CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE: Workforce data and analytics in a time of crisis

In the contingent workforce and services (CW/S) category of Spend Matters’ Coronavirus Response series, our focus has been on solutions that are able to, at a minimum, help rapidly ramp up extended workforce to deal with resource shortfalls as well as manage and track as well as track and manage external workers, projects and services providers.

We are examining four categories of relatively new types technology-enabled CW/S solutions for: (1) sourcing and managing remote/online work; (2) sourcing and managing mobile-equipped workers across geographical locations; (3) direct sourcing of workforce and services; (4) and managing data and producing analytical outputs.

In this brief, we turn to third-party digital solutions for data management and analytics that organizations can use in a number of ways to cost-effectively source and manage their extended workforce (contingent workers and service providers’ workers). These solutions collect, manage and process large amounts of market data — and sometimes procurement data — and generate different types of value-added outputs for a variety of purposes.

A selection of data management and analytics solution providers — PeopleTicker, Brightfield (TDX) and ENGAGE Talent (a Workforce Logiq company) — will be highlighted below. This list, however, is not exhaustive.

The overall series addresses seven categories of technology solutions that can help in a crisis:

1. Supply risk management solutions that include supply chain risk, CSR risk, supplier financial risk, etc. (Read this category’s PRO analysis and solution recommendations here.)
2. Sourcing and commodity management, including advanced sourcing, direct sourcing, automated supplier discovery, and commodity management to help dynamically plan and source. (This category was updated April 23 and is discussed in-depth here.)
3. Advanced procurement analytics to enable direct procurement and/or to perform “spend planning” when demand drops out or spikes. (Its profile for this series was updated April 22 and is available here.)
4. Procure to Pay (P2P) that emphasizes working capital, dynamic discounting, payment control and related finance priorities to help inject cash into the P2P process — especially for many cash-starved suppliers. (See details about this category here. It was updated April 24.)
5. Fraud, P2P and vendor management safeguards when new suppliers need to be set up quickly, and also when lowlife fraudsters try to use the pandemic as a way to steal money and IP. (Its profile for this series is here.)
6. Providers with deep contract analytics that can analyze a contract portfolio for affected contracts from suppliers (and customers) for not just force majeure clauses, but other related clauses that tie to the multiple risks popping up at once in the pandemic. (Read in-depth detail on this category here.)
7. Contingent Workforce and Services: See the four items mentioned above.

These data management and analytics solution solutions that we’re examining today also typically provide market rate benchmarking to ensure bill rate optimization as well as insights into labor markets/sources. When it comes to rate benchmarking, solutions generally address both CWs/MSP as well as permanent employees.

The solutions can support organizations in optimizing their contingent workforce management programs based on data and key metrics and benchmark programs against other programs (in the aggregate). Some providers offer capability to cost out and price SOW projects. Some providers go further.

Organizations may find these solutions more useful than ever if they are anticipating using more contingent workforce or services or have more churn in those areas — or want to get a better total talent perspective on extended and permanent workforce roles in the organization and their compensation costs. In the current coronavirus environment, organizations will be looking fundamentally into all segments of their workforces to get what the organization needs to do business, while being as cost efficient as possible.