techport HR Suite

Applicant Tracking Software: from the vacancy to the first working day

Applications arrive via email, via the careers page and via job boards. Anyone managing them in inboxes and spreadsheets loses track, and the hiring department asks three times for the current status. The recruitment module of the techport HR Suite bundles vacancies, candidates, ratings and appointments in an applicant tracking system, also known as an ATS (Applicant Tracking System). Because it is part of the HR Suite, the process does not end with the job offer: the personnel file and onboarding are created automatically from the hire.

Does this sound familiar?

Applications sit across three inboxes, and no one knows who last replied to whom.
The hiring department provides feedback by email, sometimes with grades, sometimes with a single sentence. Comparing them is impossible.
A vacancy has been approved, but the job advertisement is typed out again by hand.
After acceptance, HR enters the new colleague's details into the personnel file a second time, and IT only finds out about the first working day the day before.
Applicant data lingers on after rejections because no one thinks about the deletion deadline.

What the recruiting module can do

Vacancies and pipeline

Each vacancy has its own pipeline as a Kanban board. You move candidates to the next stage via drag-and-drop, or via the keyboard if preferred. You customise the stages for each vacancy and set a time limit for each stage. That way, you see immediately where applications have been lingering for too long.

Candidate profiles and CV import

The profile contains the CV, files, notes and all activity history. The CV import extracts the text from PDF, DOCX and scans and suggests contact details and skills. You review the suggestions and accept them. How such imports work and where their limitations lie is explained in our guide to CV parsing.

Talent pools, tags and bulk actions

Candidates who narrowly miss out this time can be placed in talent pools with their consent. Tags, saved views and bulk actions help when a vacancy receives many applications. How to build and maintain talent pools is described in our advisory guide on sourcing and talent pools.

Scorecards, interviews and feedback

Scorecards with criteria and a scale from 1 to 5 make evaluations comparable. You schedule interview appointments in rounds, and the hiring department submits its feedback directly in the system. How to establish criteria and an evaluation matrix is shown in the guide on evaluating CVs.

Emails and appointments

You send emails from the system via your own mail server. Templates with placeholders save typing effort; invitations are sent with an attached calendar file (ICS).

Careers page

The careers page displays your open vacancies publicly. Candidates submit their documents without requiring a login. Consent is mandatory, spam and duplicate applications are intercepted, and analytics work without cookies.

Reports

18 report pages featuring 88 metrics display, for example, time-to-hire, application sources and throughput across the stages. Every figure can be expanded down to the individual record. You can export as a CSV or print the report.

Data protection and deletion deadlines

A deletion deadline with reminders and deletion runs for every candidate. Roles such as recruiting admin, recruiter and viewer govern who sees what, and this is verified server-side. The audit trail shows who changed what and when. On the legal framework, we advise you on applicant data and GDPR.

From headcount need to onboarding on a single platform

Personnel administration, recruiting, AI applicant evaluation and company knowledge work on a single platform with a shared database in the techport HR Suite. For recruiting, this means:

A manager submits a job requisition with budget, FTE and target start date. How to set up this step properly is described on our page on the job requisition.
Following approval, the vacancy is created. With one click, it becomes the job posting in recruiting.
Applications move through the pipeline. If desired, the AI applicant evaluation assesses the CVs based on approved criteria. The AI suggests; a human decides. The system never sends rejections automatically. More on this in the guide AI in recruiting.
Upon hiring, recruiting transfers the data to the personnel file and creates the onboarding case. HR, IT, facilities and the manager receive their tasks. Details on the page Onboarding.

Added to this are a single login for all modules and a global search (Ctrl+K) across employees, vacancies and candidates.

Publish vacancies additionally on techport.io for free

If you need greater reach: on the job board techport.io, a proprietary offering from techport GmbH, companies publish their vacancies free of charge. Information for employers can be found at techport.io/fuer-unternehmen.

How to recognise a good ATS

Comparison lists provide an overview, but the decision depends on your processes. These questions help with any provider:

Does the workflow fit? Can stages be tailored per vacancy, and does the system reflect your approval processes, such as job requisitions and budget?
Does the hiring department engage? Managers should be able to provide feedback without prior training. A structured scorecard is better than free text.
How do applications enter the system? Via careers page, email and the job boards you actually use. Applying without a login lowers the barrier.
What about data protection? Deletion deadlines with deletion, consent for talent pools, roles, audit trails, a data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR and clear disclosure of server locations.
What happens after the offer is accepted? Does the data transfer to the personnel file and onboarding, or does someone retype it?
How open is the system? Data migration from the legacy system with a trial run, and a complete export should you switch later.
How is AI integrated? Who sets the criteria, is an explanation provided for each candidate, and who makes the final decision?
Is the works council factored in? An ATS is regularly subject to co-determination under § 87 Abs. 1 Nr. 6 BetrVG (Works Constitution Act). Plan the works agreement right from the outset.

Test with a real vacancy and the people who will actually work with it later. If you would like support with the selection, our consulting on HR software selection can help.

Operation and pricing

Hosted on servers in Germany, optionally available as an on-premises installation at your company. Recruiting runs in the browser on desktop, tablet and smartphone, with two-factor authentication. Data migration from your previous system includes a trial run and an audit report. Pricing is based on headcount and modules. Simply request pricing. The offer is aimed at businesses.

Frequently asked questions

What does applicant tracking mean?

Applicant tracking encompasses all steps from the job posting through to the offer or rejection: receiving, screening and evaluating applications, scheduling interviews, communicating with candidates and deleting data on schedule. Applicant tracking software bundles these steps in one place, ensuring HR and the hiring department see the same status and no application gets lost in an inbox.

What is an ATS system?

An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) is software that captures applications and tracks them through the stages of the selection process. Typical features include a pipeline per vacancy, candidate profiles, scorecards, email templates and reports. Applicant tracking system, recruiting software and e-recruiting software mean essentially the same thing in common usage, even if providers package the scope differently.

Which is the best applicant tracking system?

The best applicant tracking system is the one that fits your processes, not the one with the most features. Check whether the hiring department can work with it, how deletion deadlines are implemented and whether data transfers to the personnel file and onboarding after acceptance. The questions in the section 'How to recognise a good ATS' will help with your comparison.

Does the techport HR Suite evaluate applications using AI?

Yes, if you use the AI applicant evaluation module. It evaluates CVs based on criteria previously approved by a human and explains each evaluation with verbatim quotes from the CV. The evaluation is a suggestion: the system does not alter any application status, does not automatically reject anyone and does not send out rejections.

Can we migrate data from our previous system?

Yes. Data migration imports your recruiting data from the previous system. A trial run is conducted beforehand, and an audit report shows what is being transferred and where details are missing. This allows you to identify gaps before live operations begin, avoiding the need to search retroactively for where an application went after switching.