SAP is using social networking site LinkedIn to help its
integrators recruit SAP consultants.
This is the first collaboration announcement following a
strategic relationship announced in October 2008, when SAP
Ventures, a division of SAP, invested in LinkedIn Corporation.
SAP business partners can use LinkedIn's
Recruiter Basic Starter
Package, which SAP said has been designed for the recruiting
needs of SAP channel partners with up to 1,000 employees. LinkedIn
Recruiter, is an online recruiting tool that searches the LinkedIn
network for candidates based on individually definable criteria.
SAP partners can also contact and track candidates via LinkedIn
Recruiter. Additionally, the package includes LinkedIn Jobs
Network, an online job posting service that partners can use to
promote job openings to the LinkedIn community.
Brian Frank, director, sales operations and alliances, LinkedIn,
said: "SAP is the first software company we are working with to
provide such an offering. In working with SAP, we aim to provide
our members with an additional variety of interesting career
opportunities in SAP's SME ecosystem."
Pat Hume, senior vice president, Global SME Indirect Channel,
SAP, said: "Working with LinkedIn helps to ease our partners'
recruiting needs and provide them with alternatives to the
traditional recruiting ways."
Microsoft recently saved an estimated £60,000 in recruitment
costs when it was looking to employ people with niche IT skills
from across Europe. Declan Fitzgerald, IT recruiter at Microsoft,
said he had to find nine techies with skills in the rare Assembly
and X86 software languages.