More than two thousand years ago, the Library of Alexandria held the greatest collection of information in the ancient world. Its stacks overflowed with historical data as well as the newest works in math and science. Tasked with the collection of all the knowledge of the world, the library established a policy, supported by a royal mandate, of collecting books from every ship that came to Alexandria’s thriving seaport and making copies. No known index of the library has survived since its destruction during the 3rd century AD, so no … Read more →
In the mid-‘90s, vendor management systems revolutionized the way companies managed contingent labor, delivering the triple benefit of lower costs, higher quality employees, and risk mitigation. A competitive bid structure ensured the best candidate at the best rate, and often at significantly reduced turnaround. Add to that the ability to manage timecards and export to billing software, and companies gained complete req-to-check functionality. Fast-forward to a suite of reporting tools, standard with nearly every VMS, allowing insight into compliance and performance. The modern VMS has augmented reporting functionality with ad-hoc … Read more →
It’s important for companies to say that the voice of their customers shapes everything from vision to specific product/service features, but what makes a company confident that it’s actually heard the customer? What makes a customer feel that his or her voice has been heard? Everyone who’s worked in retail or food service probably knows the cautionary tale of the unhappy customer who didn’t speak up but never came back. You don’t want to ever assume that things are just fine with a customer who doesn’t say anything, goes the … Read more →
‘The whole point of this country is if you want to eat garbage, balloon up to 600 pounds and die of a heart attack at 43, you can! You are free to do so. To me, that’s beautiful.’ – Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation Everyone’s favorite TV libertarian makes a great case for freedom. It’s your money. As a private citizen you can spend it however you want. Put it in the bank, get another bad haircut, go on a cruise, or remodel the kitchen: it doesn’t matter. Do whatever you … Read more →
It’s a big election year here in the US, and it’s hard to escape discussions of politics on or off the TV and Web. Tuesday night in particular marked a significant milestone on the campaign trail: the Iowa Caucus. Every news outlet and would-be pundit is weighing in today on what the results mean, and if we can glean any indication of what the future holds in store. Who’s likely to take the eventual nomination? Unfortunately, Iowa is a poor predictor of the presidential nominee. Bill Clinton, George H.W Bush, … Read more →
What Comes Next will return in 2012 to bring you more discussion on best practices for using technology to support your contingent labor programs.
Last post we mostly talked about the impact of Twitter on contingent labor programs, quietly mentioning the two other big names, Facebook and LinkedIn. Security issues aside, they may have a strategic role to play in your business. Facebook What could a contingent labor program get from Facebook? Well, that’s a good question. As with all marketing and communications initiatives, the answer could well be “nothing at all.” We’ve all been party to initiatives that flop, and they’re only really disastrous when the flop comes at a great cost. The … Read more →
Social Networking is a big deal right now. Facebook has more than 800 million active users with pages about movie stars, soft drinks, politicians and games. Twitter sees thousands of tweets every second with more than a hundred million active users ranging from Christina Aguilera to the Pope. LinkedIn reached 100 million users back in March. Google+, Youtube, MySpace and more all provide extraordinary opportunities for businesses to establish authority and credibility, as well as the impressively useful technique of crowdsourcing, where users reach out to their circles of friends … Read more →
If you’re in the market for services procurement software, you certainly have your choice of options. The competition is fierce, and shopping around may feel a bit intense at times with the barrage of information, not unlike standing in the middle of Times Square during tourist season. The best approach to cutting through all the noise is making sure you understand fundamentally what you need in a technology solution. Do Brush Up On Your Terminology Every industry has its own brand of alphabet soup, and this one is no difference. … Read more →
In 1970, Alvin Toffler wrote the best-seller Future Shock, which he describes as “too much change in too short a period of time.” The dawn of the information age has exposed people, organizations and whole societies to an almost debilitating rate of technological change. With each new wonder comes not just an improvement in our lifestyles, but a change in our lifestyle expectations. It wasn’t so long ago that the two most complex pieces of technology at the desk of any employee in the labor industry were a telephone and … Read more →
