Welcome to the latest edition of CPO Rising’s contingent workforce management (CWM) technology and solution update. In today’s article, we’ll highlight noteworthy news across the technology provider marketplace, including acquisitions, mergers, awards and other interesting updates.

Leading the news slate is SAP’s acquisition of Fieldglass, one of the market’s largest providers of Vendor Management System (VMS) technology. Back in late March, SAP announced its plans to acquire the VMS giant and just recently completed the acquisition. Read my full analysis for additional insights and how this acquisition will impact the greater CWM market. In related news, Fieldglass was also named a triple finalist in the 2014 Codie Awards for “Best Supply Chain Management Solution,” “Best Human Capital/Talent Management Solution,” and “Best Cloud Infrastructure.” Fieldglass won the CODiE award for “Best Human Capital/Talent Management Solution” at last year’s awards.

Beeline, a market leader and VMS provider, recently announced the opening of a new data center in Switzerland (global home of its parent company, Adecco) to support the evolving contingent workforce confidentiality and data security issues in European-based enterprises. The new data center will ensure that sensitive financial information and intellectual property will sit closer to European businesses’ operations (which would then be protected by EU privacy and data protection regulations).

Fellow VMS provider IQNavigator recently held their annual “IQNsiders Event” at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. The main highlight of the event included a long-term roadmap for the IQN product suite, which includes: new analytics capabilities for IQntelligence (including integration of RateIQ and supplier onboarding), total workforce analysis, enhanced invoicing, new functionality for vertical industry workforce management and other new capabilities over the next 18 months.

VMS and human capital management (HCM) technology provider PeopleFluent recently announced two new products: one of which is PeopleFluent University, which is an accreditation program that sits within its community center and offers instructional / educational videos, webinars and other content (accreditation is provided by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)). The other new product is PeopleFluent’s Mirror Suite, which integrates social and video capabilities into its talent management suite to streamline onboarding, analytics and facilitate collaboration between an enterprises and its candidates.

Independent contractor engagement specialist ICon announced a partnership with freelancer management system OnForce Converge. The partnership will provide users of OnForce the opportunity to manage its private network of independent contractors and freelance talent with ICon’s compliance and IC engagement / management platform.

Integrated VMS / Managed Service Provider offering PRO Unlimited recently announced the availability of its WAND Mobile application, an extension of its WAND VMS tool. The application (available on Apple’s iOS platform) helps PRO’s users manage hiring requests, candidate reviews, SOW quotes, interviews and time / expense aspects via their smartphones.

Other items of note in the contingent workforce management technology arena:

• DCR Workforce (provider of MSP and VMS solutions) was named a “Top Entrepreneur” by DiversityBusiness.com, a leading multicultural business website.
• Cable and communications conglomerate Comcast has named Randstad Sourceright and Pinnacle Technical Resources as its co-managers of its MSP program.
• VMS provider Provade announced that its customer base grew by 30% in 2013, which includes the business of a major global telecommunications provider.

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Tagged in: Christopher Dwyer, Contingent Workforce, Solution Providers, Technology