Major UK heritage retailer implements end-to-end visibility

The challenge

A major UK heritage retailer relies on a contingent workforce to help meet the demands of its fast-paced, rapidly innovating industry. Having a workforce spread across hundreds of locations meant that maintaining visibility and control over their workforce and spend had become increasingly challenging. To help them manage their external workforce, provide visibility into their UK contingent worker spend, and drive efficiencies in the redeployment of known creative talent, they turned to Beeline.

The background

In late 2017, the client’s managed service provider (MSP), Guidant Global, proposed replacing its own vendor management system (VMS) with top-tier VMS technology from Beeline to help its client meet its business objectives.

This recommendation was informed by the client's implementation of Workday to manage HR and payroll. By leveraging Beeline’s established partnership with Workday, the client would benefit from key integration points between the two systems, utilizing Workday standard connectors for seamless synchronization.

The solution

Beeline and Guidant Global set an implementation date of October 2018, with project kick-off commencing in June of that year. Guidant Global worked with Beeline to hit the client’s specific deadlines to ensure implementation before the peak Christmas retail season. It was a collaborative project between Guidant, Beeline, and the client, working around weekly project calls, addressing challenges, and solving issues promptly to ensure timely delivery. It was agreed to adopt a big-bang delivery strategy, reducing costs and enabling the client to obtain a quicker return on investment.

Throughout the delivery project, Beeline aligned its technology, services, and operations to the client’s ever-evolving requirements. Beeline worked closely with all relevant stakeholders to educate them on the best practices that would ultimately optimize their program.

A key component of the implementation was completing the robust integration of Beeline VMS into the client’s Workday ERP system for HR and payroll. This was accomplished, and the VMS was built and tailored to the client’s needs. Its intuitive user interface required minimal training before and after the system went live, and its ease of use enabled a more user-friendly experience.

The result

The client’s program went live on schedule in October 2018, with approximately 736 assignments and 77 suppliers incorporated into the system. The “big-bang” implementation went extremely smoothly, and no major issues have been reported to date.

Today, Beeline VMS tracks, manages, and optimizes the company’s contingent labor, which constitutes more than £32 million in annual contingent workforce spend.

With Beeline VMS, this client has end-to-end visibility into the contingent workforce to enhance procurement processes, workforce planning, and corporate governance. The VMS also reports back on all metrics to the client in concise, measurable ways.