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.