Until now, Bullhorn’s staffing firm customers who wanted a complete front and back office solution had to work with a third party to get those all-important time and billing services.
Bullhorn eased the pain by partnering with other vendors for back office services, as well as other add-ons to provide other functions such as reporting and analytics, automated telephony, and payroll.
Now, Bullhorn has acquired Easy Software Solutions, maker of timeshEASY, its time and billing partner. The sales price was not disclosed.
Announcing the acquisition today, Bullhorn CEO Art Papas called the deal a “game changer.” “Staffing firms have always wanted both front and back office solutions from a single, trusted provider. Now, Bullhorn can offer a fully integrated, end-to-end solution.”
Certainly the simplicity of having a single source for ATS and CRM and back office functions is a plus for Bullhorn customers. But it also makes clear that Bullhorn is growing into a single-source provider for the staffing industry, an important step on Papas’s declared intention of taking the $40 million company to $150 million and a possible IPO.
Last fall the company, itself sold to an equity firm a year ago for more than $100 million, snapped up two of its longtime competitors: MaxHire and Sendouts. The latter was strongest among small search firms and independent recruiters. MaxHire served larger search firms and more local and regional temp agencies. Some features of each company’s products have been integrated into Bullhorn, though it was talent and customer acquisition that primarily drove the purchases.
With Easy Software, Bullhorn gets key elements of a complete back office tech solution. Timecard management and billing are two of the biggest administrative headaches every temp agency faces. (Payroll is yet one more.) After an initial orientation with the agency that employs them, most temps may not set foot in the building again for months, or ever. They still must record their hours worked and submit a timecard so they get paid and for the agency to then use in billing the client.
timeshEASY enables online time tracking, and also has mobile access. Since the company has already mastered integration with Bullhorn’s front office, it should be a simple matter for Bullhorn to now seamlessly incorporate the service.
Today’s announcement optimistically describes the acquisition as offering staffing firms “a single SaaS solution for streamlining their end-to-end recruiting process.” The company can be forgiven for a bit of hyperbole. Even with timeshEASY, clients will still need a payroll service and financial management. As most agencies of size don’t now handle their own payroll, and many do their own bookkeeping, neither of those services is likely to be a candidate for future Bullhorn acquisitions.
