As the train pulled in this morning I waved at my fellow and familiar commuters. I shared where I'd been for a week to those that asked as we boarded the same double decker mode of transportation that pulls out of the station at the same time every day. I moved to the back of the car to my normal seat, fired up the laptop, and sipped on my coffee (from my new JuJu travel mug) and thought to myself, "It's good to get back into my morning groove where things are dependable and the same... Or is it?"

At the beachside networking session the evening before the kickoff of the ERE event it was clear to me that this conference was going to be a little different than most. Outside of the many people I'd been communicating with for months/years and was finally meeting face to face for the first time, there was sporatic chatter about finding a magic bullet for recruiting. Most were interested in new tools - and while I think new technology is great, I was part of what seemed to be the minority in that my search was more for innovative practices or thought when using said tools.

So why the interest in the Free Applicant Tracking System? Free is certainly a factor - but it's not what sparked my interest at all.

MrTed, a recruiting technology company out of Europe gave a 10 minute demo to an audience of less than 20 personss on the last day of ERE. The buzz however, was much more impactful. Jerome Ternynck, MrTed CEO, spoke about SmartRecruiters- the product in development and being released for free to companies with up to 2,500 employees. Unlike other ATS products the SmartRecruiter application is a community based platform that aims to connect recruiters to other recruiters and a small army of applications that will be provided on a "pay-per-use" model.

The unique mashup of Software as a Service and Open Source technology bring this small animal to the game - with the potential to become a beast. Moderately (at least in the beginning) customizable career portals, full reporting functionality, OFCCP compliant, and an impressive dashboard are just a few of the reasons this ATS looks promising (did I mention free?) There were two things, however, that really sparked my interest.

1. It has the potential to integrate unlimited social features - both from a job seeker AND recruiter/company perspective.
2. Ternynck doesn't need the money.

While #1 really gets my wheels turning in regards to what this could mean for the upcoming ATS/CMS wars (you caught that, right?) and was exactly the kind of thinking I came to the event hoping to find, #2 should scare the hell out of any ATS provider. Enjoying some downtime with Jerome after ERE I asked him why he'd spend so much time and energy creating a product like SmartRecruiters and providing it for free. In summary his response was that he runs a very successful company - this project was something he was doing because it interested him... and needed to be done right.
Dangerous? You bet. Listen up ATS providers... If SmartRecruiters continues to push forward and listen to the cries of frustrated recruiters and companies currently bound to their 'less than cheap' Applicant Tracking Systems it will be.

This is one RecruiterGuy that is anxious to get out of the familiar groove (except for my train... I love my train.) And while full functionality of MrTed's solution could be 3-5 years in the making, it's buzz and direction alone should get some existing players to rethink their comfort level in the market and in how they provide current "services" to their clients.

Hey - SmartRecruiters ask for change, right?

So in the interest of great music - and because MrTed doesn't have a demo video to share just yet... I leave you with a favorite song of mine that may or may not be on the mark... but does talk about Change - sort of.

originally found here...