All-in-One is One for All

Marva McIntosh formed Access One Recruiting Solutions as a vehicle for diversity staffing in the NY metropolitan area. Since its inception, it's grown nationally and is now going global. "We're a small firm that has big clients," explains McIntosh.

Before Akken, Access One kept track of its candidates, clients and job orders using Excel spreadsheets. According to McIntosh, she had two of her business development staff updating the information by repeatedly reaching out to contacts or organizations, wondering if the information was current or dated. Wanting to grow her business, Marva knew it was time for a change.

Then she found Akken. Technically savvy, Marva and her team asked a lot of questions to make sure Akken Staffing™ was the right product for their firm. They chose Akken because "the accounting and finance piece was included." With five employees, Marva wanted to be able to do the financials, accounting, all of the invoicing, and payroll in-house.

How Things Have Changed

The goal was to consolidate front and back end business processes. Now Access One has a completely integrated system including applicant tracking, CRM, job management, and accounting with the ability to automate payroll, invoicing, and time tracking. Says McIntosh, "the billing piece is so simple, we've eliminated the need to have an outsource payroll team."

Additionally, Access One is able to offer a self service feature to its clients that McIntosh says gives her company considerable advantage over her competitors who are still faxing in timesheets and invoices.

"We submit timesheets daily and our clients are able to access them with the self service module. Now, we don't have to constantly interact with them for billing purposes and that eliminates a lot of wasted time," notes McIntosh.

Marva gives another time saving example of having 65 files, each with two or three thousand contacts. "If I need to re-map those files individually, that's time consuming. Akken has taken the time to integrate with Broadlook which has a universal mapping component. When I want to map a file and download it into CRM, I don't have to re-map it. This piece alone reduces the time it takes to perform my job by 85 per cent."

Her favorite Akken components are CRM, eDesk, and accounting. Recently, Access One needed a specific certification to land a contract with a large state agency in NJ. "We were able to go into analytics, download the information we'd already entered, provide a snapshot for them to see our capabilities and some of the clients we've serviced, and provide a quick summary, balance sheet, and activity for them. All of that was already in our software system.

"When you have it at your fingertips, the information is just a tab away and everything is tracked accurately. That means so much," Marva exclaims. "That eliminated a phone call, eliminated a meeting, and eliminated emails to get the information, which could take two weeks depending on your accountant." McIntosh got the contract.

"I believe in this product," Marva states. "It has significantly changed the way I'm able to quickly accomplish so many things like marketing our services and focusing on the growth of our organization."