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 reporting tools and powerful analytical software that goes beyond simple reporting to perform complex analysis through multiple levels of detail.
At this point, the VMS has already largely outgrown its name, offering capabilities far beyond the management of “vendors.” But we’ve only begun to scratch the surface in terms of the role a software platform is going to play in support of contingent labor management.
The next big thing to hit the VMS space will almost certainly be social media. We’ve arrived at a point where smartphones keep the business world constantly connected, and users need new technology and capabilities to support the pressure that comes with modern expectations. Since procurement, HR and finance, like everyone else, are forever pushed to come up with ways to do things faster, smarter, more efficiently, they will need tools that improve the speed of communication and that provide better organization of information. If you have a question about a supplier that isn’t part of the standard supplier profile, who can you ask? Who else in your organization has used them? Where do you go to find all your contracts and documentation? How do you communicate effectively across the various departments that comprise your management program?
As Jason Corsello at The Human Capitalist writes, “I sense collaboration and the use of technology is being leveraged proficiently amongst individuals and teams but lack corporate awareness and an overarching strategy that can benefit both organizations and individuals alike.” We’re inclined to agree with him. 2012 marks the beginning of a new era in corporate communications for human capital management.
We’ll see programs using the same system to procure labor, manage projects, post on discussion boards, chat via instant messaging, schedule interviews, and a whole lot more.
Hardly seems fair to keep calling it a VMS.