We’ll be running a series of spotlights on a few of our valued customers here on the blog, giving them a chance to share why they chose Affinda’s AI suite and what differences the adaption of our software has made in their businesses. Let us know if you’d like to be featured, and we’d love to schedule an interview.

To begin, let’s start with Friday Media Group. After a short trial between Affinda and an alternate solution in which Affinda came out the clear winner, Friday Media began using Affinda’s resume parser for a number of different recruitment agencies and job boards. At the time of our interview, they had used Affinda’s solution for more than six months and parsed tens of thousands of CVs with our data extractor.

We sat down with Rob Anderson, Group Product Director at Friday Media Group, and asked him about his own experience with Affinda resume parsing solutions.

What were your criteria for selecting a CV parser?

When we were looking at our CV parsing solution, we needed to find something that could ensure a more accurate output to what we were currently getting. We needed good speed too, because ultimately we’re all about the customer experience, And there was, of course, a price requirement as well. It had to be commercially viable.  Working with Affinda, we found that they were happy to work with us on those basis to ensure that it could be a successful partnership.

We quickly realized with Affinda that they had a clear focus on customer service.  From when we were speaking to them at the sales stage right through to when we started to move to production and talked to the servicing teams about how we could make it work better for us. They’ve always worked with us. They’ve guided well and you can tell that they are knowledgeable in their area and want to deliver a high-class solution.

What have you enjoyed the most on working with Affinda?

The sales team understood the technical challenges and were able to even talk to us at that point in time about how they would be able to help us overcome them.  During the actual implementation itself, they really focused on solving our business problems. It wasn’t a case of one size fits all. They were quick to adapt, to work with us and spend time to solve the problems within our niches that just really needed solving. That has been the real difference.

How is Affinda different to other CV parsers you have used in the past?

Affinda have really shown themselves to be different in the respect that they are very quick to react to our requirements. They understand that we have niche needs within our job support market. They are happy to help us solve those as quickly as possible to keep us moving forward and the partnership running smoothly.

What impressed you the most about the products?

What was most impressive about the product was that they managed to solve the problem around layouts for different CVs. This was a constant headache for our teams trying to extract as much data from the multiple styles of CVs we were receiving. Dual column and creative styles, the Affinda solution just seemed to understand and be able to make sense of in a way that our previous solutions hadn’t.

Affinda was able to extract even the basic details of a CV with much more accuracy and consistency than our previous solutions. But then it went on to understand the nuances of the niche CVs whether that be qualifications. It might be flight time for a pilot. Extracting that level of detail was really important to us as a business and Affinda helped us to solve that in a much quicker and more efficient way.

How would you describe Affinda’s service and pricing?

From the moment we reached out to Affinda to talk to them about the solution, it was clear that they understood the needs of our types of business. They were able to support us all the way through and demonstrate very quickly how they could improve what we were trying to do.

When you speak to any new supplier, they’re very quick to tell you why they’re better. What was pleasing was how it immediately became clear that on this one, Affinda clearly were able to back up that claim. From a commercial perspective, price was important to us, not necessarily to be the cheapest, albeit they were. But more that they were able to provide us what we needed to be, to be efficient on price and Affinda met that need.

What would you say to someone who’s looking to try Affinda?

If you’re looking for a resume or CV parsing tool, then you have to put Affinda on your list of somebody to look at and I’m fairly confident it will turn out the same way. Once you run those proof of concepts, you will come out on the end with Affinda as a winner.

We’re glad Friday Media Group’s experience with Affinda was such a positive one, and we would be honored to have the opportunity to work with you and make your adaptation just as successful. Get in touch today!