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Beeline acquires UK-based JoinedUp to go after the global market for a shift-based contingent workforce solution

05/06/2021 By

Beeline, a leading technology solution provider in the vendor management systems (VMS)/extended workforce solution space, announced the acquisition of UK-based JoinedUp, described as “a high-volume workforce solution catering to the challenges and complexities experienced in the field with shift-based temporary labor.” JoinedUp will operate as a Beeline operating unit with its own brand, and JoinedUp’s full team has been retained. Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

JoinedUp, launched in 2018, offers a cloud-based workforce management solution that “caters to shift-based work with its innovative approach to order fulfillment, scheduling, availability, time entry and invoicing,” according to the announcement. The solution brings together end-businesses, workers and staffing firms/recruiters and reduces the significant inefficiencies of scheduling workers in shifts.

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Spend Matters has not yet had a detailed briefing of JoinedUp, but the company’s website states that the solution is able to use algorithms to build shortlists faster; organize candidates by qualifications, experience, location, rate and availability and fill shifts based on real-time availability as reported by workers (something which can prevent no-shows and double bookings).

The announcement explains that even though “contingent workforce vendor management systems (VMS) have traditionally serviced some high-volume staffing, they have not been widely adopted due to the complexities in managing this labor category at the operational site level.”

The market, the announcement continues, “has long sought a global solution focused on the workflow and nuances associated with shift work.” The acquisition will allow Beeline to serve markets where “shift-based work is the dominant source of an organization’s non-employee labor.”

Doug Leeby, Beeline’s CEO, was quoted as saying that “High-volume, shift-based work is about one thing — fulfilling open shifts. JoinedUp allows us to offer an elegant and efficient solution that benefits both the client’s site personnel as well as the staffing firms responsible for servicing this highly dynamic environment. We now provide the head office with compliance and visibility and field operations with scheduling, time and attendance, and complex rate calculations.”

Spend Matters also had an opportunity to speak with Brian Hoffmeyer, Beeline’s Senior Vice President of Market Strategies, who emphasized the real-time connectivity of the JoinedUp solution and the configurability of its rate engine, which has addressed the complex use cases found in the UK. JoinedUp is currently working on a rate engine localization in the Netherlands, and Hoffmeyer indicated that localized version for the US should be deployable in a few months. Hoffmeyer also said that “We were also focusing on the key integration points between JoinedUp in the Beeline extended workforce platform, because we think that most clients will need both.”

Beeline’s acquisition of a solution like JoinedUp may not look like such a big deal. But taking into account the size of the global market for such a solution and Beeline’s established geographic footprint internationally, the potential seems very large indeed.

For more information on Beeline’s newly declared platform strategy, see the recently published “Five scenarios for VMS 2025: Scenario 3 — Extended workforce rising.”