Deriving revenue from third-party services, the newly-launched ATS comes with optional extras

A free applicant tracking system (ATS) that derives revenue from third-party services that run from its hub has formally launched. iKrut was developed two years ago but is only now launching officially, complete with optional additional services. Managing director and founder Nick Leigh-Morgan, who has a background in recruiting, told Recruiter that it is gaining 50 new customers a week. “Our pitch is simple: you can pay for an ATS or use ours for free,” he said. “From that point of view it’s a disruptive business model.”

The software was developed after Leigh-Morgan struggled to cope with a high volume of emailed CVs when conducting recruitment campaigns for clients. “We couldn’t find a cost-effective system that did what we wanted so decided to build our own,” he said. “Then a client asked us if they could use the system independent of us and offered to pay for it.” 

Rather than charge for the software, Leigh-Morgan then came up with the idea of making the ATS a central portal for recruitment-related services. So far it has formed partnerships with the job aggregator Indeed, online psychometric tester Onetest Express, RChilli, which specialises in CV parsing, and video recording technology company Nimbb. Aside from Indeed, these will be generally new names to the UK recruitment market and Leigh-Morgan explains that all products are vetted before being embedded into the system.

While the original iKrut was a relatively basic ATS, the developers claim this version is a full-blown system. As well as standard ATS functionality, iKrut synchronises with Outlook, so interviews can be arranged from within the system, while job advertisements can be posted to 20 job boards in one click. It also interacts with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. “The majority of users are typically recruiting 20-50 people a year but there is no reason why it wouldn’t work for company recruiting 500 people a year,” says Leigh-Morgan, who adds that one user is global provider of speciality food ingredients and solutions Tate & Lyle. Originally the product was aimed at direct recruiters but it has also found favour with agencies. The ratio is around 60% agency to 40% direct recruiters. 

Among the early adopters is recruitment firm Europe Solutions, which has offices in the UK and Poland. “We started using iKrut recently and it has cut down on the time taken to vet and interview,” says Europe Solutions director Marc Van Ling. “We particularly like the free integration with online aggregate job sites and the company career site, which we can brand with our own logo. It’s an easy-to-use system and candidates like it. We trialled quite a few recruitment software providers who are charging hefty fees. iKrut’s functionality is largely comparable and the core service is free. It keeps the process simple while others try to over-complicate the process. It has really suited our business.”

www.ikrut.com