AC Lion is a leading digital executive search firm specializing in recruiting for digital media and emerging technology. With over 25 years of industry experience, AC Lion has cultivated a vast network of candidates, clients, and companies. Given the magnitude of their operations, any decision to change their recruitment software was not taken lightly. After using Bullhorn for six years, they sought a more centralized and efficient system — and found it in Loxo’s Talent Intelligence Platform.

Phase 1: September 2023

The challenge

Prior to migrating to Loxo, the AC Lion team had been using Bullhorn. And while it was a step up from their previous platform,  the team still encountered tons of inefficiencies.

"Our recruiters would log in every morning and have to open eight different sites just to do their jobs," said Ashley Watson, AC Lion’s Director of People & Operations.

Although her team became skilled at working around these challenges, it became clear that centralizing all recruitment activities in one place was a priority — a place that wouldn't require them to create workarounds, and would instead actually support their ideal workflow.

Enter Loxo: a new era of recruitment efficiency

After making the switch to Loxo, it didn't take long for the AC Lion team to see the difference a true Talent Intelligence Platform can make.

“I could talk your ear off about all the things Loxo does better than our previous ATS."

Some quick wins they experienced right from the jump? 

Loxo’s quick and easy customization ability, the AI-matching feature within Source, and the Loxo Chrome Extension. “One click, and I can pull all of this information into Loxo? It’s a game-changer, especially when we’d previously been copy-and-pasting everything into Bullhorn.” 

But the biggest thing that has made the transition to a new platform easier has been Loxo’s simple and intuitive interface, Ashley says.

That intuitive UI gives Ashley and the entire AC Lion team the opportunity to focus on their workflow and make improvements to that — increasing efficiency and doubling down on winning behaviors. A much better way to spend strategic time than than constantly seeking out new workarounds for a platform that doesn’t work with you.

Plus: the simplicity of Loxo’s interface has made onboarding new team members a breeze.

“My Bullhorn training sessions when onboarding a new recruiter were five days long. We had to spend a full day on each record type and unique best practices. Loxo isn’t like that — we had people hop in just to play around, and it’s so intuitive that they’re instantly like, ‘Oh, I get it.’” 

Blitz integration: tailored to AC Lion’s unique needs

When AC Lion decided to make the switch to Loxo, they needed to ensure compatibility with their commission-tracking software, Blitz.

Previously, Blitz didn’t integrate with Loxo, but Loxo's engineering team swiftly developed a solution. This integration streamlined commission tracking, eliminating the need for manual entries, and provided transparency around financial transactions.

“Being able to provide that transparency to our team — and making sure they always know how much they’re going to get paid — is crucial,” Ashley said.

The integration was set up in just a month and has since simplified operations, accurately linking placements with their finance software.

"I had a direct line to Loxo engineering. That’s something I’ve never experienced with other software providers." 

Phase 2: September 2024

A year in: fully embracing Loxo Outreach

Fast-forward to September 2024, and AC Lion had another milestone: fully transitioning from their previous email outreach tool, Interseller, to Loxo Outreach.

After onboarding, they initially continued using Interseller. Ashley’s team of recruiters were all huge fans of the platform and were reluctant to give it up at first. 

However, through ongoing support and training, AC Lion saw the potential in Loxo Outreach and decided to go all in. By the beginning of September, they had officially canceled their Interseller contract, fully embracing Loxo Outreach for their outreach efforts.

Ashley and her team worked closely with Loxo to fine-tune the platform, tailoring campaigns and adding custom features like tagging candidates by industry role, seniority, and recent activity. What used to be a manual, time-consuming process was now integrated and streamlined within Loxo.

With a team structure that includes both client-side and candidate-side recruiters, AC Lion now ties outbound outreach directly to job campaigns, allowing for a more targeted and efficient process.

“We used to take a month just to get a message out. Now, it’s all built into Loxo.”

Loxo Outreach has also improved the collaborative relationship between candidate-side and client-side recruiters.

With shared visibility into job campaigns, recruiter outreach, performance metrics/outreach effectiveness, and candidate interactions, the team can now work more cohesively — reducing redundancy and ensuring a unified approach to every candidate in every job.

Workflow refinement: from ten tools to two

Now, AC Lion has taken their tech stack down from nearly a dozen tools to only Loxo and LinkedIn. 

Beyond simplifying recruiter onboarding and overall workflow, Loxo has enabled the team to better manage jobs, candidate pipelines, and outbound outreach campaigns — all while saving valuable time in the process. 

Looking ahead: continued success with Loxo

As AC Lion continues to adapt to their new workflow, Ashley expects further improvements in their recruitment process. “A year from now,” Ashley jokes, “this conversation will be even better.” With ongoing support from Loxo’s customer success team, AC Lion is well on its way to fully optimizing their recruitment processes and achieving even greater success.

One thing is certain: Loxo’s customer success team is at the ready to help Ashley’s team work out all the growing pains as they continue to improve their workflow and seek to get the most out of Loxo. 

Raving about Loxo’s customer service, Ashley says: 

“The first and only time we received customer service in six years with Bullhorn was when we told them we were leaving. To have a chat support team who probably all know me by first name at this point — and to get answers to our questions within a day, it’s overall been really positive and helpful for the team.” 

In conclusion

AC Lion’s journey with Loxo showcases the power of technology to transform recruitment operations — from centralizing activities in one platform to optimizing outreach campaigns. With Loxo, AC Lion has not only increased efficiency but also positioned itself for continued growth.

Curious to learn more about how you could do the same? Book a demo and let's start a conversation.