Boardroom signals: What Beeline’s clients are talking about now
Beeline’s Client Advisory Board (BCAB) of contingent workforce professionals represents industries as diverse as banking and financial services, energy, healthcare, high technology, retailing, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences. At meetings and teleconferences throughout the year, the BCAB delves into crucial contingent workforce topics and plays a pivotal role in shaping Beeline's future vision and direction. This blog series reflects insights from this group of Beeline’s most knowledgeable clients and partners.
Managing your biggest staffing challenge – outsourced services
By Craig Coe
The BCAB includes 20 global enterprises managing some of the most complex contingent workforce programs. Most manage a broad range of labor categories, including temporary workers, independent contractors, consultants, and outsourced service providers.
In the past, most companies used Beeline’s VMS technology for staff augmentation and tracked outsourced service workers primarily for visibility and risk mitigation. As their contingent workforce programs evolved and VMS capabilities grew, managing statement of work (SOW)-based service projects via the VMS became the smart move. Currently, two-thirds of BCAB members use our services procurement technology.
Accounting for the extended workforce ecosystem
The increasing diversity of the talent sourcing landscape is driving the adoption of services procurement technology. Deloitte’s “Global Outsourcing Survey 2024,” highlights why:
Bottom line: leaving outsourced services unmanaged isn’t an option anymore. If you want cost control, tighter compliance, and smarter workforce planning, you need visibility across the entire external workforce.
And while the market data paints the big picture, BCAB discussions reveal the on-the-ground reality of how enterprises balance staffing and services procurement.
Every program looks different
On average, external workforce programs worldwide still skew toward staff augmentation — 65% temp/contract spend to 35% SOW/outsource spend, according to Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA). But among BCAB members, we see both ends of the spectrum. Most use services procurement as an extension of contingent staffing, while a few, including one global high-tech giant, run programs that are primarily services-driven with only limited contingent staffing.
Whatever their workforce mix, BCAB members cite the following benefits from managing services procurement within their VMS:
Together, these benefits are giving BCAB members more confidence to expand services procurement and push into new areas.
Future-proofing workforce programs
In addition to tackling current services procurement challenges, BCAB members expect their VMS to help them address emerging issues, including:
AI is also front and center, with BCAB members eager to explore new capabilities that make services procurement faster, smarter, and more secure. Members see AI as a catalyst across all these areas, but especially in how SOWs are sourced, authored, and managed.
How AI is reshaping SOW management
AI isn’t just a buzzword. It’s already transforming services procurement. In an Everest Group/Beeline/Mastercard webinar, panelists highlighted five ways AI is making a difference:
Expect to see more AI-powered features built directly into VMS platforms — and even deeper integrations with third-party tools to digitize and automate services procurement.
While BCAB members are eager to explore what’s next — from global expansion to AI-powered capabilities — they also recognize that many organizations are still at the beginning of their services procurement journey. So, where should you start?
Start with the basics
Of course, while the future is exciting, most organizations need to start with the basics. Managing project-based services usually involves three stages:
Beeline Enterprise VMS makes it possible to manage and automate all three elements, but most companies start with Project Management and scale from there. Regardless of how contracts are sourced, or the SOWs are written, Beeline Enterprise can manage the project. It will confirm the accuracy of time and materials, monitor milestones and deliverables, and ensure consistent, fully documented onboarding/offboarding, including all security and provisioning requirements.
As services procurement programs mature, they choose to automate the creation and negotiation of SOWs and then add the capability to competitively bid on their service contracts. Activating these functionalities helps speed the launch of vital projects, drive more favorable contract terms, and maintain an audit trail for risk mitigation.
Moving forward
As the BCAB has shown us, services procurement is no longer optional. Whether your program is just beginning or already mature, the right starting point can set you up for long-term success.
If you are looking for a services procurement solution and aren’t sure where to start, let us help. We have years of experience optimizing the performance of this spend category for organizations across multiple industries.
We can even help you build a business case to add services procurement management to your contingent workforce program. Just download our ebook
Watch our webinar with Everest Group and Mastercard
We conducted a webinar with Everest Group and Mastercard on The Evolution of Services Procurement. Watch this webinar today.
Check out the value of a VMS for services procurement
Learn how a VMS can optimize your services procurement process.
Craig Coe is Beeline’s senior vice president of global customer success and executive sponsor of the Beeline Client Advisory Board.