How I do it with Bond International Software

Name: Tim Richards
Job Title: Managing Director
Company: Bond International Software

1. Please tell us more about yourself, for example your role in your present company.
I am Managing Director for Bond International Software UK Ltd, overseeing all areas of the UK business. I also work closely with our global teams in the Bond offices around the world.

2. How long you have worked for your present company?
16 years.

3. How long has your company been established?
Itís coming up to 34 years, the business was founded in 1973.

4. How many employees work in your company?
Globally we have over 200 employees, based in offices in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, South Africa and Hong Kong.

5. Outline your companyís business and how it works.
Bond International Software is the worldís premier provider of staffing software to recruitment consultancies and corporations. We have over 30 years experience in the development and creation of products and services that have become industry standards. We offer a full range of services covering all aspects of system implementation and software support. These include Project Management, Systems Design, Data Transfer, Technical/ Helpdesk Support and Account Management.

Our specialist software ëAdaptí is used by nine out of ten of the largest and most respected global staffing organisations who make maximum use of its multi-national and multi-site capabilities to improve the efficiency of their business. It is the market leading recruitment software package with over 70,000 desktop users worldwide.

Adapt deals with the entire placement cycle from recording client, candidate and vacancy details, through to searching, matching, letter generation and e-mail submissions, placements and follow-up requirements.

6. What are the benefits of your software to your customers? (What evidence do you have, e.g. any statistics?)
Adapt improves the productivity of individuals and teams by eliminating mundane tasks. By enabling staff to focus their time on more profitable areas, Adapt enhances the consultantís professional skills and improves their earning potential.

The systemís integration with the Internet gives controlled access by candidates and clients which allows an unprecedented level of professionalism and a highly cost-effective service.

Bond leads the world in staffing software technology and can guarantee exceptional return on investment and vast improvements on the bottom line.

7. What do you do to attract and maintain business in your sector and what will you be doing to maintain this in the future?
Our highly trained and experienced sales and customer support teams, ensure that the client experience and service is second to none. From the very initial contact through to the implementation and maintenance stages of the relationship, all our customers receive a first class service to accompany our industry standard quality products. This coupled with investment into an integrated and cohesive marketing programme of advertising, events, sponsorship and PR, ensure that brand awareness and credibility are constantly being built in our target markets helping Bond to maintain its market leading position.

8. How do you envisage your company developing in the future, and what will you be doing to ensure this happens?
Through growth, both organic growth and acquisition. We are committed to an investment programme in research and development to ensure that our software portfolio reflects the latest technology. Our consistent business growth since 1973 has enabled us to build a secure and stable foundation from which we plough resources into maintaining our leading global position.

9. How has online recruitment changed in the last twelve months or so from your companyís perspective?
I think that in the last twelve months we have seen even more of the trends that have been developing over the last five years, including:

i. Continued acceptance and trust of e-commerce

ii. High levels of trust in the internet to successfully load, select and process job vacancies and candidate applications

iii. Much higher expectations from organisations that they will have e-commerce connectivity as part of their overall recruitment strategy, whereas this has historically been more of a ëphase twoí activity

iv. Sustained interest in job board advertising

v. Increased requirement from recruiterís clients to search and view data online e.g. statistics on the numbers of applicants, response rates, interviews arranged and so forth.

10. Please feel free to add your personal thoughts on the progression of online recruitment. Where do you think its going?
I think that online recruitment is following a similar line to VMS (Vendor Management Service) functionality, for example we are now seeing much better integration between job boards, recruiters and prospective clients.

Open or universal sources for searching candidate data is another big area for the progression of online recruitment, with the requirements for databases that search outside of their own systems and into otherís databases, ever increasing.