As your organization continues to expand its use of the contingent workforce, the number of vendors or staffing agencies that you use will also continue to grow. This makes it increasingly more complex to track, measure and evaluate their performance.
Any successful contingent workforce management program must be underpinned by a vendor management system (VMS) - but what actually is a VMS and what functionalities should you look out for when selecting one?
In this blog, Conexis VMS takes a look at what a vendor management system actually is and looks at some of the key functionalities of a VMS that will help your organization significantly improve how it manages vendors.
What is a VMS?
A vendor management system is a web and cloud-based platform that enables your organization to manage the entire vendor process in one centralized and easily-visible location.
VMS software will automate the processes associated with your vendors, helping your business save time and improve internal efficiencies, as well as making it incredibly easy to find the data and detailed reports you need to successfully measure the performance of your vendors from requesting a worker to payment.
What VMS functionalities will improve how you manage vendors?
Looking for a vendor management system can be difficult, not just because the vast majority of software developers only create products for large enterprises with huge contingent workforce spend, but also because these platforms often have a wide range of fancy features that your business would simply never use.
With that in mind, here are a few of the top VMS functionalities that can significantly improve how you manage the vendors associated with your contingent workforce management program.
The consolidation of your vendors
Managing your vendors using manual spreadsheets is simply an inefficient and ineffective way to optimize the benefits of a non-employee workforce. To see true ROI of your contingent workforce program, vendor consolidation is a must.
A vendor management system should be able to consolidate all vendors, and all transactions associated with those vendors, into one easy-to-view location. This will not just improve your management of these vendors, it will help give you real understanding into how they are performing.
Vendor guidelines for your entire company to follow
Companies which don’t use a vendor management system to underpin the management of the vendors in their contingent workforce program often struggle with fragmented processes across their entire organization. This leads to hiring managers making poor vendor choices and paying prices that are more expensive than what your business initially agreed.
A VMS should rectify this by including vendor guidelines and ensuring standardization of those guidelines across your organization. This acts as a framework for how hiring managers, across your entire company, use these vendors to acquire non-employee workers.
All the data you need in one centralized location
A vendor management system should centralize all of the data associated with your vendors into one platform, making it far more seamless for your business to effectively monitor and track their performance.
The unique visibility that a VMS provides you into vendor performance will empower your organization to analyze performance metrics and other data. This results in your business having the data it needs to make more insightful, and more strategic, vendor decisions moving forward.
Automated vendor onboarding
A vendor management system will automate all of the processes associated with managing your vendors, from sourcing, onboarding, analyzing vendor performance, payments and many other processes.
Not only does this make your job easier, it also results in real ROI for your business. Automating processes will save you hours on time-consuming and inefficient manual processes, as well as ensure you avoid the costly mistakes that result from human error.
Read More:
➡️ The Top 20 Questions to ask a VMS Provider about Functionality: VMS Buyers Guide Checklist
Interested in learning more about Vendor Management Systems?
Whether you are looking to change your VMS solution, or just getting started, we are here to help. Contact Us for a Free No-Obligation Consultation to discuss your workforce challenges (and get immediate actionable insights). See how easy Conexis is to use by taking a quick 2 minute Self-Guided Tour, or Book a Personal Demo Today!
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