Metasys Blog

Today, every industry is seeing the impact of digitization. M&A and consolidation are increasing, innovative disruptors are raising more venture capital than ever before and each internal function in large enterprises is strategizing on how to embrace and incorporate technology. One of the most exciting areas for technology application — and often one of the less discussed areas of core competitive advantage — is the procurement office. Digital transformation of the supply chain increasingly has implications for reducing third-party risk, increasing corporate compliance and building a more inclusive and diverse collection of business partners.

The face of the world’s workforce is changing. As Baby Boomers retire, many seek to put their extensive knowledge and skills to work as freelancers or independent contractors (ICs). At the same time, Millennials and Post-Millennials are seeking different rewards than those associated with full-time careers. There is no question that in order to thrive, companies must embrace this new reality by exploiting the talent available and the cost benefits these contingent workers offer. There is no way organizations can flourish for long without using a significant number of 1099 workers to augment their full-time staff.

With crucial skills available through a variety of platforms, sources, and structures, companies intent upon building a strategic workforce must consider optimizing their use of full-time employees as well as consultants, contractors, freelancers, and other contingent workers. As creating a best-in-class workforce management plan can establish sustainable competitive advantage, finding, hiring, training, paying, and managing contingent workers is rapidly becoming mission critical for many firms. Adequately accounting for the risks, costs, and quality issues involved in using external workers will be one of the most important management concerns as the use of non-traditional workers inexorably rolls on.

U.S. companies continue to focus strategic in-house resources on value-adding and competitive advantage activities and outsource more and more services such as supply chain and payroll. In fact, experts estimate American companies spend nearly $2 billion on outsourced services. With competition as fierce as ever, firms must institute tight controls to ensure they get their money’s worth from managed service providers (MSPs) and other vendors.

Seeking to control procurement costs and improve vendor performance, employers often look to statement of work (SOW) labor suppliers to help staff specific projects. SOW is becoming more attractive because it allows companies to accurately forecast costs associated with particular outcomes rather than estimating the time and materials required and factoring in everything that could influence scheduling, productivity, inputs, etc. As a comprehensive, integrated solution for a variety of industries and tasks, SOW demands management expertise that companies often choose to outsource to external workforce providers.

If you’re like most business decision makers, you have already taken advantage of the flexibility, skill, diversity, and other benefits a contingent workforce brings to your organization. But to truly accrue all the advantages agile talent can offer, it may be advantageous to partner with professional outside vendors to hire, train, onboard, and manage your part-time, freelance, and statement-of-work workers. Working with managed service providers (MSP), vendor management system (VMS), third-party payroll service firm can save companies time, effort, and money by providing the most qualified candidates, expediting the onboarding process, and overcoming logistical challenges.