The use of a CRM tool for managing candidates before they become applicants in the ATS is becoming common practice. Avature CRM has been rising in popularity over the last couple of years.  

There has been a lot of speculation lately (maybe just me) that the CRM might eventually replace the ATS. We received a demo of Avature over Web-Ex recently. Check it out and I think you will see why:

Before Avature, many companies dabbled in using the CRM capabilities of AIRS SourcePoint and different variations of Salesforce.com. But ever since AIRS was acquired by The Right Thing, Avature was in the right place at the right time and became the "go to" product for CRM.

With several releases under their belt you will be able to tell from the demo it is quite a mature product. In the video the following features are reviewed:

• Setting up jobs or talent pools with workflow
• Email templates
• Searching the web
• Free tagging and custom fields
• Web links to other sources of data
• Tracking activities and tasks
• Custom forms
• Building relationships between candidates (org charting)
• SMS text messaging, duplicate handling, and importing
• Candidate portals, employee referrals, event management 
• Tracking results

Avature does not currently have job posting or SEO marketing functionality like some of the other Recruitment Marketing platforms, but they do partner and have integrations with products like Jobs2Web and Boradbean. While we did not get into the details, they have a definitive product roadmap. I have to say I am looking forward to finding out what they have cooking.