I have attended all three of iCIMS’ analyst events, and the most recent one in late September has given me an even more in-depth understanding of iCIMS’ vision and commitment to talent acquisition. While iCIMS always made it clear that they believe that “talent acquisition deserves its own suite,” their UNIFi platform and new streaming, bi-directional APIs adds important dimensions to what they offer.
UNIFi is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution that enables organizations to effectively manage all their talent acquisition needs, from recruiting through onboarding, on one platform that is integrated with the organization’s HRIS systems. It sounds simple, but it isn’t. 
Not only are organizations’ hiring workflows complex, recruiters require many different tools to meet their hiring needs, and may have to jump from one system to another to complete a step in their hiring process. The UNIFi platform enables organizations to have it all in one platform: the iCIMS Recruit, Connect, and Onboard solutions; pre-integrated services from marketplace partners (like video interviewing and assessments); community interaction; and rich, real-time, embedded reporting that takes into account the entire hiring-process workflow. In addition, organizations can build their own unique talent acquisition tools/solutions on the UNIFi platform with developer tool kits, automated testing, and more.
iCIMS also announced that they are “the first ATS provider” included in the beta program for Google’s Cloud Job Discovery. Cloud Job Discovery uses machine learning to better understand both job content and the intent of job seekers. In other words, this partnership is aimed at improving candidate experience, by better connecting job seekers with employers and improving the job search.
Of course, like all providers, iCIMS also faces some challenges related to customer acceptance of their marketplace connector pricing model; the usual competitive threats from talent acquisition providers; and the incursion of HCM suite providers into the talent acquisition arena.
As an example of one of the challenges, Brandon Hall Group’s 2017 HCM Technology Survey shows that organizations’ future prioritizations for best-of-breed solutions, like provided by iCIMS, and single integrated solutions (from talent management to workforce management) vary by the size of the organization, with enterprise organizations (5,000+ employees) being the most likely to prioritize best-of-breed solutions.
Overall, iCIMS’ vision and commitment to talent acquisition seems to be paying off. They are not only able to grow in this competitive market, but due to their UNIFi platform, streaming, bi-directional APIs, and Google partnership, iCIMS is better able to meet the expanding diverse talent acquisition needs of organizations.
-Daria Friedman, Principal Analyst, Talent Acquisition, Brandon Hall Group
