Agency.com, Ltd., , the interactive consultancy and provider of e-business solutions, today announced the launch of a corporate portal and strategic leadership services site for international executive search firm Spencer Stuart.
The portal, which was rolled out for use in August, is designed to help Spencer Stuart’s employees in 51 countries more efficiently deliver senior level executive searches, board searches and strategic leadership services.
Agency.com has been working with Spencer Stuart since September, 2000, developing an interactive strategy, which includes the two business-to-employee (B2E) initiatives. The first project, an intranet portal, provides a customizable, Web based means for Spencer Stuart’s employees to access internal and external information in support of executive search services.
The portal, a Corporate Portal platform provided by infrastructure services provider Plumtree Software, is designed to enable consultant’s to query Spencer Stuart’s executive search database, providing Web access to search-related information.
In addition, agency.com launched a collaborative intranet site for Spencer Stuart’s Strategic Leadership Services business. The secure site’s goal is to streamline and standardize the processes used by consultants when providing clients with human capital assessment services.
According to Alan Factor, VP of Strategy for Agency.com, the mutual goal was to use technology to enable Spencer Stuart to more efficiently deliver to its clients their core services: “This was the broad initiative. The portal was a central part of the strategy as it is a centralized Web based means for all their employees to access critical information with tools that take out administrative and overhead costs for the firm,” he says.
He views the portal as an internal application with both human resource and corporate communications implications: “It’s an application that could be applicable to any company with internal communication issues. We have worked similarly with firms in the financial services, advertising and pharmaceutical markets,” he says.
The portal was also created to help Spencer Stuart stay competitive both offline with directly competing executive search firms and with online job board firms such as HotJobs, Monster and CareerBuilder. Factor says Spencer Stuart will now be positioned to compete for more of their business.
Dale Zupsansky, Editor at research firm, Hunt-Scanlon Advisers says: “A lot of search firms have been employing these technologies for a while now and though the search business is quite different from the job board business, firms are using a lot of the same technologies,” he explains.
“The interactive strategy and B2E solutions will enhance collaboration between search professionals and provide faster access to information available through internal and external sources. This will lead to reduced cycle time for executive search assignments,” says Rick Abel, Chief Technology Officer at Spencer Stuart.
Going forward, Abel says the firm will be likely to continue working with Agency.com on new interactive technologies to allow delivery of improved executive search services for clients. Factor agrees: “We can build on this B2E initiative through creating specific Internet sites that are tailored to specific processes of recruitment professionals,” he says.
