Protis Global Solidifies Its Status as a Tech-Forward Leader by Switching to Loxo

The challenge

When Protis Global’s team found themselves grappling with inefficient processes that hindered their growth and scalability, they knew it was time for a change. But digital transformation is an overwhelming undertaking — one that requires a lot of commitment and buy-in from the entire organization.  

Sounds daunting, right? That feeling of “do we really need to do this?” kept Protis from making the leap for a while, until the answer to that question became resoundingly clear: “Yes, we really, really need to do this.”

Maybe making a change doesn’t have to be as daunting as we fear it will be — and with the right technology partners, it’s certainly worth it. 

‍“Looking back now, I wish I could’ve pushed to get that decision sooner,” says Isabel Cosby, VP of Operations at Protis Global. “It was extremely daunting at the beginning. But being on the other side, it is so worth it.”

Prior to switching to Loxo, Protis Global’s executive search team was using multiple tools, manual data entry, and outdated methods like spreadsheets to manage candidate information and communicate with clients. It’s no surprise that this approach was time-consuming, prone to errors, and didn’t align with their vision of being a tech-forward company.

Protis Global’s VP of Marketing, Cristina Sacco, felt the need for change just as strongly. With brand becoming increasingly important — and every client or candidate interaction being a critical touchpoint — she felt it was critical to ensure that everything they were putting out there supported the forward-thinking Protis Global image. 

“It’s almost 2025; we can’t be using spreadsheets and sending them to customers, you know? That’s just crazy,” Cristina says. 

The search for a solution

The Protis Global team was well aware of their bottlenecks — but making the decision to actually move away from their legacy ATS and kick-start their digital transformation was still a challenge. 

The team had a lot of in depth internal conversations about their current state, their future state, and their dream state — as well as identifying bottlenecks currently affecting the organization across every level and department. 

Protis Global had a long relationship with their legacy ATS, which made it hard to leave — but once they saw how those bottlenecks were holding them back from those future and dream state goals, they knew what had to be done. 

The Aha! moment for Protis Global’s leadership team came when Isabel walked their CEO through the old workflow their team was going through in order to present talent to the client. It became instantly clear to him — and everyone else — that this change was necessary. 

‍“Sometimes you just have to take the leap,” Isabel says. “We got to the point where the pain we were experiencing from those bottlenecks outweighed the pain of changing.”

But a change has to be worth it — no one is going to undergo a major technology overhaul just for parity. The change has to justify itself by improving your business performance. 

When making the switch, Isabel had key stakeholders participate in the vetting and testing process. “We vetted several other ATS options and weighed each option on our must-have, nice-to-have, and cost requirements,” she says. 

Part of that thorough vetting process comes from the fact that Isabel knew they wanted to find a partner that could grow and scale with them, especially as technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace. “Switching an ATS is not something that I'm going to do again next year,” she says. “It’s going to be something that we're going to be in for a while, because ultimately the success of our team lies in having our data in there, and accessing it in real-time.”

Through the vetting process, Isabel and her team had a lot of conversations with Loxo’s crew, including our CEO, Matt Chambers. “Every single time we had a question about what Loxo could do to meet our pain points, Matt had an answer,” Isabel says. “When we finally made our decision, I had a full understanding of the cost-benefit analysis and how Loxo could deliver on each of our needs.”  

‍"Before Loxo, we were using three or four different tools just to keep things moving,” Isabel says. “Now, everything we need is in one Talent Intelligence Platform, and it’s cut down our time spent managing candidates by half."

A successful migration to Loxo

Once the decision was made to switch to Loxo, the Protis Global team began the process of migrating their data and their team over to their new Talent Intelligence Platform. 

To make the process as smooth as possible, the Protis and Loxo teams worked together to focus on: 

Data transfer

A migration, if done right, can be an excellent opportunity to clean up your database a bit. Isabel had her team set parameters for that data transfer — focusing on quality over quantity. 

Change management

Team members at every level were brought in to understand the why behind this change, identify needs, and set clear expectations. 

Training and support

Intensive training sessions were conducted between Loxo’s Customer Success team and Protis Global's recruiters, and internal champions were identified to support adoption.

No matter how great of a technology partner you have — and Loxo is pretty great (sorry, we had to 😉) — if user adoption is low, you’re going to miss out on some of the platform’s benefits. 

That’s why one of Protis Global’s biggest early wins was finding internal champions and leveraging their skills, excitement, and expertise. In Protis’ case, that champion was one of their recruiters, Alec. 

“Alec quickly jumped into Loxo and started using all of the buttons he could click and started using the features with the clients the first week,” Isabel says. “We utilized him as our ambassador to support the slower adopters as they eased into Loxo.”

Cristina also calls out the fact that Loxo’s training videos were a game-changer for ongoing support and problem-solving, which made it easy for them to do asynchronous learning at their own schedule and pace.  “The training videos gave us extra support for new team members post launch and resources for the team when they had questions,” she says.  

Loxo’s value in action

It didn’t take long, once their team was up and running in Loxo’s Talent Intelligence Platform, for Protis Global to see how much of a value-driver Loxo would actually be. 

‍“Switching to Loxo has felt like a real investment in our recruitment process,” Cristina says. “It’s more than just saving time — it's about having a partner that’s thinking ahead for us."

The Protis Global team has seen marked improvements in several areas: 

Streamlined operations and enhanced collaboration

One of the most significant impacts of implementing Loxo has been the streamlining of operations and the improved collaboration between teams. Cristina emphasizes that the operations team now works very closely with the sales team, thanks to the integrated nature of Loxo’s platform.

“LinkedIn profiles being updated on their own alleviates a lot of manual scrubbing,” Cristina explains. “This takes a tremendous amount of work off of our already lean team, which gives our team more within our own database.” The result is not just time saved, but a marked improvement in the quality of their research and data.

The efficiency gains are substantial. Gone are the days of going back and forth, scrubbing data, and manually updating information. 

‍“This is missing, this isn’t the latest title, etc. — all of that is now much more streamlined,” Cristina notes. 

The communication within the team has also improved dramatically, with better connectivity to their CRM in Hubspot and smoother communication between the business development team and recruiters.

A comprehensive view of candidates and clients

Loxo has enabled Protis Global to maintain a more comprehensive and fluid view of their contacts. 

“We’ll reach out on the business development side to a potential client, asking ‘Hey, are you looking for recruitment services?’ They might say no, but mention they’re looking for a new job,” Cristina says. “Suddenly, a potential BD contact becomes a potential candidate.”

The flexibility and seamless transition between different contact statuses is a significant advantage — and this fluidity is further enhanced by the fact that all communication happens within the system, making it easy to document notes or changes. 

‍“Having that streamlined communication gives us a much more comprehensive view of the person,” Cristina explains. “With Loxo, we always get the full picture.” 

Transforming brand perception & client communications 

Loxo has dramatically changed how Protis Global communicates with its clients. 

Client communication has never been easier — striking the perfect balance between high-touch and low-effort. Cristina describes their new approach as “tech-forward, customizable, showing as much or as little to clients as we (or they) want.” 

“Part of our brand has always been to enhance candidate and client experience in all aspects,” Cristina says, “and Loxo is helping us to make good on that promise.”

Cristina is of the mindset that every interaction a person has with a brand, including their technology, speaks to who they are as a company. “Having Loxo in place shows that we are tech-forward,” she adds. “It’s a fresh approach, it’s a differentiator.”

One of the most significant impacts Loxo has had one Protis Global’s operations has been the implementation of the Client Portal. 

Before Loxo, the internal team had to manually aggregate Excel spreadsheets for candidate updates, which then had to be converted to PDFs and emailed to clients. This process was not only time-consuming and open to errors, but not very pretty. Now, with the client portal, “the client has real-time access to candidates and the status of our search,” Cristina explains.

Embracing AI and advanced analytics

As we’ve alluded to previously, Protis Global prides themselves on being a forward-thinking organization, especially when it comes to technology. 

With that in mind, though, Cristina is quick to point out that they’ve embraced AI “within reason,” being mindful of ethical implications and potential biases. “We don’t use it in the hiring process — we keep that human,” she clarifies. This balanced approach allows them to leverage technology while maintaining the personal touch that they believe is still crucial to recruitment.

She distinguishes between their use of predictive AI and generative AI, emphasizing their focus on the former — and how Loxo helps them action that. 

“Predictive AI allows us to anticipate trends, recognize that tenures of C-levels are much shorter, predict behaviors, and reach out to them proactively,” Cristina explains. Loxo helps them analyze trends and performance in real-time, helping them refine their strategy and have more meaningful interactions with candidates and clients.

The integration of AI and analytics has opened up new possibilities for Protis Global's recruiters. 

“Part of our process is the fact that we speak to candidates very in-depth, early on in the process, to really get to know them,” Cristina explains. “Each person has a personal scorecard that’s filled out in detail — if the right role comes along, we know there will be a fit that will last. Loxo makes it really easy for us to keep track of all of that data so we can make that magic happen.” 

These personal scorecards are now uploaded and added to the person’s record in Loxo, creating a rich, detailed profile for each candidate.

Loxo’s capabilities have also enhanced their ability to test and optimize their outreach efforts. 

‍“We’re using Loxo 100% as our CRM as well,” Cristina notes. “We can now test things like email subject lines and see which ones get higher open rates. Before, we had no idea. It’s really interesting data.”

Transforming recruiter workflows

The adoption of Loxo has fundamentally changed how Protis Global’s recruiters work. Before Loxo, the majority of time was spent on LinkedIn Recruiter, with very little candidate data making it into their database.

The difference now is stark. “Now a candidate is added to Loxo as soon as they engage us in a conversation,” Cristina states. This shift has dramatically increased the comprehensiveness of their database and improved the efficiency of their recruitment process.

This shift has not only improved client satisfaction but has also had a profound impact on their internal processes. 

‍“Because of the excess amount of admin work internally, candidates were only added to our old ATS when we were setting up an email — which slowed down the building of our internal database,” Cristina says. “Now with how easy it is to use the platform, our team is adding ALL the talent they are speaking with into Loxo, building our database.”

Ease of use

Loxo is also just really easy to use — which sounds simple, but is actually a huge value-driver. 

‍"The platform is intuitive, and it's clear that Loxo was built with recruiters in mind,” Isabel says. ”There's a logic to it that I didn’t feel with our previous tools."

Conclusion

It’s safe to say that Protis Global’s decision to Loxo was one that was not taken lightly — and there was intentionality and strategy baked into every piece of their vetting and migration processes. 

And the change has been well worth it: From streamlined operations and enhanced collaboration to improved client relations and more efficient recruiter workflows, the impact has been felt across the entire organization. 

‍"For any team that’s serious about scaling, Loxo is worth it,” Isabel says. “It feels like you’re getting access to top-tier recruiting tools, all in one place, without the added hassle."

By embracing Loxo, Protis Global has not only improved its internal processes but has also positioned itself even more firmly as a forward-thinking leader in the recruitment industry — ready to meet the challenges of the future, whatever they may be.