The Avalanche of Third-Party Tech

Part One of a Two Part Series

So many staffing technology solutions is a good problem to have.

Many core staffing platforms have consolidated, resulting in fewer available front- and back-office options. So how can a staffing company differentiate itself from competitors? One solution is third-party technology.

In the past, the tech industry viewed staffing as a relatively small market—so
it didn’t give us many solutions. But today, the number of staffing technology solutions has skyrocketed. In 20 years of analyzing the staffing technology space, we’ve never seen so many third-party CRM, ATS, middle-office, and back-office add-ons!

Add-on solutions can be game changers

Many staffing technology developers are startups. Compared to mature software developers, startups have much more agility, which makes it easier for them to engineer innovative features into their products. Those products have the potential to be game changers for your business—once their value is proven and their technology has stabilized.

With so many different tech solutions available to differentiate your firm from competitors, it’s an exciting time to be in the staffing industry! But it’s a confusing time too. Because which third-party technology is the right fit for your business?

A crowded staffing technology landscape

Access to talent is a critical success factor and differentiator for hiring organizations, driving more funding for innovative technology solutions. According to PitchBook’s 2021 data, “HR tech startups have collected more than $9.2 billion in VC funding globally, a 130% jump from 2020’s total.” Staffing firms are feeling it: Odum’s Staffing & Recruitment Digital Ecosystem is overwhelming!

Talent Tech Labs (TTL) recently released the tenth version of its talent acquisition ecosystem, which is similarly segmented and crowded.

“The deluge of new tech coming on the market providing solutions for recruiting, from Sourcing through Hiring, has relentlessly continued. Staffing executives have never had more choices to improve their capabilities and efficiencies through the smart selection of purpose-built solutions to augment their current tech stacks,” explains TTL CEO Brian Delle Donne.  

Multiple technology options: A blessing and a curse

Having multiple third-party technology options is an enormous opportunity for your staffing firm. It’s also an enormous challenge. Because with so many third-party technology solutions to choose from, it’s difficult and time consuming for you to determine:

  • Which solutions have the staying power you need
  • How different solutions can overlap
  • Which solutions fit together to automate end-to-end business processes

In our next blog post, we’ll discuss strategies to make your technology search easier and faster—so you can find the ideal third-party solution for your staffing business!


Sara Moss is the vice president of Newbury Partner’s Technology Advisory group. Her team helps staffing companies of all sizes tailor their tech stack for their unique needs, plan technology investments by crafting a technology roadmap, facilitate rapid vendor selections and helps automate end-to-end staffing business processes.

Email Sara (sara.moss@newburypartners.com) to learn more about how her team can help your organization navigate the staffing tech landscape to identify the solutions that will have the biggest impact to your business.

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