What to Consider in Your VMS Proof of Concept (POC)
Extended Workforce Management Systems (EWS), also known as Vendor Management Systems (VMS), are crucial in helping organizations manage their extended and contingent workforces effectively. They provide features such as candidate sourcing, onboarding, and invoicing, so it’s evident what these systems do and why we need them. However, implementing a new EWS, and onboarding new clients with it, can be a challenging process that keeps contingent labor programs from engaging in new technology that might otherwise serve them. This is known as change management aversion - does this sound like you?
Do consultants give you ultimatums?
Do you avoid using your current systems or come up with elaborate manual processes to make them work?
Do Millennial and Gen Z employees whisper, mutter and cry to themselves when using your company’s chosen technology?
All jokes aside – given that Staffing Industry Analysts’ (SIA) reports that about 70% of EWS contracts are awarded by buyers or programs that did not previously have a solution in place – we can see that the aversion to changing systems is larger than the aversion to changing a manual process. That’s because many workforce management systems don’t allow for the kind of flexibility that outweighs the cost of implementing a new system. Yet, being agile and able to capitalize on emerging opportunities is the key to successful programs – technology should aid your organization, not be a hurdle.
That’s why one of the key factors in any successful implementation is the configurability of the technology. When implementing an EWS, it's essential to consider the configurability of the system to ensure a smooth onboarding experience for your team, process and clients.
Configurable Technology
Change management can be a significant challenge for organizations when implementing a new EWS. The system needs enough flexibility to absorb the organization's existing processes and workflows without lengthy development timeframes. Consider in your Proof of Concept:
Can you configure a Best Practice site?
Can you modify that Best Practice site for each client?
Can every field on the screen be hidden or added based on individual client needs?
Can workflows be customized based off multiple factors, such as location, building or division?
For example, MSPs have control of over 700 evolving configuration points in the 3SS backend. They can make changes to user permissions and configure each page of the site to their process without additional development cost and time. Staging test sites are provided throughout set up, showing you the results of your changes as you make them in real time. You can see the potential impact of any change and share this with your stakeholders for speedy decision making.
Implementation
Lengthy implementation times lead to lost business and potentially more costs. A truly flexible EWS should only need to be implemented once. Consider in your Proof of Concept:
Are you required to go through a full implementation for each new client?
Are there additional costs from your EWS provider for setting up new clients?
Does an initial implementation require development time?
Being able to manage a new client site internally is crucial in ensuring your team can be as responsive to the market, and your clients, as possible. Our unique Site and Client-level configuration allows MSPs to implement a “Best Practice” model site and customize workflows, vocabulary, permissions, and rules at the client level. Even within a single client configuration, workflows and approvals can be modified to fit client locations all the way down to the building level. Configurable options include reporting, countries, currencies, payment strategies, timesheet styles, page templates and much more.
Architecture & Scalability
As organizations grow and change, their contingent workforce needs to quickly adapt. A truly scalable EWS can handle increased demands for managing contracts, onboarding, and invoicing without significant downtime. Consider in your Proof of Concept:
Does it support multi-tenancy?
Is customer information segmented?
Is customer information in different databases?
How does the system handle user permissions?
At 3SS, for example, MSPs only ever have one site for all users. We support multi-tenancy, but we keep all customer information in separate databases, so there’s no data mingling or security issues. It's an elaborate effort of queuing and caching that provides the best-of-both approaches. Our system would perform with a hundred customers (and does) or a thousand due to its scale-out architecture. Customer data is segmented for security and scalability purposes.
Conclusion
Implementing an EWS can be a daunting task, but with the right tools, organizations can overcome change management challenges. Configurability is one of the most critical features to consider when selecting a workforce management system, as its flexibility will allow the tool to adapt to global markets and ever-changing legislative environments.
Our design philosophy is that everything we build should be configurable, which is why we can do business worldwide, with programs that offer flexibility.
3SS develops new features within a 5-week sprint process based on client feedback and requests, along with our own innovations. All changes to our system are delivered in a disabled state so that our clients can implement innovations from across our global network at their desired pace. A truly flexible EWS should not force you to change how you work if you don’t want to, or make you suffer through long development times.
Finally, as part of your EWS or vendor management system (VMS) search, be sure to request references from similar clients as you to check features against your Proof of Concept.
Nearly 50% of the average workforce today consists of non-employee workers. Book a demo with us to learn how a workforce management solution, gives your business the agile, scalable, and flexible program you need to meet market challenges and opportunities.