Access to enterprise technology is sometimes limited to specific units or executive leaders, halting the free-flow of information that automation and reporting can bring to the average organization. Even some contingent workforce managemnet (CWM)-specific technology offerings only cater to the human resources (HR) or procurement departments. However, the “next generation” of analytics, which now revolves around agility, can drive value at a multi-functional level. Each of the following units can find some importance to their functions by tapping into an agile analytics offering:

• Procurement: Strategic sourcing is often predicated on the value of intelligence via analytics and linking that intelligence into decision-making regarding key suppliers. In the CWM world, procurement’s expertise is often leveraged to manage the more nuanced components of the contingent workforce umbrella, particularly SOW-based projects and services. Supplier management principles, including supplier performance and supplier risk management, can be applied to the CWM arena…and data gleaned from agile analytics is the ideal gateway to managing projects that rely on suppliers of professional services (i.e. consultancies).
• Human resources: The talk of the CWM town now revolves around the notion of “talent.” The typical contingent workforce management program will soon develop a swath of transformative processes that are designed to find, engage, and retain top-tier contract talent. Any data that can be accessed by HR professionals to better manage enterprise-specific talent pools will go a long way towards aligning corporate projects with the skillsets required to achieve critical goals and objectives.
• Operations: Are suppliers delivering items and services on-time and on-budget? Are operational expenses tied to SOW-based projects threatening to derail critical business objectives? These are some common questions that any operations director or executive may ask in regards to the ongoing initiatives across the organization that currently utilize contract talent. The multi-functional value of agile analytics is a critical measure in understanding the true impact of contingent labor. Are contractors living up to their advertised talent? Are top suppliers delivering on the milestones agreed-upon in SOW agreements?
• Finance: Although the “spend” components of contingent workforce management fall to the procurement group, the finance team will still be concerned with how contract talent-led projects and services impact the greater corporate budget. As detailed in next installment of this series, finance’s penchant for future planning will heavily rely upon the agility of next-gen analytics.
• IT: An often overlooked aspect of contingent workforce management is identity management, a sub-process that factors in compliance and the greater impact of on- and offboarding for temporary labor. IT can gain a valuable picture of intellectual property and enterprise system access for contractors by simply tapping into project-specific data provided by the VMS solution and its agile analytics. Also, the IT department can leverage the true intelligence gleaned from this type of analytics to accurately gauge project costs for crucial initiatives that affect the greater organization’s technological structure.
• Suppliers. The average VMS platform is typically designed for the end-user; however, in some offerings, suppliers play a critical role in the development of contingent workforce management programs via the VMS platform. Suppliers can tap into the system and, through the same lens as the enterprise user world, truly understand how their services are impacting their buyers. This intelligence allows them to optimize their services based on user rankings, grades and performance metrics. If they want future business, they’ll heed the recommendations based on data pulled from the system to improve their delivery.

Final Thoughts

The increasingly agile nature of CWM analytics and reporting tools is extending across domains and functions, and tapping into the value of big data residing beneath the surface. With agile, multi-functional CWM tools, contingent workforce managers, HR, and procurement pros can create a holistic work environment where data and processes intertwine and enrich one another for the good of the enterprise and to make everyone’s lives a heck of a lot easier.

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Tagged in: Christopher Dwyer, Complex Categories, Contingent Workforce, Innovation, Process, Sourcing, Strategy, Technology