When Will Bullhorn Work on Browsers Other Than Internet Explorer?

This is a question we get asked often here at Bullhorn, so I figured I would take some time and provide a detailed response to those of you that are curious. A Brief Rewind Back when Bullhorn was ramping up in the early 2000’s, Internet Explorer was far and away the dominant web browser. This was especially true in the corporate world, where it held well over a 90% market share.   At that same time, Apple’s market share of computer operating systems was less than 2%. With this in mind, we developed a number of advanced capabilities leveraging Internet Explorer-specific technology.  This made sense because it enabled new capabilities for our clients and helped them automate processes that previously were complex and time consuming- all via the dominant web browser. It was simply the right thing to do for our customers at the time. On the mobile front, smartphones were just taking off. In response to this, Bullhorn jumped out ahead with a mobile web that launched (believe it or not) in 2003. Prioritizing Demands in Today’s Rapidly Evolving Market Fast forward to today, and there’s no question that the browser and device market has fragmented dramatically with a raft of great alternatives.  As we continue to innovate and build out new product and services, it’s vital that we accommodate changing market dynamics and prioritize things that deliver the most immediate and valuable impact on our global customer base- all while continuing to advance recruiting agency-specific software capabilities. Apple’s share of desktops and laptop operating systems has now quadrupled to 10%.  And mobile website usage is surging. Before you know it, the majority of people browsing the web will spend more time on a mobile device than on a desktop or laptop. In response to these trends, we’ve made sure Bullhorn works great on Mac using virtualization software including, VMWare Fusion, Parellels, or VirtualBox. We have many customers using Bullhorn like this all day, every day. We actually provided a sneak peak of our next generation mobile app at the Staffing Industry Executive Forum last month.   This new capability is optimized for modern smartphones and tablets, and also works in any modern browser. You’ll hear much more about this soon. But what about Internet Explorer? Much of the recent feedback regarding Internet Explorer is that IE 7 and IE 8 are slower than other browsers, but IE 9 (just released a few days back) has actually caught up and passed the other browsers.   Bullhorn fully supports IE9, so we encourage you to check it out. As I mentioned earlier, it’s all about prioritization. Our early leveraging of Internet Explorer makes supporting other browsers more complex and time consuming. To support multiple browsers, many features and custom integrations will need to go through vigorous development and testing. We are tackling this, but it will take time. In the meantime, as we create new features in Bullhorn, we are building them to work across all operating systems, browsers, and devices.  This will ensure smoother transition for these features when we support other browsers down the road.
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Submitted by Skip (not verified) on Thu, 04/14/2011 - 09:30
What about alternatives like Mozilla Firefox ?

Submitted by Bart (not verified) on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 09:15
Many of my users are happily running Bullhorn via VirtualBox on their Macbooks, so take my "real world" two cents, virtualization is a great solution. Check the support forum, there are a couple of articles about how to get it going. Thanks for the history lesson, Geoff, as well as the look ahead.

Submitted by Peter Blaisdell (not verified) on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 09:55
So the answer to when will Bullhorn support other browsers is "down the road.?" Could you be more specific? Q3? This year? Next year?

Submitted by Richard (not verified) on Thu, 04/07/2011 - 21:19
So.... When will Bullhorn work on other browsers? This post just says it will take time. Can we get a ballpark like which quarter you're hoping for?

Submitted by Benjamin (not verified) on Tue, 04/12/2011 - 08:33
I hope that Bullhorn does move quickly to allow itself to be accessed with other web browsers outside of IE - IE has been losing market share to much more powerful and superior browsers that have greater functionality and security for a few years now - many (like myself) prefer to use Firefox and even on the Mac platform. In fact the only time I ever find myself to be a user of IE is when using bullhorn. I can't wait till I can be completely finished with IE and can integrate all web activities through Firefox! Also, I have not been aware that there was a work around to run Bullhorn on a Mac, this could definitely help me along with others who also have workstations and laptops that run on Mac platform to truly be virtual and have ability to access Bullhorn anywhere and everywhere - also since it seems we MAY have the ability to use better browers such as Firefox (please...nothing will make me happier). Then I will be able to gain full functionality by using my Mac when out of the office and use the same browser!! :-)

Submitted by JonathanW on Thu, 04/14/2011 - 12:13
Hi, Bart and Benjamin, thanks for the comments on this post. We're glad to hear that virtualization is a great option for you. Skip, alternatives like Firefox or Chrome are going to take some time. Geoff noted that "to support multiple browsers, many features and custom integrations will need to go through vigorous development and testing. We are tackling this, but it will take time." So no timeline just yet. Regards, Jonathan Wall Director Product Marketing - Bullhorn

Submitted by JonathanW on Thu, 04/14/2011 - 12:24
Hi Peter and Richard, Sorry, we don't have a specific timeline yet. Regards, Jonathan Wall Director, Product Marketing - Bullhorn

Submitted by Michelle (not verified) on Mon, 04/18/2011 - 10:53
Including virtualization software as a "solution" to incompatibility is not really a fair assessment. For those of us who use Macs at home and would like to check in on work matters remotely, the expectation that I might use platform virtualization is not especially reasonable. Virtualization is not some quick fix--it's a little bit complicated for someone who is inexperienced. If I wanted to run Windows I would have bought a PC.

Submitted by Steve (not verified) on Tue, 04/19/2011 - 11:31
This should be a major priority for Bullhorn. After many years of spending thousands of dollars every month on IT support we decided our new Hong Kong office would be all mac. In two years we haven't spend one dime on IT support. Now that we've made the leap to Bullhorn we're having to go back to the bad old days by running all our macs as PC's with Bootcamp and abandon our plan to replace PC's in other offices with more reliable Macs. None of the other run-a-mac-as-a-PC options are viable for us - we tested various options (all listed above) and they all failed. Can I suggest offering a fully-hosted version of Bullhorn which would allow Mac users to use the system essentially via windows remote desktop? This would be preferable to running parallels. Our previous database (which was inferior in all other respects) offered this option. It seems to me that there would be a timeline if this was something that had the proper level of priority at Bullhorn. With the increase in mac ownership and the increase in cloud computing generally, this is not something that should be done in anyone's spare time. The company should set a deadline and the hire/allocate the resources to meet it.

Submitted by David (not verified) on Wed, 04/20/2011 - 08:47
When you speak of mobile solutions, are you referring to IPad / IPad2? These are great tools that I'd like to implement inhouse for use during face to face interviews, etc. How does bullhorn perform on this platform?

Submitted by Jonathan (not verified) on Wed, 04/20/2011 - 15:34
Hi Michelle, There is another alternative for you to consider. You can use software that allows you to login to your PC from your Mac at home. A good example of software that does this is from a LogMeIn (logmein.com). They have a free offering that you can install on your PC at work, and then you go to their website on your Mac at home and you can login and control and use your PC from your Mac. There may be a slight performance lag, but in general this works pretty well. Update on April 22, 2011 One additional option to consider is using software like Microsoft's Remote Desktop Client for Mac. (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/remote-desktop-client) This is free and once installed, and you setup your PC to grant access to it, you can run Remote Desktop Client on your Mac and login to, control and use your PC from your Mac. This may require also using VPN software to get access to your work network from outside your office, but once this is setup, it works really well.

Submitted by Jonathan (not verified) on Wed, 04/20/2011 - 15:35
Hi Steve, Good suggestion. Thanks for posting it. I'll definitely share that with the team and we'll take a look at it. Regards, Jonathan Bullhorn Product Marketing

Submitted by Jonathan (not verified) on Wed, 04/20/2011 - 15:38
Hi David, Yes, when we say our next generation mobile experience is optimized for mobile smartphones and tablets, that includes iOS and Android devices. The new mobile app works great on iPad. More on that is coming very soon.

Submitted by Doug (not verified) on Thu, 04/21/2011 - 17:27
BTW, IE 9 only works in Vista or Windows 7. For the estimated 45% of Windows users running XP, no IE 9 for you! Also, even if IE 9 is better (is it better just because it's faster?) than Chrome or Firefox now, how long will it be before Chrome and Firefox pass IE again? Do you want to wait another 2 years for IE to come out with a class leader again? The world is moving (many have already moved) to a web/mobile-based workspace. Tying yourself to one browser is a sure way to fail. We moved to Bullhorn in October of 2007 and it seems like Bullhorn is still there. At least for us, the next few months are going to tell the tale as to whether we stay with Bullhorn, or move to a SaaS platform that works on the world wide web, not just the IE Internet.

Submitted by Jonathan (not verified) on Fri, 04/22/2011 - 12:20
Hi Doug, Thanks for your comment. We completely agree that the world is moving to a web/mobile based workspace, which is why we are hard at work on a completely new mobile app that will work on mobile phones and tablets, but also will be browser independent. Please feel free to touch base with me directly if you want to discuss further. (jwall at bullhorn dot com).

Submitted by James (not verified) on Thu, 04/28/2011 - 12:01
I am another user very keen for Bullhorn to move to a standard based environment. I, like many other Bullhorn users, only use IE for Bullhorn. The link posted that claims IE is the fastest browser is of questionable value. It uses only one benchmark. In other tests IE has been shown to still be the slowest of the mainstream browsers. Speed though isn't really a factor for us. Stability is. From my own experience IE falls over far more often than other browsers. It also has an appalling UI. I am about to rollback to IE 8 on this PC as I can't get the security setting to work properly. I keep getting popups stating that a popup has been blocked from bullhorn. IE is viewed by most industry experts as the poorest browser on the market. (taking Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE into account) Moving Bullhorn to a platform that is compliant with web standards is surely the best solution. James

Submitted by Jonathan (not verified) on Fri, 04/29/2011 - 08:17
Hi James, Thanks for the comment and sharing your thoughts about IE and the overall browser market. Our support team can definitely help you with the popup issue, so if you haven't done so already, please touch base with them. And we agree with you about supporting other browsers. So we are working on it, but its going to take some time.

Submitted by Jon (not verified) on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 21:06
This all sounds a bit deflective and BH's response re. alternative browser compatability has been that way for years. We have used BH since 2003 and as I understand it were the first non US user. I now use VM ware to run BH on Mac but you can't virtualise on an iPad and as others have mentioned Explorer is often an unstable platform. BH is a fairly heavy solution and while offers excellent flexibility and scalability I feel there are a raft of next gen platforms just around the corner. I have seen a few. Social media sourcing, referral, sydnciation, reporting, analytics and multi device / browser compatability will be base standard soon enough. If BH is being held back because of a legacy MS build they should look and think long and hard at all the other businesses that are no longer around because of the pepercieved expense of innovation. Progress is now unrelenting and lacking in nostalgia in equal measure. Perhaps this means a lite BH version that can operate as a stand alone as a starting point. Gut feel is that BH is as over featured as Word for the vast majority of users. It needs to be nimble, compatible, organic and responsive to the market if it is to maintain growth and stop impending churn. BH need to move on this decisively in my opinion. It sholdn't be BH that drives device / hardware / software purchasing decisions in our business.

Submitted by JonathanW on Wed, 05/11/2011 - 11:34
Hi Jon, Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. Our all new Bullhorn Mobile app is about to enter beta and is designed to work on iPads. I'll contact you via email in case you want to join the beta program. It will let you lookup contacts, candidates, clients and jobs, view resumes, see and add notes, and even search for candidates. That same app, while designed for mobile, will work on Safari on a Mac or a Windows PC. It's designed for mobile use, and therefore optimized for touch screens, but I wanted to call it out as it's in line with your comment about a lite version of Bullhorn. Regards, Jonathan Bullhorn product marketing

Submitted by David (not verified) on Thu, 05/19/2011 - 12:42
I would be all-MAC all the time if not for Bullhorn. It's frustrating that this platform only works on one web browser which really takes away some of the advantages of cloud computing. I utilize Salesforce.com for another business that I run and it works on any browser anywhere anytime...not so with Bullhorn. I really like the Bullhorn system but I have to say that I am considering switching to a competitor that offers true cloud database management that I can access with my macbook. I have a 3 year old basic model macbook and when I run parellels on it the program chews up so much memory that my macbook becomes soooo slow. It is really frustrating, so much so that I will probably have to make a switch to something different if Bullhorn can't get it's act together soon and join us in 2011. Come on, at least give us one other option that can work on a Mac (Firefox would be my choice).

Submitted by chris beaty (not verified) on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 22:24
I'm waiting for when BH moves to a TRUE SaaS and Web Based model. See salesforce -- they work and always have on any platform, any browser. If this were the case we'd be using BH, and would have at my prior firm too. I've used all of them or tested them all vigorously, and while the 'living in BH' thing would take some getting used to, it would end the end be fantastic. But we run all Macs all the time, so using cats. Does not fulfill all requirements but it works on anything and is always there. And integrates pretty well. Wish you guys would make this happen, you'd gain some market share from the small to mid players out there.

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