It has been over a year since we published our first ATS Index report and what a year it has been. Over the past year, providers have enhanced interview management capabilities, dabbled with Artificial Intelligence (AI), provided more options for employee referrals, and improved analytics and dashboards. It has been a busy time.

The biggest shift in the past year is the realization that the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) as a stand-alone product is not enough. In order to be efficient and provide a positive candidate experience, organizations need capabilities that engage talent both before they apply for a job and after they accept an offer. The providers we included in this year report offer much more than an ATS and several offer end-to-end talent acquisition solutions. The list of this year’s providers includes: ADP, Cornerstone OnDemand, gr8 People, Greenhouse, IBM, iCIMS, Jobvite, Lever, Newton Software,  Oracle, PeopleFluent, SAP, SmartRecruiters, Symphony Talent, and Workday.

We have made some significant improvements to this year’s report including

  • Integration: As more providers are offering ecosystems and marketplaces, we included more information on how providers are integrating with third-party providers and what their platforms offer for integration and support.
  • Security: Few providers in this report can truly support a global enterprise client. As companies look to expand globally, we believe that security is an important differentiator.
  • Advanced Capabilities: We evaluated providers based on some of the advanced capabilities we are seeing in the market, including events management, internal mobility, employee referrals, and CRM capabilities.
  • SWOT Analysis: We replaced the customer journey section of the report with a SWOT analysis to show where providers have strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
  • Investment: Many of the providers in this report have received a considerable amount of investment. We called this out in the beginning of each profile, as financial viability is a key differentiator.
  • More Analyst Insight: We included more insight into what impressed us about each provider and what companies should consider when evaluating these solutions.
  • New Providers: This year gr8 People and Symphony Talent were both included in this report.

We are excited for all of the change in the market and we would love to hear any feedback on the report.