Provade Perspectives

How Does SOW Fit Into Contingent Workforce Management?

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 16:20:00 GMT

By Domenic Mancini, Senior Product Manager

As worker classification becomes increasingly diverse, organizations have begun to interpret each type of worker as a separate category with different needs and requirements. A recent HRO Today article, Reap What You SOW, outlines the issues associated with this increased complexity and the challenges organizations face when attempting to manage their headcount and associated spend. Comprehensive workforce management is not as simple as full-time vs. part-time labor – and the Statement of Work (SOW) spend adds another layer of complexity to the matter. Let’s look at this area of the business more closely.

In a SOW, the requestor outlines the specific tasks associated with the project, along with key deliverables, a timeline, the terms and conditions of the contract and pricing. All of these elements add up to a need for labor – and project-based work often leads to a contract with a professional services or consultancy firm where specific named resources with hourly rates are assigned to the engagement. Regardless of how your organization labels these types of temporary projects, any hourly labor associated with a project should be tracked through a vendor management system (VMS).

A VMS will allow managers to clearly analyze all of the costs associated with a project and competitively bid across multiple firms for future work – which could lead to substantial cost savings for your organization. If all other contingent labor spend is scrutinized and analyzed to optimize business process efficiencies, drive down costs and optimize your external supplier partnerships, then so should your SOW spend. Typically, SOW project costs are much higher than standard time and materials assignment costs, so thorough data analysis often creates a greater impact on overall cost reductions for your company.

Whether your organization has an internally self-managed program or whether you partner with a Managed Services Provider (MSP) to oversee your contingent workforce program, the SOW spend should be tracked through a VMS. It is up to the leadership team that owns and manages the program to provide the appropriate data and make a strong business case to their executives as to why these more complex projects should be included in the program. MSP partners that help manage contingent workforce programs now have higher visibility among the C-suite, as these partners begin to play a more strategic role for their clients.

Getting full visibility into the SOW costs along with the time and materials spend is the only way to truly wrap your arms around your organization’s total services spend. The ultimate goal is leveraging a single system of record to view all labor costs and associated trends. If there is no formal process in place around how SOW labor is procured, there is no control – and no real way to track spending patterns to cut costs. Best-in-class organizations recognize the value of incorporating SOW projects into their contingent labor management programs. By refocusing your attention on this area of spend, you too can rise to the top.

Request a demo to learn more about how Provade VMS can help manage SOW labor.

Why Master Vendor is a Key Target

Mon, 06 May 2013 18:43:00 GMT

By Peter Parks, Vice President of Product Management

What do contingent workforce management industry buzzwords really mean? “Master Vendor” is a good example of a commonly used keyword that can be unclear. For some staffing suppliers, it’s synonymous with “Light Industrial.” For others, it may mean “spend of under $10M per year.” But across all staffing firms, Master Vendor generally means that they are filling all or most positions and they are a single point of contact for the customer.

This distinction from traditional Managed Service Provider (MSP) requires a change in focus and strategy by the Vendor Management System (VMS). A traditional MSP account is largely about the end customer’s needs – a VMS is brought in to deliver on requirements defined by the customer, and the customer usually makes the selection. But in a Master Vendor scenario, customers usually simply require that there be technology in place to drive efficiency and enable measurement and data analysis, but trust the supplier to choose their VMS.

This means our target customer is different, and this change means more than just a shift from the end customer to the staffing provider. Within the largest staffing companies, the organizations that manage Master Vendor are entirely separate from those that handle MSP – and these organizations appreciate our understanding of this separation and the dedicated attention we provide them.

For the VMS provider, a Master Vendor opportunity is all about enabling the supplier to execute their own standardized processes. This often means integrating the VMS into a supplier’s internal systems and letting them continue to do what they already do very well – we don’t try to reinvent the wheel. The supplier has methods of distributing requisitions out to their field offices, matching candidates with openings, and tracking and evaluating time. While our solution also handles these tasks, it assumes a large supply base. When one vendor controls 70% or more of the spend, you need to cater to that vendor’s existing process.

Within the VMS we give the end customer all of the features they require (self service, automation, controls and visibility, to name a few) and through integration we empower the supplier to operate most efficiently. And speaking of efficiency? When we land one Master Vendor, we land all of their customers in one fell swoop.

VMS Technology Supports Changing Workforce

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:40:00 GMT

Temporary workers are playing an increased role in today’s workforce, and organizations have had to modify their workforce management tools in response to this change. A recent HRO Today article, Technology Lending a Hand, highlighted some significant statistics that demonstrate the impact.

26% of the average organization’s staff is considered contingent, contract or temporary.
Temporary workers comprised 91% of total job growth between June 2009 and June 2011.
89% of best-in-class organizations use a Vendor Management System (VMS) to manage their contingent workforce.

More and more, organizations are looking for a third party to step in and help drive efficiency, improve quality and shine a light on contingent labor spending, and a VMS plays a big role in this. According to Edward Jackson, President of Provade, sophisticated buyers are taking more control of their outsourcing engagements. “While we see most MSP contracts having VMS technology in place, the customer often is reserving the right to assign technology to another MSP, should they cancel the contract.”

This indicates that the technology is the backbone of contingent workforce management, and for MSPs to stay involved in their clients’ business, they must not only find a way to optimize the software but leverage it to add value to the services they provide.

Analytics are one way MSPs can add value to their services. “To have a world-class program, business intelligence is the engine to program management and business optimization,” says Jackson. “Additionally, embedded analytics allow for better decision making at the transaction level that can also dramatically drive program savings and effectiveness.”

Another major trend discussed in the article was the increased need for mobile VMS solutions. “Mobility has led to significant increases in responsiveness for VMS users, optimizing productivity, and reducing overall cycle times in contingent workforce management,” says Peter Parks, Provade vice president of product management. “Mobile line-of-business applications promote greater efficiency and performance, and enable workers to stay on top of time-sensitive tasks as they move throughout their workday.”

Provade was proud to be a part of this comprehensive overview of VMS trends and the impact these contingent workforce management solutions are having on businesses.

How Do You Measure Success?

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:03:00 GMT

By Edward Jackson, President

As the first quarter of 2013 draws to a close and financials become a topic of conversation (and consternation), I have spent some time thinking about the real value of our software. Discussions about success and the impact of a new program typically focus on cost savings and return on investment (ROI). These are great measurements – and sometimes the only tangible measurement a company can associate with a program – but are they telling the whole story?

Typically, procurement measures success as the following: I paid X for Program A last year. If I can pay 95% of X for Program A this year, I will save 5%. Procurement calls this “hard savings” – the only true measureable value (in their opinion).

These formulas work, and certainly demonstrate a measurable business impact. But they do not work when we are talking about human capital. Quality and productivity can blow away cost savings in terms of true impact. Remember the Steve Jobs quote that a great programmer is not just 2X better than another but 40X better? If you continue to pay X for Program A, but the service levels give productivity and time-to-fill a boost, you are still coming out ahead. And truly, “value” shouldn’t be about cutting costs – it’s really about growing profits. Spend management is only part of the picture.

I believe that now is the time to redirect focus, and start paying attention to the program offering and ways to empower the Managed Service Provider (MSP) and staffing companies so that they can exceed service levels and increase their customers’ satisfaction. To that end, I am thinking about how the vendor management system fits into an MSP or staffing company’s program offering and whether it is giving these providers everything they need to really deliver for their customers. A traditional Vendor Management System (VMS) only supports a fraction of the work that drives real change for their customers. What is missing? Help desk support, collaboration and an opportunity for the MSP or staffing company to expand their reach into their customers’ operations, to name a few.

Spend management has been a focus for a long time, but I see the landscape beginning to shift. It’s time to start thinking about program effectiveness, and helping MSPs and staffing companies become strategic partners with their customers to drive real change.

What do you think? Share your comments below.

Provade VMS: We Work in Your World

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 21:05:00 GMT

By Sreenivas “Dinu” Davuluri, Chief Business Intelligence Architect

Interoperability is the key to successful business operations. Seamless sharing of functionality and information from different applications helps business leaders make the best decisions for an organization and enables business processes to flow between systems. Full interoperability is undetectable to the end user – it appears that they are working within one system to get real-time data from different areas of the business.

When implementing a new software application, it is important to consider how it will integrate with other existing applications. If your organization has already invested a significant amount of money in implementing business systems, you might be hesitant to add another management tool to the mix. All of the systems must play well together to create a complete picture of your operations.

6 out of 7 enterprise installations leverage Oracle and SAP to track organizational data – so we designed Provade VMS with interoperability in mind. Provade VMS is built using open architecture so it can easily integrate with your other business systems and allow you to view all of your data in one place. We have leveraged Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) data to build the backbone of our data warehouse. Provade VMS can serve up a pagelet that can integrate with any compliant dashboard.

Provade VMS’ robust reporting tools can pull in data from other business systems, allowing you to use the Business Intelligence (BI) tools to analyze the big picture. By taking a hybrid approach to BI, you can easily modify these standard reports to gain insight into the data elements that meet your specific needs. Even a simple spreadsheet or other data file can be imported into the data warehouse to create a comprehensive report.

Provade VMS can provide additional insight into your contingent workforce spending without disrupting the systems you already have in place. Click here to learn more about our business intelligence portfolio.

How to Prepare Your Company for a Successful VMS Implementation

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:17:00 GMT

By Domenic Mancini, Senior Product Manager

Are you planning to implement a vendor management system to manage your contingent workforce? While every organization has their own unique nuances and cultural obstacles to consider and respect, there are a few best practices that will make any implementation process run more smoothly and help encourage program adoption across the organization.

Your company must be ready for the changes to existing business processes a VMS implementation will make, and business leaders must clearly communicate the new system’s value proposition to the masses. How will this software and the new processes help the individual employee, as well as the company? Which day-to-day workflows will be improved? What is the impact to the bottom line?

For a successful implementation, follow these guidelines to create your adoption plan.

Create a steering committee that brings together key executives and staff from all relevant business lines. Any group who will be affected by the change should be represented to promote collaboration and avoid potential resistance later in the process.
Define the implementation plan – how will you achieve a successful deployment? Clearly define key milestones with deliverable timelines to maintain visibility. Stay focused on the plan and consistently measure progress.
Develop an internal communication plan to ensure that everyone is well informed in advance of each key phase of the implementation process.
Socialize the solution throughout the organization. Again, make sure that this messaging reaches any area of the business that will be affected by the change.
Hold in-person feedback sessions. Town hall meetings have proven particularly effective in building successful adoption. These sessions allow the steering committee to address and validate employee concerns and objections.
Share the information from the feedback sessions. Raise awareness of the concerns that were voiced and demonstrate that attention is being paid to these areas.
Train project leaders, administrators, managers and users on the software solution.
Go live.

Overcoming resistance around a project that drives this level of organizational change is challenging but essential. If one business group is allowed to opt out of the new program and processes, you may soon find other business groups questioning why they have to be included. By communicating early and often, and addressing any concerns that arise, the launch of your VMS will be a success.

Provade's Predictions for 2013

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:42:00 GMT

Provade’s leadership team continually looks toward the future as they develop innovative contingent workforce solutions. Here are their predictions as they look to 2013 and beyond.

I anticipate a growing movement toward insourcing as MSPs are increasingly challenged to defend their value proposition. As VMS capabilities grow and customers begin to use these systems, they will continue to see value in the technology and lessen their dependence on the MSP. This will encourage MSPs to defend their value proposition by building technology and unique IP into their service offering, enabling them to maintain account control.

-- Edward Jackson, President

The United States’ financial situation and Obamacare will have a ripple effect on contingent labor, where permanent employees will be transitioned to or replaced by temporary staff.

-- Tom Rumberg, Vice President of Technology

Customers will start reassessing their program analytics to ensure they are effectively examining buying practices and patterns across the enterprise where they can make positive impacts. Meaningful data delivered through a comprehensive reporting tool will enable customers to make sound decisions to drive their programs forward.

-- Domenic Mancini, Senior Product Manager

My prediction is that we will see staffing companies continue their trend back toward ownership of VMS tools.

-- Peter Parks, Vice President of Product Management

What changes do you foresee in contingent workforce management in 2013?

Consero Procurement & Strategic Sourcing Forum Recap

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 05:08:00 GMT

By Domenic Mancini, Senior Product Manager

I recently returned from the Consero Procurement & Strategic Sourcing Forum in San Diego, CA last week. This event matched up strategic suppliers and various procurement professionals with similar interests, and our discussions – focused on managing contract life cycles, minimizing risk, legal and ethical obligations and overall relationship management – offered many interesting insights.

During my meetings, it became overwhelmingly clear how few businesses have full visibility into their contingent labor spend, and even fewer know how to introduce a good cost savings methodology. Many businesses are still relying on data dumps into Excel to run their numbers, while some less mature organizations are just beginning to build out procurement departments and develop formal, corporate spend policies. True transformational change is a slow process – it takes time to identify needs and figure out the best way to move forward.

Provade VMS offers immediate insight into spend, but the data requires a deep dive to truly transform a business’ contingent workforce processes. Quarterly business reviews and trend reporting can provide recommendations for process improvement, but you must have the tools in place to get to the level of analysis that can drive real change. Just installing the solution will not get you there – data analytics are what truly drive ROI.

As we discussed the conference attendees’ experiences with other technology solutions – and talked through the overall purpose and value of such a system – I saw continued attempts to draw comparisons between other procurement process management systems and Provade. Most systems address only a portion of what our solution offers, and their focus tends to be on talent management and coordination. Only Provade VMS offers a complete procure-to-pay system. Businesses need a full lifecycle system in order to properly extract the deeper level of analytics that will allow them to more clearly understand their spending practices.

With every conversation, we get one step closer to businesses fully grasping the value a VMS can bring to their organization. I look forward to next year’s Forum, where we can continue to advocate for data analysis and demonstrate the transformative abilities of Provade VMS.

How Mobile VMS Devices Change the Way We Use BI

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 16:19:00 GMT

By Peter Parks, Vice President of Product Management

Mobile devices are changing the way business is done, and when appropriately leveraged, they can help us sharpen focus and work more efficiently. Mobility has led to significant increases in responsiveness for VMS users, optimizing productivity and reducing overall cycle times in contingent workforce management. Mobile line-of-business applications like Provade Mobile promote greater efficiency and performance, and enable workers to stay on top of time-sensitive tasks as they move throughout their workday.

The introduction of business intelligence (BI) is the next logical extension of mobility into VMS. To appropriately leverage mobile BI, it’s important to consider who your audience is and how BI can advance their objectives. I see two primary audiences for mobile BI – the transactional user and the C-suite.

When effectively deployed, BI drives intelligent decisions and boosts productivity for the transactional user. This can be a hiring manager, an MSP or a supplier. Reports or alerts for missing timesheets, a pending response deadline or the upcoming end of an assignment help you make point-in-time decisions. This data can typically be delivered in a small package, so the smartphone is a logical target. You may even be able to perform the appropriate response through the mobile VMS – a scenario where a comprehensive mobile application really delivers improvement to your process and outcome.

Our C-suite BI consumers do not need the minute-by-minute detail that transactional users demand. They’re more interested in summary data with an option to drill down into detail when necessary. Because C-Suite users are rapid adopters of tablet technology, we have targeted this format for their dashboards and detailed reports. With tools like Oracle’s BI app for iPad, we have delivered an excellent medium for the consumption of this information.

Users do not typically access all of the available reporting features in a VMS because the options are so robust. One Provade customer implemented nearly 150 reports they deemed critical, but when we went through a review of their implementation we discovered over 100 of these reports had not been run in the past 6 months. Removing those extra, unused reports enabled them to focus on the meaningful data and ultimately improved their BI experience in our desktop app. As we move more users to Mobile VMS, whether for transactions or BI, we help them attain that critical focus – the compact format demands that we deliver the essentials.

Watch our webinar to learn how to leverage Mobile VMS to maximize efficiency and productivity.

Leveraging Cloud Technology to Improve Your VMS Process

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 17:11:00 GMT

By Tom Rumberg, Vice President of Technology

Too often, a company’s sales pitches are just that… a sales pitch. Companies put together compelling stories to entice customers to purchase their wares, but often have little substance behind them. In the software space, a true gauge of the validity of a sales pitch is whether the sales rep is using their own software or subscribe to similar methodologies when they are on the other side of the table.

Here at Provade, we offer our industry’s only ERP-class VMS and BI software, delivering our products as a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering in the cloud. Our sales pitch speaks to accessibility of Oracle applications at a far lower cost of ownership through SaaS than a traditional software license model. Our product is in the cloud and is instantly usable when our customers sign on the dotted line. Our message outlines the benefits of being able to get up and running on our cloud application without infrastructure or IT teams. Inevitably during the sales cycle, I hear our reps say, “You are a financial institution (or whatever their industry might be), not a software company. Why try to be something you are not? You can leverage Provade’s applications and expertise at a fraction of the cost.”

This isn’t just a sales pitch to us. We truly believe in offering software as a service, or the cloud model. Not only do we leverage our own software for procuring a contingent workforce, we also have a host of partners that we lean on for their cloud applications or experience. We offer Single Sign-On to our application via Ping Identity Management, a cloud-based SSO provider. To avoid the large costs of rolling out MS Project or Visio to the company worldwide, we leverage cloud application providers: Gantter for projects and Lucidchart for diagramming. Our CRM and Sales teams leverage Salesforce.com. We shunned the brick and mortar aspects of our growing organization by leveraging the Alteva cloud for our telephone system. And quite possibly our most important partner is Datapipe. Their Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering is second to none. We get premium service, lighting fast hardware and a quintuple-redundant network to run our Oracle systems out of their world-class data centers.

So next time you are given “the pitch,” validate it by asking if your sales rep practices what they preach.

Interested in learning more about Provade’s VMS in the cloud? Contact us to learn how our SaaS model can benefit your organization.

Best Practices for Managing Risk with your Seasonal/Contingent Workforce

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:05:00 GMT

By Domenic Mancini, Senior Product Manager

As the holiday season quickly approaches, U.S. retailers are beginning to hire seasonal employees in greater numbers than last year, according to a survey from Aon Hewitt and HireVue. While this is great news for our economy, these businesses are exposing themselves to additional risk by taking on an increased contingent workforce. To balance these risks, it is essential to put a process in place to not only manage hiring and compensation, but handle other key aspects of the arrangement.

Start Out on the Right Foot

When taking on contingent workers, the first step to success is upfront education not only for the new worker, but also for the employees who will be managing and working with them. Contingent workers are increasingly managed by employees with no formal management experience. The on-boarding process of contingent workers is typically managed by procurement, but it is critical to include an HR rep in any and all supervisory training or workload discussions to be sure the appropriate standards are being set from the start.

Companies must ensure that all Full-Time Employee (FTE) managers of contingent workers understand exactly what tasks the temporary worker is responsible for and who they will be working with. While a Vendor Management System (VMS) is commonly seen as a solution for handling hiring and compensation for the contingent workforce, the tool can go beyond that to manage other concerns such as misclassification and tenure tracking.

Stay Aware of Data Access

In a retail environment, a contingent worker will certainly be exposed to sensitive data like customer credit card information and inventory shrinkage systems through point-of-sale (POS) applications and other business software. It is essential to build an airtight process of approval for giving access to these tools and removing access when appropriate. Your contingent workforce management process should include a solution that fully tracks the access rights given to every contingent worker in your organization so that in the event of a security breach or theft, the necessary information is available for review.

Automate Off-Boarding

Risk is not fully eliminated when a contingent worker’s assignment ends. When an end date is defined in a VMS, the worker’s logins can be automatically shut off on their last day, and access to POS applications, computers and other resources can be disabled. By automating this process, you can be sure that the contingent worker is fully removed from the system at the appropriate time, eliminating the risk of human error. Don’t forget about tangible assets like security cards and keys – be sure to build collection of these items into your off-boarding process.

A contingent workforce brings its own management challenges to a retail organization, but these risks can be greatly reduced with proper planning and a comprehensive on-boarding and off-boarding process. To learn more about how to leverage a VMS to support contingent workforce risk management efforts, download our informative white paper.

When Thinking of a VMS Solution, What Does "Off-Shore" Mean to You?

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 20:20:00 GMT

By Peter Parks, Vice President of Product Management

Very often, Requests for Proposal (RFPs) for Vendor Management Systems (VMS) will ask us to, “explain how a VMS solution handles off-shore contingent workforces.” That is an extremely open-ended question that would benefit from a little more detail. What exactly do you mean by off-shore?

Do you refer to contingent work as off-shore because it is happening in another country? While this may be a good technical definition, does it really get to the heart of your question? I often respond with questions such as:

Are you paying for these services in dollars (assuming a US-based client) or local currency?
Is the work being performed on a time-and-materials basis, or as milestones or deliverables?
Are you managing contingent workers directly or is the supplier providing project management?

I believe that organizations ascribe mystical qualities to anything that happens outside our country. People think that, “things are done differently over there,” wherever “there” may be, and assume that it therefore must affect their own operations. And maybe it should, but does it need to affect how you use technology?

If you have a team of workers in Hyderabad writing code and they are billing you in dollars on a milestone basis, how should you manage those transactions in your VMS? Should they be managed any differently from one of the big US consulting firms doing similar work (at a lot higher rate) right down the street, or in a consultant firm in your basement? Both will submit progress logs for approval, identifying the milestones completed with work product attached. The project managers will need to approve or reject both, and when approved they will generate pro forma invoices. Their workers will need to be identified on the Statement of Work (SOW) and entered into the VMS. They will feed your on-boarding file so that network access can be granted, or badges if they are with the US-based team and will be working in your facility.

But aren’t the Indian consultants in India? No, they are in the ether – as far as your systems are concerned.

Now, because the resources are sitting in another country, (sometimes with a language barrier or a significant time zone difference) you or your Managed Service Provider (MSP) may need to manage the work they are doing in a custom manner. This may be different from the local resources, but it may not impact the VMS configuration and functional requirements. You may simply need different workflows for approvals to address a necessary extra step. Rate sheets, payment terms and Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) may be different, but the core functionality will not change.

If a company has operations in India, is procuring contingent workforce services using an Indian firm, using Indian workers, and is paying for these services in accordance with Indian law, it’s not off-shoring – it’s simply doing business in India. The correct question in this case is, “how do you handle Indian operations?”

So, what do you mean by off-shore?

Learn more about Provade's Enterprise Platform and how we support international requirements.

Mobile Technology is Everywhere, Making Employees More Productive

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 17:42:00 GMT

Smartphones and tablets are taking over the workplace.

Forrester’s latest report on mobile device usage in the enterprise reflects a growing trend among workers, who are increasingly incorporating mobile devices into their workday. 66% of employees use two or more devices every day, including desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets. Most users are selecting their own devices rather than using company-issued technology.

Over half of all businesses surveyed are making smartphone and tablet support a priority in the next year, as employees are clearly already leveraging the technology and by getting in front of the trend, they will be better able to mitigate risk and encourage adoption throughout the organization.

No longer chained to their desks, employees are able to complete time-sensitive tasks from any location. According to a global survey by Citrix, business experienced productivity gains of up to 36 percent from employees who use personal and work-issued mobile devices to perform job duties.

While most employees have already adopted mobile e-mail and calendar usage, companies can capitalize on these major productivity gains by implementing mobile line-of-business applications such as VMS technology. Mobile applications offer an additional layer of simplification that helps increase adoption and lower the learning curve so that employees can get up and running quickly and stay focused on only the most significant tasks.

Consider the impact of enabling procurement staff and line managers to perform these critical contingent workforce management tasks from a mobile device:

Creating requisitions
Comparing and approving candidates
Approving timesheets
Setting up and reviewing reports

Regardless of business size, mobile technology will have a significant impact on productivity and reduce overall cycle time for business functions. As workforces become more dispersed due to telecommuting, mobile technology helps remote workers actively participate in key business decisions without delaying the process. With a mobile VMS, the risk of missing out on the ideal candidate due to a delayed response is diminished.

Our white paper, “Mobile VMS: Maximize Efficiency with Broader Access and a Simpler Format,” offers additional detail on how a mobile VMS can benefit your organization, along with guidance on how to select the right provider for mobile VMS.

Provade Sponsoring ArtWorks Benefit

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:41:00 GMT

Provade is excited to sponsor ArtWorks for Milwaukee’s Night by the River Benefit on Friday, November 2, 2012 at the Milwaukee County Historical Society. Attendees will enjoy sampling craft beer, fine wines and cocktails along with hors d’oeuvres and desserts from Milwaukee restaurants.

ArtWorks provides paid internships to Milwaukee-area high school students that help them learn transferable life and career skills while they create community-based art projects. These programs are designed to teach students about resume development, interviewing techniques and financial management while allowing students’ creativity to shine. Past projects have included public murals, mosaic windows and posters for the Milwaukee public school system.

The Night by the River Benefit will raise funding to quintuple the number of teens who can participate in the program. Live and silent auctions will include original artwork from ArtWorks’ Intern Artists, who will be available to answer questions and talk about their experiences in the program.

Provade employee Mary Martin is a Board Director and Fun Development Chair for the organization and has rallied her coworkers around the cause. This is Provade’s first time sponsoring ArtWorks at the corporate level, but we have attended other ArtWorks fundraisers in the past and look forward to other opportunities to support the organization on an ongoing basis. For updates on Provade’s community activities, follow us on Twitter.

Last year’s event sold out, so get your tickets now!

How Can Mobile VMS Boost Your Team’s Productivity?

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:29:00 GMT

As smartphones and tablets become common tools in the workplace, businesses are taking advantage of the trend to increase their staff’s productivity. Going beyond e-mail and calendar updates, mobile line-of-business applications like VMS allow users to perform key business tasks from any location.

Join Peter Parks, Provade’s Vice President of Product Management, for an HR.com webinar on November 6, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. CST and learn how your business can leverage a mobile VMS to improve your team’s performance while tracking contingent labor.

In “Mobile VMS: Maximize the Efficiency and Productivity of Your HR Tasks,” Peter will discuss the importance and benefits of mobile VMS technology. He will also cover key considerations when comparing VMS vendors so you can be sure you’re making the best choice for your business, including:

Available functionality
Cross-platform optimization
User experience
Analytics and Business Intelligence (BI)
Safety and security of data

What Isn't Mobile These Days? Shouldn't Your VMS be Mobile Too?

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 15:24:00 GMT

By Domenic Mancini, Senior Product Manager

What Isn’t Mobile in this Day & Age? As I am writing this narrative, I am simultaneously recording multiple television shows on my home DVR, checking my work and personal email accounts, changing a flight itinerary for an upcoming business trip and making sure I closed my garage door at my house: ALL from my mobile phone. Smart Phone technology and the corresponding mobile applications have globally impacted all facets of our day-to-day activities. More often than not, simple, but necessary transactions that we need to make every day are managed through mobile technology.

According to the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) June 2012 data release, total mobile cellular subscriptions reached almost 6 billion by the end of 2011, corresponding to a global penetration of 86%. By the end of 2011, there were 105 countries with more mobile-cellular subscriptions than inhabitants. In short, mobile-cellular devices are eclipsing traditional internet access mediums around the world.

The surge of mobility-enabled applications is being influenced by the same aspects that are driving IT and business process change: more responsiveness, optimizing employee productivity and efficiencies and reducing overall cycle times for all business functions.

When evaluating a Vendor Management System (VMS) for your company’s contingent workforce program, you need to ask the following questions:

Would my internal employees benefit from having mobile access to a complete, end-to-end solution?
Do we have a significant employee population already utilizing mobile applications in core functions of their jobs? (think e-mail, IM, cloud file sharing)
Are my internal employees using multiple, mobile technology devices (smart phones, tablets, etc.,) during business travel to stay connected to the enterprise?

There are few organizations left in the world that would not benefit from the convenience and efficiency of mobile technology applications for every component of their jobs.

With the continual flattening of the global economy and corresponding workforce, there has never been more of a need for flexible work environments and technology solutions that support them. We have heard the demands from the market and we have listened.

On September 18, 2012, Provade launched Provade Mobile, a fully deployed mobile VMS solution that no other contingent workforce technology partner can provide. An industry leader in VMS technology, Provade has developed the industry’s first and complete, end-to-end mobile VMS solution for the enterprise that will enable users to:

Create a requisition
Review resumes
Compare, select or reject candidates
Approve time and expenses
Access standard reports through the business intelligence (BI) tool
Access mobile customer support

Bringing a comprehensive mobile VMS solution to the market will enable any organization to be more nimble, efficient and will drive user adoption through simple convenience.

Learn more about Mobile VMS and how it can maximize efficiencies with broader access and a simpler format with our new Mobile VMS white paper.

Provade Sponsoring The 2012 Contingent Workforce Conference

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 19:24:00 GMT

Provade is proud to sponsor the 2012 Contingent Workforce Conference taking place September 11-12 in Australia.

"The Contingent Workforce Conference has been designed for organisations that have both a Permanent and Contingent Workforce. The term “Contingent Workforce” refers to contract, temporary and Statement of Work type contractors that supplement the permanent workforce."

In addition to sponsoring, Ross Peoples, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Provade for the Asia Pacfic region, and EJ, President of Provade, will be speaking:

Ross will be hosting a panel session titled "Tools for Managing a Contingent Workforce"
EJ will be hosting a general session titled "Contingent Workforce: Risk or Asset?"

Check out the full conference schedule and registration information.

Hope to see you there!

Analytics: The Power of Information to Drive Transformational Change

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:33:00 GMT

By Domenic Mancini, Senior Product Manager

Procurement and HR professionals need to arm themselves with the right mix of data in order to effectuate positive change that drives results.

What constitutes the right mix of data? This is the first question you should be asking your senior management, your project stakeholders, your user community and your external business partners. What you will find are radically different answers and wants for each Target User Group, with qualified explanations. No two programs are the same, nor are two procurement or HR groups that may manage them. When you understand what information equals true value to each group, you will be prepared to formulate a sound reporting methodology that you can execute to deliver results.

Defining Target User Groups may vary by company/business structure, size and many other factors, but given our experience in managing contingent labor spend, we have identified the following as key stakeholders:

Internal Target User Groups:

Procurement
Finance and Strategy/Planning
HR
Legal
IT Provisioning
Network Security
Physical Security
Hiring Managers/Internal User Community

External Target User Groups:

MSP Partners
Supplier Partners
Contingent Talent

Once the Target User Groups are defined, you should begin your fact-finding and due diligence with each group. This is your opportunity to gain support through collaboration, as well as highlight the value you will bring enterprise-wide with the right mix and message for each metric.

You may also consider developing a formal steering committee, comprising a key member from each Target User Group. The steering committee will allow you to reach all of the critical audience members efficiently. Each member will have a seat at the strategy/decision table and cascade the proper messaging throughout their respective departments and personnel.

Target User Groups require different reports. The following list reflects sound examples for any contingent labor program owner to present to their stakeholders and user community.

Procurement:

Spend by Department
Cost Savings Achieved through Competitive Bidding

Finance & Strategy:

Actual vs. Budgeted Spend by Department/Hiring Managers
Quarterly Spend Trends by Department/Hiring Managers

HR:

Headcount by Department/Location
Analysis of Temporary Assignment Costs vs. FTE Headcount Costs

Legal:

Contractors with Access to Sensitive Data/IP

IT Provisioning:

Assets Distributed by Contractor/Hiring Managers
Issuance/Return Dates for all Assets

Network Security:

Internal Network Access by Contractor/Location

Physical Security:

Headcount by Location
Security Badges Issued and Estimated Return Dates

Hiring Managers (Internal):

Quarterly Spend Amounts with Trending
PO Consumption Amounts by Contractor

MSP Partners:

Time and Expense Submitted/Not-Approved
Candidates That Start but Don’t Complete Assignments

Supplier Partners:

Placements vs. Submittals Ratio
Interview Requests vs. Submittals Ratio

Contingent Talent:

Time and Expense Submitted/Not Approved

The more accurately you can deliver real-time analytics and trending patterns with predictive modeling to forecast future behavior, the more proactive and instrumental you will be in producing year-over-year savings company-wide and process efficiencies that will improve the user experience.

Provade has the most comprehensive and mature business intelligence (BI) offering in the industry today and is the only enterprise-class VMS solution/partner that will:

Provide a consultative approach on departmental reporting needs
Deliver meaningful metrics to drive positive change across the enterprise
Present predictive modeling and forecasting analysis to properly align budgets

Contact us to request a demo and begin arming yourself with the right data and business intelligence to create positive change within your organization.

CNBC Interview: Contingent Labor Trends & Small Business Growth

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 17:27:00 GMT

Nina Vaca, Chairman and CEO of Pinnacle Technical Resources was featured on CNBC. During her interview she spoke about:

Trends in contingent labor
Growth of temporary labor in IT jobs
How the Romney-Ryan Presidential ticket will influence the growth of small business

Watch the full interview.

Business Intelligence - Anytime, Anywhere

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:44:00 GMT

By Peter Parks, Vice President of Product Management

Speaking broadly, there are two types of users in a VMS.

The transactional users: requesters, approvers, MSP, suppliers and workers
The reporting users: different levels of management within the client

Transactional users leverage the full functionality of the VMS and often benefit from the traditional user interface that gives them access to the rich feature set.

Reporting users, those leveraging the analytics and metrics being produced by the Business Intelligence (BI) engine, have less demanding user interface requirements. The data is key, and it can usually be presented in a relatively simple format. The information being conveyed is very powerful in the insight it provides, but it usually is contained in graphs and tables.

Reporting users would greatly benefit from mobile interaction with the VMS. Reports and valuable analytical insights can be consumed on the go - completely viewable in a mobile format (provided the VMS has the capability to deliver the content in a user friendly manner).

Through Oracle's Mobile BI apps we can do just that. These apps are built to give mobile users, both phone and tablet, access to the full features of our BI offering, including:

Dashboards
Proactive detection and alerts
Catalogues
Ad-hoc query
Actionable analytics

All with direct links into the data behind the report.

Mobile BI has been an excellent foundation for our fully mobile experience. We continue to build on this foundation with each successive release, which will eventually enable all user types to interact with our system anywhere, anytime. We already deliver the benefits of mobility to our clients' management and decision makers.

Can you imagine the value this mobile capability could bring to you and your company? It's here and there is more to come, so stay tuned.

Provade is Looking Forward to the 2012 CW Risk Forum

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:38:00 GMT

The Provade team is looking forward to attending SIA's CW Risk Forum in San Diego, CA from September 18-19.

According to SIA, "the key to managing your risk and being in compliance with current laws is to be proactive and staying on top of the myriad of current legislation and regulations being passed – in what seems to be daily occurrence."

If you’re headed to the Forum, be sure to plan on stopping by the Provade booth. Or, give us a call (1-866-783-8813) and we will schedule an in-person meeting with you during the Forum. In any case, we are looking forward to the Forum and all it has to offer.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Arrivederci Ariba!!!

Wed, 23 May 2012 01:07:00 GMT

By Edward Jackson, President

OK…you just knew someone was going to pick up Ariba eventually. SAP and IBM had seemed like top contenders for sometime. So, the move happened. Now what???

From our perspective, we think this makes the Oracle accounts with either an all E-Business Stack or PeopleSoft Enterprise, and either some legacy Ariba Buyer and Spend Management license products or even those that moved to Ariba On-Demand, reevaluate this decision. While Ariba is currently stand alone and I am sure there are strong statements coming from the current Ariba management team that big change is not going to occur immediately and support will be better than ever and blah blah blah…the long and short is the SAP tool stack is the way forward now if you own Ariba.

For SAP, it is hard to rationalize two entirely different technology stacks (MySAP/SRM 7.0 vs. Ariba proprietary java based applications). Ultimately, if you own Ariba software, you are now a future owner of the SAP stack if you stay with Ariba and its product roadmap and migration going forward. This would lead me to think that many a CIO/CPO/CFO sitting on an Oracle based stack are going to quite questioningly ask, not "if," but when do they make the move off Ariba to all single stack. For those on SAP with Ariba, life got better. For those on Oracle, it is "Ariba-derci" time.

Provade Launches New White Paper: Leveraging VMS for Total Workforce Management

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:36:00 GMT

One of our goals at Provade is to share relevant, trending information to keep you up-to-date and up-to-speed. Our newest white paper does just that by outlining how you can take your VMS beyond your 'procure to pay' needs.

To date, the primary role of VMS has been the “procure-to-pay” aspect of outsourced work – that is, the ability to request talent, track hours, process invoices and pay suppliers. However, a growing number of employers have realized that this same technology can be used to manage other contingent labor concerns – from identity verification to tenure management.

Our new white paper outlines some of the key ways in which companies can use VMS in a more holistic way to reduce risk, improve compliance and increase the visibility of their extended workforce.

Check it out!

Provade & Aberdeen Group Complimentary Research

Wed, 09 May 2012 18:59:00 GMT

Provade & Aberdeen Group are offering complimentary research: Contingent Workforce Management: The next-generation guidebook to managing the modern contingent workforce umbrelles.

Discover how best-in-class companies...

Increase organizational efficiency
Reduce labor costs
Meet, exceed project goals

With nearly 26% of the average organization's total workforces considered contingent or contract-based, companies across the globe are under pressure to enhance processes related to the intricacies of the contemporary contingent workforce umbrella. This report details strategies for driving value from all facets of contract labor, including "classic" temporary labor, independent contractors and consultants, and statement-of-work (SOW)-based projects and services. Access your complimentary copy to learn more.

It's Lonely To Stand Alone - Stand Out with Embedded VMS

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 18:15:00 GMT

By Edward Jackson, President

The rebel. The loner. The tough guy in the cool black leather jacket that ekes an attitude of not giving a sniff about anyone. Whether we admit it or not, we all have some form of admiration for the ones that stand out alone as bold and separate. However, the 'cool' factor is very fleeting as the tedium of isolation consumes day after day. In today's networked and collaborative world, stand alone is, well…lonely.

That is why we believe our concept of 'Embedded VMS' will stand out. We know our large corporate customers have substantial investments into their ERP procurement, financials and HR systems. Why should our customers not be able to have VMS embedded within their ERP stack just like all the other modules that comprise their ERP stack? We think they should!

Embedded transactions from req to PO to payment? Check!
Embedded BI mingled with other financial and HR BI content? Check!
True seamless user experience with federated content all within their ERP system? Delivered.

For too long, many vendors have talked about how easily and 'seamlessly' they integrate with ERP. Beautiful power points are shown of complex integration solved with a mere box, arrow and target box. However, we know the reality is that when the slide-ware goes away and the realities of complex integration come to bear, these VMS systems get deployed as stand alone with integrations sitting in the proverbial 'parking lot'.

If you are tired of boxes and arrows or 'APIs' that require you to code to, let us show you a proof of concept of true embedded VMS within Oracle E-Business Suite and PeopleSoft Enterprise delivered with Oracle OBIEE to OBIEE. Schedule a session here.