Switching recruitment systems can seem like a daunting task, but Gerald Morgan has made it his life’s work to ensure they’re as seamless as possible with Data Migrator. Recruitment Tech’s Martijn Hemminga caught up with him at RecFest.
Integrations are the name of the game
Integrations has been a key word for many recruitment teams that use technology to better the process. But as so often is the case with a job that just needs to be done — they’re only noticed when they go wrong. The invisible man behind that process, ensuring that things seldom go wrong, is Gerald Morgan, founder of UK-based Data Migrator. After 36 years in IT, 23 of which in recruitment and HR sectors, Morgan initially founded the company in 2007.
“Where we get involved is when a recruitment agency wants to change the recruitment software”, he told Recruitment Tech at the 2022 edition of RecFest. “And the software they’re moving to, that company will call us to see if we can help migrate all of their data. So that’s their documents, their notes. And we’re tasked with transforming their data into a format that works in the new system.”
Not just a CSV file
Whereas most solutions will have a generic option to extract data in the form of CSV file — Morgan’s work goes a tad further than that. “There’s lots of basic exports and import facilities available, and that might be enough for the customer. But typically an agency will want the key knowledge that that agency’s got. And that’s not just a CSV file. It’s the people and the jobs, and the interaction they’ve had with these people. So things like activities, notes and phone calls.”
“Typically an agency will want the key knowledge that that agency’s got. And that’s not just a CSV file.”
“The history of the communication is what is unique to the agency. That’s entirely different than, say, looking someone up on LinkedIn. So very often agencies want all of this information as well. And typically, a standard CSV import will not offer that level of complexity. But also, if there is a software company that will take S.A.T. import, that has to be formatted in a very particular way. And not all systems and users of those systems can extract the data in the exact format required. So we can help with that bit as well.”
Ready in two weeks
Data Migrator has amassed customers all over the world. “We started off with customers based in the UK, the US and Europe — but now we’re also doing work in Australia”, Morgan said. “We currently migrate from over 90 different systems to TrackerRMS, Pump, Firefish, Access Recruitment CRM, Mercury XRM, Bullhorn Salesforce and Seven20. It’s a small business, but we are kind of in the global reach in terms of what we’re doing. Normally it’s a fairly quick process for a typical project for an agency. We’ll get their source of data and within two weeks they’ve got like a version one and they can look at their own data in the new system.”
To switch or not to switch
For many, however, switching systems still remains a daunting prospect — with many things that can (and often will) go wrong. What advice would Morgan give companies looking to switch? “I’d like to say if you’re switching to a system, make sure it’s one that Data Migrator works with. I’m joking. But I think it’s really a decision you shouldn’t make just on the basis of you whether you can get a good migration.”
“Once they’ve evaluated what’s wrong with what they’re doing and how to make it better, that’s the most important thing.”
“You should move on the basis of what what it really offers you. In-house corporate teams seem to either rarely change their software or if they do change it, they tend to not want to migrate as much. They start almost from scratch or from a spreadsheet, whereas agencies seem to have a lot more detail. So yes, the migration is important, but it’s secondary. Once they’ve evaluated what’s wrong with what they’re doing and how to make it better, that’s the most important thing. We’ll be there in the background waiting to help to make that move.”
