Access’ latest move in the recruitment sector has seen Volcanic join the business as its latest acquisition – another clear marker of Access’ drive to deliver innovation to the industry. This is a unique step within the market and certainly unlike any other deal of this kind. Powered by the clear recognition that Volcanic offers something entirely new to the Access Group, not only will Volcanic retain its current leadership, but it will be positively encouraged to remain agnostic in the technology and businesses it works with. Naturally, current Volcanic users will be able to continue using the solution without change, and over time will be able to benefit from Access’ wider product portfolio – within the recruitment market and beyond. What Access gains, however, is additional strength in a critical early step in its ‘Candidate to Cash’ strategy – bringing recruiters increased efficiency from the point of first candidate contact right through to the moment they can bill for that candidate’s placement.
As Jason Martin, head of strategy, recruitment division at Access notes: “Access has been enhancing its integrated solution for recruiters across the middle and back office to help recruiters put in place a more efficient process for managing their candidates, whilst taking care of the necessary admin tasks more easily. With the Volcanic offering we will be able to take this one step further by effectively extending the journey forwards to connect with the candidate at a much earlier stage in the recruitment process.
“When we saw what Volcanic were doing we realised there was a step in the candidate to cash process we wanted to also help recruiters with,” explains Jason. “Bringing Volcanic on board was therefore a natural process to expand and strengthen what we were already doing.”
For Rob Wilde, co-founder and CEO of Volcanic, the opportunity to work with Access comes at a critical time when three major players are entering the market with possibly disruptive and dramatic consequences. Facebook, LinkedIn and Google are all looking at the potential of addressing candidates through their platforms. Volcanic was already working with these platforms through their solution but the future is certainly one of change and challenge: “We’re at the front line of this change,” says Wilde. “It addresses our core proposition because our business constantly addresses the candidate engagement piece.”
Indeed, it is Volcanic’s expertise and delivery of an exceptional candidate experience that makes the now closer working relationship all the more attractive for Access. “Volcanic is a highly successful company with not only a best in class product and a fantastic customer base but solid relationships with a lot of organisations and we want that to continue.” Jason comments.
While preserving the stellar candidate experience side of Volcanic’s work, Access will work to achieve a deep integration between the two technologies. With this, Access will be able to deliver an even richer integrated candidate to cash journey where details need be entered into the system only once in order to be shared across an organisation’s systems.
As a combined proposition this closer working relationship clearly has value, but again there is no suggestion that either organisation’s existing customers will be expected to follow a particular route with regard to their technology use. Just as Volcanic will remain free to develop and select the partners they work with, Access and Volcanic users will still have free choice concerning the technology they use, how and when they use it.
Rob Wilde and Neil Pickstone, Founders of Volcanic.
