ConnectTxt

27th Febuary 2003

Employment Café, the recruitment and training company, has selected txttools from Cy-nap Limited, a provider of SMS communications tools, to offer SMS-based recruitment services to employers and candidates across the UK. The service was launched today at the House of Commons by MP Kate Hoey and Ros Griffiths, director of the Employment Café.

txttools will enable candidates to receive job information from potential employers via SMS, and information on local training courses. Conversely it will enable employers and colleges to target the appropriate candidates. Candidates register and input their profile on the Employment Café website (www.employment-cafe.co.uk). SMS is then used to alert candidates when suitable positions become available, driving them back to the website or directly to the Employment Café to receive more information.

For candidates this free service alleviates much of the time taken up proactively searching for information on vacancies either in a job centre or via a website. Employers pay for a package which enables them to have varying amounts of interaction with candidates, including browsing candidates’ profiles before sending information via SMS about times, places and requirements for interviews.

“This service has the potential to be used globally”, says Ros Griffiths, director of the Employment Café. “In the UK alone 47 million people use mobile phones so it’s not hard to see the potential. Our SMS service saves time for the job seeker and money for the employer by cutting down some of the costs associated with recruitment advertising and agency commission.

“We chose Txttools from Cy-Nap because of the unique way that the company focused on us and our specific requirements. There are larger vendors in the market but none offered the personal commitment to making the partnership work that we have seen from Cy-Nap.”

“We see huge potential for using SMS as a recruitment tool”, adds Stephen McCann, managing director of Cy-Nap Ltd. “It’s great to be part of such a ground-breaking project and we’re sure that employers and candidates will feel the same way. We look forward to developing our partnership with Employment Café in the future as they grow the service beyond the UK.”

Cy-nap worked with G-forces, a UK-based web management company on the project. G-forces were responsible for building the web interface and backend database solution.

About Employment Café
The Employment Café established June 2001, based in Lambeth (Brixton) South London, founded by the multiple award winning Ros Griffiths, Visitors are greeted with a smile and the songs of jazz legends, from Ella Fitzgerald to Nina Simone. While sipping coffee, clients can select from jobs in areas such as construction, retailing or hospitality, admin or sales.

The new messaging system is similar to that of a dating agency system, “Matching the Right Job vacancy with the Right candidate” and delivering the resulting job information over the mobile network via text messaging. Resulting in a cheaper, faster and more accurate than the traditional recruitment methods.

About Cy-nap
Cy-nap Ltd was established in January 2001 and is the result of over 14 years of innovation within the technology market.

txttools is used by companies that create services for business to consumer clients and with companies who provide services and content directly to their consumers. These companies encompass a variety of business markets including corporate, publishing, law, web development, retail, health, and many organisations such as schools and surgeries. In fact any group that has a need to communicate to people, be they customers, subscribers, members or staff. SMS text messaging is rapidly opening up new channels for both information and marketing.

For more information please contact:
Nikki Smith / Xanthe Vaughan Williams
Fourth Day PR
Tel: 020 7403 4411
Email: nikki@fourthday.co.uk or xanthe@fourthday.co.uk