A specialized IT consulting and recruiting firm built its reputation on connecting top technology talent with enterprise clients across North America. However internally, critical processes were inefficient. Despite using Bullhorn, adoption was low, key workflows were manual, and important client and candidate interactions were tracked outside the system.
As the firm prepared to scale, leadership faced a choice: invest $120,000 annually in a new CRM or maximize their current platform.
They chose to optimize, partnering with Newbury Partners to align their client-first approach with scalable tech. This transformed Bullhorn One into a streamlined, integrated system that cut manual work, boosted visibility, and laid the groundwork for growth.
The Obstacle
As the firm grew, poor system adoption and misaligned workflows began to limit performance across sales, recruiting, and leadership causing:
Low CRM Adoption and Manual Sales Tracking
- Less than 5 percent of Bullhorn CRM features were used.
- Sales reps tracked outreach in spreadsheets or from memory.
- There were no automated reminders, activity logs, or shared pipeline views.
Sales became inconsistent and reactive, leading to missed follow-ups and lost revenue.
Manual Job Entry from Vendor Management System (VMS)
- Job orders submitted through the VMS weren’t integrated with Bullhorn.
- Recruiters manually re-entered each one, taking up to 10 minutes per role and adding hundreds of admin hours annually.
This manual process slowed response times, increased data errors, and pulled recruiters’ focus from candidate engagement, reducing overall productivity
No Prioritization Framework in Bullhorn
- Dozens of VMS job orders came in daily, but the team lacked a clear process to identify high-impact roles
- Recruiters couldn’t reliably distinguish urgent opportunities from low-priority work
Without effective prioritization, recruiters wasted time on low-value tasks, delaying submissions for key roles, slowing placements, and leaving revenue unclaimed.
Limited Visibility into Team and Pipeline Performance
- Leadership lacked real-time insight into pipeline health, role activity, and performance benchmarks
- Reports were manually compiled from multiple sources and were often outdated by the time they were reviewed
This made proactive planning nearly impossible, weakening both short-term execution and long-term strategy.
A Costly CRM Investment Under Consideration
- Leadership considered an external CRM to fix gaps in sales visibility and follow-up.
- The proposed solution came with a $120,000 annual price tag and risked becoming another disconnected tool outside Bullhorn.
But without solving low adoption and fragmented workflows, it threatened to duplicate work, deepen silos, and complicate operations without clear ROI.
The question was clear: How could they get more from Bullhorn and avoid a $120,000 annual spend?
The Solution
Instead of replacing their tech stack, the firm partnered with Newbury Partners to unlock Bullhorn One’s full potential through the Newbury P.L.U.S. framework.
Why Newbury P.L.U.S
Newbury P.L.U.S.—which stands for Performance, Learning, Utilization, and Support—is purpose-built for staffing firms looking to get more from Bullhorn without adding unnecessary overhead.
Through expert guidance, flexible support, and tailored automation, the framework helps firms:
- Unlock the full value of Bullhorn
- Streamline and automate high-impact workflows
- Boost recruiter productivity and sales collaboration
- Gain real-time visibility and control across the staffing lifecycle
In this firm’s case, Newbury P.L.U.S. delivered a targeted solution designed to:
- Simplify complex processes
- Automate key tasks
- Align Bullhorn with the firm’s real-world operations
The Outcome
Newbury P.L.U.S. delivered measurable improvements across key areas of the firm’s operations:
- Stronger Client Engagement and No Missed Follow-Ups
Focusing on Performance and Utilization, Newbury Partners reconfigured the firm’s Bullhorn CRM tools and embedded automated prompts such as task reminders and inactivity alerts. This eliminated manual tracking and enabled consistent, proactive outreach that reactivated dormant clients and kept pipelines moving.
- 274 Jobs Automated and 46 Hours Reclaimed
Under the Utilization and Support pillars, Newbury Partners activated and fine-tuned Bullhorn’s Vendor Management System (VMS) Sync. Job data now imports automatically in the correct format. Duplicate entries were removed and job entry time dropped from 10 minutes to seconds. Across the year, 274 jobs were automated, saving over 46 recruitment hours.
- Faster Submittals and Better Fill Rates
Driven by the Performance pillar, Newbury Partners implemented a custom Job Grade Score that ranked roles by submission potential, client responsiveness, and historical performance. Recruiters could immediately focus on the highest-value jobs, leading to quicker submittals and better placement outcomes.
As the firm owner notes:
“We’ve reduced manual tasks by over 30 percent and significantly improved our speed-to-submittal. Bullhorn went from a passive database to an active engine that drives our business—thanks to Newbury PLUS’s automation expertise and strategic guidance.”
- Smarter, Faster Decisions with Real-Time Insight
Through the Learning and Support pillars, Newbury Partners enabled Bullhorn Analytics with custom dashboards tailored to the firm’s workflow. The firm’s leadership and team lead gained instant visibility into key metrics like recruiter output, job status, and pipeline health. This removed reliance on outdated reports and enabled confident, data-driven decision-making.
The Impact:
With Newbury Partners’ guidance, the firm turned Bullhorn from an underused tool into the central platform powering every placement and client interaction.
Newbury Partners realigned the firm’s systems to fit their operations workflow, not the other way around.
As a result:
- Sales and recruiting collaborate seamlessly with shared visibility
- Leadership makes faster, smarter decisions with real-time data
- Recruiters spend more time on candidates, less on admin
- The platform scales with the business instead of holding it back
When systems align with operational needs, growth becomes smooth and sustainable.
Looking Ahead
The firm is growing confidently with a fully optimized Bullhorn One environment. With Newbury Partners as a strategic partner, they plan to expand automation and enhance analytics to stay ahead in the market.
Bullhorn has shifted from a basic system of records to a strategic driver of efficiency, revenue, and long-term scalability.
In the firm owner’s words:
“We’ve reduced manual tasks by over 30 percent and significantly improved our speed-to-submittal. Bullhorn went from a passive database to an active engine that drives our business—thanks to Newbury PLUS’s automation expertise and strategic guidance.”
Unlock Bullhorn’s Potential with Newbury PLUS
Newbury Partners is the go-to implementation and optimization partner for Bullhorn One.
The P.L.U.S. framework helps staffing firms unlock Bullhorn’s full potential by streamlining workflows, automating key tasks, and boosting recruiter productivity. P.L.U.S. stands for Performance, Learning, Utilization, and Support, providing expert guidance and flexible resources without full-time overhead.
Contact Newbury Partners today to see how Newbury P.L.U.S. can transform your Bullhorn experience and fuel growth.
