VMS Procurement Guide
Essential Reading for CPOs
Read our guide today to discover why more CPOs are prioritizing next-generation Vendor Management Systems procurement
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Updated January 2022
In This VMS Procurement Guide
This is an abridged version of our guide. For the full article, please download the PDF version.
Section 1 - Architectural Considerations
In this section we outline the key architectural considerations that underpin the performance, scalability, security, extensibility and usability of a modern Vendor Management System tech-stack.
Embracing Familiarity in User Interfaces
Section 2 - Functionality
In this section we describe ‘environmental factors’ that shape enterprise demand for talent technology such as Vendor Management Systems.
Section 3 - Procurement Planning
In this section we cover some of the more obvious selection decisions based on what today is state-of-the-art in Vendor Management Systems.
Supporting the Lifecycle of Contingent Workforce Sourcing, Management and Exiting
Speed-to-Value
Configuration, Not Customization
Responsiveness and Uptime
Interoperability Standards
Data Security and GDPR Compliance
Internationalization Features
Section 1 – VMS Architectural Design
In this section we outline the key architectural considerations that underpin the performance, scalability, security, extensibility and usability of a modern Vendor Management System tech-stack.
Embracing Familiarity in User Interfaces
Consumer facing technologies, like Google Maps and Facebook, have educated a generation of people to learn and use applications in a certain way. That’s important knowledge for User Experience (‘UX’) designers, because any system that works in a different way isn’t ‘innovative and refreshing’ anymore, it’s just annoying.
Mobile-First Accessibility
Mobility matters in today’s market, so it’s important to invest in a mobile-first Vendor Management System. Most software vendors that don’t use a mobile-first ecosystem will have produced their mobile versions on a completely different app platform. That means, your vendor isn’t running ONE platform, they may be running with two or more.
When a Hiring Manager fails to respond to a request on the day it’s received, the net impact on the processing of documents can be a 48-hour delay. In a workflow that takes normally 10-days to complete, the lack of a mobile feature to ‘approve on the go’ can cause a real-time inefficiency tax of 20%.
The endgame is to create technology ecosystems that orchestrate business models and maximize the return to shareholders of the customer value created.
Modularity/Embracing Best-in-Class
Your VMS should focus on Ecosystems and outcomes, not tools and coding, means the management team is wholly committed to embracing the best third-party tools in the market.
User Group Personalization
The influence of cloud computing, big data and global e-commerce means that modern enterprise applications are designed to serve multiple User groups. Assigning User identities to User Groups means that collections of Users benefit from a common role-specific view of the VMS.
Ease of Use that Leads to Popularity
If Users don’t like using a VMS, or see no personal productivity dividend from doing so, they can easily revert to their own self-authored tools, third party apps—or worse still, fail to get tasks done. Usability REALLY matters.
Book a Test Drive
There’s no substitute for a test drive so why not take a tour? In addition to web demos and webinars, we also arrange for a trial system – so you can see our system with your data, protecting the personal data of candidates and workers.
Section 2 – Functionality
In this section we describe ‘environmental factors’ that shape enterprise demand for talent technology such as Vendor Management Systems.
Dashboard/Reporting
Living in a data-driven world, sourcing the key facts that tell you everything you need to know about your indirect talent spend and market is a critical function of a VMS.
If you want to source useful insights from a Vendor Management System, there are some necessary technology capabilities and building-blocks that must exist in the VMS by design. The data structures and visualization tools of a VMS must be shaped in anticipation of the standard reports and ‘what-if’s’ that Users will need to drive their talent strategy forward.
Application Tracking
At any point in a recruitment, Hiring Managers, Candidates and Staffing Vendors need to be kept informed on how things are progressing; a task usually performed by a Program Manager. An Applicant Tracking Module makes list work of discharging this task. Modern systems will use software robots and email alerts to manage updates and progress escalations.
Invoicing and Purchase-to-pay
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Scheduling
Modern VMS systems use federated calendaring to allow participants to suggest and confirm dates. Use of automating tooling, then automates confirmation emails and arrival instructions to minimize the administrative overheads of this task.
Evaluations and End-of-term
A VMS should support features to manage worker evaluations and address end of term activities, such as running an experience interview to learn from the experiences of the placement.
Float Pool
Float Pool Management creates a constantly updated list of approved providers to fill open shifts. This advanced recognition of resourcing needs means that workers can be blocked booked against schedules while payment and incentive plans can be updated based on worker utilization.
Direct Sourcing
Direct sourcing describes the activity of harvesting the talent pool formed by their internal recruiting activities and brand reach to source gig workers. It offers organizations benefits as a mechanism to source talent.
Order Management
Finding talent that not only fits your competency and experience aspirations, but work ethos and cultural fit demands isn’t easy. Expect modern VMS solutions to include some qualitative measures of ‘best-fit’ for potential candidates to maximize efficiencies in the CV screening process and optimize the time and effort Hiring Managers need to put into the recruitment.
Candidate Management
Your VMS helps in maximizing the effective targeted distribution of open roles, then aggregating and filtering candidate CVs. Quite how this is achieved will vary from system to system. Today, a high level of tailoring is expected, together with fine-grained User controlled flexibility towards approaches used to filter the best talent.
Time/Expense Management
Timesheet modules capture, track and pay workers for worked hours easily through an application available on multiple platforms seamlessly (mobile phones, desktop, and browser extensions). They vary in their complexity, but also have to cope with multi-current, multi-disciplinary and multi-locational variations.
The complexity of pay rates, and the variation in the way timesheets are managed within a business demand that VMS platforms offer a high degree of configuration flexibility—to shape to fit the way your organization works.
Statement of Work
A Statement-of-Work (SOW) is a form of contract between a company and a staffing provider or individual that agrees to pay a contract worker for their efforts based on the achievement of pre-determined project outcomes. Typically, these outcomes are formed around project way-points (sometimes called ‘Milestones’).
Background Testing/Credentially
The world of business has never been more unpredictable. To make sure your organization can navigate the bumps in the road, you require a flexible workforce. But with hiring comes risks. It’s therefore important that background checks and compliance are performed to ensure your hires don’t come with undesirable risks. Your VMS should help with this.
Section 3 – Procurement Considerations
In this section, we’ve summarized the most common ‘hygiene factors’ that should be included in a procurement.
Supporting the Lifecycle of Contingent Workforce Sourcing, Management and Exiting
Your VMS should support all phases of the Contingent Workforce Management lifecycle. In the table below, we’ve put together to highlight some of the areas where economies should be anticipated. Not all are bottom-line financial impacts, but all are worthy of consideration.
Configuration, not Configuration
Such are the variations in the way organizations want to use a VMS, the incumbent systems they’re using, and the capabilities they adopt for their business, etc. means that no VMS will function well in your organization ‘out-of-the-box.’ SOMEHOW, your platform has to be adapted to fit.
Interporability Standards
Technology rarely works well in isolation. Achieving tight integration with best-of-breed applications and back-office systems streamlines workflows. It means your organization can maximize the productivity of its procurement teams and hiring managers. As the bare minimum, your VMS should support Web Services and a RESTful API.
Data Security and GDPR Compliance
Data Privacy features should also be incorporated into the design of the VMS (often described as Data Privacy by Design), and this should be evidenced through regular Data Privacy Assessments.
Speed-to-value
Achieving economies quickly should always be a target. For any major technology deployment, it’s important that stakeholders see quick wins materialize to demonstrate a clear early-stage Return-on-Investment (ROI) and offer encouragement to project leaders and champions.
Responsiveness and Uptime
Float Pool Management creates a constantly updated list of approved providers to fill open shifts. This advanced recognition of resourcing needs means that workers can be blocked booked against schedules while payment and incentive plans can be updated based on worker utilization.
Internalization Features
Even if you’re not currently operating overseas, it’s as well to future-proof your platform by ensuring it supports the most popular languages and use of multiple currencies. Also consider that the way dates and currencies are presented in databases varies from.