Eliyon has amassed a database of nearly 10.8 Million people from 750 thousand companies by spidering and indexing corporate websites, newsfeeds, press release data and content oriented websites. The result is a goldmine of high-performing potential candidates who are not currently looking for a job. It's also a gem for sales lead development.

In our deeper look under the hood, we discovered that you can search for people based on Title, Work History, Educational Background, Biographical Details, Name, Company Location and a fantastic power search. Results can be sorted by company, title, rank in the hierarchy, name and so on. The tool is powerful enough to make the initial steps of a "from scratch" recruitment process a walk in the park.

Since the data is biased towards company information and company locations, searches for local talent (the preferred candidate is local and not looking) are an easy exercise. We tried to find Marketing talent in Provo, Utah and came up with a list of more than 100. We've spent time in Provo (shudder) and bet that 100 is the same as "most".

For another scenario, we attempted to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a new company location in Burke, VA. We discovered, to our surprise, that what we thought was a sleepy hamlet appeared to be a small nest of dot com operations. With that sort of talent availability in this market, we were delighted by the prospects.

We also were interested in hiring a lawyer with a degree from Stanford and some industry experience. Although we've found these folks to be troublesome in the past, the mix is too good to pass up when you find it. Although we didn't want to hire Sandra Day O'Connor, we found a remarkable fellow with an EE and production experience. Just the sort we were after.

Eliyon won't make heroes out of Recruiters who are looking for 100% automation. It is best understood as a lead generation system for people who are serious about building communities or recruiting successful people who are not looking for a job. 

We'd love to see the search capabilities expanded to include geographic radius, a network of possible relationships, and an interface to talent management tools. But, those are small druthers in an otherwise stellar offering.