Berger Bites - Passive Candidate Sourcing Tools and Services – WTH

Posted by Jim Stroud

September 11, 2007

Mark Berger Please, excuse my language. I should know better as I am sure there are ladies present, however, as the marketplace for sourcing tools and services expands due to demand for these types of services, so does the confusion. Everyone has a need and a budget. Although there is something out there for everyone. Where do you start?

Due to space limitations, in most cases I have not provided every feature available and encourage interested parties to contact the vendors directly for more complete information. Here are a few options for you to review. In no particular order…

ZoomInfo. Zoom has been around for many years, starting out as Eliyon. They have a huge proprietary database of over 37 million contacts and 3.8 million companies. They populate their web-based database themselves from a wide variety of sources and it is verified on a regular basis. They have a free names lookup service on their homepage but also offer two pay services. One is ZoomExec for $99 per month per user that offers access to 1.4 million executive-level contacts including VPs, SVPs, GMs, and C-levels. Their flagship PowerSearch service offers full search capability against their entire database and starts as low as $5950 per year. This service offers names only. Many have full or partial biographies and also web and news references. Email addresses and phone numbers are also normally included. They also have a feature whereby you can email a contact or group of contact directly from the program and track the email as well. A nice touch. Check them out at www.zoominfo.com.

SourcePoint (AIRS). SourcePoint is the only service that offers both name and resume generation capability. They offer one, the other, or both via a modular service level. You can pick and choose the services that you need for your organization. Their service searches the web for names and resumes, searches business networks, the pay boards (if you are a subscriber), your own ATS, and your own desktop/pc. Very flexible, comprehensive offering that has built-in CRM software and many other features too numerous to mention in this piece. Can be in the thousands of dollars per year per user depending on modules ordered. More information on this offering at the AIRS website at www.airscorp.com.

Platinum Recruiter by InfoGIST. A very popular tool used for resume generation only. This installed program has many features and too many to cover in this synopsis. As of this writing they search for your keywords in over 400 free resume sources but also searches pay resume sources (if you are a subscriber), can search Canadian and European resume sources, and has a flip search feature as well. Can also perform desktop searches. You can save your searches and run them as agents during off hours. Also has nice features for Company, Patent, and Trademark searches, news searches, and general web searches for any topic. They charge $2500 per user based on an annual subscription and the pricing drops drastically for additional users. More info and free trial available at their website – www.infogist.com.

Talenthook. An early player in the resume generation field. It is an installed program with an easy-to-use interface. You can perform a free-standing search or create a client folder and link a search to a company and/or assignment. You can perform a web search, college search, free resume board, pay resume board (if you are a subscriber), flip searches, and desktop searches. Their open web search searches dozens of search engines, communities and ISPs automatically. You can enter query keywords using ALL, ANY, and NONE parameters, plus pick freshness, education, and location values. It also has a bulk mailing feature and the ability to export your results to Excel or Text. They have a one time set-up fee and charge $2495 per year per user on an annual contract. Pricing drops drastically based on volume usage.

ResumeFinder by eGrabber. A new entry in eGrabber’s long history of providing data capture tools to the recruiting industry. This product differs from the others in that it installs as a toolbar in IE and uses the tabbed interface to provide the results. A very simple program that comes with a number of professionally developed search strings (by yours truly) that you can use as is or is completely customizable to support any search string that works best for you. It also allows searches by location and has the capability to search free resume banks, isp’s, and communities. The location and resume site selections are completely customizable as well. You simply type in a keywords, locations, and/or a free resume site or two (or as many as you like), and hit Find. ResumeFinder searches Google using multiple search string simultaneously and opens up a separate tab for each string run. Pricing is at the lower end as this retails for $349 per year but they are offering a number of discount programs. A 20% discount was offered to readers of this blog just a couple of weeks ago. For more information, a demo, or a free trial, visit www.eGrabber.com.

SGA Executive Tracker by Sheila Greco & Associates. Don’t mistake the fact that because this product is lesser known it is lesser quality. This web-based proprietary names database is maintained solely by Greco’s own research staff and is 100% telephone verified making it one of the most reliable names databases out there. Heavy in top and mid-management executives it has a very flexible search interface allowing you to drill down to exactly what you need. A nice touch is SIC code searching that many others don’t have. Information on contacts includes direct dial numbers, emails, biographies, and other data as well. Pricing is strictly on a user-need basis and is available from one of their sales reps. For more information visit their website at www.sgaexecutivetracker.com.

Diver by Broadlook. Diver is another new product just introduced in August. Another very simple, easy-to-use interface that allows easy access to passive candidate resumes from Google, Live, Yahoo, AltaVista, and AllTheWeb. This product let’s you use your own search strings (but does provide some strings by none other than Jim Stroud himself) to run your searches but then parses the search results into a grid contained in the program. From the grid you can easily view on result after another without all the usual clicking back and forth so many of us detest. The program also contains very nice specialty searches for companies, lists, member directories, people, tradeshows, org charts and associations. You can also save your successful searches for future use and access them with one click. Diver retails for $1995 per year but is heavily discounted for existing Broadlook customers. More information including a free trial can be found at the website, www.broadlook.com.

Although I have tried to list standard pricing most vendors do offer, under varying circumstances, discounts or specials on a regular basis. If you can’t find any don’t hesitate to send me a note and I will let you know if I know of any.

Before those cards and letters start coming let me say I know I have not listed every player in this marketplace. If there are any vendors out there that would like a mention in a future article, they can contact me at anytime. Also, if any of the readers have experience with any of the above, or any product or service not listed, please take a moment and add a comment to this piece for all to see.

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Mark E. Berger, CPC, AIRS CIR has been recruiting since before most of you were born. He has been involved in Internet recruiting and sourcing since its infancy in the early nineties starting with classified ads on AOL and Compuserve. Many resources on recruitment technology, including those for Internet passive candidate sourcing and recruiter databases can be found by visiting his website at www.swatrecruiting.com.

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