International SaaS vendor powering the global travel industry

A combination of quality communication and speed of delivery. Find out more about our working relationship with international airline software provider Calrom.

Who are Calrom?

Calrom are part of Travel Innovation Group and have been delivering innovative solutions to the airline industry since 2007. They are forward thinking and fast moving, a must when working within the travel sector.

Their software platforms are bespoke and offer best in class tour operator flight and group booking systems. By collaborating with both airlines directly and with 3rd party tour operators, they are able to provide unique insights and solve the most complex of technical problems.

The Relationship

Applause IT has been Calrom’s recruitment partner for many years, consistently delivering high-quality candidates who align with the company’s culture and requirements. Initially, Applause IT supported Calrom with technical hires such as:

More recently, Calrom also turned to Applause IT for Sales and Marketing roles—an area where we have developed our service offering offer the past few years, supplying Business Development and Account Management professionals to promote the growth of their organisations.

Software Engineers
Data Engineers
Project Managers (PMs)
Business Analysts (BAs)
IT Service Support roles (e.g., Site Reliability Engineers, DevOps)

Key Success Factors in the Partnership

When asked what makes Applause IT stand out as a recruitment partner, Calrom highlighted three main factors:

Knowledge of Calrom’s Business – Applause IT understands the company’s unique requirements, enabling them to be highly selective in candidate shortlisting.
Market Insight – With deep expertise in the candidate marketplace, Applause IT consistently provides insights on salaries, trends, and hiring expectations.
Honest Communication – Calrom values the transparency and rapport they have with their consultant, Harvey. Honest feedback and realistic discussions around salaries, budgets, and career growth (using Calrom’s SFIA framework) have made recruitment smoother and more effective.

With a working relationship that goes back a decade, this is an opportunity to look at one of our longest standing customer relationships from the perspective of our current contact - HR Business Partner. We'll look at what the key attributes that are valued when recruiting into this sector and hopefully find out a little more about why we've been working so well together for so long!

How long have you been working with Applause IT?

Personally, I have been with Calrom 5 1/2 years but we were working with Applause IT before I joined the business.

What type of roles have Applause IT partnered on?

The relationship with Applause has been long standing for many years and the people that have been recruited through Applause in most cases, have been the right fit for the business. The majority of the roles have been either technical - Software Engineers, DevOps Engineers, Quality Assurance Analysts or professional based such as Project Managers and Business Analysts etc.

The relationship with Applause more recently from a Marketing roles point of view [has grown] due to the relationship that I have already with yourselves.

What are the most important features you look for from your agency partners?

All of our roles are usually quick turn arounds so the consultant's knowledge of the [candidate] market versus the business, salaries, speed to recruit and costs are all valuable features of what we look for when dealing with agencies.

Knowledge of Calrom is also fundamental; we can be very choosey regarding candidate selection, knowledge of candidates in the marketplace and I can be honest and truthful with Harvey and the team.

What is it about our service that you like about working with Applause IT?

I have an excellent business relationship with Harvey who listens, feeds back, communicates, delivers and advises on all the roles and more. [The roles] which are put in his direction he never fails to deliver on.

How could we add further value to Calrom’s hiring process?

There isn’t anything further that you can offer because a lot of our roles are market driven. If the candidates are not there or candidates' expectations are too high then it is us as a business that have to compromise in order to align our recruitment requirements with role expectations.

From our Perspective

We catch up with our Lead Consultant Harvey Chawner who has been a key contact for Calrom here at Applause IT. With an expertise in I.T Support, Infrastructure, Networking and DevOps - he provides not only excellent delivery for our customer but is relied upon to provide up to date market surveys and insights into what is driving the candidate market. This definitely comes through in his response, where partnership seems to be paramount.

Having worked with Calrom for a number of years I’ve built great relationships with individuals in multiple areas and levels of the business.

These relationships have allowed us to work in very definition of a consultancy partnership. We have a two-way relationship sharing information and market insight that allows for an informed hiring process and consultative service where the main winner is the candidate!

Lead Consultant - Harvey Chawner

The Impact of Applause IT’s Hires

Over the past 12 months, Applause IT has successfully placed multiple candidates across Calrom’s departments. Each of them has integrated seamlessly into the company, demonstrating strong potential and adding value to their respective teams.

“They have all been a great fit to the business and are all showing potential in their respective roles.” – Calrom Representative

Beyond just filling vacancies, Applause IT’s approach ensures long-term success for both candidates and the business.

I have a great relationship with Harvey, he does what I ask, he doesn’t take anything personally when I give feedback, I can be honest with him when we are recruiting a certain role and above all, although we don’t claim to pay the highest salaries for the industry that we are in to attract the talent (or is that candidates expectations are much higher and they believe they are much better than perceived) he always delivers within budget. If someone is expecting more than advertised, we always talk through the possibilities and the career growth using our SFIA framework.