Reduced Costs
By standardising on Microsoft technology we can help you leverage the knowledge and skill sets in your organisation. Training is reduced, maintenance and support is reduced. This is all before we look at the operational benefits, for example, time saved in producing Gross Margin or Return on Capital Employed analysis.
Increased Efficiency
Again, simply by implementing systems that are easy and familiar to use automatically provides efficiency gains. Data accuracy and integration means no more time wasted correcting errors and reconciling data between systems.
Reduced Risks
The scale of the Microsoft investment in its products and and in its partner channel means you can draw on a large community of skilled professionals to support your systems. This is one of the incentives to ensure that we provide excellent customer service; we know our customers have a choice, this means we need to be competitive as well as provide exemplary support. And we work together, as a team, as part of your team. There is no culture of blaming the “other” technology for any issues that may arise.
Implementation Approaches
Big Bang
There is no requirement for an agency to implement both systems – the Big Bang approach – and it is unlikely that an organisation would deploy both systems as part of the same project as the impact on the business would be great so our advice would always be to phase. However, part of the proposition is that we can help agencies plan their IT strategy to achieve a fully integrated solution on an end-to-end Microsoft platform and therefore to realise all the associated benefits.
Implement Separately
The software is flexible, the approach even more so. You can implement front then back or back then front. You can implement as a hosted solution (Cloud) or on premise; or start as one then migrate to the other; or some and some. One of the many benefits of the Microsoft Dynamics platform is the flexibility of how you deploy and consume the systems.
Bring CRM and ERP Together
The Microsoft Connector and other tools developed specifically for integrating Dynamics CRM with Dynamics ERP solutions mean that we can easily bring the front and back office together, even if your installation has been further developed.
Why a single Microsoft Dynamics vision?
Historically the recruitment industry has had three elements to their systems: front office (CRM), middle office (managing the payment of the workers and client invoicing, typically referred to as pay / bill) and a back office account system. Front office and middle office have been delivered by niche players who, like many industry specialists, deliver great functionality but less great technology and service levels as they just don’t have the R&D investment or resources available to companies such as Microsoft. Early entrants to the market have become well established by default, but are now struggling to adapt their product offerings to cloud for example; feedback from existing users suggest that they may also suffer from a poor reputation for performance, reliability and customer services.
Back office accounts tends to be an off the shelf package, ranging from Sun to Sage. Integration is poor, typically manual and reconciliation a continual battle. For most recruitment agency FD’s the question of how much time do you spend reconciling data to produce meaningful, reliable management reports is a painful one.
What is the Microsoft Dynamics solution for Recruitment Agencies?
Agency Time, based on Dynamics NAV, provides fully integrated back and middle office in a single system. This is unique in the mid-market / enterprise sector of the recruitment industry. Agency Time particularly addresses the processing of timesheets, calculating the pay and bill based on a timesheet ledger and a sophisticated rate rules engine. Standard NAV Jobs and Resources do not fit the volume based processes of recruitment agencies whereas Agency time has been delivering ROI to UK recruitment companies since 2003.
To meet front office requirements, Microsoft Dynamics CRM has been enhanced to meet the needs of client, candidate and vacancy management in a recruitment agency environment. This includes all aspects of marketing, CV parsing, job board links, connector to LinkedIn and other social media as well as the integration to the back office functions. This integration means that recruitment consultants can be passed back vital information about contract performance as well as removing duplication of effort and all the risks associated.
The solutions benefit from their standard Microsoft Dynamics bases and many of the features that competitors consider USPs come out of the box: ease of use and flexible menus, integration with the Office suite especially Outlook, business intelligence tools (through the use of SQL server), web and mobile enabled.
The Microsoft investment factor: technology, integration with Office, ability to take advantage of leading features such as SharePoint and mobile integration, is mammoth even compared to the combined resources of all the industry “specialists”. Add to that the number of skilled professionals available to support the systems compared to the one-man band support desk of the niche players and the flexibility in how the systems are deployed, it becomes a compelling business case.
TVision: Recruitment Industry Specialists
TVision has a solid background of providing solutions to the recruitment industry so in this respect we are as skilled and knowledgeable as the niche players. The difference is the Microsoft factor. Microsoft develops the standard foundation so we don’t need to worry about VAT compliance, on-line submissions, mobile technology, cloud etc etc. All we need to worry about is the specific functionality that provides a competitive edge to recruitment agencies.
We understand functional requirements and build these into the system; we understand recruitment agencies’ operational requirements which is why our support is all UK based and why we provide extended support to meet your global operational requirements.
Realising a Microsoft-centric IT Strategy
As more and more companies realise the benefits of standardising their business systems on a Microsoft platform, those partners who are able to form strategic partnerships will thrive. The bringing together of Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a compelling offering for recruitment agencies. It doesn’t end there, other Microsoft experts may be brought in as required to ensure that every single piece of Microsoft technology in the organisation is providing optimal value.
