Crew and Concierge

How we helped Sara’s yacht crew recruitment business set sail.

“From our first exploratory meeting to our implementation First Option Software showed how well they understood our complex needs in the business. They have held our hand throughout and have produced a database and website better than we could have imagined, virtually right-first-time. They have been a pleasure to work with: I cannot praise them too highly.”

S. Duncan

Crew and Concierge user website design

The Background

Sara Duncan, Founder and Managing Director, approached us with a need to create a brand new bespoke recruitment management system.  The new system would need to take on their current database of candidates and cater for all the peculiarities of working with international yachting recruitment requirements.

The Challenge

With the fast paced demands of the recruitment market it became clear to us that C&C’s agents needed a system that was fast, intuitive and quick to use.  In addition, with large quantities of data being stored and thousands of candidates on file, it would be important to pay careful attention to site navigation, searching mechanisms and data presentation. With the old system being decommissioned and the new season starting in just a few months, the clock was ticking to get the new system in place.

Crew and Concierge user interface design

The Implementation

With no access to the original database system we designed a brand new web application that aligned the interface with the needs of the agents day to day activities.  Key screens were designed to provide a familiar, easy to read layout, with consistent navigation allowing the agent to quickly navigate around screens and between jobs or candidates. Prominent use of candidate photos help the agent to visually recognise individuals and a summary panel allows the agent to scan the most pertinent information in order to efficiently process each record.

An extensive, fast and flexible search allow the agents to work efficiently with the very large database of candidates in order to find the best candidates matching the job profiles. Modern browser techniques providing inline editing, slide in overlays and continual scrolling all add together to make the application quick and easy to use.

A brand new website, launched at the same time, demonstrates the modern, vibrant image of the company and provides a portal through which candidates can register their profile, detail their experience, upload their CV & qualification documents and apply for jobs.