Dillistone Systems
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Dillistone's Jason Starr Interviewed by Online Recruiting Strategist
From Online Recruiting Strategist, Vol. 7 No.3 March 2005:
Dillistone's Jason Starr Interviewed by Online Recruiting Strategist
Jason Starr is president of Dillistone Systems Group, specialist software supplier to executive recruiters and publisher of search-consult magazine. He has been associated with Dillistone Systems since 1994 and led a management buy out in 2003. Mr. Starr has spoken on the subject of executive search and technology to groups of search professionals in the U.S., Europe and Asia including a number of Partners' Meetings and as a panelist at the Executive Search Roundtable's conference. Here in an interview with Hunt-Scanlon Advisors managing editor Dale Zupsansky, Mr. Starr discusses Dillistone's objective to provide the best possible solutions for assisting executive search consultants in their hunt for talent.
ORS: When was Dillistone founded and what led to its creation?
Starr: Dillistone Systems was actually set up by a former retained search consultant – David Dillistone – back in the early 1980s. David identified the need for software designed to manage the search process – which, he knew, was very different from ‘lower level’ recruiting. Hence, FILEFINDER was born.
ORS: Tell me about your flagship product FILEFINDER and how does it help recruiters?
Starr: FILEFINDER is probably the only product on the market that is designed to manage the ‘client driven’ recruiting process typified by retained search firms. The system acknowledges that this type of recruiting is all about finding the best candidate for a specific position with a specific client (be it an external client or, in the case of a corporate recruiter, an internal client). Therefore, it supports the process of researching target companies, of sourcing, and of reference checking (as well as the standard resume management type functionality offered by most recruiting software).
ORS: How is the technology implemented and how do recruiters learn to use the FILEFINDER system?
Starr: The implementation process really varies on a case by case basis. Some of our clients have hundreds of users spanning a number of continents. Others are – literally – sole traders; independent researchers or consultants. We advise clients on the implementation model which will work best in each specific scenario. In terms of training, we offer onsite and remote training (via the Internet) and also provide a multimedia training CD.
ORS: Does the company use customer feedback to make FILEFINDER system updates or improved versions or are there other factors involved with the updating of the software?
Starr: Absolutely! We are fortunate that our clients number some very bright people and so the vast majority of the new features that go into the system come about through client feedback. To give you an example of the value of this – our ‘new features list’ for FILEFINDER was over 20 pages long! We repay our clients for this by providing software upgrades free-of-charge to clients with support contracts – they pay only for the implementation time. It probably means that we miss out on a fairly significant revenue stream from existing clients, but does motivate them to give us great ideas and, in terms, this helps us maintain our market leadership of the executive search market.
ORS: About how many clients do you currently serve? Are these all retained search firms or do you cater to staffing firms and HR departments as well?
Starr: We work with over 700 firms worldwide. The majority of these – the vast majority – are search firms, however we are increasingly selling into the corporate market and now, in the U.S. at least, this probably equates to about one third of our business. What often happens is that a corporate will hire people with a search background to setup an in-house search team – and these people will demand the same technological support that they have enjoyed in the past. Corporate clients now include a number of Fortune 100 firms – along with smaller organizations.
ORS: What other types of services do you offer your clients?
Starr: The bulk of our services revolve around our FILEFINDER software and the installation, training and consultancy that go with it. We also publish search-consult magazine and run a small ‘jobs in search’ Web site. The bulk of our revenue, however, comes from FILEFINDER and associated software.
ORS: Are there any other areas of the recruiting process that Dillistone is interested in becoming involved with?
Starr: No, we don’t see ourselves getting involved more in the process, but what we are doing, and I think this is probably fairly unique in our industry, is developing new ways for technology to support the way in which search firms work. As a case in point; search is all about quality of information rather than quantity of information. Therefore, whilst all the significant players in the industry have the ability to extract data from resumes or web forms (as, of course, do we) – we have put in functionality which will allow a user to be better informed about his clients, his targets and his industry. For example, if you open a company record in FILEFINDER, you will see both the main contact information for that business, and the very latest company news brought down automatically from the web. We call it ‘knowledge free with every record’. It’s tremendously useful for consultants working on business development, and on researchers looking to identify candidates. Another example; when I open a person’s record in FILEFINDER, clicking a button will bring up a list of people who he or she has worked alongside through his/her career. Great for sourcing, great for referencing, phenomenally useful for senior level search – but of no use to low level firms and, as such, not something that most recruiting software firms can offer.
ORS: Who are your competitors and how do you separate yourselves from them?
Starr: We don’t really have global competitors as such – we operate from offices in the U.S., Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom, and we tend to face relatively small, domestic competitors in each region. In terms of how we compete; well I think that the key thing is service. We offer support for around 22 hours a day. We will bend over backwards to help our clients, and this means that if you visit our website you will see page, after page, after page, after page of testimonials from clients who are kind enough to say nice things about us. This, and the constant stream of referrals which we get from our clients, is probably what maintains our marketshare.
ORS: How has Dillistone performed over the past couple of years, have revenues been up, down or remained stable? What do you expect for 2005?
Starr: We’ve been very fortunate in that we reminded profitable throughout the slowdown and we are currently growing very rapidly. If things continue as they are doing, then in the first six months of 2005 we will have achieved profit levels larger that in any previous trading year – and we’ve been around for over 20 years, so we are pretty pleased with that.