If you are a programme manager responsible for contingent labour, this makes it hard to do your job. After all, how can you help your executives understand what is occurring within the organisation when you don’t have visibility into data about your workers that is most important to your business? How can you take full advantage of the functionalities your vendor management system (VMS) provides if all your contingent workers are not captured by your system?
The good news is that it is possible for your VMS to manage all categories of non-employee talent in your organisation, from temporary workers to statement of work (SOW)-based contractors. Once you have full visibility of your contingent workforce, you will be able to use your VMS’ powerful analytic tools and reporting functionality to gain valuable insights and help mitigate potential risk.
Do You Have Strategic Suppliers Who Bypass Your VMS Technology? You Could Be At Risk
Not all suppliers, especially large, global, strategic suppliers, are enthusiastic about taking part in a programme for managing services procurement and SOW-based initiatives. But if that important piece is missing, you won’t get a complete picture of what your spend really is.
Since visibility is the number one thing — especially with SOWs for large engagements — you should try to get all of your spend into your VMS. Until you do, it will be difficult to answer important questions like:
- Can you detect supplier overbilling and prevent overspending?
- Do you know what your supplier markups are?
- Can you capture and report change requests to the original SOWs?
When you can’t see the big picture, it is difficult to make strategic, data-driven business decisions. Moreover, you are exposing yourself and your company to substantial risks.
Getting Your Suppliers On Board Can Elevate Your Programme and Protect Your Company
You know the importance of encouraging strategic suppliers to participate in your VMS-based services procurement programme. When you leverage the existing controls that are in place to mitigate risk, you have a better opportunity to reduce that risk.
How can you make that happen? How can you get large, strategic suppliers to take part in your services procurement solution? Different programme managers take different approaches based on what is best for their programmes and relationships. We asked several of these programme managers for their best practice recommendations. To read their recommendations and more, download our whitepaper Encouraging Your Strategic Suppliers to Participate in Services Procurement.
Key Takeaway: Suppliers who do not take part in services procurement can put your contingent workforce programme and your company at risk.
For more details on how your organisation can benefit from encouraging strategic suppliers to participate in services procurement, download the full white paper here.
