Tuesday 4 January 2011

My New Year resolution

I've never been one for New Year resolutions. If your gong to do something, then just do it. Waiting for the New Year and then resolving to do something almost makes it feel like you're committing to it because you ought to, rather than because you really mean it!

This year though I've changed my mind. Let me tell you why.

A few months ago I joined a LinkedIn group for Recruitment Software suppliers. This would be great, I thought, to:
  • Network with other software suppliers 
  • Potentially work together to share information that would help to improve the market for us all 
  • Promote our professionalism and solutions to the recruitment market. 

Great! But it wasn't quite like that.....

What I found instead within the group were people using the group simply to tell everyone 'buy us, buy us, we're better than you etc etc'. It seemed that each time someone posted a conversation this was immediately killed by others with this approach. Perhaps unwisely I posted a tongue in cheek comment to this effect, this then kicked-off with claims and counter claims by people on the benefits of their software and who was the first to do things. Oops, nest and hornets were some of the words that came to mind.

My immediate reaction was that this illustrated my point. Namely, that recruitment software suppliers seemed unable to cooperate and use their LinkedIn group to promote the overall benefits and value of recruitment software for agencies.

Making claims that in 2001 for instance that 'we were the first to develop a windows .NET application' and then arguing about it. The claim I thought was in the first place meaningless to a Recruitment Agency who are looking for a software solution today, and then arguing about whether someone was the first or not seemed pointless.

2001 is a long time ago and of course has little relevance to today's software solutions and customer needs. There are now quite a few suppliers of .NET applications in the market (basically nearly everyone of any note) and who beat who to be the first is really of little (to no) relevance. Quick-Recruit (from i-Business Resources) for instance was developed as a .NET application in 2002 and is a fully web-based integrated front and back-office product, blah, blah, blah.

However, in the last 10 years there have been countless .NET upgrades from Microsoft, the development of AJAX components, and changes in the business need by Agencies for remote system access from numerous devices. All meaning a .NET application developed in early 2000 is out of date unless it has been continually upgraded and amended for changing business needs.

It is how we move on and upgrade our technology and solutions that is the key. Not trying to bamboozle our potential clients with different claims from a decade ago. At that time there was for instance no Facebook, no Twitter, Microsoft were completely dominant and Google and Apple had not yet started to over-take them. It's all very different now for technology and the software solutions demanded now by agencies are also very different to 10 years ago.

And then I suddenly realised....

The conversations I was reading from others highlighted to me that it wasn't just 'Others' having these conversations and making claims.  It made me realise that I've sometimes also fallen into the same trap of talking about things my company has done in the past, and how we're the best because we were the first.  We've been the first, or amongst the first, to do many things, and have historically also been excellent in many areas.  But who really wants to know this now?  Don't recruiters just want to know how we solve their current problems and will help solve future ones? 

My New Year resolution for 2011 will therefore be to change this!

It's a new decade and instead of spending time showing what we've done in the past and showing we're better than the competition (even if it's true LOL), I'll spend my time instead talking about what we're doing now and for the future.  I also resolve to stop worrying about what the competition does so we can address this, and instead focus on what the market needs and address that instead.  I'll also resolve to try to work with other suppliers to promote the overall value of modern software solutions to recruitment agencies, so this benefits us all.

Excellent! At least of course until the first agency comes along where to close the sale we need to under-cut or undermine the competition.  Then will my New Year resolution go the same way as most others and remind me why I don't make New Year resolutions?

I hope not, it's a tough economic World out there but by doing the right thing in a decent way towards others this will always I feel pay-off in the long-term.  So, stay tuned to this blog during 2011 for more info on technology for recruitment and how i-Business Resources can help you solve today's problems and also plan to solve tomorrow's business needs with new software solutions.

So what are your New Year resolutions, and do you think you'll stick to them?

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