iApplicants vs. Brassring

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
iApplicants
Score 5.0 out of 10
N/A
iApplicants is a cloud-based ATS that offers batch or mass communication with potential candidates via multiple channels, resume parsing, and data management. This particular platform is sought and used by small to midsize companies and is offered on a flexible payment schedule.
$800
per year
Brassring
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
Brassring, formerly from IBM and part of the Kenexa Talent Acquisition Suite, and now sold by Infinite Computer Solutions, is an enterprise grade ATS and onboarding solution. It allows companies to find the right talent, track and manage candidates, and use candidate data to spot trends within the applicant pool.N/A
Pricing
iApplicantsBrassring
Editions & Modules
ATS
$800.00
per year
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
iApplicantsBrassring
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
iApplicantsBrassring
Considered Both Products
iApplicants
Chose iApplicants
We evaluated no one else, I can not really explain how they stack up against other companies. In my mind that is not the issue, I am happy with iApplicants so I am not looking into other companies. I really did happen upon this company and love it, then purchase and since …
Chose iApplicants
We didn't look any further. It was the right price, had all of the tools we were looking for, and was incredibly simple to launch. My search was a random act of frustration as I was dealing with recruiting for a position that had generated over 300 applicants and I stumbled …
Chose iApplicants
Taleo, ATS module from Sage

I use iApplicants simply for the pricing. I would prefer a more robust product, but for the dollars, I'm paying currently, iApplicants gives me the best bang for my buck!
Chose iApplicants
All the systems I have listed are major systems used my large staffing organizations. iApplicants is best suited to smaller organizations with less intensive needs. The price is also better suited. I chose iApplicants because it was a better match. When we expanded and opened …
Chose iApplicants
I would say the overall capability with the iApplicant system is fairly similar to what other products can offer. Our recruitment goes in streaks where we can have several positions at once and then there are times when we have no recruitment at all. So we didn't want to spend …
Chose iApplicants
We enjoy the user friendliness of iApplicant's as well as the cost aspect. It can be costly to join all the career boards out there and iApplicants helps do that work for you.
Chose iApplicants
iApplicants has Awesome support.
ADP is our current HR, Benefits and Payroll systems. It made since to consider adding in Recruitment tools.
But in side-by-side comparison of cost and services, there was no contest. And the support by iApplicant team is one of the best I have …
Chose iApplicants
I use both Taleo and Ultipro in my current role, but I really miss iApplicants. It just seemed far simpler and definitely streamlined the process much better!
Chose iApplicants
I've tested several vendor ATS systems to find iApplicants, used several systems developed for prior employers and used Taleo. iApplicants, for the investment is definitely worth the cost.
Brassring
Chose Brassring
The primary reason of still going with Kenexa is because we have been using it for quite some time now. And considering it is used by more than 30 countries, it makes the training and communication about Kenexa easy. Also purchasing this license for a longer period (3, 5 years) …
Chose Brassring
It stacks up well against Bullhorn CRM for candidate retrieval but not as streamlined or automated.
Chose Brassring
SF ATS was not available at the time and Taleo was thought to be too expensive. In retrospect, given the amount of customization and leveraging of other vendor technology for things like analytics I suspect any cost advantage we realized evaporated.
Chose Brassring
We recently started using Assess for our Food Service and Area Managers and the results have not been as accurate as Kenexa. We have since made some bad hires off the results of Assess, we have had one particular Area Manager that scored in the "Best" category and her behavior …
Chose Brassring
Kenexa fares very poorly in practice against almost anything else. It checks the boxes of raw functionality, and offers wide customization. However, in practice it is a nightmare to use for almost everything. I was not part of the initial implementation, so I am not aware of …
Chose Brassring
Kenekxa removes the CV's after 90 days even when the recruitment process for the position is still in progress so you basically have have a situations where the CV put up by a consultant is automatically removed without any information to Client or Consultant and that candidate …
Chose Brassring
I did not have much to do with the selection process, but I found out that OpenHire was in the running, which is the worst system I have ever worked with. I was able to share my OpenHire experience, and hopefully that assisted with the selection of Kenexa. Compared to other …
Chose Brassring
We used Kenexa due to its price. But the ultimate thing that we learned in the end is that: you get what you pay for.
It wasn't so awful that we wanted to just do physical recruiting, but then again it wasn't good enough to where we were happy with our results.
Bullhorn is …
Chose Brassring
Kenexa allowed for the requisition process to automated where as Ceridian's version I worked on did not. Also the Kenexa version allows multiple copies of an applications where the Ceridian version I previously used did not and made affirmative action harder to comply with.
Chose Brassring
I have used PeopleSoft eRecruit which was horrible and didn't give the recruiters the ability to source for candidates inside the system. We just implemented Workday Recruit in the last month and it has many functionality deficincies right now but it is a new product and they …
Chose Brassring
JobDiva, Maxhire. Kenexa is a much cleaner interface than the other two - appears to be a standard system across organizations.
Chose Brassring
I didn't! However, I have used both SmartSearch and SilkRoad OpenHire extensively. SmartSearch is fantastic for recruiter geeks who really want to find out all the neat things that are available. It's fast, super easy to use, and quite elegant in design. Probably not a good …
Features
iApplicantsBrassring
Recruiting / ATS
Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of Product A and Product B
iApplicants
8.4
Ratings
5% above category average
Brassring
7.5
Ratings
6% below category average
Job Requisition Management9.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Company Website Posting7.00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Publish to Social Media8.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Job Search Site Posting6.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Customized Application Form8.00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Resume Management8.00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Duplicate Candidate Prevention7.40 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Candidate Search8.60 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Applicant Tracking9.00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Collaboration10.00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Task Creation and Delegation8.00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Email Templates9.40 Ratings7.70 Ratings
User Permissions8.00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Notifications and Alerts10.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Reporting10.00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Best Alternatives
iApplicantsBrassring
Small Businesses
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.1 out of 10
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.1 out of 10
Breezy HR
Breezy HR
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong
Score 9.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
iApplicantsBrassring
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.6
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.9
(0 ratings)
1.8
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.9
(0 ratings)
2.6
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
iApplicantsBrassring
Likelihood to Recommend
How many employees does your company have? I believe it is suitable for companies similar in size to mine or with fewer employees. I believe larger size companies should only use iApplicants if they hire employees in bulk. Meaning if they make simple hires it would be an excellent product for them. Because of the limited search capability, it may not be suitable for everyone.
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Other products in the same category as Kenexa 2x BrassRing would be Taleo and PeopleFluent. I would also look into Avature as an ATS option. I am currently on the sourcing side of the recruitment process and use Avature for tracking and candidate mining purposes. I would recommend getting any kind of demo possible since the user interfaces vary quite a bit between them. Ease of use and overall stability should be kept in mind when comparing ATS prices.
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Pros
  • Ease of product use. There is little training needed when introducing this software to a new user.
  • The ability to customize applications, job postings and reports streamlines our recruiting efforts while saving time and resources.
  • Service has been great as well by support staff.
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  • Kenexa allows Boolean key word search within a particular requisition so it makes sifting through a high number of applicants manageable and effective
  • Kenexa can be tailored to meet individual business needs. During the time we’ve had Kenexa here I’ve used it in support of a few different business segments and for each the way the system was used to “position” candidate statuses have varied based on the individual need of the business. One example is when interviewing a high volume of applicants internationally, we were able to send qualified applicants through to the “event manager” and it would enable the candidate to select his/her interview date/time based on previously submitted options inputted by our Kenexa users.
  • Kenexa allows one to customize and score questions for each open requisition that applicants complete as they apply. The system then sorts applicants according to the score of candidate answers allowing for easy sorting of top qualified candidates.
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Cons
  • Slowness - there are times when the system takes a long time to think to retrieve data and I've also experienced times when the system has complete frozen.
  • Reporting - there are a lot of different reports that automatically come with the system. However, it's not always easy to find the reports that you're looking for as you need to click through multiple screens to get to the specific report that you are looking for.
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  • Setting up integrations is extremely tedious. For instance, setting up an address feed would have required sending over 5 different spreadsheets on a daily basis (one each for every facility name, street address, zip code, state, country) and a 6th sheet to make the connection between the other 5 elements. We opted not to set up that integration as a result.
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Likelihood to Renew
This is simply because as we expanded our business to include a staffing division, our technical needs of a tracking system greatly increased because now we needed to also track job orders, time sheets and billing. Had we simply stayed a software development company, we would have stayed with iApplicants as it fulfilled our needs at that time.
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I am confident that the Kenexa product will continue to evolve to meet the needs of our business in an ever changing work environment. The affiliation with IBM also plays a factor as we have a long standing successful relationship with IBM products. We will be looking to integrate other Kenexa products in the near future to streamline our HR processes.
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Usability
iApplicants is rare -- they offer both a great company (service, innovation, and ongoing development) with a product that really focuses on the needs of its users. It provides the basis for HR/legal reporting. It's easy to use, just logging in for the first time, so even my not-so-tech-savvy managers love it.
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There is nothing that a recruiter needs to do that they can't do with Kenexa 2XB but the proprietary, old fashioned UI is far from intuitive to use. I only rate 2XB this highly because the SaaS is up most of the time, performance is usually reasonable, and it does actually work.
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Reliability and Availability
I've used this product consistently for 8 years now. In that time, I've seen ONE time that they had a technical glitch -- and THEY were all over it. The only reason I even knew about it was an email alert they sent out to all clients, explaining the issue. They also had it fixed the same day.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
It works. It's easy for everyone I've shared it with -- even my not-so-tech-savvy staff. When I hired a coordinator to handle routine HR duties, this was a simple transition to hand off to someone else without a lot of training. Sometimes it's a little slow downloading documents (resumes) from the site, but that could be a combination of issues that may not be related to their product. At one time, it wasn't able to accommodate newer Word documents (.doc vs. .docx), but they fixed that, as well.
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Just slow for what we are doing here
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Support Rating
Responses are always within 24 hours. They don't nickel and dime for everything we request. I like that they understand the request and we're not caught in a flurry of emails or failed attempts. Customizations, when needed by the vendor, have been at no charge. Most modifications can be made from my administrative panel. Everyone I've dealt with at iApplicants has been positive -- there seems to be a great sense of ownership across all staff there.
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It is a very basic system. It may be OK for entry level positions only. The practice of removing CVs while the recruitment process is ON is disturbing and there is no one to explain or to inform why it is being done. Even a routine mail is not sent to the client/consultant. I am surprised how this system is continuing without too many complaints.
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Online Training
I thought the training was well structured and the demos well-paced. Topics are set up sequentially so one can watch each one and build on previous tutorials. However, they are broken down into segments so a user can hone in on just a specific area where help is needed and not waste time on other topics s/he may already know. I also like the fact that the tutorials are available on the home page of the admin login, so we don't have to hunt for topics in a huge "knowledgebase." It's easy to get a quick refresher when needed (or when ready to try out something a little more advanced) and apply it immediately.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Great product support!
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We purchased an out of the box solution and that worked well for us.
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Alternatives Considered
We evaluated no one else, I can not really explain how they stack up against other companies. In my mind that is not the issue, I am happy with iApplicants so I am not looking into other companies. I really did happen upon this company and love it, then purchase and since have used it for 6 years.
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The primary reason of still going with Kenexa is because we have been using it for quite some time now. And considering it is used by more than 30 countries, it makes the training and communication about Kenexa easy. Also purchasing this license for a longer period (3, 5 years) makes it very cost effective as well.
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Scalability
At the very basic level, it provides a place to post jobs and cross-post to free job boards. It could just be used by HR staff. However, it's more than just another place to post if one opts to utilize the full functionality-- it's an applicant management system that allows a user to pre-screen, organize, and collaborate on candidates with other users. They've added built-in background checks, reporting tools, community boards, integrated with larger/broader paid marketing opportunities, and affirmative action programs.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Our recruiting team were all contractors costing between $30-$40/hour and the idea of new positions taking 3-4 hours to post to all of our required sites was extremely costly in addition to the cost per ad. The reduction in time to post one position a month paid for the system each month.
  • The previous system we used was manual and time consuming iApplicants allowed us to increase the speed of our lead conversion, reduce the time our requisitions were open and provide better customer service to our hiring managers through better applicant flow.
  • The ROI was tremendous, the reduction in time to fill open positions, reduce cost of contractor hours spent on administrative tasks and the ability to source candidates from previous applicants in our database made iApplicants the best investment for our team in 2013.
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  • Kenexa has assisted us in identifying top talent within our target market of applicants.
  • Kenexa may exclude potentially good associates that don't test well.
  • Kenexa clearly defines specific categories and general notes for training, development, & coaching of associates on areas of opportunity.
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