Dive Brief:

• BerniePortal, the HR and benefits platform built by Bernard Health, has announced the launch of an applicant tracking system (ATS), BerniePortal Jobs.
• The ATS product will target small- and mid-size employers, the company said in a blog post. Through it, employers will be able to post and share new jobs as well as manage candidates collaboratively.
• A core feature of the software is the ability to capture an applicant's information at "first point-of-contact," the company said, adding that the feature would simplify onboarding and benefits enrollment post-hire.

Dive Insight:

BerniePortal's announcement is notable for its signaling of a much larger trend in the HR technology space: the movement toward all-in-one platforms.

HR professionals say they don't have the time to vet each and every different point solution vying for their business. From voluntary benefits to chat platforms to video interviewing solutions, the market has ballooned in the past decade. There's barely enough time to implement and train workers on these solutions in time for open enrollment, let alone time to determine which are superior. And besides, employees aren't too keen on a mishmash of touchpoints, either.

So third-party tech providers are putting forth a new business proposal for HR: choose us, and you don't need to worry about anybody else. That's the turnaround story behind Zenefits, one of the industry's bigger and most beleaguered players. In a recent interview with HR Dive, Zenefits SVP Colin Rogers staked out the company's future market strategy as becoming a "backbone" for clients.

"Ultimately, I think on the benefits side of the business, our end goal is to be that platform that connects all of the constituencies and supports the constituency of the client end-to-end," Rogers said.

Essentially, tech providers hope to follow the lead originally pioneered by Salesforce for CRM solutions. The sell is that one company's protocols and software builds can form a fluid, user-friendly interface that runs smoothy between different use cases on the back end. Should it continue, the all-in-one trend could simplify what has grown to be a complex web of point solutions, while narrowing the list of choices HR has when choosing business partners.