Applicant tracking software is considered by most to be a backwater when it comes to software innovations.  Many ATS products still rely on balky downloaded applications originally designed before the web-based software revolution.  A basic review of the different products on the markets will reveal a range of front-end user interfaces with many design cues from the late 90’s.  On top of these industry wide issues, the feature battle has been raging amongst the competition from the beginning.  Those products that have lasted through the years show clear signs of feature bloat that detract from the core value of applicant tracking and management.  Frankly, the ATS industry has suffered from out or control pressure from their own marketing departments.

As a newcomer to the already over-saturated applicant tracking industry, Newton’s developers were faced with a dilemma on how to position themselves in a software market that generally competed on extraneous features.  Fortunately, grounded by a long background as technical recruiters, Newton’s development team instituted a core design philosophy that emphasized usability as the primary factor in all development decisions from the beginning.  This philosophy dictated user interface design, feature additions and sales practices for the fledgling software company.

Extreme usability requires a software’s functions and mechanisms to be so completely self-evident that, at a glance, users should be able to determine how to use the product.  This emphasis on simplicity must be reflected in a product’s interface.  Given the important of UI, the Newton Team decided to adopt simple, universal symbols and visual cues to help reduce the products learning curve to an absolute minimum.  With Newton the entire recruiting process is managed through an ultra-clean interface that presents the user with a large green button to pass a candidate along the recruiting funnel and a large red button to reject the candidate.   The entire core functionality of submitting a candidate for review and reviewing a candidate revolves around this simple and extremely effective user interface.

For Newton, additional feature are always considered through the lens of improving the software’s ability to increase hiring efficiency and decrease their client’s cost per a hire.  Any feature that passes this litmus test is then designed and integrated with the intent of absolutely minimizing clutter and maximizing an end user’s understanding of the new feature.  For example, Newton’s recruiting analytics highlights bottlenecks in a company’s recruiting process.  This feature has been designed to emulate common analytics platforms like Google’s Analytics program so that many users who interact with the feature already have some familiarity with the functionality.

Finally, the delivery platform for enterprise software has a major impact on usability.  Newton was fortunate to enter the market as Adobe’s flex product became available to developers.  From the beginning, Newton was designed to be web-based and operating system/browser choice independent.  The choice of delivering their software with flex enabled Newton to avoid cross-browser compatibility issues.  This decision also avoided requiring their clients to download an application.  Ultimately Newton’s web-based, platform-independent software product allows their new clients to implement the software in a fraction of the time that many competitors require to get up and running.

As company’s move away from the “battle of the features”, the software industry will improve the return on investment delivered to their customers.  Software that requires less learning is more likely to generate a higher percentage of active end users.  On top of the obvious benefits of emphasizing usability, the practice often results in shorter implementation times for new clients.   As corporate customers, let’s hope this win-win strategy entices more developers over the fence.

By: Byron Mackelroy

Software has come a long way since the concept of timesharing hit the early mainframe computers. The rise of the PC has increased the importance of the individual during the design phase of software development. Applications with user-generated content have further pushed software design into an era where usability is king. Modern software and web services are redefining principles of customization and usability in order to better meet the needs of their userbase.

Google, the de facto king pin of modern, user-centric software services, creates products that emphasize high-value features, customization and flexibility. Gmail has set a standard for launching software that provides high-value core services. Prior to Gmail consumers had two general options when it came to email: an outlook account pulling their email onto their computer or a web-based service with limited storage space. Gmail launched with 1 gigabyte of free storage. Storage became a killer feature that enabled users to keep their email in a web-based service that had an essentially unlimited capacity to archive their old emails. A strong foundation of core features has marked the launch and development of all of Google’ products from their Adwords service to Google Maps.

Recently, Google has made a move into customization. Gmail now has a number of custom skins that enable each user to select a visual user interface that matches their personality. iGoogle enables users to download any number of widgets from stock tickers to local weather feeds to customize their Google search page with the information they need most. Customization is making software personal. As a consumer, once we invest time in customizing a service, we are less likely to make the switch to a competitive service that does not offer customization.

Flexibility in the form of constant connectivity is proving to be a game changer in the software industry. Google is leading the charge by building massively scalable applications in the cloud. The web 2.0 era saw a major trend in services that extended the power of people’s computers through the connectivity of their internet connection. From Photobucket to Quickbooks, consumers and businesses are storing more and more of their valuable information on the web. The rising number of available netbooks is a testament to the power of web-based software and increasing reliability of web-based storage solutions.

Microsoft’s approach of developing software with a tremendous number of bells and whistle is a comparative shotgun to Google’s sniper rifle. Don’t get me wrong, many programs such as Excel are tremendously powerful tools that frankly blow away the competition when it comes to features. However, many times the overwhelming number of bells and whistles can leave a user hunting for the core features where they derive the most value from the product. Looking at software through the lens of the auto industry, Cadillacs had more options than the original Japanese imports, but in the long run the Japanese emphasis on core value and reliability trumped all the chrome spoilers that Detroit had to offer.

The final piece of the design puzzle is a deep understanding of a software’s userbase. This understanding does not necessarily mean building software for the average user, but rather building software for the critical user. I came across some great insight recently while reading over a post from Steve Hazelton, the CEO of Newton Inc., a company that designs online recruiting software. In his recent blog post, Hazelton highlights a new trend in business software that requires the developer to design their product to fit the needs of their most critical user, while still providing an effective platform for power users. This approach requires a software service to have a minimal learning curve for the person using the application the least. As modern software continues to incorporate self-explanatory UIs and a focus on high-value features, companies will reduce the inefficiency associated with the software adoption period.

With new companies pushing the limits and industry leader setting the standards, Software design is evolving at a breakneck pace. Competitive pressure in the software industry is making design and usability paramount to success in the marketplace. For the sake of long days wasted in seminars learning useless features, lets hope that things keep moving in the right direction.

Over the past few years, businesses have clearly increased their expectations toward the software industry. According to a recent study by McKinsey & Company and the Sand Hill Group business professionals have come to expect the functionalities of software to fit their unique processes. This is a shift from the past, in which the consensus was that software was not adaptable, meaning the end user must adjust to a set of provided functionalities. Since all software was hard coded and finalized as one product to be used by a diverse multitude of people, it was not expected to fit the exact needs of any particular organization perfectly.

The cost of developing software was also once too high for most companies to fathom designing custom applications. Lately, it has become a more realistic option. Research indicates companies have increased their spending on internal development projects relative to packaged purchases over the past five years. Businesses want more control over their applications, and are willing to spend a lot of money to get that control.

Nevertheless, custom-built applications still have their own set of limitations. Unlike off-the-shelf software it is not readily available. The design process typically takes months, and is then followed by a lengthy implementation process and about a year of working all the bugs out of the newly-developed system. This poses a problem for companies searching for a time-tested, reliable system or a system that can be available in a short time frame.

After much trial and error in the software industry it is now apparent that what is really needed is a reliable, flexible, powerful and user-friendly platform for building custom business software. Business professionals demand functionalities that diverge from typical project management inquiries. They are presented with unique needs in the application process flow, user interface, forms, business rules, workflow and access control of the application. Often times, companies have a well-developed, proprietary business process, best practice or methodology providing a competitive edge, and seek to maintain and enhance it with custom business software.

Business professionals must control their applications’ capabilities, evolution and lifecycle. This cannot be achieved with custom software developed by outsourcing, or even an IT Department. There is an enormous loss of knowledge when it is communicated from a business-minded individual to a developer. Industry journals are full of horror stories of failed custom development projects. It is too common to hear of a solution delivered much later than promised, and systems that do not fit the business users’ needs. It is difficult for technical-savvy software developers to truly understand the needs of a business mind.

Over half a decade ago work began on the first platform to allow business users to fully customize and build powerful, fully-functional business applications. Today, Interneer Intellect fills the business user’s need for control. Its Instant Application Framework empowers the business user to generate applications instantly, without programming. Just as DELL pioneered PC sales by providing mass customization by the end user, Interneer, Inc. allows even those with the most basic technical skills to create custom, changeable business software solutions. Developers refer to the concept behind business software platforms such as Interneer Intellect as the “Holy Grail” of software development: placing the power of the developer in the fingertips of the business user. We are witnessing a true evolution in the business software industry.

About The Author

Matthew Steffen – a sales representative of Interneer, Inc. can be reached at sales@interneer.com. Interneer Intellect is the world’s most advanced platform for building custom business applications.

For more information visit http://Interneer.com.