Odgers Berndtson is one of the top executive search companies in Finland. The experienced team, based in Helsinki, offers coverage of all major sectors and in conjunction with the rest of the global Odgers Berndtson network provide access to a vast pool of talent and expertise across the world.
When Patrik Kvikant, Managing Partner, joined from Heidrick and Struggles in 2009, he was faced with the prospect of a clean sheet to choose and implement a system to capture the candidate and client data that is so vital to the success of the business.
Initially Patrik made the decision to implement an alternative system and deployed it for a time, but as he reflects, “I realized very quickly that it wasn’t the right tool for our firm as it was designed for a volume recruiting business, with too many features that had no relevance to our senior search business. I had previously looked at FileFinder also, but with their cloud service still under development at the time they didn’t convince me.”
He looked again at the technology available in the marketplace and, on the recommendation from colleagues in Russia, decided to undertake a trial period of Invenias in 2012 – a decision that he hasn’t regretted.
“I made the decision to go with Invenias based on the simplicity of use and the smartness of the design. I know that the most difficult people to convince to use any new tool are the partners and consultants, and it’s essential to capture the information that they have in their heads.”
“When I first saw Invenias I realized that I had never seen anything as easy to use and deploy across the firm, from this point of view. At that time Invenias was a relatively young company so it was more of a wild card than the longer term vendors that we had previously seen. However, after looking closely at the Invenias product and talking to the Invenias team, who really understood our business, we felt the risks were within tolerance. Since then I have been following the market for executive search technology more and more and have a better perception of what’s available, and I haven’t been disappointed with our decision to move to Invenias.”
It was important to Patrik that any platform that they based their business on was going to be suitable for now and moving into the future. “Software for the future is definitely important to us” says Patrik. “It’s important that we have a platform that can provide efficiency in a world that is changing rapidly. Invenias is a great cloud-based platform for our business today but the cleverness is on the level that we know we have a good solution for our business for many years to come and a partner with a real commitment to R&D to support the Executive Search Profession. Since using Invenias, Odgers Berndtson in Finland have found that the shared access to their internal vital data has enabled them to significantly develop their business.
“When we started to use Invenias we realized that not only is it a powerful database for storing our vital data, but it’s also a very effective Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. Using Invenias has enabled us to capture and analyse data to the degree that we can tailor our offerings to different executives dependent upon their requirements and therefore significantly increase the uptake of these offerings.”
“The power to have full visibility of your talent pool, candidates and other stakeholders was something new for me, compared to previous systems. We now have the full picture of the industry, company and candidate landscape. When you have the full picture it enables you to specify exactly what want to achieve from a CRM system – if you have a clear CRM strategy, Invenias allows you to achieve that strategy.”
Recently, Odgers Berndtson have started using the Advertising Portal to promote relevant assignments on their website, and allow applicants to directly submit their applications from the Odgers Berndtson Finland website.
The combination of the smart use of social media and the latest technology from Invenias, along with the added value that they can now access via their data segmentation, has given Odgers Berndtson in Finland the competitive edge, in what is an increasingly competitive market place.
“Invenias is great, it’s user friendly and was quickly adopted across the firm. At the end of the day the competitive advantage really comes from how you design and use the platform. That creates differentiation between users, it’s not simply an out of the box, plug in solution. What differentiates you is the flexibility in the product and the way that you use it. The ability to modify Invenias to reflect and react to your own business needs is tremendous.”
Patrik concludes by saying, “Invenias has been and is a great solution for us. My team is closing more assignments faster and we all have more time to talk to Clients and Candidates. Having tried a few systems over the years, I can recommend Invenias as the best out there today.”
- Cover all major industries in the private and public sectors
- AESC Member Firm
- Provide an extensive range of high level recruitment services including board level and executive search, management assessment and international assignments.