Organizations continue to seek our ways to manage their non-employee, or “extended” workforce. Historically, the technologies used have been called, Vendor Management Systems. With the rise of the gig economy and differing types of engaging talent, they have transitioned to be called Extended Workforce Technologies or EWT’s.

The objective of these tools is to provide transparency, consistency and controls in the process of sourcing, onboarding, managing, paying for, and offboarding non-employees. Oftentimes, with such complex processes, organizations have outsourced the management and therefore the configuration of their technologies (VMSs) to a third party. In the non-employee labor space, these are typically Managed Service providers (MSPs). However, more organizations are taking control of their non-employee workforce.  They realize that they do not need to be beholden to a Managed Service provider and here are the reasons why 

1. It’s a SaaS ((Software as a Service) platform, like any other

A Vendor Management System or Extended Workforce Technology can be sold directly to an organization as a software as a service platform, any organization can hold the license.  And those organization’s technology departments are often built to support other SaaS platforms like Workday, SAP Ariba, Coupa P2P, Salesforce, Oracle and many more!

2.  Talent is portable

Similar to other SaaS platforms, expertise in selecting, implementing, supporting and configuring Vendor Management Systems and Extended Workforce technology is available.  Outside consulting firms can be a viable alternative to utilizing an MSP.  For example, Draper Jones is a group of proven practitioners with all aspects of the extended workforce, the resources have experience in implementing, configuring, reconfiguring and supporting over 50 instances of VMS/EWT technologies    Often times, consultants can even help you build the business case, model out your ROI and support other aspects of your program beyond the configuration of the VMS.

A final Bonus rationale for not having an MSP do your configuration = COST.  An outsourced party has an ongoing cost, and while that is added to your supplier fees (also known as supplier funded) it is ongoing.  An internally managed program can structure the fees to fund the internal support as well as an outside consultant. While still being supplier funded.  An outside consultant will have a fixed fee cost over one quarter or one year and typically generates 4-5X ROI on their fees.

Cheryl Tracz is a Sr. Solutions Consultant at Draper Jones Consulting (DJC).  Draper Jones is a group of proven practitioners making a difference in the extended workforce.