CareerBuilder.com Expands Agreement with FAST to Become Exclusive Premier Partner in Online Careers Search
Joins FAST Technology Advisory Board to Influence Product Direction
CHICAGO, IL. - September 29, 2003 - CareerBuilder.com, the smarter recruitment resource for finding better candidates and jobs, has expanded its agreement with Fast Search & TransferTM (FASTTM) to become FAST's premier partner in careers-related online search technology. As part of the enterprise-wide agreement, CareerBuilder.com will join FAST's Technology Advisory Board to help drive new advancements in FAST's product direction as it relates to the online recruitment sector. CareerBuilder.com will work exclusively with FAST to develop the industry's top search engine and deliver best-in-breed search tools for CareerBuilder.com's job seekers and employers. The agreement will go into effect on September 30, 2003.
CareerBuilder.com offers more than 7 million resumes and more than 400,000 job postings from over 25,000 of the nation's most sought after employers. CareerBuilder.com began working with FAST in the fall of 2002, using FAST Data SearchTM to power the search functionality for growing job and resume queries. Under the new agreement, CareerBuilder.com will deploy FAST Data Search in new ways across the CareerBuilder.com enterprise and serve as an advisor on product enhancement and creation for job and resume searches.
"The expanded agreement takes our partnership with FAST to a new level," said Matt Ferguson, CareerBuilder.com's chief operating officer. "CareerBuilder.com continues to experience increased demands for our smart, online search products from companies and candidates alike and we believe FAST offers a superior search solution that can scale up with those demands. By working closely together, our companies can develop unique strategies to further optimize the search experience for employers and job seekers, and deliver exceptional results."
"CareerBuilder.com has a wide network of over 350 partners and recently signed deals with AOL and MSN that will drive even more traffic to its site," said Ali Riaz, FAST's chief operating officer. "FAST's scalable search platform can support this influx by quickly responding to queries from job seekers and employers with highly relevant search results. With CareerBuilder.com signed up as an exclusive Lighthouse customer, we are building on an already strong relationship and working hand in hand to develop the best search capabilities for the online careers arena."
CareerBuilder.com offers a variety of online products to minimize recruitment spending and maximize results. The company provides easy job postings, a bilingual version of its site, customized packages, online career fairs, a fresh resume database, profiles of skilled and hourly workers and more. For job seekers, CareerBuilder.com offers the confidential Personal Search Agent that hunts for job opportunities in expressed areas of interest and automatically emails them to job seekers. In addition, CareerBuilder.com gives job seekers the choice to search by industry, location and job type, and provides online career assessments, coaching for interviews and tips for salary negotiations.
Since the initial implementation of FAST's technology last year, FAST has enhanced CareerBuilder.com's job and resume search capabilities. FAST has addressed CareerBuilder.com's business goals of deploying a hardware-scalable search solution that supports its services and allows it to grow quickly, while sustaining the added burden of this growth. Consistently handling a heavy query volume of 120-150 queries per second, FAST Data Search enables CareerBuilder.com to lower its total cost of ownership by using fewer servers to run the search application.
About FAST
Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) creates the real-time search and filter technology solutions that are behind the scenes at the world's best known companies with the most demanding search problems. FAST's flexible and scalable integrated technology platform enables enterprise customers to elevate their search capabilities to unprecedented levels. FAST closes the gap between information and action, connecting people to the relevant information they seek regardless of medium, in turn driving revenue and reducing total cost of ownership by effectively leveraging IT infrastructure for our clients and world-class partners. A wide range of global customers and partners, including AT&T, Cardinal Health, CareerBuilder.com, Chordiant, CIGNA, Dell, FirstGov.gov (GSA), Freeserve, Goldman Sachs, IBM, LexisNexis, The National Library of Norway, Overture, Reed Elsevier, Reuters, SBC Communications, Tenet Healthcare, T-Online, and Virgilio (Telecom Italia) currently use FAST's powerful enterprise search technology solutions.
FAST operates globally with presence in the United States (Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco), Europe (Norway, France, Germany, Italy, UK), and Japan. FAST is publicly traded under the ticker symbol 'FAST' on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Please visit www.fastsearch.com for more information.
About CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder.com is a leading online source for maximizing recruitment dollars and optimizing job searches with superior products, customer service and technology. With a unique combination of national, local and niche audiences, CareerBuilder.com makes it easy for recruiters to reach the most qualified candidates with industry-leading market research data and support. Job seekers can search for the right job from more than 400,000 continuously updated postings, representing more than 25,000 of the top employers in virtually every industry, field and location. Together with Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB), and Knight Ridder, Inc. (NYSE:KRI), CareerBuilder.com includes the Web's top newspaper sites – the most trusted employment sources in recruiting. For more information about CareerBuilder.com products and services, call 888-670-TEAM or visit CareerBuilder.com at http://www.careerbuilder.com.
FAST Media Contact
Peter Gorman
Director, Corporate Communications
781-304-2495
Peter.Gorman@fastsearch.com
CareerBuilder Media Contact
For all media inquiries and interview requests, contact:
Jennifer Grasz
(P) 773-527-1164
(E) jennifer.grasz@careerbuilder.com
