Hans Luhn’s 1958 publication for IBM first popularised the importance of Business Intelligence (BI) defining it as, “an automatic system…developed to disseminate information to the various sections of any… organization.” However, it was not until this century that the supporting technology to implement his theories became cost effective to the wider business community.
As we can see from the Google Trends graph (below), global interest in “big data” has only grown drastically in the last five years and the Business Intelligence industry has seen a dramatic growth because of this. In fact, it is projected to be worth $19Bn (£15.3Bn) by 2019.
Given this recent rise in demand, let’s look at how BI has evolved, how that transpires practically and whether it’s fundamental for your recruitment agency.
What Does Business Intelligence Mean Today?
The heart of Business Intelligence still remains consistent with Luhn’s original definition, however, to build upon that from a modern perspective: BI is the practice of using smart software to analyse data to better inform you of the status of your business processes to enable you to make data-driven, strategic decisions more efficiently.
Moreover, Business Intelligence platforms like Tableau are used across multiple platforms including mobile to give you and your employees live, visual statistics that can be understood, by even the least tech-savvy employee, to provide regular, informative insights.
Modern BI platforms are equipped primarily to:
- Analyse customer and client behaviour, buying patterns and sales trends
- Measure, track and predict sales and financial performance
- Track marketing performance and individual campaigns
- Streamline processes and operations
- Manage customer relationships
- Analyse risk
Are There Business Intelligence Platforms Specifically for Recruitment Agencies?
The success of BI platforms in recent years has witnessed a rise in industry specific platforms such as Cube 19 which, “provides recruitment-specific analytics, business intelligence, reporting, and gamification to help recruitment companies increase revenue, scale efficiently, improve data quality, and motivate teams.”
Specifically, the functions that can help your recruitment agencies include:
- Identifying key drivers of success
- Managing your recruiters more effectively to create a uniform culture
- Enabling real-time data-driven decision making throughout the entire company
- Demonstrating your success metrics to a client
Does Your Recruitment Agency Need Business Intelligence?
There is no doubt that your recruitment agency can benefit from Business Intelligence, the insights are invaluable and rather than estimating trends and process success, you can visualise it in real-time. The decision on purchasing a Business Intelligence platform to integrate with your recruitment CRM is purely based on how important ‘big data’ is for your agency and the cost of purchasing and configuring the platform for your business requirements.
Having visibility and access to data does not always mean investing in a separate platform or software. Within our recruitment CRM, our Management Reporting and Analysis Suite provides management reporting and analysis tools enabling you to have visibility across your business including:
- Client, candidate, vacancy, timesheet and invoice activity
- Vacancies by status, predicted revenue, actual revenue and lost revenue
- Vacancy fill rates and revenue by consultant, client, industry/discipline and geographical regions
- Recruitment Consultant KPI and recruitment activity
- AWR clock assignment
- Temporary worker compliance and right to work document expiry and management
- Interaction log activity
We opened up the conversation with key clients regarding what makes a successful recruitment agency? To learn more download our free eBook.
