In the April edition of The Fordyce Letter, writer and recruiter Lori Fenstermaker profiles CATS Applicant Tracking System as part of her story Low-Cost ATS, CRM Options to Make You More Competitive:
Given the economic conditions we currently face, I plan to write about technology solutions that are low-priced or no-cost. These products can help save you time and money, and can make you more competitive in a period where we find fewer job orders and more recruiters looking for work.
CATS
CATS is an ATS developed by Asim Baig, an IT recruiter out of Minneapolis. CATS has a clean user-interface, is easy to use, and has all the bells and whistles of expensive proprietary commercial ATS packages. Some of the features include Career, Website and Job Boards integration, email campaigns and notifications, mass resume importing, resume parsing, automatic resume to candidate conversion, EEO/EOC data collection and reporting, dashboard live reports, and some great CRM functionality for managing clients and prospects.
It is entirely web-based with a clutter-free design. Use with Mozilla Firefox and you can download a very slick toolbar that will allow you to pull in candidates from job boards with one click, as well as use the toolbar to search the CATS candidate database in your browser.
The best part about CATS is the price. For a scaled-down yet usable version, it is free for two users. For the Professional version it is only $25 per user per month.
There are no contracts, no sign-up or termination fees. Professional customers may download open format backups as they wish. I’ve been using CATS for several years. You don’t have to be a “techie” to be able to utilize the slick add-ons they provide. I recently spoke with Asim and they are working on adding a module that would manage payroll for contractors. If you would like more information regarding CATS call (877) 488-2343 or visit http://www.catsone.com.
The Fordyce Letter has made a name for itself over the past 30 years as a resource for all things related to the recruitment industry. In addition to the publication, The Fordyce Letter also maintains an active online community where members can join groups, participate in discussion forums, and keep up on industry news.
Lori Fenstermaker is the founder of AutoSearch, a fantastic web-based search tool which consolidates search engine and networking site results to make finding candidates quick and easy.
A couple of very minor corrections: The cost of CATS’ Professional version is $29 per user per month. And the payroll module mentioned is only scratching the surface of what will be available this summer when CATS Software, Inc. launches LessHR. This innovative software will be specifically tailored for internal HR and small businesses (non-agency recruiters).
We’re certain that the launch of LessHR will be as big as the initial launch of the CATS Applicant Tracking System three years ago. Keep checking the CATS Blog and Twitter account for updates and information on this exciting new development!