The touchscreen tablet equips all of the firm's consultants. Through the terminal, they collaborate by relying on the platform in SaaS mode of Salesforce.
With the strategy of putting the candidate at the center of the recruitment process, the French interim specialist Humanessence decided at the end of 2007 to acquire a new candidate management information system. Founded in October 2006, this SME with 20 employees has so far managed its candidate repository in an artisanal way, using the Excel spreadsheet and the Access database.
Faced with this existing situation, the management of Humanessence made a rather original decision at the start of 2008: to switch its database, as well as all of its customer and candidate relationship management processes to Salesforce CRM. A few months later, the firm's consultants are equipped with iPad touch pads connected to the solution in SaaS mode. Since then, Humanessence has not regretted its choice.
"Salesforce has enabled us to speed up the implementation of our collaborative policy. The candidates no longer belong to our consultants as is the case with other firms. This human capital is shared through the platform form," explains Thierry Andrieux, founder and partner within the firm.
Upstream of the collaborative work process, Humanessence implements a call center (currently around twenty positions) which is responsible for contacting candidates sending their CV to qualify them using a questionnaire. An individual interview system that allows the company to build its database. "It represents the heart of our added value, hence the implementation of this individualized exchange", continues Thierry Andrieux.
Downstream, Humanessence consultants apply search filters deployed on the Salesforce environment to find the best candidates referenced based on the analysis of the needs of client companies.
"The entire database is therefore well shared. There is no longer any pre-square between the consultants", insists Thierry Andrieux, before adding: "a lot of work in structuring the Salesforce database has been necessary."
But for the manager, the combination of the Salesforce solution with the use of the iPad represents in a way the "ultimate" information system. Humanessence recruitment consultants can enter data from clients, then their terminal is synchronized as soon as the connection is activated with the SaaS application. A mechanism that allows SMEs to avoid between an hour and an hour and a half of re-entry per day, and to no longer have to handle paper files.
Pushing collaborative work even further, Humanessence uses the Salesforce corporate social network offer: Chatter. A tool that Humanessence uses in particular to orchestrate processes involving several employees, such as welcoming a new employee. "It is also an excellent motivation tool. When a consultant signs a contract, he informs the whole of society via Chatter," adds Thierry Andrieux. This former Cisco does not omit to mention the integration of Salesforce with the solutions of the network equipment manufacturer, which allows in particular to ensure "automatic control of telephone calls".
"As a business manager, Chatter and Salesforce CRM allow me to carry out real-time monitoring of the activity wherever I am. I have access to activity reporting, the number of calls back office ... I can keep the leadership there all the time. " And for the rest, Thierry Andrieux has no shortage of ideas. Following the acquisition of Radian6 by Salesforce, he imagines in particular being able to use the analysis functions of public social networks brought by this acquisition to put the finger on rare candidates.
While Humanessence had initially put Siebel in the balance against Salesforce, the SME does not regret today having made the choice of SaaS in the face of such a solution under final license. "The initial investment would have been greater with Siebel, especially in terms of project management," analyzes Thierry Andrieux. And even if the annual price of Salesforce licenses represents 1% of the company's turnover, the result is there for Thierry Andrieux.