In 2012, CPS found they were losing valuable time and money by having to rely on manual back office processes.
For example, to complete their accounting, CPS would have to print each individual invoices for over 25 different companies. They then would check their lists for each company, go through every document to pull them out, scan them, and finally email a copy of the invoice to each client...“As you can imagine, this is a long process and we continued to get more clients requesting electronic invoicing,” said Jennifer Silverio, Systems Specialist for CPS.
Their previous software – AST, which was acquired by Avionte–could not be updated. As a result, they were forced to continuously patch the system to maintain their Front Office, Back Office and Payroll. Due to the lengthy app and load times, CPS discovered most of its team would not add notes, creating major concerns for data integrity. Additionally, CPS wanted to keep payroll internal, rather than outsource, but they found that their QuickBooks application could not handle the growing number of temporary placements. With approximately 1,000 W2s processed per year (a third of what they process today), their growth potential would be seriously hampered by the antiquated technology.
Searching for the right solution
As a successful Bullhorn customer for close to 10 years, their first stop was to reach out and see which, if any, back office integrations existed. Originally, CPS had planned to keep their existing back office software and build an integration with Bullhorn, but once they were introduced to the capabilities 1Staff Back Office unlocked through Microsoft Dynamics GP and the seamless integration with Bullhorn, the decision was simple.
“The consultant from Professional Advantage not only had extensive accounting experience but knows the staffing industry, which was very helpful and made the implementation go very smoothly. Their consultant really took the time to understand how our processes worked,” Jennifer said.CPS went live with 1Staff Back Office and GP on January 1st, 2012, after just a 6-month implementation and only 3 weeks with Bullhorn. Once everything was mapped, Bullhorn became the system of record with the information flowing to and from 1Staff. With GP, everything flowed by department from payroll, achieving their time saving goal.It wasn’t until after the implementation, that the true potential of this investment was realized. With many of the manual processes that once plagued CPS eliminated, they quickly discovered this new platform would open the door to various streamlined solutions.
A seamless front to back solution powered by 1Staff, Bullhorn with Microsoft Dynamics
Alongside 1Staff Back Office, CPS also had access to Online Time Entry, no longer requiring them to manually enter over 500 time-cards each month, an incredibly time consuming process as each entry had to be checked multiple times for accuracy. “Implementing 1Staff Back Office automated our billing process and saves us at least 7 to 8 hours of manual work each week,” Jennifer said. CPS was also looking forward to the advanced reporting available with 1Staff Back Office Analytics.After the initial demo, Jen felt so confident in the benefits of 1Staff, she believed that over time it would actually pay for itself. “In addition to increasing efficiency, implementing 1Staff would also decrease our software operating costs,” she said.
With the 1Staff & Bullhorn integration, CPS eliminated bottlenecks and created 3x growth
Years later, Jen’s intuition was confirmed. 1Staff increased efficiency and decreased software operating costs so much so that the product offset its own cost through ROI.With the integration of Bullhorn and 1Staff modernizing their front and back office systems, CPS can stay competitive in their industry. By offering client specific invoices, they can provide unique solutions to enhance their client relationships. If they need to add a new pay code, there is a simple process by which documents can be customized to reflect unique tax codes or local laws.Furthermore, with payroll housed in the Back Office, data can be immediately accessed for client calls. Prior to implementation, CPS’ CFO, Deb Lerro, had always relied on QuickBooks. Transitioning from AST to 1Staff Back Office allowed her to move to GP and save hours of time. In 2012, CPS started with one payroll per week. Today they average 15 payroll reports processed per week and have scaled from paying 200 people to 750 people per week–a 375% increase.With 1Staff Analytics, CPS is also able to access a variety of reports which were previously manually generated in Excel. These reports include Gross Profit by recruiter that pulls sales data from Bullhorn. CPS can now identify advanced statistics on sales rep metrics or analyze year over year revenue. Not only that, but they can calculate commissions, aggregate historical reporting, segment by business lines, and run management-level reports used by the CFO like Profit and Loss Statements.With these integrated solutions, placement numbers can be identified in Bullhorn to calculate their national footprint and the growth of their sales and recruiting teams with little to no additional resources.
About CPS
Contemporary Personnel Staffing, Inc. (CPS) specializes in the placement of top talent regionally, nationally, and globally. Their focus is on providing workforce solutions in Accounting and Finance, Administrative, Executive Support, HR, Government Contract, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Manufacturing, Information Technology and more.Founded in 1989 by Laurie Liechty, CPC and headquartered in Syracuse, NY; CPS has built an experienced and talented staff armed with the most sophisticated technology to fulfill complex client needs and deliver high impact staffing and recruiting solutions. With a current team of 25 certified recruiting professionals, CPS has grown to be the largest independently owned full-service staffing and recruitment firm in Central New York. Nationally accredited as a Women-Owned Business Enterprise, CPS was recognized as the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year in both 2005 and 2007.
About Bullhorn
Bullhorn provides cloud-based CRM and operations solutions for the staffing industry. Its automated data capture and customer insight technology helps companies engage candidates and win customers. Today, more than 7,000 companies rely on the Bullhorn platform to help increase sales, improve service delivery, and streamline operations. Headquartered in Boston, with offices around the world, Bullhorn employs over 600 people globally. The company is founder-led and backed by Insight Venture Partners.
