Aviation parts supplier Honeywell International Inc has been examining the revenue potential of supplying parts to Boeing’s next major aircraft program. Shiftgig, the Chicago-headquartered, digital platform-based intermediary that connects workers and local hospitality and event businesses, announced that it plans to become a pure-play technology business. And Walmart and HSBC come together on a sustainable supply chain finance program. Afternoon Coffee: shift to decaf if you must, but get your procurement and supply chain news here.
Because of recent M&A consolidation and multiple external drivers, the market for vendor management system (VMS) solutions has become fairly complex.
Competing vendors have been absorbed or combined, draining the field of vendor choices that can be applied in a wide number of scenarios. Concurrently, businesses have shifted away from their focus on temporary staffing labor to a rising emphasis on statement of work (SOW) spend, while also exploring new talent engagement models that increase program complexity, to include the exploratory enterprise adoption of the “gig economy” in the form of independent contractors.
Add in the typical challenges of effectively operating a temporary staffing program — from cost control issues to quality maintenance and the management of intermediaries like MSPs — and it’s easy to see why procurement organizations are finding the old paradigm for VMS solutions is no longer holding up.
Going against the grain of complexity is a newer VMS provider that incorporates simplicity (i.e., ease of use) into its name — and its solution. Founded in 2016, Simplify Workforce provides an end-to-end SaaS solution for managing the extended workforce.
The Jersey City, New Jersey-based provider enables this through separate modules for contingent workforce (or in our SolutionMap classification, Temp Staffing) and statement of work (Contracted Services/SOW), with an emphasis on configurability, adaptability and ease of use that has typically eluded past VMS solutions. In doing so, Simplify Workforce aims to address the long-underserved middle market — specifically, businesses with annual contingent workforce spend of $1 million to $100 million — with the ability to scale up or down on spend easily, with a VMS and SOW solution that can solve the majority of daily contingent workforce challenges without overwhelming users, implementation teams and budgets with unnecessary complexity.
This Spend Matters PRO Vendor Introduction offers a candid take on Simplify Workforce and its capabilities. The brief includes an overview of Simplify Workforce’s offering, a breakdown of what is comparatively good (and not so good) about the solution, a SWOT analysis and a selection requirements checklist for companies that might consider the provider.
Beeline, the global vendor management system (VMS) provider, and Workspend, a managed service provider (MSP), have inked a partnership. Pipeline Talent Solutions has also announced a partnership with VectorVMS to offer clients a more flexible, seamless approach to strategic workforce program management. Koble has “undergone a bit of an exciting transformation," and Apple Inc continues its Project Titan by being on the lidar lookout. Afternoon Coffee: better late than never.
Turkey's defense minister adopts a conciliatory tone over a recent purchase. Coupa Software is buying Exari to gain its best-of-breed contract lifecycle management (CLM) offering, Coupa announced this morning. And TA Services’ acquisition of the Indianapolis-headquartered Celadon Logistics Services is now complete. Afternoon Coffee: your source for procurement and supply chain news.
In writing up government contracts for public sector services instead of goods, companies have to calculate the hours of work to be done, and that requires estimating an employee’s full-time equivalent (FTE) hours. And because public sector contracts can last years, the language often must be given in “person years,” the amount of work a person can do in a year. It seems simple, but as Public Spend Forum reveals in its look at the issues, it can get complicated in a hurry.
At SAP Ariba Live last week, SAP Fieldglass played a key role not only on the main stage, but in over a dozen breakout sessions. From our research at the event, it is clear that SAP intends to bring these two offerings much closer together in the quarters and years to come.
This Spend Matters PRO brief provides insight into what we learned around the combined product roadmap, including the persona-driven approaches SAP Fieldglass and SAP Ariba are taking to integration scenarios.
Finally, we provide concrete recommendations to two stakeholder groups (Procurement and Human Capital Management executives) in terms of how they should think about the combination of SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass and the role they should take in selecting the best fit solutions for their current and emerging needs.
Although global GDP grew a healthy 3.1% in 2018, the year finished with a rocky fourth quarter. Against this backdrop, GEP has released its 2019 Procurement and Supply Chain Management Outlook, which predicts a tough business climate ahead, but one that can be addressed with advances in procurement technology.
In Part 1 and Part 2 of this four-part Spend Matters PRO series, we wrote about how the Microsoft 365 freelance toolkit emerged and continues to evolve at Microsoft (based on our interviews with Microsoft managers who are central to the initiative). We now shift our perspective to the contingent workforce industry innovator Upwork Enterprise, Microsoft’s launch partner for the freelance toolkit.
In Part 3, based on discussions with Eric Gilpin, SVP of Upwork Enterprise, we look at the Microsoft 365 freelance toolkit from Upwork’s perspective and examine Upwork’s role as a partner and key participant in the process as well as what the partnership means for Upwork itself. Part 4 will include an analyst perspective on the freelance toolkit, the Microsoft-Upwork partnership and what it may indicate for services procurement practitioners.
The Institute for Supply Management’s premier annual conference, ISM2019, has kicked off in Houston with informational Q&As and breakout sessions. With a number of Spend Matters team members on the ground at the event, we’re pleased to bring you the opening dispatch tonight. One highlight among the sessions so far has been Charlotte de Brabandt’s presentation "Digitizing the Human Touch: Transforming Talent and Impact of Young Professionals."
The U.S. Labor Department reported 196,000 jobs were added in March. Companies in the U.K. are stockpiling goods in staggering volumes ahead of a potential no-deal Brexit. Tesla new vehicle deliveries dropped in Q1, and Google is forced to at least pay lip service to promise a better tomorrow for its disgruntled temporary and contract workforce. Afternoon Coffee: your pick-me-up in procurement and supply chain news.
In a look at the contingent workforce, MBO Partners' “Client of Choice Report 2019” explores the changing needs and expectations of the independent professionals and what corporations are doing to attract and retain the best talent in this emerging labor market.
For the industry analysts in attendance, SAP Ariba Live 2019 kicked off Monday in Austin, Texas, with a candid Q&A session with Barry Padgett, president of SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass; Darren Koch, chief product officer of SAP Ariba; and Vish Baliga, chief technology officer of SAP Fieldglass. During the session, Padgett, Koch and Baliga shared the latest from SAP in terms of numbers growth and SAP Fieldglass’ integration into a common business unit with SAP Ariba, among other topics.
Many of these themes were echoed throughout the 100-plus breakout (and mainstage) sessions that took place Tuesday and Wednesday, including multiple sessions on the SAP Fieldglass integration as well as the Ariba network, among other topics.
This Spend Matters PRO live report provides insight into these updates from the public sessions and what’s driving them. It also includes an analysis and key takeaways from our first 24 hours at SAP Ariba Live. In subsequent briefs, we will explore these and other topics in more detail.
