Marketplace 101: A Framework for Selecting the Right SI Partner
Whether you’re new to Bullhorn, onboarding new offices and locations, or looking to make more of your Bullhorn investment, our SI Partners (Systems Integration) are a great resource to have—especially if you’re working remotely and need extra support.
Bullhorn’s SI Partners are an extension of the Bullhorn family, and are responsible for software implementation, optimisation, customisation, training, and support. And, most of them have years of Bullhorn product and staffing industry knowledge under their belts.
Businesses Served
While all of Bullhorn’s SI Partners offer deep staffing industry expertise, they do work with businesses of varying sizes, verticals, and complexity.
The complexity of environment setup varies from business to business. For example, an enterprise-level staffing business might have extensive workflows and integrations compared to a small-to-medium sized business.
Choosing a partner that has experience with other businesses of your size and vertical is important. When you are vetting an SI partner, it is important to ask questions that tell more about the staffing verticals they have worked with (e.g. Healthcare vs. Finance), their typical client size, as well as the level of complexity that they have worked with (e.g. back office and middle office integrations and processes). Here are several questions to consider:
- What is their average length of engagement?
- What are the major challenges that they have faced with other businesses of your size/vertical?
- Have they been Bullhorn-enabled to implement the product(s) in question?
Product Knowledge
Our SI Partners have different degrees of Bullhorn product knowledge and experience. For example, some are more experienced with Erecruit implementations, others are more experienced with Bullhorn One implementations.
When considering which SI Partner to work with, note their experience with the following:
- Bullhorn ATS & CRM
- Bullhorn One
- Bullhorn Back Office & Onboarding
- Herefish
- Erecruit
- VMS Sync & Submittals
Ask qualifying questions about which products they have the most experience with, and confirm whether or not they have experience with the integration points specific to your organisation. These considerations are essential to a successful implementation.
Relationship Dynamic
What do you want your relationship to look like?
Will the SI Partner work as an extension of your own organisation? Or, do you need them as more of a consultative driver of change?
Do you need a partner who:
- Works on a project from start to finish and then the relationship is over?
- Understands your vision and the direction of your company and will help to drive significant process improvements and business changes?
- Acts as a subcontractor that has been staff augmented among your teams?
The answer to these questions may also depend on the type of work your SI Partner is conducting. If it’s a rapid implementation, it might be a relatively short-lived relationship, but if you’re working on a large data migration, you probably want to make sure they’re working as more of an extension of your team.
What Next?
Just as you would if you were hiring a new team member, check partner references. Ask Bullhorn sales reps who they would recommend based on your specific needs – they have been enabled to offer these types of recommendations.
To get started, describe your project to your account manager, and ask which of our SI Partners might be the best fit for you.
In the meantime, start researching some of our SI Partners like 1218, Gear Partners, Kyloe, Newbury SI Group, Sixcel, and TonicHQ.