Network Rail, the public company that owns and operates the UK’s railway infrastructure, has started approaching the market in a bid to determine its options for future Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) software.

The company, which employs over 36,000 people, said it is looking to understand “the art of the possible” in relation to how available ATS and CRM software tools could help improve its recruitment.

(Network Rail, as part of its 2019-2024 strategic plan, wants to become one of “Britain’s best employers”, double its female workforce to 20 percent by 2020 and become a top 25 graduate employer).

Network Rail Recruitment Software Drive

In public information notice (PIN) posted to a procurement portal, the company said: “[We want to] understand what experience and interactions a variety of standard user personas could expect to go through as they progress through a recruitment process supported by the ATS and CRM solutions that you or your software partners provide.”

The company expects to publish a contract notice on July 1st.

See also: British SME Joins IT Outsourcing Giants in £605 Million Network Rail IT Framework

“Over the last year, the Integrated Talent Solutions (ITS) centre of expertise within Network Rail has undertaken a variety of lean and continuous improvement activities to better understand opportunities for improvement within the current recruitment and resourcing processes, tools, systems and capabilities,” the PIN notes.

“One of the outputs of this improvement work is the commissioning of an ITS programme to identify and implement new technology solutions to support the employee lifecycle — this pre-market engagement relates specifically to the first phase of the ITS programme which focuses on two technology areas: ATS and CRM.”

“With the current capability gaps being identified, Network Rail would now like to engage with the market via a request for information (RFI) to better understand the solutions available in the supply base in relation to ATS and CRM,” it said.

The company plans to spend a mammoth £53 billion over the next five years to
operate, maintain, renew and enhance the UK’s railways.

Read this: Network Rail Plans Massive £2 Billion IT Spending Spree