What do staffing agencies want out of their software? The vendors know.

Art Papas, CEO of Boston-based Bullhorn, says staffing agencies want their software to be able to synchronize their sales and recruiting functions. “Since 90% of a staffing and recruiting firm’s employee assets are in the front office, synchronizing sales and recruiting creates the best opportunity to drive revenue and increase profitability,” he explains in an e-mail. “By synchronizing sales and recruiting, staffing agencies can forecast based on available candidates and job orders, which provides management with a better idea as to revenue stream.” Management can also determine which accounts are the most profitable, which have the highest satisfaction and which are the most problematic, points out Papas.

Papas says that staffing managers in particular are always looking for software that can assess staff performance. “They like to see what kind of activity staff had within the past week,” he says. “Managers can sit down with a recruiter or sales person and say, ‘This is what Bullhorn software says you did this week.’” The software provides managers with a sense of which people are the best performers and which people might need some help.