Innovative Ideas

BACKGROUND

Can you provide a brief description of your company?

We are an executive recruiting firm for the healthcare industry in the Boston area. We are in our 27th year. We are a retained search firm, meaning that various hospitals, community health centers, and healthcare organizations hire us to find their leadership. About 99 percent of our business is in the Boston area, but there’s a little bit from New York and New Jersey.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the vice president of business operations. I’m responsible for all parts of our infrastructure, including IT.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your company’s business goals for this particular project with Innovative Ideas?

We built our own search software. Dan Lieber [the president of Innovative Ideas] helped us do that. I wanted to consolidate all of the software pieces for efficiency’s sake to be able to expedite business more quickly.

When I started eight years ago, Excel spreadsheets were floating around people’s desktops. We had Act, a software tracking program for sales. We had some Microsoft Word documents we needed to update. We were very disjointed because the founder had just grown the business, and he couldn’t continue to be involved in the operational side as well as sales.

I came in and decided we needed a consolidated, shared workspace. We were losing a lot of intellectual property and contacts from the email system. Our employees would leave, and all of their important data was lost permanently. These sales contacts were hugely important to our sales department, and they were disappearing.

I interviewed four firms that had off-the-shelf systems including Innovative Ideas. We liked what he offered, and what he built as well as the price tag and support.

SOLUTION

Did you select an IBM ECM Solution?

Our system is based on what used to be called Lotus Notes. Based on that platform, we felt very confident. I liked Lotus Notes because it offered what we needed, and could be used by people without IT backgrounds.

They built a very interesting piece that’s absolutely tailored only to our business. It has tabs to outline the first step, second step, and the entire process. Users can click through the process, and add in candidates and contacts. Everyone can see everything in real time. It is a fabulous process, we can quickly capture hundreds of contacts. Innovative Ideas has made it very automated as opposed to having my recruiters waste time sorting through email and paper resumes.

Can you tell me about the scope of the project, and what parts Innovative Ideas was involved in?

They not only built the software four years ago, but are our everyday IT people. We talk to them almost every day. They’re on speed dial.

They work very closely with us and act as our search specialist. If we need to do a search for a very specific group, they can pull the data and give us the output.

Can you discuss the customizations that Innovative Ideas provided in more detail?

Everything we wanted, they made happen. Most recently, we’ve developed our practice for physicians. We’re really getting down to the dirty details of the different practices so we can target them. If we want to add search features or buttons, he will add it in a day without problems.

Can you describe the daily IT support Innovative Ideas provides to your organization?

It’s hourly based on need, but they’re exclusive to us. They even buy our hardware. The hourly arrangement has worked well for both parties for years.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the initiative in either personnel work hours or dollar terms?

On my side, it took me a few months to do various research, and then feed them the pieces. The system cost around $20,000 to build.

When was the project completed?

It was completed in 2007.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement post implementation?

We have reached speeds that are 15 percent faster, and we’re getting a little better now. I have some people that struggle with technology. We could do better. It’s not the software that’s holding us back.

How did Innovative Ideas perform during the project?

Everything’s great. I don’t have one bad thing to say about them. They come in weekends. They go to the CEO’s house at 3 a.m. to give him something. They are very hands on, and we’re one of their smaller clients. It’s quite amazing that they make time for us. They also have a very short response time.

When working with them, what is unique or special about them compared to other vendors?

I think they’re very bright. They’re definitely doing what they should be doing. They have a fabulous skill set experience. I always get a 10-minute response even if they are out of the country or doing other work. They fix things remotely all the time to a point where I think we’re quite spoiled.

Looking back on the project, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or maybe you would do differently?

The biggest trick was not an IT skill set, but it was a selling-it-to-my-team skill set. That was the toughest part, pulling people out of their comfort zone. Some people are either resistant to change or just uncomfortable. So, they help me ease my team into using new systems.