Interview: Daniel Richardson, CTO, Bond International Software

Last week Bond International Software announced the launch of a series of iPhone/iPad applications for recruiters. The apps are a series of dedicated iDesking applications that can be tailored to a recruiter’s specific needs.

We caught up with the Chief Technology Officer at Bond, Daniel Richardson. Daniel shares his experiences and successes in creating mobile recruiting solutions; take a look at the interview below:

1. It is great to see Mobile moving forwards in Recruitment – why did you choose to do it?

It was obvious that this was the way that the industry was moving. The key thing to remember about mobile technologies is that they simply offer an additional mechanism for users to access their systems. The underlying technology and the fact that they are mobile should be irrelevant. Each device offers its own benefits and the functionality to offer should be blended around the device being used. With the great inroads that Apple have made on the user interface with the iPhone and iPad, it has become much easier for users to navigate and use their applications whilst on the road. Hence for Bond to offer a mobile platform was a real no-brainer.

2. What factors went into your decision to launch on the iPhone vs. other mobile platforms?

It had to come down to market traction and whether we could offer the kind of functionality on the device that we wanted to. Our earlier mobile offerings allowed the user to hook up to a web site that would run within the browser on the mobile device, optimised for the resolution that the device offered. However, these were limited in the ease of use and users found it hard to attempt to navigate around a web site on a small screen. With the advent of the user interfaces that Apple has invested in, we saw a real potential to offer users access to their systems that would finally be easy to use and a real asset in their day to day business. From our perspective, it wasn’t something simply to say we offered a solution, but an offering that would really be used out in the field on a daily basis.

3. Do you intend to extend the mobile support, if so what would the priority be? Android perhaps? Or Blackberry?

We do. We intend to see the take-up rates for the iPhone and iPad initially and then see whether we want to port to other devices. We still have the more traditional web based access for the other handhelds so can already accommodate those. Our decision is really whether we offer a native application that runs solely on these devices. Obviously Blackberry has a huge market penetration already and the Android O/S allows you to do some really cool stuff. So watch this space!

4. When designing your applications what was your biggest challenge?

Adapt is a fully configurable solution, so no one system out in the field is the same. We therefore had to come up with a solution that allowed us to have one core application that would target any number of modified front-office systems. In the end we came up with a fully configurable middle-tier that allows clients to still achieve the hooks into their systems as well as offering them their dedicated configurable screens, fields and searches etc on the mobile device.

5. Do you feel a mobile website in the upcoming HTML5 would be a suitable alternative to the native iPhone App?

It’s an interesting one to watch. Obviously the biggest thing to be included in HTML5 as far as we are concerned is the native support for drag and drop. In my view, this has been sorely lacking for many years and should have been included in many a previous HTML standard. Obviously our desktop based interfaces will continue to advance as the HTML standard advances, so we will include new features and technologies as they become available. Whether this will mean we will start offering HTML5 type interfaces for smart phones remains to be seen. I can’t see Apple being left behind in the race for functionality and user interface improvements.

6. We here at MoRecNews.com are pleased to see your innovation, what has the client response been so far?

Huge. We have seen a massive amount of enquiries on both the iPhone and iPad apps.

7. Finally, (and thanks for discussing mobile with us), what mobile do you use regularly, and if it uses apps what are your top 2 apps other than your own?

Blackberry and iPhone. I travel a lot, so Worldmate Pro is essential, along with the Sat Nav app on my iPhone.

For more information about Bond’s recruitment technology, visit their website here.