GEG Capital are an investment company headquartered in the Highlands with businesses located across Scotland, the UK and Ireland, and part of the wider Global Energy Group, including recruitment businesses Global Highland, Cammach, Be Personnel and Genesis Personnel. After a migrating their four CRMs from 3 different suppliers to Voyager Infinity recruitment software, we caught up with GEC Capital to understand how such a complex implementation became a resounding success.
More than 100 staff, 4 Recruitment brands, complicated compliance and back-office requirements – live in record time thanks to our team here at Voyager!
The criteria to approach and review new recruitment software
GEC Capital: We investigated a number of companies offering recruitment software solutions and, assisted by recommendations from Recruiters with experience in other systems, decided to invite three to give demonstrations to the project team concerned. Ikiru People were one of the three suppliers invited to present. We were looking for a company who could offer a comprehensive CRM system with flexibility to tailor it to our needs and the ability to integrate with our in-house back-office payroll systems. We needed to have the confidence that the project team we worked with would understand our requirements, be able to liaise easily with our own IT Department for implementation and that there would be clear and open communication throughout every stage of the project.
The decision to invest in Voyager Infinity
GEC Capital: Ikiru People were consistently better in all aspects of the process. The demonstration was the clearest and easiest to follow. We were looking to implement the system into four very different businesses, and it was clear from the outset that Voyager Infinity would be the system most suited to this. Both the Projects and Sales team were able to come back to us quickly to answer any queries or concerns and were the most willing to liaise with our IT department to make the system work in the way we needed it to.
In terms of the system itself, it offered the most flexibility for customisation to suit differing business requirements. The open API option was crucial to us, and we liked the prospect of having a large degree of control over what could be done to tailor the database to our needs (i.e., adding in custom fields, creating document templates, specific attributes and skills dictionaries, etc).
The Voyager Infinity difference
GEC Capital: The following set Voyager Infinity apart from previous databases:
- Ongoing regular enhancements and updates to improve functionality;
- Ability for our businesses to give feedback and suggest further improvements;
- Regular meetings with our Account Manager to discuss issues/progress/developments;
- Degree of support on offer and speed at which the Helpdesk respond to queries;
- Fortnightly webinars to highlight new functionality or as a reminder on what the system can do.
The Voyager Infinity journey, from demonstration to going live
GEC Capital: Key personnel involved in the decision-making process were invited to more than one demonstration and came back with any questions following these to clarify the CRM’s capability. We worked closely with Ikiru People’s Projects team and trainers from start to finish on the potentially difficult implementation of four different businesses, each to get their own Infinity database and each with individual requirements for their system. Ikiru People demonstrated a good understanding of what we wanted and worked to offer support and solutions when we came across any problems.
Each business was integrated in a different week over the course of a four-week period and this was tricky to co-ordinate, with all the pre-implementation work and issues needing to be resolved to meet tight deadlines. The Projects team provided us with a very clear and detailed timeline which we were able to tie in with our own project progress chart, and fortnightly meetings were held with our own Business Solutions representative and the Ikiru People team to assess if we were on track, what questions had come up and if there were any issues.
How Voyager Infinity supports day-to-day business operations
GEC Capital: Our Recruiters, Contract and Business Support teams use it extensively and it is integral to all our processes. Permanent, contract and temporary functions are used across the four businesses and Voyager Infinity is used for candidate management / communication / searching, allocating and managing shifts / absence, Legalesign and LogicMelon integration, AWR and compliance monitoring, data management checks, tracking business development through the Leads function and reporting.
The level of support offered is very good. We speak regularly with our Account Manager, every four weeks or so to discuss any issues or additional functionality we might require, and the helpdesk support also responds quickly to queries.
More details about the implementation
Robert Chandler, Voyager Infinity Project Manager: This was potentially one of the most complicated implementations, and yet it was one of the numerous successful projects we deliver as standard. There were more moving parts than normal that added complexity. More than 100 staff, multiple databases, hundreds of thousands of records, files, notes and workflows to map across four different businesses, with staff in different locations… and all in one of the most competitive and heavily compliant-led sectors – this was a challenge for us to rise to. No part of the implementation was less important than another: we had to get the pre-implementation, timescales, onboarding, training, migration and go-live support done right first time.
I’m proud to say the project took just four months from start to finish… That’s amazing for a project of this nature. This should help reassure other established businesses that you do not need to be held back by the fear of migrating from your existing and failing CRM – you just need the right supplier.
We migrated these four CRMs to Voyager Infinity quickly, on time and on budget – it was a huge success. Communication is at the heart of everything we do here at Ikiru People. From sales, through onboarding to our go-live teams, we worked alongside the team at GEG Capital, and as such we’re delighted the client felt well supported and informed throughout the project, and that they’re now seeing the benefits of their investment in Voyager Infinity.
