Future of Sourcing - contingent workforce management https://futureofsourcing.com/tags/contingent-workforce-management en Business Continuity Planning: Are You Planning for Tomorrow or Yesterday? https://futureofsourcing.com/business-continuity-planning-are-you-planning-for-tomorrow-or-yesterday <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Business%20Continuity%20Planning_%20Are%20You%20Planning%20for%20Tomorrow%20or%20Yesterday_%20.png"><a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Business%20Continuity%20Planning_%20Are%20You%20Planning%20for%20Tomorrow%20or%20Yesterday_%20.png" title="Business Continuity Planning: Are You Planning for Tomorrow or Yesterday?" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-2045-ToTv-YM6Tzw"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Business%20Continuity%20Planning_%20Are%20You%20Planning%20for%20Tomorrow%20or%20Yesterday_%20.png?itok=MVU0Gb9v" width="624" height="325" alt="Business Continuity Planning: Are You Planning for Tomorrow or Yesterday?" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <h1>Business Continuity Planning: Are You Planning for Tomorrow or Yesterday?</h1> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/continuity-is-key-to-successful-business-transformation">Continuity is Key to Successful Business Transformation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>Recently DATAMARK, Inc., held a webinar on Business Continuity Planning. The three panelists discussed what was missing or did not receive sufficient attention in business continuity plans and the repercussions it can have for businesses worldwide.</p> <p>The panelists were largely in agreement that many plans fall short when assessing the human impact of a potential disaster such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Most plans tend to place a disproportionate emphasis on physical things like buildings, transportation arteries, communication networks and data centers.</p> <p>While these need to be addressed in any business continuity plan, businesses also need to expect the unexpected. Planners need to think in non-linear terms so they can see around corners and continue to plan for the unimaginable.</p> <h2>A Question of Scale</h2> <p>Most planners largely assume that when disaster strikes their employees would still be there, ready and able to produce. As Carol DeLatte, CBCP, MBCI, a Senior Business Continuity Manager at Exeter Finance noted, many companies have plans for the loss of a senior executive or two, or even the entire top level of executives, and the succession planning chapter is dusted off and put into place.</p> <p>Losing half the senior executives, while tragic, is very different than losing half your workforce due to a pandemic.&nbsp; When your business or your factory is suddenly not accessible on short notice, then what? While working from home is an option for many in the knowledge-based services industries, you can&rsquo;t assemble a car, make sausage or give haircuts over Zoom.</p> <h2>I Don&rsquo;t Work for You</h2> <p>Stephen Clancy, CCWP, brought a unique perspective from his work as Senior Director of Contingent Workforce Strategies, Knowledge &amp; Research at Staffing Industry Analysts. Most companies think of their people in their business continuity plans as employees of their company, but that&rsquo;s not always the case. Many companies manage a small army of contingent workers who are supplied each day by outside entities.&nbsp;</p> <p>For some companies, this can be half their workforce and represent more than a billion dollars of payroll. So when disaster strikes, how will you reach these people? Do you even know who they are, can you reach them directly or do you have to go through their actual employer who has &ldquo;leased&rdquo; them to you?&nbsp;</p> <p>Do you have a contingent workforce to fill in when a large swath of your existing contingent workforce cannot work?&nbsp; How long can you limp along? What provisions are provided in your contract, and is it essentially a moot point when the problem is something as widespread as a pandemic? Do you still have to pay these people, and for how long, if they are not doing work for you?</p> <p>If the government locks down your business, what does the contract say? It&rsquo;s not an &ldquo;Act of God.&rdquo;&nbsp; While customers are normally compassionate when disaster strikes, when the dust settles they will refer back to the fact that they have a legally binding contract.&nbsp;</p> <h2>Spread Your Risk</h2> <p>Another key principle of business continuity planning is geographic diversity. It is not sufficient to have eight delivery centers spread across one common geographic location, or it can create a single point of failure. As Mark Conard of R+ L Carriers noted, &ldquo;For those that have engaged BPO partners [as R+L has] the concern is the concentration of work sites in a single global region (i.e., India), even when that risk maybe spread across various sites within a country. If all the sites are within the same geo-political area (i.e., a single country) that gives pause for concern.&rdquo;</p> <p>In discussions with large businesses regarding their post-pandemic procurement of services, business continuity planning is something universally cited as an area that will get increased scrutiny during the vendor due diligence phase. For some, it will be a pass/fail deal breaker.</p> <h2>Be Real and Be Focused</h2> <p>As Carol DeLatte noted, &ldquo;During complacent times, it is hard to keep people focused on &ldquo;what ifs.&rdquo; Once, while facilitating an exercise, I pushed hard on the &ldquo;what ifs&rdquo; and was nearly fired for scaring people!&quot; One of the main challenges in business continuity planning is gaining executive-level commitment.</p> <p>As one industry consultant noted, &ldquo;In many of the business continuity exercises that include the C-Suite, the participants were more concerned with which brand of coffee would be served than they were on the intent of the exercise and decent conversation.&rdquo;</p> <p>It has been said that life is about 10% of what happens to you and 90% about how you respond to it. The same can be said about most good business continuity planning. Every &ldquo;i&rdquo; does not need to be dotted and every &ldquo;t&rdquo; does not need to be crossed.&nbsp;</p> <p>What is essential is for the business continuity plan to be flexible and adaptive, much like Marines going into battle. We may not be able to predict what calamity will befall us next, but with proper, realistic planning, we can be better prepared for how we respond.&nbsp;</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/business-continuity-plan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">business continuity plan</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/datamark" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">DATAMARK</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/covid-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">COVID-19</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/contingent-workforce-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">contingent workforce management</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Business Continuity Planning: Are You Planning for Tomorrow or Yesterday? - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://futureofsourcing.com/business-continuity-planning-are-you-planning-for-tomorrow-or-yesterday"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Mon, 30 Aug 2021 17:00:00 +0000 Thom Mead 2045 at https://futureofsourcing.com https://futureofsourcing.com/business-continuity-planning-are-you-planning-for-tomorrow-or-yesterday#comments Is digital transformation procurement’s secret weapon to boosting business agility? https://futureofsourcing.com/is-digital-transformation-procurements-secret-weapon-to-boosting-business-agility <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Is%20digital%20transformation%20procurement%E2%80%99s%20secret%20weapon.png"><a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Is%20digital%20transformation%20procurement%E2%80%99s%20secret%20weapon.png" title="Digital transformation: the secret weapon to agility." class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1933-ToTv-YM6Tzw"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Is%20digital%20transformation%20procurement%E2%80%99s%20secret%20weapon.png?itok=xK90aVGO" width="624" height="325" alt="Digital transformation: the secret weapon to agility." title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-intro field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p><strong>Digital transformation: the secret weapon to agility.</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/successful-digital-transformation-requires-an-inspection-of-all-business-processes">Successful Digital Transformation Requires an Inspection of all Business Processes</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>As I reflect on the turbulence from this infamous last year, a predictable pattern has emerged: organizations that were able to digitally transform their business prior to the pandemic were able to mitigate most of the risks the pandemic presented to business continuity. In obvious contrast, organizations that hadn&rsquo;t been able to do so fell victim to those risk factors. As we saw with numerous industries, businesses unable to shift their focus quickly during lockdown or acute supply chain disruption, suffered great impact in the immediate term.</p> <p>As organizations reacted to the pandemic, critical questions emerged about immediate risk factors and supply chain health. Procurement&rsquo;s role in strategic decision-making was thrust into the spotlight.</p> <p>But how much difference does digital maturity for spend management make in furthering an organization&rsquo;s agility and sharpening its decision-making capabilities?</p> <p><strong>Unsurprisingly, digital transformation plays a significant role in future-proofing your organization, according to forthcoming research from SAP.</strong></p> <p>SAP, in collaboration with Oxford Economics, conducted global research in late 2020 with the goal of understanding procurement&rsquo;s influence on organizations, the current state of supplier collaboration, and the impact of technology and process digitization in the procurement function. We essentially wanted to find out if the companies that embrace technology and value close supplier collaboration are in fact able to respond more effectively to disruption.</p> <p>SAP surveyed 1,000 procurement and supply chain executives responsible for direct and indirect spend and services including the management of contingent labor and services providers. The executives who participated represented 14 industries in 23 countries &ndash; one-third of them occupying the C-suite.</p> <p><strong>What we found was the more investment there was, the better the agility.</strong></p> <p>Organizations have made significant progress on their journey toward the digital transformation of procurement, and they report reaping many benefits from doing so. According to the procurement industry leaders, due to their extensive investments in digitization, they have reaped the benefits of being further ahead on the path to transformation, even surpassing their peers in adopting digital analytics capabilities as the basis for decision-making. These key investments include robotic process automation, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and cognitive assistants. The successful adoption of these technologies has resulted in greater operational efficiencies, fuller compliance and broader collaboration with suppliers.</p> <p><strong>But even for these early investors, the road to ready proves to be only as strong as their weakest supplier&hellip;</strong></p> <p>Industry leaders are only slightly ahead of their peers when it comes to supplier risk management, and there&rsquo;s a simple reason. For many organizations, the coronavirus pandemic brought vulnerability to supplier risk to the forefront, revealing a lack of visibility into inventory levels, production continuity, and forecasting and logistics insights in both their own facilities and those of suppliers. Organizations are only as strong as their weakest suppliers. More and more, firms are realizing that investments in digitization are just as crucial for the supplier side as they are for the buyer side. Luckily, cloud-based supplier collaboration solutions and sizable cloud-based networks mitigate this risk by enabling buyers and suppliers to partner together to anticipate bottlenecks, stockouts or other disruptions &mdash; and suggest alternative courses of action.</p> <p>Immediate access to a robust and mature business network further solidifies an organization&rsquo;s ability to react quickly when new sources of supply for critical goods and services are needed.</p> <p>Another sizable spend category that presents similarly vast opportunities to unlock value is <strong>the external workforce</strong>. Consisting of contingent labor and services providers such as consulting firms, outsourcers, systems integrators and call-center operations, external<strong> labor accounts for 42 percent of workforce spend</strong>, with payroll employees comprising the remainder. Highly skilled external workers lend businesses the flexibility they need to achieve resilience in times of disruption, but they are often under-managed. By actively managing the external workforce with the transparency and real-time insights made possible by cloud-based applications, businesses can expand value, strengthen compliance and attenuate risk.</p> <p><strong>When looking at spend, treat your suppliers like partners&hellip;</strong></p> <p>Direct spend presents a similar argument. According to our research, <strong>only 57% of executives say their organizations enjoy collaborative, partner-like relationships with top suppliers</strong> &mdash; and an astonishing one-third of them still use clunky old spreadsheets as their primary means of working with them. Organizations&rsquo; vulnerability to risk becomes especially acute in light of continued heavy reliance on outsourced manufacturing. Digital transformation can go a long way toward narrowing the gap between organizations and the suppliers they rely on for direct materials. Those organizations that use digital platforms to engage in commerce and collaboration with trading partners report achieving greatest success when they treat suppliers as partners, adopt automation to manage their direct spend and source-to-pay processes, and view procurement as a strategic driver of growth and as a stakeholder in creating mutual value.</p> <p>It is the <strong>leaders who prioritize and embrace the digital transformation of procurement who outperform those who have not</strong>. Their stronger use of data, analytics and automation help them to make better-informed decisions and respond faster to emerging risks. However, <strong>it is crucial to remember that even these leaders have much to gain from applying cloud-based tools more broadly and deeply throughout their procurement processes</strong>. They, like others, struggle with incomplete data, manual processes, and opaque or inconsistent measures of vendor performance.</p> <p>As business leaders plan for 2021, it is imperative that the digital transformation of procurement is prioritized and that the increasingly prominent role of spend management is recognized and enabled in their organizations&rsquo; road to readiness. It will not only help companies rebuild post-pandemic; it will help them reemerge stronger on the other side.</p> <p>Learn more about the available insights and detailed reports derived from the SAP + Oxford Economics research via the links below.</p> <ul> <li><em>Agile Procurement Insights Report on&nbsp;</em><a href="https://dam.sap.com/mac/download/ap/P9tuHyg.htm" target="_blank"><em>Digital Transformation</em></a><em>: Procurement Powered Performance</em></li> <li><em>Agile Procurement Insights Report on&nbsp;</em><a href="https://dam.sap.com/mac/download/ap/AUMa13u.htm" target="_blank"><em>Supplier Risk</em></a><em>: Getting Closer to See Further</em></li> <li><em>Agile Procurement Insights Report on&nbsp;</em><a href="https://dam.sap.com/mac/download/ap/4Ph9dwB.htm" target="_blank"><em>Direct Spend</em></a><em>: Close Collaboration That Goes Beyond Transactions</em></li> <li><em>Agile Procurement Insights Report on&nbsp;</em><a href="https://dam.sap.com/mac/download/ap/bddRMbe.htm" target="_blank"><em>External Workforce</em></a><em>: Agility Isn&rsquo;t Always on The Payroll</em></li> <li><em>Agile Procurement Insights Report on&nbsp;</em><a href="https://dam.sap.com/mac/download/ap/v3DMQpA.htm" target="_blank"><em>Leaders</em></a><em>: Leaders Aim Higher</em></li> </ul> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/digital-transformation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Digital Transformation</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/covid-19" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">COVID-19</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/contingent-workforce-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">contingent workforce management</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/agile-procurement" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">agile procurement</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/business-spend-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">business spend management</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Is digital transformation procurement&amp;rsquo;s secret weapon to boosting business agility? - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://futureofsourcing.com/is-digital-transformation-procurements-secret-weapon-to-boosting-business-agility"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/global" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Global</a></div></div></div> Tue, 23 Feb 2021 02:00:00 +0000 Gretchen Eischen 1933 at https://futureofsourcing.com https://futureofsourcing.com/is-digital-transformation-procurements-secret-weapon-to-boosting-business-agility#comments Interview - Addressing the Full Contingent Workforce Management Lifecycle https://futureofsourcing.com/interview-addressing-the-full-contingent-workforce-management-lifecycle <div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Future-of-Sourcing_Kevin-Akeroyd_PRO-Unlimited.jpg"><a href="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/articles/Future-of-Sourcing_Kevin-Akeroyd_PRO-Unlimited.jpg" title="Addressing the Full Contingent Workforce Management Lifecycle" class="colorbox" rel="gallery-node-1849-ToTv-YM6Tzw"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://futureofsourcing.com/sites/default/files/styles/juicebox_medium/public/articles/Future-of-Sourcing_Kevin-Akeroyd_PRO-Unlimited.jpg?itok=QbiATKD_" width="1024" height="426" alt="Addressing the Full Contingent Workforce Management Lifecycle" title="" /></a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-news field-type-entityreference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related news:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/direct-sourcing-and-digital-transformation-of-contingent-labor-programs">Direct Sourcing and Digital Transformation of Contingent Labor Programs</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> <p>PRO Unlimited, a global innovator of contingent workforce management software and services, recently announced the appointment of&nbsp;<a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=2871737-1&amp;h=1501507708&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fkevinakeroyd%2F&amp;a=Kevin+Akeroyd" target="_blank">Kevin Akeroyd</a>&nbsp;as its Chief Executive Officer. Having run large business units at some of the tech industry&rsquo;s most successful, dynamic and innovative companies, including Oracle and Salesforce.com, Kevin is poised to further strengthen PRO Unlimited&rsquo;s position as an industry leader. Kevin recently shared his insights with the <em>Future of Sourcing</em> on why he chose to join PRO Unlimited, his vision for the company, and the transformation that&rsquo;s taking place within the contingent workforce management industry.</p> <p><strong>What interests you about the Contingent Workforce Management industry, and what specifically interested you about wanting to join PRO Unlimited?</strong></p> <p>The contingent workforce management industry is incredibly important right now. As the marketplace has evolved in recent years, contingent labor has emerged as the &ldquo;workforce of the future&rdquo; for both employees and the CHROs of employers. Beyond that, it&rsquo;s becoming such a large spend category that it&rsquo;s now an enterprise valuation driver, so it&rsquo;s front and center with the CFO. Looking back over the past 30 years, you have this industry that&rsquo;s gone from a small temp-staffing niche to a C-suite strategic priority, both from a talent and procurement standpoint, and a technology and innovation perspective.</p> <p>This platform, including the technology stack, is going to evolve, and more importantly it <u>needs</u> to evolve. The established Procurement/Spend Management and HCM platforms don&rsquo;t currently address the full contingent workforce management lifecycle. Furthermore, they aren&rsquo;t capable of managing its complexity, or harnessing the data to provide analytics and intelligence on companies&rsquo; contingent workforce segments that executives demand.</p> <p>PRO Unlimited is the market leader and is uniquely positioned to become the holistic platform for the industry. That&rsquo;s one of the main reasons I decided to not only make the jump to the contingent workforce management industry, but also to join PRO specifically. This company is incredibly well positioned in terms of technology, data/analytics, managed services and, most importantly, its people.</p> <p><strong>What expertise, successes and learnings from your previous positions and organizations are applicable to both PRO Unlimited and the success of its clients?</strong></p> <p>There are six key areas that I&rsquo;ll be focused on at PRO based on my previous roles and industries. They include the following:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>First, in the past I&rsquo;ve led companies where they went from only offering point solutions and made the evolution into holistic platforms. At PRO, we&rsquo;ll continue evolving our Managed Services Program (MSP), Data/Analytics, Integration Ecosystem and Vendor Management Software (VMS) offerings toward an even more comprehensive contingent workforce management platform that will continue to drive our clients&rsquo; program success as the marketplace shifts.&nbsp;</p> <p>Second, the scale player is going to win in this industry. The need for scale is critical, and that means scaling both organically and through M&amp;A. I&rsquo;ve run a number of large businesses that have gone through this explosive scale, and I&rsquo;m looking to apply many of these tenets and lessons learned to PRO as we look to widen the scale gap versus our competitors in the industry.&nbsp;</p> <p>Third, there&rsquo;s a global need for our software, data, analytics and services platform. Providers need to become more global as this industry expands and the use of contingent labor grows with both Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies. I will draw upon my deep expertise in globalization to continue to expand and extend PRO&rsquo;s global reach.&nbsp;</p> <p>Fourth, I have been through several industry transformations, and the contingent workforce management industry is about to embark on its own transformation. As stated earlier, PRO is uniquely positioned to become the holistic platform for the industry by not only providing our solutions to our customers, but leading them up the maturity curve as they go through their own FTE to contingent transformations inside their companies.</p> <p>Fifth, the importance of Diversity and Inclusion (D&amp;I) needs to grow at scale worldwide inside of both large Fortune 500 and Global 2000 organizations. The platform we provide will continue to support moving D&amp;I front and center at companies, as well as us investing heavily in our own company on this mission-critical front. I have spent the last decade driving large-scale D&amp;I and social/corporate responsibility programs, and am excited to do that at PRO.</p> <p>Sixth, the importance of developing a holistic partnership ecosystem is critical to how PRO will grow and transform the industry. This ecosystem will be comprised of analytics, data, service and advisory, and technology partnerships.</p> <p><strong>What are PRO Unlimited&rsquo;s competitive differentiators, and how do you intend to exploit them for increased growth both strategically and operationally given PRO Unlimited&rsquo;s 30-year history of success?</strong></p> <p>First and foremost, the strengths of PRO reside in its people and talent. For 30 years, PRO has always had the best talent within the industry. Moving forward, we&rsquo;re going to continue evolving from the trusted advisor that has delivered program management, service delivery and flawless execution to a strategic advisory, intelligence and business decisioning partner leveraging our world-class best practices, insights, data and analytics.</p> <p>Second, PRO has industry-leading VMS technology that&rsquo;s been recognized and validated as best-in-class by leading third parties such as Gartner. We&rsquo;re going to leverage our highly configurable and interoperable platform, and tap into our deep network, to build a new ecosystem that clients will need as this industry evolves.&nbsp;</p> <p>Third, the importance of data, analytics and business intelligence has permeated every industry, and ours in no different. Our Strategy, Analytics and Metrics (SAM) team, coupled with the powerful analytics/intelligence SaaS solution we offer, will help propel new solutions that organizations will be able to use to elevate their contingent workforce management programs.&nbsp;</p> <p>Fourth, while we&rsquo;ve already established ourselves as a global leader, we&rsquo;ll continue to expand our footprint very aggressively and extend our lead over our competitors.</p> <p><strong>What trends do you anticipate that will influence the contingent workforce management space?&nbsp;</strong></p> <p>I see several trends taking form over the next several years. These include the continued preference of knowledge, specialized-skilled, white-collared workers across the globe to only be willing to work on a contingent basis, not FTE. This will be a career choice for many, which will radically accelerate the complexities of this segment. Companies will need to not only navigate these evolving areas at a rapid pace, but to also expertly address localization, globalization, changing regulatory and labor laws, remote work, and diversity and inclusion, among others.&nbsp;The notion of things like the &ldquo;gig economy&rdquo; is going to dramatically expand across virtually all categories of the skilled workforce, and in many industries, the leaders in those industries will have more contingent workers than they have FTEs.&nbsp;</p> <p>In addition, as the spend under management continues to expand, it will be mission critical for the C-suite to be more involved. Currently, for the most part, the selection and management of outsourcing a company&rsquo;s contingent workforce management program has been relegated as &ldquo;tactical&rdquo; and pushed fairly far down the organization&rsquo;s org chart. This will change as C-level executives will play a much greater role in the decision to not only outsource the non-employee management function, but also to deploy a technological ecosystem to harness data and intelligence to drive their businesses forward as part of their human capital strategy.&nbsp;Furthermore, the use of machine learning, artificial intelligence and other emergent technologies tied to both data analytics and VMS is going be more important than ever. They&rsquo;ll need to provide stakeholders with the ability to enhance sourcing, managing and tracking of the non-employee workforce by region and around the world.&nbsp;</p> <p>To this end, integration will be critical. The ability to span across siloes where vendors have lived for the past 30 years is going to be a more integral part of a much larger technology stack and services ecosystem. Being the platform that seamlessly interoperates with ERP, HCM, HRIS, P2P, and Data and Analytics systems will be paramount.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/contingent-workforce-management" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">contingent workforce management</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/c-suite" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">C-suite</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/vendor-management-software" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Vendor Management Software</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/managed-services-program" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Managed Services Program</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tags/diversity-and-inclusion" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Diversity and Inclusion</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-addthis field-type-addthis field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " addthis:title="Interview - Addressing the Full Contingent Workforce Management Lifecycle - Future of Sourcing" addthis:url="https://futureofsourcing.com/interview-addressing-the-full-contingent-workforce-management-lifecycle"><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_linkedin"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_googleplus"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest_share"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email"></a> <a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_print"></a> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-region field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-inline clearfix"><div class="field-label">Region:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/regions/north-america" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">North America</a></div></div></div> Wed, 09 Sep 2020 17:00:00 +0000 Kevin Akeroyd 1849 at https://futureofsourcing.com https://futureofsourcing.com/interview-addressing-the-full-contingent-workforce-management-lifecycle#comments