Now here’s a handy new feature from iCIMS: A report card.
If you’re an iCIMS client you’ll be getting a twice-annual checkup on how your use of the company’s talent management system compares to other iCIMS clients. Here’s what the company’s press release says: “The 60-point Report Card is a full audit on a client’s usage of iRecruiter benchmarked against iCIMS’ growing customer base.”
Are you thinking this is just what you need? Yet another way to remind you of your recruitment shortcomings and even a grade to compare you with the so-called “Best of Breed.” Not to worry. You get the report, not your mom or your boss, unless, of course they insist.
All kidding aside, what iCIMS is doing is offering its customers a way to measure their use of the company’s products against what others do. Again to the press release: “The program will provide tangible metrics that organizations can use to measure their platform adoption as well as how progressive their Talent Management function is. iCIMS’ hope is to bring customers closer together through the iCIMS user community, creating a powerful network and ultimately advancing innovation in the area of Talent Acquisition and Management.”
We wish we could decipher all this for you. But what we think it means is that if you are an iCIMS customer, besides getting rated against others, you also get access to a user group that can help you improve those areas of your report card where you scored below iCIMS customer averages.
Offering scores against benchmarks is a useful tool to help you identify strengths and weaknesses in how you use (in this case) the iCIMS products. Most other vendors have user groups and forums. But an actual independent scoresheet is a feature that can only help wake-up recruiters and hiring managers to what they’re missing.
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Martin Snyder Dec 27, 2007 at 8:09 am
I don’t think this is a winning move and I bet it does not get very far.
If I were a customer or prospect, I dont think I would like the idea of an application vendor analyzing my data or usage of the system (except for pure technical performance reasons) to benefit other customers. In fact, our contract prohibits it.
Why should my work and ideas be fodder for their mill ?
The whole paternal ‘we know better than you do’ attitude is so 90’s.
Our attitude is that our customers know more than we do, and if they use our system to gain an edge, the last thing WE are going to do is spread it around for OUR benefit.
Certainly adding quality features by request to the application does benefit other customers, but that?s a whole different animal than what ICIMS is doing here.
Not only is this a classic slippery slope, it highlights tensions inherent in the business model and comes across as a little bit creepy.
The goals of neutrality, objectivity, and non-interference with any customer’s business activity should be the guiding lights of an ASP vendor- only to be compromised for the greatest possible benefit. A ‘report card’ like this (IMHO) does not even come close to that standard.
What happened to ICIMS? marketing touch over the last year anyway ?