflexible, unreliable and light on detail.

A combination of Voyager Commercial, Voyager Mid-Office and Sage has made a real difference because it has provided Commercial Recruitment with a joined-up solution that has all the key attributes required to run a business more effectively and more efficiently. Working smarter has enabled them to increase their number of clients and their number of positions and hence has boosted revenue.

http://www.commercialrecruitment.co.uk/