Preparing an ATS demo with real tasks

After several ATS presentations, your team remembers a polished dashboard, a fast search and a convincing explanation of AI. But can a colleague find the client’s latest job requirements after an intake changes? That’s the buying question the presentations haven’t answered.

Prepare an ATS demo by describing a realistic task, agreeing the intended outcome and giving each supplier the same inputs. Ask to see the work performed with appropriate user permissions. Record what functions now, what needs configuration and what hasn’t been demonstrated.

Key takeaways

• Choose a scenario that could affect the buying decision.
• Use the same records and expected outcome in each demonstration.
• Include an ordinary recruiter role and a change during the process.
• Separate demonstrated behaviour, manual workarounds and future promises.

Which tasks make useful demo scenarios?

Choose work that recurs or creates substantial extra effort when it goes wrong. Describe the task from the perspective of the recruiter and the colleague who needs its result. That’s more testable than asking for good AI or an easy-to-use system: someone has to perform an identifiable action.

The UK government’s technology purchasing guidance suggests a small-scale trial that tackles a difficult problem. It was written for public-sector buyers. We are using the practical idea of evaluating software against a bounded task, not applying government procurement rules to your agency.

Don’t choose only an elaborate exception. You also need to see ordinary work. Processing an intake and recording a later change in client requirements may reveal enough to ask more useful follow-up questions.

How do you write a usable demo script?

Describe the starting position, actions and evidence you expect to see afterwards. Share the script before the meeting so the supplier can explain availability and preparation needs. The exercise should test the route your team needs, rather than the presenter’s ability to remember every setting on the spot.

Here’s a fictional scenario for an agency recruiting a logistics team leader:

Part	Demo instruction
Starting point	A client contact and a new job with stated requirements
First action	Recruiter records the intake and responsible colleague
Change	Client changes the required working hours after intake
Handover	A colleague opens the record and establishes the current requirement
Evidence	Current agreement is findable and the earlier agreement remains understandable

Include a fact that mustn’t disappear, such as the date the client supplied the change. Decide whether you need it in a note, field or history view. The supplier may propose another configuration as long as it answers the same work question.

This isn’t a complete implementation test. The script helps identify the next trial needed when an answer remains uncertain.

What information should you share in advance?

Prepare a small pack of fictional documents resembling your actual work. Invent names, contact details and client information. Real tasks mean a recognisable process, not distributing personal data from a live recruitment exercise without the appropriate arrangements.

Include an expected-results sheet. State which values are known and which should remain blank. Date an older intake so that a later message doesn’t silently give both documents the same currency.

Give every supplier the same version. If you improve the script after a demonstration, record the change and give the earlier supplier a comparable opportunity to show it. Otherwise you’ll be judging different tasks as though they were equivalent.

Who should attend and take part?

Include someone who does the work and someone responsible for the configuration or buying decision. Agree who asks questions and who records observations. That keeps the notes from becoming a set of disconnected impressions nobody owns.

Ask to use the recruiter role where appropriate. An administrator may change settings a recruiter shouldn’t control. The route also needs to work for the person who will use it each day.

Where possible, let that colleague perform an action. Watching an experienced presenter differs from finding the revised working hours yourself. Note where help is needed. It could indicate training, unclear configuration or an unavailable function; you don’t have to jump to a verdict.

How should you record evidence?

Use short observations in a review sheet. A combined score with several decimal places can suggest more certainty than the demo supports. Establish what happened and under which conditions before turning the observations into a buying decision.

Outcome	Record	Possible next action
Demonstrated in the available environment	Action, role and visible result	Move to a trial with your users
Needs configuration	Missing setting or implementation support	Clarify setup work and costs
Only a manual workaround shown	Extra work and its owner	Decide whether the workaround is acceptable
Not demonstrated	Open question or future feature	Keep it open until evidence is available

An explanation of a future feature isn’t necessarily a failed presentation, but it doesn’t prove a requirement needed at go-live. Preserve that distinction. An attractive demonstration of other features doesn’t make a missing requirement less relevant.

Keep screenshots or recordings only under the arrangements agreed with participants and with appropriate data. A short written confirmation of the demonstrated route may be sufficient.

What should you clarify afterwards?

Return open points as specific questions. ‘Can the system track history?’ is broad. ‘Can our recruiter retrieve the original working-hours requirement and the client’s later change without administrator access?’ gives the supplier something concrete to establish.

Ask which subscription includes the demonstrated functions, which connections are needed and what someone must still configure. A demo environment can contain capabilities that don’t automatically come with your selected plan or user role.

Arrange a small follow-up trial for a material unknown. Record who will perform it and what result answers the question. An unknown doesn’t have to become either a zero score or an assumed success.

How can you use the script with Simply?

Simply’s ATS and CRM describes a configurable model with fields, relationships and permissions. Translate that into your scenario: where does the recruiter record the changed working hours, and what does the colleague see afterwards? The product description guides the questions; the demonstration must show behaviour in the selected route.

Book a demo and send your brief script ahead of the meeting. Don’t fill the meeting with every future plan. Make room for the uncertainty that matters most and for the exception you’ve prepared.

Afterwards, review the sheet with the same colleagues. If everyone can identify the question answered and the question still open, the demonstration has served its purpose. Combine those findings with costs and terms before making the buying decision.