Afternoon Coffee: Winter weather disrupts US; extended workforce specialist Beeline reports banner year; PRO Unlimited acquires Brainnet Group, a European MSP

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Hazardous winter weather has gripped a large part of the United States, cutting power to millions and disrupting business and travel with blasts of cold air and snow in some areas, CNBC reports.

“More than 150 million Americans in 26 states, stretching 2,000 miles from Texas to Maine, were under winter weather advisories Monday as a major winter storm plowed across the country,” CNBC report.

Storm systems are expected to continue the problems on Tuesday and beyond in some areas.

Beeline highlights 2020 growth

Beeline, a software provider for sourcing and managing the extended workforce, reports a breakout year by weathering the coronavirus pandemic and helping companies with “greater regulatory compliance, visibility and cost savings in talent acquisition, services procurement, and direct sourcing.”

"Last March, the world changed dramatically and there was great uncertainty as to how the year would develop during a pandemic," said Doug Leeby, CEO of Beeline. "In challenging economic times, companies look to Beeline for greater workforce visibility and flexibility, resulting in efficiencies and cost control. Despite the many obstacles 2020 presented, Beeline colleagues stepped up to help customers and we achieved several high-water marks in the most important areas."

Beeline highlighted its increase in bookings, ecosystem partners and system implementations.

“Due to the urgency imposed by the global pandemic, many of Beeline's 2020 software implementations were completed using rapid deployment protocols. In a few cases, the time from ‘readiness evaluation’ to ‘go-live’ was as short as three weeks,” the company said, noting in the release that spend going Beeline topped $50 billion.

PRO Unlimited acquires Brainnet Group, an MSP

PRO Unlimited, a workforce management system, announced that it has acquired Brainnet Group, a Netherlands-based managed services provider (MSP).

Brainnet is described as a vendor-neutral MSP that provides companies with “significant cost savings, process optimization and high-quality talent across their contingent workforce management programs,” according to a press release.

PRO Unlimited Kevin Akeroyd said the deal gives the San Francisco-based provider more access the European market and beyond.

"This acquisition not only continues to strengthen our established presence in EMEA, but it also allows us to provide additional services and support to our global client base,” Akeroyd said in the release.

Brainnet Group CEO Tjebbe van Oostenbruggen was quoted as saying: “We have enhanced our customers' businesses through a purely vendor-neutral MSP model, and we share the same strategic approach with PRO. We have decades of common experience optimizing our customers' contingent workforce programs.”

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